Sources of conflict

Abstract

Note: this is only a draft! Some of the sections are therefore not completed yet.

Conflicts are inevitable in projects. Conflicts can lead to decreasing team performance and have a negative effect on the project's outcome if not managed well.

Therefore, it is interesting to explore the sources of conflicts to understand better how to prevent and/or solve conflicts optimally. There is a lot of literature on conflict management including different reasons for conflicts to occur. This article focuses on three overall sources of conflict: team, task, and, organization since these aspects seem to recur throughout several works of literature.

Team antecedents: size, composition, and diversity

Task antecedents: complexity and scope

Organizational antecedents: norms and strategies

The intensity of conflicts for a project varies with the phases of the project's life cycle, which means various sources will vary along this life cycle. As there are many different sources of conflicts, there will be multiple solutions to solve the conflicts. However, under some circumstances, conflicts can be beneficial for a project. Therefore, the project manager must understand how and when conflicts should be encouraged, while others should be resolved as quickly as possible.

Characteristics of conflict

It is essential to understand the origins of conflict to better avoid and handle conflict. There is a lot of literature on conflict and it is perceived differently by scholars in philosophy, sociology, economics, political science, anthropology, and psychology. Hence, there is no universally accepted definition. Although Rahim (2001) have identified overlapping elements in the various definitions;

"Opposing interests between individuals and/or groups

For the conflict to exist, the opposed interests must be recognized

Beliefs by each side that the other will obstruct (or has already obstructed) its interests.

Conflict is a process; it arises from existing relationships between individuals or groups and reflects their past interactions and the contexts in which these took places

Actions by one or both sides do, in fact, produce obstructing of others’ goals." - Rahim (2001), page 18

This is article will focus on conflict in an organizational context. According to Roloff (1987) “organizational conflicts occurs when members engage in activities that are incompatible with those of colleagues within their network, members of other collectivises, or unaffiliated individuals who utilize the services or products of the organization”.

Furthermore, the literature disagrees about whether a conflict is detrimental or beneficial for the organizational process. The predominant view is that conflict is a negative process in organizations [intragroup]. However, the more modern perspective on conflict is not necessarily dysfunctional for organizations. The impact of conflict on a team's performance and project outcome depends on the specific type of conflict experienced within the team [intragroup]. The different types of conflicts are examined further in the next section.

Dysfunctional outcomes from conflict:

Detriment the group effectiveness

Decrease shared understanding

Deteriorate the project’s outcome

Functional outcomes from conflict:

Enhance the team performance

Increasing creativity

Improve decision making

Type of conflicts

Conflict may be classified on the basis of its organizational level. Organizational conflict can occur in individuals, between individuals, within teams and between groups. There are several types of conflicts affecting an organization:

Intrapersonal: This type of conflict is experienced by an organizational member when personal goals, values, and roles diverge from what is required of the organization to perform. Thus, an inner inflict within yourself.

Interpersonal: This type of conflict arises due to the difference in goals, values and styles between more organizational members of the same or different organizational level, who are required to interact.

Intragroup: This type of conflict is experienced within a team or between two or more sub-teams, where the members conflict relating to task, goals, procedures etc. This type of conflict may occur as a consequence of disagreements among the team members.

Intergroup: This type of conflict arises when there are disagreements between groups or units within an organization - production, marketing, headquarters are some examples of units/groups.

Conflict in a team is often caused by struggles over, control status and scarce resources.

Source of conflicts

There is a number of sources for conflicts to occur. Rahim (2001) classifies conflict based on the sources - the classification is made on the basis of the antecedent conditions that lead to conflict:

Affective conflict Also named; relationship- or emotional conflict. This type of conflict occurs when two individuals have interpersonal clashes while interacting to solve a problem together.

Substantive conflict Also named; task- or issue conflict. This type of conflict occurs, once there is disagreement among organizational members’ opinions about how a task or other organizational-related issues are being solved.

Conflict of values This type of conflict occurs when two parties differ in their values or views on certain issues.

Goal conflict This type of conflict occurs when the preferred outcome of two parties is inconsistent.

The other type (missing description): Conflict of interest Realistic versus non-realistic conflict Institutionalized versus non- institutionalized conflict Retributive conflict Misattributed conflict Displaced conflict

Mayer (2000) describes five basic sources of conflict, each of these sources are examined further in the following sections :

Communication:

Projects are managed through communication, which makes it a key project success factor. However, people often fail to communicate about complex matters, especially in emotionally situations, which may initiate a conflict. Conflict often escalates because people assume they have communicated accurately, when this is not the case.

Emotions:

Emotions can contribute to escalations in conflicts. Emotions control and direct behaviours. If individuals could preserve a rational approach and establish effective communication, many conflicts never occur or quickly deescalate.

Values:

Values are people’s beliefs of right and wrong, which controls people’s decisions. If the outcome clashes with people’s integrity can it be almost impossible to reach a compromise leading to a conflict.

Structure:

The framework that constitutes a problem includes resources, decisions, communications, a physical work environment, and individual experience. …

History:

(missing description):

Applications

Understand the source of conflict to solve and prevent it from happening (escalating)

Utilizing conflict management in practice

Limitations

A lot of theories on reasons for conflicts to occur (only elaborated few aspects)

Different kinds of projects (in complexity, etc.) and organizational factors (organizational structure)

Annotated bibliography

Further reading

More aspects to explore