Conflicts and Conflict Management in Modern Organisations-A Pre –Conflict Resolution Environment Approach

Abstract

In the animal kingdom, the rule is, eat or be eaten: in the human kingdom, define or be defined. “These are words of Stephen Thomas an American psychologist, which a Cleary depicts a picture of the nature of Conflicts: that they are inevitable and occur everywhere: whether at individual level, family, group .societal organizational, regional and globally. There is a common believe that among several scholars on the definition of conflicts. They all view it as a disagreement, contradiction, incompatibility or differences that may arise in any situation/individuals/groups /organizations in which there are incompatible Goals, Ideas, Cognitions, or Emotions within or between individuals or groups that lead to opposition or antagonistic interaction. The definition recognizes three basic types of conflict: Goal conflict, Cognitive Conflict and Affective. The Hard and Soft model of Human Resource Management contend that conflicts are avoidable if organizations create a high committed workforce and focus on the needs of their employees contrary to the hard model. The soft model takes a unitaristic approach while the hard model takes a pluralistic approach.Unitarism view conflicts as dysfunctional whereas pluralism anticipates and views conflicts as normal in any organisation. The divergence of these approaches is a clear indication that conflicts are not necessarily undesirable. The resolution of conflict can often result to a constructive solution. This paper examines conflict from a variety of viewpoints. It considers the positive and negative aspects of conflict, discusses the levels of conflict that can occur within organizations which include: intrapersonal level, interpersonal, intragroup, intergroup, and intra-organisational level and finally, it identifies the approaches to conflict resolutions and strategies, of managing conflicts. The paper adopts Thomas and Killman strategies of conflict management modes which includes: Avoidance, Accommodation Collaboration, Competition and Compromise thus incorporating a more conducive pre-conflict resolution environment elements ICLWC which stands for: Identify the nature of conflict; Communicate effectively; Listen to one another, show the willingness to resolve the conflict and demonstrate Congruence of the mind. Therefore the article proposes setting a pre-conflict resolution environment (ICLWC) before identifying the appropriate conflict management strategies. It is also evident that organisations that take conflict audit and manage them amicably are likely to have a more satisfied work force and achieve their objectives. Index