Conflict

Conflict & Cooperation in The Workplace 

One topic that is of interest to most people in the workplace is conflict; how it works, how to avoid it, and how to deal with it when it occurs. It is indeed the rare organization that doesn't have to face the issue of conflict, and how to harness it so that it produces positive results rather than destruction. 

Two Types of Conflict 

In the workplace (and almost any setting), you are likely to find two forms of conflict. The first is conflict about decisions, ideas, directions and actions. We will call this "substantive conflict" since it deals with disagreements about the substance of issues. The second form, "personalized conflict" is often called a personality conflict. In this form, the two parties simply "don't like each other much". 

Substantive Conflict 

Substantive conflict can occur on just about any issue, but its moving force is that the two parties simply disagree about an issue. This can be a good thing or a bad thing. Handled correctly parties in conflict can create, for themselves and those around them, the ability to resolve an issue with something creative, something better than either party's original position.

Some of the Substantive Conflict is:

Interdependence-conflicts: A person's job depends on someone else's cooperation, output or input. A classic example is when a salesperson is constantly late in uploading monthly sales figures to the computer system and that may in turn cause the accountant to be late with her own reports.

Differences in Style: People have different styles when doing their work. For example, one person may be very task oriented and may just want to get the work done quickly. Others may be more concerned with having it done in a very artistic way or some may even want to include other people in the project.

Differences in Background/Gender: Conflicts may arise between people because of differences in educational backgrounds, personal...