Positive and Negative Sides of Conflict
Conflict is not always negative. By calmly listening to the opposition, you may be able to uncover ideas that will work for both sides of an argument. It may feel uncomfortable to confront conflict, but the benefits may outweigh those feelings. This video discusses the benefits of conflict.It can be negative when a manager avoids conflict. They may be av oiding it because they feel uncomfortable, but the costs of this type of action can be high. Employees may not work well together: they may openly argue, make the workplace confrontational, or simply leave to avoid stress. To better your understanding, answer the three questions in the managerial leadership box as you think about the type of manager you are.
The Positive and Negative Sides of Conflict
People often assume that all conflict is necessarily bad and should be eliminated. On the contrary, there are some circumstances in which a moderate amount of conflict can be helpful. For instance, conflict can lead to the search for new ideas and new mechanisms as solutions to organizational problems. Conflict can stimulate innovation and change. It can also facilitate employee motivation in cases where employees feel a need to excel and, as a result, push themselves in order to meet performance objectives.
Conflict can at times help individuals and group members grow and develop self-identities. As noted by Coser:
Conflict, which aims at a resolution of tension between antagonists, is likely to have stabilizing and integrative functions for the relationship. By permitting immediate and direct expression of rival claims, such social systems are able to readjust their structures by eliminating their sources of dissatisfaction. The multiple conflicts which they experience may serve to eliminate the causes for dissociation and to reestablish unity. These systems avail themselves, through the toleration and institutionalization of conflict, of an important stabilizing mechanism.
Conflict can, on the other hand, have negative consequences for both individuals and organizations when people divert energies away from performance and goal attainment and direct them toward resolving the conflict. Continued conflict can take a heavy toll in terms of psychological well-being. As we will see in the next chapter, conflict has a major influence on stress and the psychophysical consequences of stress. Finally, continued conflict can also affect the social climate of the group and inhibit group cohesiveness.
Thus, conflict can be either functional or dysfunctional in work situations depending upon the nature of the conflict, its intensity, and its duration. Indeed, both too much and too little conflict can lead to a variety of negative outcomes, as discussed above. This is shown in Exhibit 14.2. In such circumstances, a moderate amount of conflict may be the best course of action. The issue for management, therefore, is not how to eliminate conflict but rather how to manage and resolve it when it occurs.
Exhibit 14.2 The Relationship Between Conflict Intensity and Outcomes
Source: J. Stewart Black and David S. Bright; OpenStax, https://openstax.org/books/organizational-behavior/pages/14-1-conflict-in-organizations-basic-considerations
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