1. Conflict arises at organizational level for various reasons.

Explain the strategies to resolve

organizational conflict.
Ans: Conflict arises at organizational level because of many reasons. It can be due to lack of
resources, interdependencies of organizational units, task structure or due to interpersonal reasons.
Formal organizational structures like liaisons, organizational slack and ombudsmen or
employee/client/customer representatives can be used to resolve conflict at the organizational
level. Many a time, managers also solve disputes informally. Here, we will discuss conflict
resolution techniques from the viewpoint of structural, task and interpersonal level.
a. Managing Resources
If organizational conflict occurs due to scarce resources and interdependencies, it can be
resolved through the use of slack resources and buffers. Managing slacks or excess
resources can minimize conflict because they reduce the amount of necessary interaction.
For instance, if two departments are sequentially interdependent, having excess inventory
of A’s output (slack) insulates B from the inconsistencies of A. Buffer can help the
organization into a minimal crisis, allowing for organizational slack through certain excess
inventory, discretionary funds and additional resources. Buffers need not be only excess
inventory or product. An individual or groups of individuals may act as liaison or linking
pin that is assigned to integrate the activities of two interdependent organizational units or
groups. It is wise to carefully compare these costs with the costs of dysfunctional conflict
arising out of resource scarcity.
b. Ombudsman
Organizational Ombudsman can be another alternative to deal with employee grievances.
The ombudsman provides a formal mechanism for employee grievances to be aired. In
different institutions, the ombudsman may offer a means for clients or customers to make
their dissatisfactions known. The duties of an ombudsman usually cover interpreting
policy, counselling, resolving disputes, and providing feedback and identifying potential
problem areas to senior management.
c. Decentralization
It is necessary that the design of an organization’s hierarchy of authority should be in line
with its current needs. As an organization grows and differentiates, the chain of command
lengthens and the organization is likely to lose control over its hierarchy. This loss of
control can be a major source of conflict because people are given the responsibility for
making decisions but they lack the authority to do so. A manager above them must approve
of every decision they take. As a result, conflict increases and organizational effectiveness
falls. This problem can be handled by decentralization of authority.
d. Clarifying Organizational Norms, Rules and Regulation
Some conflicts arise from ambiguous decision rules regarding the allocation of scarce
resources, human resource policies, etc. Those conflicts can be minimized by establishing
rules and procedures that clarify the distribution of resources as well as by implementing
true sense of the term.
e. Reorganization of Relationships Among Departments
Task interdependence and differences in goals are two major sources of conflict in an
organization. An organization can handle it by altering the level of differentiation and
integration to change task relationship. An organization might change from a functional
structure to a product division structure in order to remove a source of conflict between
manufacturing managers who are unable to control the overhead costs associated with
different kinds of products. Moving to a product structure makes it much easier to assign
overhead costs to different product lines. If the division is battling over resources, corporate
managers can increase the number of integrating roles in the organization and assign top
managers the responsibility for solving conflicts between divisions and for improving the
structure of working relationships. Cost effectiveness can occur by dividing the shared
resources so that each party has exclusive use of part to it. Sequentially or reciprocally
interdependent jobs might be combined so that they form a pooled interdependence. For
example, rather than having one employee serve customers and another operate the cash
register, each employee could handle both the customer activities alone. Buffers also help
to reduce task interdependence between people who perform sequential tasks.
f. Regulating Communication Flow
Communication is critical to effective conflict management. This can range from casual
gatherings among employees who rarely meet otherwise, to formal processes where
differences are identified and discussed. By improving the opportunity, ability and
motivation to share information, employees develop less extreme perceptions of each other
than if they rely on stereotypes and emotions. Direct communication provides a better
understanding of the other department’s work environment and resource limitations.
Ongoing communication is particularly important where the need for functional
specialization makes it difficult to reduce differentiation. Dialogue meetings can often help
the disputing parties discuss their differences. Through dialogue, participants learn about
each other’s mental models and fundamental assumptions.
g. Focusing on Super-ordinate Goals
It emphasizes on establishing common objectives held by conflicting parties that are more
important than the departmental or individual goals on which the conflict is based. By
increasing commitment to corporate-wide goals, employees place less emphasis and
therefore feel less conflict with co-workers regarding competing individual or departmental
level goals. Super-ordinate goals potentially reduce the problem of differentiation because
they establish a common frame of reference. Heterogeneous team members perceive
different ways to achieve corporate objectives, but establishing super-ordinate goals is a
better option.
h. Reducing Differences
By narrowing the differences that produce the conflict in the first place can help to reduce
conflict. This can be done by rotating staff across the departments, designing appropriate
performance-based incentive schemes and implementing them properly so that
organizational justice can be maintained. It can be done by taking necessary steps to modify
the existing power struggles to be proactive and beneficial to the organization.