Navigating Organizational Conflict -Strategies for Identification, Resolution, and Impact Analysis

Navigating Organizational Conflict -Strategies for Identification, Resolution, and Impact Analysis

Factors that may be Responsible for Causing the Conflict

Conflict is inevitable in organizations, especially because of differences in opinion and perspectives. According to Omisore & Abiodun (2014), conflict is the struggle between two or more independent individuals perceiving scarce rewards, incompatible goals, and interference from other individuals or parties achieving their goals. Conflict in organizations may be caused by internal and external factors. One of the factors that may be responsible for the conflict in the current scenario is bias. Some of the individuals in the leadership team have accused the organization of bias based on social status, race, religion, and culture. Bias could be interpreted as discrimination because it denies people with specific characteristics equal opportunities in the organization. The second factor is the lack of diversity and inclusion policy. The team includes individuals from different genders and races, including individuals from minority groups, but no policy outlines how individuals from different backgrounds should interact. For instance, the team includes a Hispanic member and two African-American members who are part of the minority group in the community vulnerable to racial discrimination.

How the Conflict is Affecting the Rest of the Organization

Conflict among employees in an organization significantly impacts their collaboration and exchange of ideas that can be leveraged to improve the organization’s performance. Conflict may also impact employees’ productivity, especially if it results in reduced job satisfaction and morale. In the current scenario, the conflict is affecting the rest of the organization by limiting employee productivity because the employees who face bias are not motivated to contribute to the organization’s success. The conflict is also affecting the rest of the organization by creating conflict among the employees. The main impact of conflict among employees in an organization is reduced commitment and high turnover. Organizations experiencing high turnover incur extra costs to hire and train new employees, leading to reduced profitability. Therefore, the organization needs to find measures that can be used to resolve the conflict.

The Conflict Resolution Style I will use in this Situation.

Conflict resolution styles vary based on the intensity of a conflict and the parties involved in the conflict. Therefore, it is important to analyze a conflict to determine its cause, the needs of each party in the conflict, and their expectations when selecting a conflict resolution style. The most appropriate conflict resolution style in the current situation is negotiation. According to Hocker et al. (2022), negotiation can be used to help the conflicting parties reach a mutual agreement. I will organize a negotiation between the volunteers and staff to agree on how they can work together to avoid conflict. I will ensure that all parties in the negotiation process express their needs and give my feedback on what can be done to settle on a decision that satisfies all parties. I will also consider mediation to help the staff and volunteers express the issues that could create the conflict and agree on how to resolve the issues. I can use my position as a mediator to understand the source of conflict between the staff and volunteers and help the two parties reach an agreement on how they can collaborate to contribute to the organization’s growth. Another conflict resolution style that I will use in the current situation is arbitration. I will use my role as an arbitrator to make a binding decision on how the staff and volunteers should interact to prevent conflict.

The Conflict Negotiation Strategies I Will Try

Negotiation plays a vital role in conflict resolution because it ensures that the needs of every party involved in the conflict are met. According to Tientcheu (2021), the role of a negotiator is to actively listen to individuals in a dispute and talk to them to reach a mutual agreement. One of the negotiation strategies I will try is the accommodating strategy. The accommodating strategy focuses on ensuring that everyone gets what they want. I will begin by listening to each party’s needs and determining whether meeting them compromises the other party’s needs. I will then review each party’s needs to determine how I can accommodate all the needs without causing tension between the two parties. I will ensure that all parties provide a recommendation of what they think should be done to prevent the conflict before deciding the way forward. I will also use the collaborative negotiating style to help the staff and volunteers settle on the most effective strategy to prevent discrimination. I will also use collaboration to help the volunteers and staff create a strategy on how to prevent discrimination and accommodate each individual’s values and beliefs.

The Likely Outcome of the Selected Negotiating Style

Each negotiating style will yield a different outcome in the organization. The likely outcome of the accommodation strategy is reducing discrimination and bias. The accommodating style will help the staff and volunteer identify instances where each party may have felt that they were treated differently because of their social status, culture, race, and religion and come to an agreement on how such a situation can be avoided. Another outcome of accommodation is improving collaboration between staff and volunteers because each party will understand each other’s needs and focus on meeting them to promote positive interactions. The collaborative negotiation style will also likely improve the relationship between the staff and volunteers. For instance, the collaboration style will help the staff and volunteers work together to understand the causes of bias and how to prevent it.

 References

Hocker, J., Berry, K., & Wilmot, W. W. (2022). Interpersonal conflict. McGraw-Hill LLC.

Omisore, B. O., & Abiodun, A. R. (2014). Organizational conflicts: Causes, effects, and remedies. International Journal of Academic Research in Economics and Management Sciences, 3(6). https://doi.org/10.6007/ijarems/v3-i6/1351

Tientcheu, V. (2021). Conflict Management and Negotiation. ResearchGate. https://doi.org/https://www.researchgate.net/publication/350042749_CONFLICT__AND_NEGOTIATION_1_Conflict_Management_and_Negotiation

ORDER A PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPER HERE

We’ll write everything from scratch

Develop a 3-4 page plan to identify the causes of organizational conflict, explain how conflict affects an organization, and select a conflict resolution style to use. Explain conflict negotiation strategies and determine the likely outcomes.
You volunteer with an organization whose executive leadership has conflicted for almost a year in deep, fairly public ways on a variety of topics. At first, the conflict seemed to center on the types of events the organization sponsored, but more recently, some members of the leadership team have been making accusations of bias based on race, culture, social status, and religion against other leadership members, including the director. The conflict is making it difficult for anyone to continue working with the organization.

Navigating Organizational Conflict -Strategies for Identification, Resolution, and Impact Analysis

The leadership team is composed of seven members. Six of the members, including the director, are women. There are two African-American members, including the only man on the team. There is one Hispanic member. The other four members, including the director, are Caucasian.

You have successfully handled small conflicts among the volunteers and staff in the past, and now they have asked you to step in and see if you can help resolve the conflict before it destroys the organization. Leadership has already agreed to bring you in to try and help the situation, but you know you need to have a solid plan for this undertaking.

Include the following in your conflict resolution plan:

Identify the factors that may be responsible for causing the conflict.
Explain how the conflict is affecting the rest of the organization.
Describe the conflict resolution style you will use in this situation.
Explain the conflict negotiation strategies you will try.
Based on your chosen strategies, determine the likely outcome.