Workplace, conflicts is a concept, which an organization can't afford to ignore or disassociate with, they are common and often will keep on recurring if strategic and result oriented measures are not adopted. Though such conflict have been accentuated as having both positive and negative impacts, their unhealthy effect on a firm's productivity, remains a serious issue, that if not addressed may spell doom to the organization's future output. Indeed unhealthy conflicts lead to a myriad of consequences such as, loss of talented employees, low motivation of employees, emotional distress, constant restructuring costs, poor decision masking process and mostly wastage of essential time.
This has the effect of eating up into a firm's productivity, hence affecting her competitive advantage. For instance according to a study conducted in US on workplace conflicts, it was found that in the year 2008 alone, employees spend approximately 3 hours a week on matters of conflict . Translated into cost and taking into consideration a rate of $17.95 hourly earning, it translated to 359 billion US dollars a year, perhaps giving a grim picture of the impact of conflicts within an organization.
[...] Can the Chinese setting be generalized to our workplace environments? The Chinese setting of conflict management is one that incorporates an ideological cultural conception different from the western environment. In this case, according to Leung (2002), Chinese typically view conflicts from a harmonistic perspective that is defined by the ingenious concept of collectivism, whilst Westerners often adopt a conflict perspective that is defined by individualism. Hence based on such perspective the Chinese conception of conflict management, involves strategies such as avoidance and cooperative strategy. [...]
[...] What possible management resolution remedies would you recommend for the work place? Based on the Chinese case scenario, in resolving conflict within an organization, it is important to adopt collective, effective and result oriented policies and measures that ensure conformity. In this case, the measures should not adopt a punitive measure but rather a preventive measure involving the organization and the personal approach. As regard the organization, it is important to adopt planning and mentoring programmes, management of diversification in the workplace, motivational approaches, encouraging open communication and team building programmes. [...]
[...] Translated into cost and taking into consideration a rate of $ 17.95 hourly earning, it translated to 359 billion US dollars a year, perhaps giving a grim picture of the impact of conflicts within an organization. So what connotes conflict? According to Wall (1985) “Conflict is a process in which two or more parties attempt to frustrate the other's goal attainment . the factors underlying conflict are threefold: interdependence, differences in goals, and differences in perceptions.” Often conflicts are part of human society and though a cause of alarm to the society, they have a positive outlook, which is defined by their ability to promote competition and hence improve productivity. [...]
[...] Though the setting does not adopt competitive and confrontational strategies, its effectiveness can only be defined in the concept of cultural setting. However, although to some extend a success it has been viewed as having loopholes. For instance, avoidance strategy is an impediment to communication, which is a key concept to tackling conflicts; it thus suppresses personal wants and needs in favor of a common but unacceptable goal. In addition, the cooperative strategy negatively affects employee's ability to perform effectively. Hence, the setting cannot be accommodated in all environments. [...]
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