Week 7 - Conflict

Week 7 – Conflict

Conflict is apparent when at least one party perceives that it exists and where an interest or concern of that party is about to be or has been compromised or frustrated. Brooks (2006)

So basically conflict is a clash in opinions or views, only one person needs to be upset for a conflict to arise.

I have had experience when working in groups in the past, and it isn’t uncommon for conflict to arise, one example is when I used to play for my local football team Leighton Corinthians. There was about 15 of us in the team and one of the boys happened to be the managers son. There was often conflict among the players due to favouritism, as the son started every game as captain. Whilst others often travelled to away games and had to sit on the bench without playing. This often caused conflict among the group, whilst we should have all been working together to achieve our goal of winning every game we often argued over this. The conflict got so serious that the players and I complained to the chairman of the club and the manager was fired. As well as this problem there were also more conflicts, all be it smaller ones. There was often clashes of personalities and arguments would arise in games about who would take free kicks or penalties. This was often resolved by the captain or manager delegating to the role to who they thought was best suited to the role. So the strategy used to get through this conflict was to delegate the decision to a higher power, and let that person make a decision. Although sometimes that decision made other players unhappy, most of the time they moved on and got on with it as they could see it was for the good of the group.

French and Raven’s Sources of Power –

In 1959 French and Raven identified five bases of power. These five bases are –

• ·         Legitimate – This comes from the belief that a person has the right to make demands, and expect compliance and obedience from others.
• ·         Reward – This results from one person's ability to compensate another for compliance.
• ·         Expert – This is based on a person's superior skill and knowledge.
• ·         Referent – This is the result of a person's perceived attractiveness, worthiness, and right to respect from others.
• ·         Coercive – This comes from the belief that a person can punish others for noncompliance.

(Mindtools 2012)

If this model is understood then it can help you to understand why you get influenced, it can help you identify your sources of power and it can help you develop your leadership skills.

Legitimate power -  comes mainly from the role or status that you have, people will listen to you because they know that you’re role has some sort of power. For example people will listen to the prime minister if he decides to issue a hose pipe ban. However if he was stripped of his title as PM, and he tells the general public to stop using hose pipes in case of a drought, the likelihood is that nobody will listen to him, because he’s just a normal person and he has no authority to tell you this. 

Reward Power – People in positions of power, whether it’s a manager or supervisor are likely to be able to give out rewards. These rewards can be anything from a pay increase, promotion or even a simple compliment for doing work well. This power works on the basis that if someone thinks there’s a possibility of you getting rewarded for doing something you want, then chances are they’ll do it. There are some constraints of this power, if you’re a supervisor the likelihood of you being able to get someone a pay rise or promotion is very slim, however they could put in a good work to their superiors. You could also use up all of the rewards that are in your power to give, ths would then weaken your power as you wouldn’t have anything else to offer to the employee. So why would they go the extra mile if they know they can’t get any extra reward.

Coercive power – This type of power is often frowned upon in the workplace, although some coercive action may be relevant depending on the situation. It involves dishing and threats and punishments that can include threatening to fire someone, demoted, denied privileges or given undesirable assignments. Senior employees can often possess the power to ‘coerce’ others, although it doesn’t automatically justify this kind of behaviour. This type of power should often be used as a last resort as it could easily cause dissatisfaction in the workplace. An example of this could be management at a restaurant like McDonalds, if the restaurant is particularly busy it can put stress on all of the staff, including management. If an employee isn’t performing to the standard expected by the company then the manager may tell them they could be fired, have shifts taken off them or face some kind of disciplinary. 

Expert Power – This power is based upon how knowledgeable and how many relevant skills an individual would have, and suggests that if you have these skills and also the ability to suggest solutions and use solid judgement, then chances are you’ll be able to outperform others, and thus other people in the workplace are more likely to listen to you and trust and respect what you say. Through showing expertise in one area your ideas will have more value and thus others will look for leadership in you. I do a bit of work for my step dads company, a furniture business in London, and I was given the task of inputting paper form invoices into their system, when the system crashed I asked the employee who I knew had a good understanding of the system, as opposed to asking my step-dad because I knew that wasn’t his strongest area.

Referent Power - If a person demonstrates referent power the common characteristics they would be expected to have are things like charisma, charm, admiration and appeal. Referent power is about respecting and liking another, this could be through identifying with that person. A good example of referent power would be celebrities. If a celebrity that you liked releases a product or stars in film you are much more likely to be interested in it. 

This article, in HI mag covers work related stress in the current climate. - http://www.hi-mag.com/health-insurance/product-area/income-protection/article397155.ece

The article focuses on how the economic climate is affecting work related stress, and shows some distressing facts, according to a poll in which 1,500 employees took part in 52% said they felt more stressed since the beginning of the downturn. A further 41% feel more pressure at work and 23% are working longer hours. The poll also showed that 14% are having to work weekends and that 12% are taking less holiday entitlement. This is obviously a shocking find as a huge number of people are suffering more stress since the recession. 

Conclusion -  This blog has looked at conflict in the work place and how conflict arises, through researching these areas I have learnt that conflict is not always a bad thing as it can sometimes help motivate employees, however any conflict needs to be kept under strict supervision from the companies superiors. The blog has also looked at five different types of power, and what power is relevant to different situations, people need to be managed very carefully and the management needs to make sure they use the right types of power in appropriate situations. Otherwise it could lead to unwanted problems for the business.