Organizational Conflict Essay

Introduction

Conflicts can occur in different forms and to varying degrees. In organizations, conflicts are mainly because of differences in expectations, values, goals, and personalities. A group pursuing their interests at the expense of others results to a conflict. According to Rahim (2010), there are three ways in which a conflict can occur in an organization; it can be between management and management, management and employees, or employees and employees. Conflicts need to be diagnosed and managed before they can have severe effects to the organization. It is the role of the management to address the conflicts with research showing that an average manager spends 24 percent of their work time

The conflict occurred when two opposing groups were formed in the company. The two sides did not get along and there was the ‘us’ vs. ‘them’ mentality in the company (Jauro, Bambale & Barwa, 2017). The employees were resistant to any changes that were made to solve the issues. The division was created due to the nature of operations in the company where some operations were designed for specific employees. For instance, when it came to customer-related issues, there were specific employees that were supposed to address them. These employees felt like they were superior and created a gap between them and the other employees. On the other hand, the employees who were not involved in such tasks felt that they were being discriminated against. This is what led to a division of the employees into two opposing

In order to address it well, one supervisor was assigned the role of addressing the conflict. She was send to a one-week seminar on conflict management. After she came back, she introduced weekly staff meetings (Jauro, Bambale & Barwa, 2017). There were also individual meetings where the supervisor ensured that she had a one on one talk with all the employees at least once per week. The individual meetings were crucial, as the supervisor understood the goals and concerns of every employee. It is through this that the right solution to the conflict would be got. This was an effective approach to diagnosing the conflict (Safi & Kolahi, 2016). It was also crucial talking to the employees individually because in many cases they usually have the