Managing organizational conflicts
Credit to Author: BENITO L. TEEHANKEE| Date: Mon, 02 Dec 2019 17:18:33 +0000
THE pressures of a VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) world on organizations have been increasing. Technologies have been changing fast, and will change even faster with the anticipated rollout of Fifth Generation (5G) technology and the Internet of Things. These will make markets much more competitive. Managers are trying to cope with this by cutting costs, making their processes more efficient, and innovating on product and service designs to meet ever-increasing customer expectations. But as managers deal with the headaches imposed by the marketplace, internal pressures also increase the frequency and intensity of organizational and interpersonal conflicts.
The interesting thing about conflicts is that, while everyone witnesses them almost every day, there is very little constructive discussion of it. It is treated much like gravity or the air we breathe — a given about which nothing much can be done, except to talk about it in hushed tones in boardrooms, cafeterias and corridors. Many believe that since conflicts are so pervasive and problematic, managers would better spend their time not dealing with them, or more specifically, just tolerating them and forging ahead.
This is not healthy. If left alone, conflicts weaken an organization. They result in inefficiency by restricting the flow of information and, therefore, harm the speed and quality of decisions. They reduce trust among people with different points of view, which destroys any chance of synergy and innovation in the organization. They demoralize and diminish the quality of work life for members of the organization who may eventually decide to leave. With all the harm conflicts can cause, managers had better deal with them. It is their duty to do so.
What can be done? Should conflicts be avoided? After all, most people find conflict unpleasant and would prefer to avoid a confrontation whenever possible. They may be concerned about not offending anyone. They may think it would take time and energy away from doing more productive things. But we shouldn’t confuse the absence of conflict with agreement. It is more likely apathy and disengagement. And a company that simply moves along under an illusion of agreement will not get very far.
No, conflict should not be avoided. In fact, it should be encouraged, as long as it’s focused on issues and not on personalities. I believe Filipino managers, in particular, will need to work on being able to argue about issues without it resulting in personal friction. This is easier if managers are encouraged to interact with each other more frequently in less formal occasions.
Informal settings for organizational members to learn more about each other as persons is essential. When people find commonality in backgrounds — for example, interest in sports, domestic concerns or even goals in life — conflicts related to work become easier to deal with. Company social events and even informal office lunches offer excellent opportunities to do this.
Next, people have to be educated and empowered to handle conflicts through dialogue at the lowest level possible without the need to escalate these for mediation by superiors. This requires the ability to listen with empathy to others and understand their perspective. It means avoiding the temptation to rebut every opinion that is different from one’s own. “That doesn’t make sense!” can be stated as “I need to understand. Could you tell me more?”
Often, our negative reaction to a co-worker’s opinion comes from limiting assumptions in our minds. For example, a compliance officer may argue against a sales person who is not producing the required client documentation by saying, “You are neglecting our documentation standards and putting the company at risk.” The sales person can find this an unreasonable accusation, given the sales goals imposed by the company on him and the efforts he has made to know his prospect other than through documentation. This difference in perspective can explode into an unproductive conflict and continuing tension between the compliance officer and salespeople.
The dialogue may proceed differently when the compliance officer inquires: “As you know, we need to know our clients so we can manage our risks better. We need the full documentation to do that. Do you have suggestions on how we can reasonably know about this client without that documentation?” This can lead to a productive and creative solution to the issue.
Organizational conflicts are normal and can become frequent as competition intensifies.
Organizational leaders and members need to embrace conflicts as a means to collaborative problem-solving and innovation and not a problems to be swept under the rug. But this is only possible by building personal connections among organizational members and promoting a culture of respectful and collaborative dialogue.
Dr. Benito L. Teehankee is the Jose E. Cuisia professor of business ethics and head of the Business for Human Development Network at De La Salle University. Email: benito.teehankee@dlsu.edu.ph.