You will prepare and submit a term paper on Should managers try to eliminate or to encourage the expression of organisational conflict Explore your reasons. Your paper should be a minimum of 500 words

You will prepare and submit a term paper on Should managers try to eliminate or to encourage the expression of organisational conflict Explore your reasons. Your paper should be a minimum of 500 words in length. ORGANISATIONAL CONFLICT Conflicts comprise a normal part of our life. They arise when there is a difference of opinion that alters normal behavioural patterns, where both parties to the conflict are convinced that their separate interests cannot be accomplished at the same time. If left alone and unresolved, a conflict can turn into an increasing menace that involves the persons involved in the conflict as well as others, who are drawn into the conflict as supporters of one or the other disputant. Within the periphery of the organisation, conflicts assume great importance as they adversely affect organisational effectiveness and productivity.

A clever manager will encourage organisational conflict only if it is in the shape of a disagreement. A disagreement is a difference in opinion among two or more persons. It arises as a result of differing personal view points. Disagreements occur frequently between workers within an organisation, and as they do not affect organisational effectiveness, they are looked upon as healthy outlets of workers’ personal beliefs and opinions. Disagreements usually end up amicably, without needing intervention by third parties. The intelligent manager should monitor the progress of a disagreement carefully to ensure that it does not worsen to have direct effects on the workers’ behaviour and their capacity and zeal to work properly (Cram et al.).

A shrewd manager should try and eliminate, or when not possible, address and resolve organisational conflicts quickly. If this is not done, the organisation stands to face many bad consequences. The first bad consequence is higher employee turnover. One of the disputing workers could resign, which will need the organisation pay termination costs, and also incur expenses to find and train a new replacement worker. The second bad consequence is that the organization’s working environment becomes tense and heavy with stress. Since the conflict matter is not discussed (let alone solved), an atmosphere heavy with lack of trust, anxiety and apprehension is created. Such an unpleasant atmosphere acts adversely on workers, causing them to develop passive-aggressive behaviour patterns. In addition, the manager who cannot solve conflicts swiftly and effectively fails to inspire trust and confidence in workers. Such a set of circumstances badly hits the reputation of the organisation, causing it to face business losses, and making it very hard to recruit new employees and prevent existing employees from leaving. The third and most serious consequence is a distinct loss in business productivity. Feelings of wariness, fear of hostility and mental strain serve to decrease worker motivation and badly affect their concentration ability. As a result, they are not able to do their work to the best of their ability, and business productivity therefore suffers (Cram et al.).

Some business experts claim that unresolved organisational conflicts form the biggest avoidable cost in business (Cram et al.). It is a tragedy that this problem has still not been sufficiently understood by businesses around the world. Managers must do their best to reduce the cost of such conflicts. This can be done in two ways.

The first is to increase their awareness of the problem by understanding and analysing the reasons why organisational problems occur. The four main reasons are: Managers do not know how to seek important information from front-line employees while taking decisions. Managers do not know how to motivate employees to put in best productivity efforts. Managers do not properly explain the reasons behind any change in the organisation to the employees. and organisational problems are considered from the perspective of the employee or department, instead of from that of the organisation as a whole (Mindframesconsulting.com).

The second step involves managers taking specialised training courses in conflict resolution. Such courses will help them identify symptoms of organisational conflicts, and learn ways to resolve the conflicts. Possibly the best method is to acknowledge the conflict openly and then call a staff meeting to discuss it at length and find a solution that will suit all the disputants simultaneously (Mindframeconsulting.com).

References used:

Cram, James A. & MacWilliams, Richard K. “The Cost of Conflict in the Workplace.” Cramby River Consultants. N.d. 1 Mar. 2007. “The Top 10 Reasons Conflicts Occur in Organization.” Mindframesconsulting. com. 2000. 1 Mar. 2007.