Conflict at work
Conflict can be defined in many ways, whether it be standing up for and expressing your views, or disrupting and controlling the progression of another individual. Not all conflict is based around people who work together directly; conflict can also arise from a clash of personalities without much contact. Conflict in work is very different to conflict socially, as in work you are forced to be together, and you should have the same end goal, so where as in the outside environment people who have very similar personalities attract because they like to do the same things, and there is no power struggle. When it comes down to a work environment, people who have very similar personalities are likely become in direct competition and be in conflict with each other, as they will both be fighting in the same way, but could be based around two different ideas, thus making them disagree and causing conflict. (J.Mullins, 2007)
This left an opportunity from someone else to become store manager, for which lots of people internally thought they would like to have the role. However, an external candidate was bought in to do the job. She had worked at the store previously as a part time worker before being transferred to another centre. This caused an initial tension between staff as many people thought they had been mistreated with regards to not have been given the job.
When the new floor manager came, she had a very strong attitude to the way in which people should be working, and although having a lot less experience, and being a lot younger then other staff, continued to be “power Hungary” and controlling and left people feeling no respect towards her, and not wanting to help her out.
One day, she had an argument with our store that made everyone realise why she had been doing what she had. When she had been employed he had told her that because she was younger that she would not have as much respect from the people who worked here – although this was woong, if she had taken the right approach- and that she needed to stamp her authority over people to make sure they did what she told them to do . However it clearly had an alternative effect.
Ways in which this could have been avoided would be for an internal candidate to have been chosen, or for the new floor manager to have not followed the overpowering orders from the store manager. However, this particular conflict still has not been resolved, and many people still hold a grudge towards the floor manager, and much more to the store manager for assuming their lack of respect.
A way in which it could be resolved is in the following ways
I have found another Youtube video which explains some other examples of workplace conflicts and way to and to not resolve the issues.
French and Raven’s different sources of power (Mindtools, 2011)
John French and Bertram Raven conducted studies in 1959 which concluded that there was five main sources of power. These included; Legitimate, Reward, Expert, Referent and Coercive.
Legitimate sources of power is created through people having the “right” to be in control, and people often are obedient and comply as it is expected, this for example is true for Britain and the Queen, and for high person in a company eg, Charlie Mayfield the Chairman of john Lewis has automatic power over others.
Reward power is all about the ability to get compliance from others with a form of compensation, for example, a manager can get someone to clean the store by paying them to do so, or make someone work harder by offering thins such as bonuses of company benefits eg a company car.
Expert power is based around knowledge. People respect others who have a superior knowledge, and who can allow them to progress. For example, an plumbing apprentice has respect for his teacher as he is already in the profession, therefor the teacher had power over his apprentice.
Referent is all to do with your basic personality and whether you are “likable”. People who are charming, and friendly have a respect and so therefore some form of power of their peers. This is in the workplace as well as socially. Many reality television celebrities have a referent power over their fans because they admire their personality.
Coercive power is the worst from of power in my opinion, as it works around the idea of the fear of being punished. This is usually the approach that head teachers use to keep control over their students, for example, “ if you do not do your homework you will get a detention” .
Work related Stress
Work related stress is becoming more and more apparent, especially as pressure continues to rise through the change in economic stability companies are going through with the recession. This has caused the figures to rise to a huge 58% of people complaining of work related stress (thisismoney, 2004) .
“ Almost half of employees said they worked up to nine hours a day, more than a third did up to 11 hours, and 10% did more than that, with many people taking work home in the evenings at least three times a week. A separate study by hotel chain Premier Inn revealed that a third of Britons dreamt about work, in a sign of increasing work-related stress. A poll of 2,000 showed that heavy workloads, long hours and conflicts with colleagues meant many people's dreams were dominated by office politics. Another report showed that entrepreneurs across Europe and the US were losing sleep as they grappled with the state of the economy. The Germans and Dutch were most optimistic about the year ahead, while the British and Spanish were least optimistic.” (Jones, 2011) Read more: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/business/business-news/staff-work-longer-over-job-fears-16081854.html#ixzz1ejvHVzf0
Clearly people are feeling under more pressure to work harder in fear that they will loose their jobs. This is probably exaggerated by the type of leadership control they are experiencing. With Coercive power most like lying being the cause of much stress at work.
Many people can feel stressed at work; it’s not dependent on what job role you have. Some people are more susceptible to becoming stressed than other. One person may become stressed about having to chair a meeting, where as someone more confident may not be phased by this. (J.Mullins, 2007) People who are badly affected by stress can even require time off work which can cause further stress on existing employees.
Conclusion
To conclude, the way people are managed can really effect there productivity. If done wrong though however, it can cause conflict, and can cause work related stress. The best way to keep people happy in the workplace is a well-controlled management team, for which everyone is respected and everyone is happy. Work related stress can cause conflict also if people are afraid that something bad is going to happen they may feel un-necessary pressure and thus cause disagreements within staff.
Bibliography
Bibliography
J.Mullins, L. (2007) Management and organsational behaviour. 9th ed. Harlow: Pitman inprint.
Jones, A. (2011) Staff work longer over job fears [online]. Belfast Telegraph. Available from: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/business/business-news/staff-work-longer-over-job-fears-16081854.html [Accessed: 24th nov 2011].
Mindtools (2011) French and Raven's Five Forms of Power - understanding where power comes from in the work place [online]. Mindtools - essentail skills for an exellent career. Available from: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_56.htm [Accessed: 10th Nov 2011].
thisismoney (2004) Surge in work-related stress [online]. Mail online. Available from:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/news/article-1584694/Surge-in-work-related-stress.html [Accessed: 20th nov 2011].
