Conflict in Communication

In all forms of communication, there are various forms of conflict. Some conflict is healthy some conflict is not. And with all conflict, there is resolution. It is the intent of the author to analyze the conflict presented and come up with probable solutions to conflict resolution.

In the textbook, Cahn states that, “We believe that conflict is not simply a part of life; conflict is life as usual. People regularly experience times when their wants and desires are contradictory to the wants and desires of people important to them. Equally important, we can see no reason for conflicts to ever evolve into violent behavior. Conflicts exist as a fact of life, but we believe violence does not.” With conflict existing as a fact of life, it is known that we must accept that in all communication, there will be some form of conflict. It is the duty of the communicator to take the conflict and turn the conflict as a building block for the relationships involved.

Without conflict, long-term communication remains stagnant.

Organization Conflict

According to Rahim Afzalur in Managing Conflict in Organizations, “Organizational conflict as it stands now is considered legitimate and inevitable and a positive indicator of effective organizational management. It is now recognized that conflict within certain limits is essential to productivity. Conflict can be functional to the extent to which it results in the creative solution to problems or the effective attainment of subsystem or organizational objectives that otherwise would not have been possible. Little or no conflict in organizations may lead to stagnation, poor decisions, and ineffectiveness. On the other hand, organizational conflict left uncontrolled may have dysfunctional outcomes.” (Afzalur, 2001, page 16)

Afzalur also describes a situation in which conflicts may be placed along a continuum of cooperative to competitive actions. The former occurring when there is outcomes and the latter occurring when only joint payoffs occur such that one party wins and the other party loses. It is the person’s ensuing conflict responsibility to choose to positively fix the conflict.

Also, according to Thomas, author of Conflict Styles of Men and Women at Six organizations, “The influence of organization level and gender on conflict style is important for a number of reasons. Level and gender are salient and ubiquitous features in organizations. Moderate or strong effects on conflict styles would have significant implications. Conflict researchers would need to be aware of those relationships, at a minimum, to control for their effects when studying the influence of other variables. Moreover, practitioners in training and organization development commonly use conflict style instruments for diagnostic purposes. Sizeable effects of gender and level would have a number of implications for them as well. For example, measures of conflict style may require separate statistical norms for different organization levels and genders. Trainers and coaches working with a given organizational level would also benefit from knowing the typical conflict styles used by men and women at that organization level and how those styles are likely to differ at the next level up. It would also be helpful to know how style preferences differ across genders, and whether those differences apply to executives as well as lower-level personnel. This knowledge would help trainers fine-tune their training to those realities. Organization development practitioners, likewise, would benefit from knowing where they are most likely to encounter different patterns of conflict styles.” (Thomas, 2008, para 6)

The positive and negative effects of conflict

Jeff Whitfield, author of Conflict in Construction stated, “Positive conflict has enabled civil rights movements to remove inequitable laws. Conflicts can also product positive aesthetic results. Many of our great works of art have been created as a result of the internal conflicts raging within talented individuals. One such example could be Vincent Van Gogh. Creative individuals who challenged established thinking were often regarded as eccentric or even borderline insane. Why is it then that conflict, often so damaging, can sometimes produce such positive results.” (Whitfield, 2012, page 5)

Essentially, conflicts can eventually cause positive results. So while it is easy to become flustered or upset about something, it is likely a conflict will become positive with the proper thinking.

Also, according to Whitfield, “If you believe it will have a negative impact on the situation, substitute your negative thoughts with a positive one and re-run the scenario. You may find that a positive reaction offers a better outcome.” (Whitfield, 2012, page 91)

Whitfield also suggests that in a scenario where one feels a negative impact approaching, to try using a positive thought to overcome the negativity.

Stress and Anger in the Workplace

According to Seth Allcom and Michael Diamond in Anger in the Workplace, “anger is an emotion that arises after other feelings such as pain, threat or fear, frustration or humiliation are experienced.” (Allcom & Diamond, 1994, page 5) With all of these emotions encountered, often times embarrassment is accompanied with the workplace or public conflict.

Allcom and Diamond also make a point by stating, “Employees also make their contribution to anger in the workplace in the form of low self-esteem and ineffective coping strategies. The work place is extraordinarily complex interpersonal environment in which virtually anything can and does happen. People who feel insecure and unprepared to cope with organizational life will very likely find some behavior offensive, frustrating, and even threatening and becoming anxious and angry as a result.”

With stress and anger, proper communication is difficult and sometimes dull.

Allcom and Diamond also discuss how some anger is justified.

