Organizational Conflict Theory

by Eric Feigenbaum

People don't stop being people at work. Conflict unfortunately is inevitable. But organizational conflict theory says there are several varieties of conflicts within an organization--inter-personal being only one type. Departments have conflicts with one another, senior managements have power struggles and organizations even have conflict with other organizations. But there isn't consensus on what it all means. Some theorists say conflict must be resolved, others say that it drives success.

Interpersonal Conflicts

Some people don't mix--plain and simple. Perhaps outside work they would choose not to socialize or interact. Perhaps if they weren't forced to deal with one another, they could have friendly, polite conversation as acquaintances. But when forced to work together to achieve goals or to share workspace on a consistent basis, friction may arise. In these situations, managers must take on the roles of mediator and counselor to diffuse the situation and find resolution, or make a difficult choice to transfer or remove someone based on inability to function in a team.

Role Conflict

Some conflicts between employees have nothing to do with personalities, but are caused by circumstances related to their roles and duties. For example, a hospital administrator instructs a nurse manager not to run a particular test on a patient because the patient's insurance refuses to cover the costs. The nurse knows the patient needs the test and has physician's orders to run them. The nurse's obligation by code of ethics and licensing regulations is to the patient. The administrator has a fiduciary duty to the hospital. They run into conflict due to their duties--when on another day in another circumstance could find themselves fast friends. This situation is inevitable in organizations. However, theorists disagree about whether this is harmful. Some hold that some conflicts act as checks and balances while others can be counter-productive and harmful to an organization's functioning.

Maturity And Immaturity Theory

One theory holds that people in their career lives want to grow and mature with increasing levels of responsibility and opportunity--just as they do in personal lives. However, many hierarchical organizations for the sake of efficiency, break jobs into specialties, giving employees narrow scopes and duties, which they are expected to perform well. As a result, employees don't get to use all of their talents and abilities, and feel constrained and unable to develop. The result is conflict between employees and the organization itself. On an individual level employees may develop resentment and apathy. In some circumstances, sentiments can take on larger dimensions and employees begin to formally or informally organize--sometimes forming unions. Organizations that promote a high degree of specialization and little mobility may find themselves with higher turnover as a result of the conflict stemming from Maturity-Immaturity Theory.

Inter-group Conflict

Similar to role conflict, inter-group conflict usually occurs because of the roles and functions of teams and departments. Both are just trying to do their jobs, but somehow run up against each other. An example might be conflict between a sales and information technology department. The sales department needs software to performs certain functions that support their sales and invoicing. The IT department finds the request difficult because the requested changes would negatively impact other parts of the company database. The result is a tension or conflict through neither party's fault. This is considered a problematic conflict requiring resolution by mediation or managerial decision. If the conflict persists and becomes part of the company dynamic or culture, it can become very destructive to the organization and everyone involved. In other circumstances inter-group conflict can be healthy. Such an example would be two sales teams that compete for the best results. While there may be some jeering and prodding between them, they drive each other to perform better, producing higher commissions for everyone and better results for the company. Conflict theory holds this to be a healthy or useful conflict.

Approaches to Conflict Resolution

According to modern theories on organizational conflict, organizations are left with a fairly limited set of choices: avoidance, smoothing, dominance or power intervention, confrontation and compromise. Choices, including avoidance and smoothing, rest largely on time washing away difficulties. The other choices involve managers getting involved by mediating, calling people out, making an executive decision or forcing a mediation with hopes for collaborative solutions.

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