Conflict at work: Basic principles and applied issues.

Abstract

Conflict at work is quickly classified as a darkside construct that has primarily negative, destructive, and aversive consequences individual employees’ well-being and task performance, citizenship behavior and performance in work teams, and organizational fitness and survival chances. In this chapter, I review these and related research findings and examine under conditions, and why, conflict tends be primarily negative and destructive or, alternatively, positive and constructive. Questions that are asked and answered include it matter the conflict is about? and to extent does the way people manage their conflicts bring out positive and/or negative consequences? and what can be done, in terms of systems design, or training and development, benefit from conflict at work and put it good use? In addition a closer examination of the possible functions of conflict at work, this chapter devotes a large section conflict management. This chapter starts with a brief but necessary treatment of some definitional aspects, set the stage and clarify some issues left unclear in past work on organizational conflict. From this it follows, among other things, that this chapter is not about intrapersonal conflicts, in which an individual needs decide between two equal positives or negatives—as in so-called decisional conflicts, role conflicts, or work-family conflicts. Also, it clarifies that social conflict needs be distinguished from other dark-side constructs that plague organizations, including aggression, incivility, and deviance. Although these constructs are touched on, it is important reemphasize that conflict need not involve intent harm another party and need not cause negative outcomes . The second major section of this chapter is about conflict-management tendencies and practices, relating research core theories of strategic choice such as Deutsch’s (1973) theory of cooperation and competition and Pruitt and Rubin’s (1986) dual concern theory. The section ends with a relatively brief treatment of Organizational Dispute Resolution (ODR) systems and more informal dispute resolution strategies applied by managers and organizational leaders. The third section explores the various functions, both positive and negative, of conflict at work. The fourth and final section concludes the chapter with some core conclusions, with a specific eye toward applied issues and possible advice practitioners faced with conflicts in their workplace.