People Management

Question 1

Conflicts can be viewed as a clash between incompatible people with different ideas and interests.

By providing some specific instances of conflict at your workplace, examine some of the causes of conflicts.

Ineffective communication

A major source of personal conflict is the misunderstanding that results from ineffective communciation. In the work setting, where many different people work closely together, communication breakdown are inevitable.

Often it is necessary to determine if the conflicts is due to a misunderstanding or a true disagreement. If the cause is a misunderstanding, you may need to explain your position again or provide more details or examples to help the other person understand.

If disagreemnt exists, one or bothe parties have to be persuaded to change their position over and over again, until someone changes, the root problem will persists.

Value and culture clashes

Today’s diverse work force refelcts a kaleidoscope of cultures, each with its own unique qualities. The individual beares of these different cultural t raditions could easily come into conflict with one another. The issues may be a simple as one person’s desire to dress in ethnic fashion and a supervisor’s insistence on strict adherence to the company dress code, or as complex as work ethics.

Work policies and practices

Interpersonal conflicts can develop when an organization has unreasonable or confusin rules, regulations, and performance standards. The conflicts often surface when managers fail to tune in to employees’ perception that various policies are unfair. Managers need to address the source of conflicts rather than suppress it. Conflicts also surface when some workers refuse to comply with the rules and neglect t heir fair share of the workload.

Adversarial Management

Under adversarial management, supervisors may view their employees and even other managers with suspicion and distrust and treat them as “the enemy”. Employees...