Sources of conflict

Abstract

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

Conflict is inevitable in projects, but if the conflict is not managed well, it can decrease team performance and negatively affect the project's outcome. Conflict management can be defined as the practice of identifying and dealing with conflict. The negative effects of conflict can be limited or prevented with effective conflict management and may enhance potential beneficial effects.

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 conflict, 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.

This article will focus on conflict in an organizational context within teams.

The big idea

Characteristics of conflict

There is a lot of literature on the topic conflict and it is perceived differently from the scholar in various academic fields such as sociology, economics, anthropology, etc. Hence, there is no universally accepted definition. Although Rahim (2001) conclude that the various definitions overlap with the following elements;

Conflicting interests between individuals and/or groups,

The conflicting interests must be recognized of a conflict to exist,

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

Actions from one or both sides result in the goals of others being obstructed.

The above elements apply to conflict in general. As this article will focus on organizational conflict, Roloff's (1987) definition can help provide a better understanding of this type of conflict: 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.

The literature disagrees on whether an organisational conflict is detrimental or beneficial for a project and/or organization. There is a primary view of conflict as a negative process in organizations . However, a more modern perspective on conflict does not necessarily consider it dysfunctional for a project and/or for the organization. The impact of conflict on a team's performance and project outcome depends on the specific type of conflict experienced within the team . 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

In order for a conflict to arise, it must exceed a level of intensity to ensure the different parties experience or become aware of a potential conflict. Hence the disagreements must be serious enough before the parties experience conflict. This also means that some individuals may be involved in a conflict sooner than others under similar situations since there are differences in the level of intensity among independence.

Organizational conflict can occur in individuals, between individuals, within teams and between teams. Conflict can be classified on the basis of its organizational level. The different types of intraorganizational conflicts (conflict within an organization) are categorised into the following:

Intrapersonal: This type of conflict is experienced by an individual organizational member when personal goals, values, and roles diverge from what is required of the organization to perform. Hence an internal conflict within yourself. A goal conflict would be if a worker is offered a new position that requires the worker to transfer to a new department in another city.

Interpersonal: This type of conflict arises due to fundamental differences 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 types (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

Application

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