Conflicts are an inevitable part of a person’s life. They can arise anywhere – be it at your home with your family members, friends, or even with your colleagues at a workplace. In this blog, we shall understand the conflicts that arise at organizations or workplaces. To better understand the conflicts that we humans face, it is necessary first to study their types. This shall give us a better understanding of how to resolve them in the long journey. Please note that the kinds of conflicts, as stated above, cannot be put into watertight compartments. However, conflict resolution trainers have still come up with terms that may help us in differentiating them.
These, among other things, include:
Interpersonal Conflict
This is the most common type of conflict that people face at their workplace. We, as humans, are quite complex. This essentially means that we’re wired to have many beliefs, values, and morals that guide us throughout our life. In fact, because of this, we even search for people and things that align with our belief systems. In many cases, especially at workplaces, what happens is that sometimes the company’s vision or goal may not align with these beliefs. It is then that we start questioning our work and whether our contribution is even meaningful. It also happens that our productivity rate plummets with no fault of our own. It is then that the conflict resolution trainers step in to diagnose the reason for such behavior. They further help the employee detect their actual wants and how their work can be aligned with them.
Intra Team Conflict
Organizations generally have goals that they need to achieve in strict timelines. To divide their work and streamline the process, the employees are made part of a team, which looks at one aspect of the work. A group shall contain people with different strengths, weaknesses, and personalities that come together to perform a specific task. These opposite personalities in one room might result in conflicts. There can be different approaches to getting work done. Conflict resolution trainers believe that such disputes can be settled by not giving special treatment to one person, fairly dividing the job, and most importantly, having a management policy in place.
Inter-Team Conflict
Like inter-team conflicts, intra-team conflicts can also arise in any organization. Teams sometimes might not be able to coordinate effectively due to their different perceptions of the process in which work has to be handled. This can be quite burdensome for anyone in both teams that face such conflict. The output produced, ultimately, might suffer due to such disputes. Work should be divided clearly, and there should further be morale-building exercises between the teams. Additionally, something as simple as a verbal discussion goes a long way in resolving such disputes. Lastly, the leader of both teams should ensure that they consider the existence of a conflict, sit with the co-workers, and try to resolve it to the best of their abilities.
Leadership And Training Are Essential
It must be noted that leaders sometimes might not be able to handle such disputes with their workload. The trainers here are experienced and can effectively manage the situation, helping teams better manage their interpersonal and group conflicts.