“Anger is sometimes justified; however, frequent anger is an indication of a maladjustment. Anger is often focused at hated authority figures. Anger may be vented in words. Anger is something I try to control. Anger is a way of making your point. Anger is an emotion that expresses feelings of frustration at myself. Anger is a scary and difficult emotion at that, if expressed, is followed by punishment and isolation. Anger is a response to the threat of nonexistence. Anger is a self-directed response to frustration that is sometimes productive by more often destructive,

Ethics and workplace conflicts

Ethics is defined, by the author of Ethics Management for Public Administrators, as “values and principles that guide right and wrong behavior. The Golden Rule is an example of an ethical principle that guides behavior.”

According to Menzell in Ethics Management, “The possibility of ethics management has become a reality only in recent decades, although interest in ethics in Western culture can be traced to the Age of Antiquity. The Greek philosopher Aristotle wrote about moral virtues such as courage, honesty, temperance, and responsibility. Virtue ethics, as this approach became known, has inspired and motivated human beings in a vastly different cultures for century’s. (Menzell, nd, page 5)

In a guide for developing a process for managing ethics, author Michael Alford discusses the importance of ethics in a business setting, “Businesses develop formal ethics programs for a variety of reasons. These range from programs designed to comply with the law to programs that provide for both compliance and conducting business on a higher level of trust between the stakeholders. Recent research indicates that some larger firms have developed formal codes of ethics and appointed a Vice President for Ethics in order to avoid the financial penalties imposed for ethics violations. The rationale is that a firm will likely receive a lighter penalty for ethics violations if it has a strong code and an ethics education program in place than if it does not. This approach is merely a tradeoff between the cost of developing an ethics program and the projected cost of possible violations. It neglects some very positive and powerful incentives to actively manage ethics in the workplace.” (Alford, 2011, para 7)

With this aspect taken, a code of ethics takes a very important role in the business world in relation to communication.

In Communications Styles and Conflict, Author Kathy Jourdain states, “A well-functioning team should have all of these communication styles for true effectiveness. All teams need to focus on the task, and they need to take care of relationships in order to achieve those tasks. They need the big picture perspective or the context of their work, and they need the details to be identified and taken care of for success. We all have aspects of each style within us. Some of us can easily move from one style to another and adapt our style to the needs of the situation at hand-whether the focus is on casks or relationships. For others, a dominant style is very evident, and it is more challenging to see the situation from the perspective of another style. The work environment can influence communication styles either by the type of work that is required or by the predominance of one style reflected in that environment. Some people use one style at work and another at home. The good news about communication styles is that we all have the ability to develop flexibility in our styles. The greater the flexibility we have, the more skilled we usually are at handling possible and actual conflicts. Usually it has to be relevant to us to do so, either because we think it is important or because there are incentives in our environment to encourage it. The key is that we have to want to become flexible with our communication style. As Henry Ford said, "Whether you think you can or you can't, you're right!"” (Jordain, nd, para 13)

Conclusion

            It was discovered in the research done that with all conflict there is growth. Some growth is immediate and some is long-term, or found in hind-sight. And just like stated in the beginning, in all communication there is conflict.

References

Afzalur, R. (2001). Managing conflict in organizations. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data. Retrieved from http://site.ebrary.com.proxy-library.ashford.edu/lib/ashford/docDetail.action?docID=10017971&p00=organization%20conflicts

Alford, J. M., & Bebensee, M. A. (2011). A GUIDE FOR DEVELOPING A PROCESS FOR MANAGING WORKPLACE ETHICS IN THE SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISE. Paper presented at the 1-17. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/922565907?accountid=32521

Allcorn, S. & Diamond, M. (1994). Anger in the workplace: understanding the causes of aggression & violence. Greenwood Press. Retrieved from http://site.ebrary.com.proxy-library.ashford.edu/lib/ashford/docDetail.action?docID=5003885&p00=stress%20anger%20workplace

Cahn, R. A. A. a. D. Managing Conflict Through Communication VitalSource eBook for Ashford University (4th ed). Pearson Learning Solutions. Retrieved from http://online.vitalsource.com/books/9780558711184/id/pg2

Menzel, D. (2007). Ethics management for public administrators: building organizations of integrity M . Sharpe, Inc. Retrieved from http://site.ebrary.com.proxy-library.ashford.edu/lib/ashford/docDetail.action?docID=10178043&p00=ethics%20workplace

Jourdain, K. (2004). Communication styles and conflict. The Journal for Quality and Participation, 27(2), 23-25. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/219110315?accountid=32521

Thomas, K. W., & Thomas, G. F. (2008). Conflict styles of men and women at six organization levels. International Journal of Conflict Management, 19(2), 148-166. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/199045299?accountid=32521

Whitfield, J. (2012). Conflicts in construction. Wiley. Retrieved from http://site.ebrary.com.proxy-library.ashford.edu/lib/ashford/docDetail.action

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