Identifying The Causes Of Conflict And Addressing Its Effects Maintains Balance In The Workplace

To maintain balance in the workplace and to create a healthy and harmonious environment in which the organization can thrive, conflicts in the workplace must be defused as quickly as possible. Although the causes of conflict vary, and it may not always be possible to avoid it altogether, it is essential, as a successful business leader, to be able and aware that identifying the causes of conflict and addressing its effects maintains balance in the workplace early on.

Conflict is often seen as essential and positive for organizations, as it energizes action, helps raise and address problems, and also helps motivate people to participate, allowing them to recognize and benefit from their differences. It can also have adverse effects, including emotional stress, decreased productivity, project failure, absenteeism, turnover, and a generally harmful and toxic work environment for everyone, even for those not directly involved in the conflict. Hence the conflict is not the problem, but in managing it.

Influencing Factors That Lead To Conflict

1. The lack of clarity of liability

Conflict arises when the responsibility of employees needs to be clearly defined. To avoid conflict, the responsibilities and roles of employees must be clearly defined in advance. They noted that not specifying it will lead to disputes in the future.

2. Personal relationships

Interpersonal issues among employees may lead to conflicts arising within the organization. The difference in employees’ personalities can help resolve conflicts in the workplace.

3. Scarcity of resources

Organization members often compete with each other over the availability of resources such as materials needed, how much money must be spent, and the time required to complete the task. Knowing that the scarcity of resources can lead to the emergence of conflicts in the workplace.

4. Conflict of interest

Confusion between the organizational goals and those of the personnel involved may lead to conflicts of interest. Regardless of organizational goals, employees may need help to achieve their personal goals. This leads to conflicts of interest, which creates obstacles to the overall success of the organization’s goals that the team is working on.

The Effects Of The Conflict

Conflict can have positive or negative outcomes. Conversely, conflict can lead to greater creativity or better decisions.

Positive effects

1. It generates energy in individuals and highlights latent abilities and readiness that do not emerge under normal circumstances.
2. Opens new and permanent channels of communication.
3. Helps to satisfy the psychological needs of individuals, especially those with aggressive tendencies.
4. It leads to the unveiling of facts and information that may help in diagnosing some actual problems in the organization.
5. Creates a new learning experience for employees regarding problem-solving.
6. Opening issues for discussion in a confrontational manner and clarifying issues of disagreement between individuals.
7. It helps increase productivity and growth.
8. It can be a basis for creativity and innovation processes by increasing participation in the organization
9. Allows consideration of a wide range of ideas, leading to a better idea that is more acceptable across the organization.
10. Individual opinions that may be sensitive and critical are acknowledged and corrected, which in turn aids learning and growth.
11. Increases bonds between co-workers, which contributes to people understanding each other better.

Negative effects

1. It pushes each of the parties to the conflict to extremism in assessing its interest at the expense of the overall interest of the organization
2. Diverts energy, ideas, and effort away from the fundamental mission of the organization
3. Destroys morale and wastes time, effort, and money, which weakens the level of efficiency and effectiveness
4. It attracts individuals and groups and results in a loss of trust between management and workers
5. It hinders the teamwork and cooperation necessary to complete the work, as a climate of mistrust prevails, which naturally hinders the proper performance of the team members.
6. Reduces productivity and performance due to increased stress and anxiety among employees
7. It leads to psychological tension that leads to frustration, uncertainty, loss of firmness, and weakness in confidence
8. It puts the organization and its business in an unhealthy state, which indicates a kind of lack of leadership skills
9. It lowers the morale of individuals and may increase their turnover due to feelings of defeat and humiliation
10. Disables channels of communication between employees
11. Leads to employee resignations in complex conflict situations

Proper conflict management is the cornerstone of the progress and prosperity of organizations. It knows that identifying the causes of conflict and addressing its effects maintains balance in the workplace. As a result, it helps the company work more smoothly by increasing the bonds between team members to work together and maintain strong relationships to achieve the mission of the organization.