Workplace conflict is an unfortuante scourge that is all but inevitable in today’s highly competitive businesses. Competing values, personalities and motives all combine to create ideal conditions in which conflict germinates. As the stewards of organizational mission and performance, leaders and managers must be adept at resolving, or at the least reducing, workplace conflict. Research has found that conflict is an unavoidable human phenomenon, but that managers can take steps to reduce its impact (Zia, 2013). This paper will discuss a occurring workplace conflict and identify methods that can be utilized to reduce the problem behavior.
Background
The world of volunteer Search and Rescue (SAR) is deceptively high pressure, as these groups …show more content…
It is likely that differing instrumental values played a significant role in this conflict. Prause defines instrumental values as “a mode of conduct that an individual seeks to value” (2015). In the case of John and Susi, the instrumental value at the core of the conflict was the personal mastery of all facets of SAR. Additionally, differing viewpoints on the organizational citizenship behavior expected of senior members of the team contributed to the issue (Zia, 2013). Zia (2013) identifies organizational citizenship behavior as the unwritten rules of the organization that are essential to its performance. For example, the expectation that senior members of the team take a mentorship role within the organization, transiting away from needing the assistance of other members. Regardless of the underlying source of the conflict, whether it be a failure to adequately define roles or a simple personality conflict, the leadership impact of this conflict cannot be …show more content…
Given the visceral nature of both participants differences in the conflict, it is unlikely that a resolution technique such as avoiding or accommodating would be successful (Zia, 2013). Avoidance of the issue would likely have cause the ill feelings to fester for longer and resulted in a poorer outcome in the end. Furthermore, as both parties had valid points of contention, it is doubtful that either would have been able to accommodate the others viewpoint(Zia, 2013). Yet, there are other conflict resolution techniques that would have resulted in a better incident
Background
The world of volunteer Search and Rescue (SAR) is deceptively high pressure, as these groups …show more content…
It is likely that differing instrumental values played a significant role in this conflict. Prause defines instrumental values as “a mode of conduct that an individual seeks to value” (2015). In the case of John and Susi, the instrumental value at the core of the conflict was the personal mastery of all facets of SAR. Additionally, differing viewpoints on the organizational citizenship behavior expected of senior members of the team contributed to the issue (Zia, 2013). Zia (2013) identifies organizational citizenship behavior as the unwritten rules of the organization that are essential to its performance. For example, the expectation that senior members of the team take a mentorship role within the organization, transiting away from needing the assistance of other members. Regardless of the underlying source of the conflict, whether it be a failure to adequately define roles or a simple personality conflict, the leadership impact of this conflict cannot be …show more content…
Given the visceral nature of both participants differences in the conflict, it is unlikely that a resolution technique such as avoiding or accommodating would be successful (Zia, 2013). Avoidance of the issue would likely have cause the ill feelings to fester for longer and resulted in a poorer outcome in the end. Furthermore, as both parties had valid points of contention, it is doubtful that either would have been able to accommodate the others viewpoint(Zia, 2013). Yet, there are other conflict resolution techniques that would have resulted in a better incident