Organizational Champions and Their 'Magic Secrets': Transforming Implicit Conflict Mitigation Strategies

Abstract

Many organizations and institutions are fraught with interdepartmental conflicts that may become culturally embedded to create perpetually strained relations. Some employees emerge as organizational champions to move beyond the boundaries of their respective units regardless of pervasive conflicted interdepartmental relationships. They serve as catalysts to create novel interdepartmental projects that foster collaborative partnerships. Through the development of such initiatives, organizational champions dismantle the interdepartmental conflict dynamics and consequently build a collaborative network outside established modes of conducting business. Through the creation of positive intergroup exchanges, they introduce a process that contributes to interdepartmental knowledge flows, relationships, and ultimately organizational culture shifts. Five case study interviews were conducted with organizational champions employed at middle management and senior executive levels at an Ivy League institution to uncover their implicit conflict mitigation tactics. The researcher molds their implicit conflict frameworks and strategies into the Organizational Champion Conflict Mitigation Model (OCCMM) proposing a peacebuilding paradigm to the construction of collaborative workplace culture and organizational change.