This means conflict can occur because of one person only if he/she thinks it so. Conflict occurs when people's ideas aren't praised or even mention which can lead to frustatration and conflict.
Many years ago the dauntseys school rugby squad went to swansee in wales for a week of rugby mixed with military training methods and equipment. One of the tasks assigned to a group of 6 boys was to build a raft. Initially they agreed on material and who was going to do each part of the raft, but they could not agree on the design and structure of the raft. Some member wanted a simple yet sturdy structure consisting of roping severat large planks together making a large base, the other members wanted to build a more modern boat base, a curved hull to make it float better. The conflit occured because party A (boys that wanted the basic design) felt that the curved hull would make the raft too unstable to use, and the other group where not taking their risks seriously. Finally after a few minutes for argumental discussions one of the boys from party B (boys that wanted curved hull)quietened everyone down and asked the other group why they thought it would not work, they explained and everyone listened. This lead to realisation in the other boys that the simple base design was best suited for the task even if it did not look so "cool".
During that task the main conflict was that the ideas of party A were not recognised by the other boys, they became frustrated because no one listened, the fact that the boy from the other party was willing to hear them out instantly caused a calming of the situation. This then finally lead to the conflict being managed because both partys agreed on a design and could then go ahead and build it together.
Power is the ability of one member of a party to influence another member to do something they would not otherwise do. Power can be used to resolve conflict but the missuse of power can cause conflict.
The five sources of power, as stated by French and Raven (1959), are;
- Coercive power
- Reward power
- Expert power
- Legitimate power
- Referent power
Coercive power
This "is the ability to obtain compliance through fear of punishment." (wps.prenhall.com/wps/media/objects/213/218150/glossary.html, accessed on 5th may).
Coercive power is using negative influences to influence others. examples of this are demoting staff or reward withold. This means that the power is from using the desires for a reward or fear of having the reward witheld to gain obedience. This tends to be the least effective and most hated source of power as the people experience form resentment and may try to resist it.
An example of coercive power is an employer telling an employee to do an extra assignement or else have his/her bonus taken away.
Reward power
This is when the power wielder influences others by being able to offer, and offering, valuable tangeable and non-tangeable rewards i.e. holidays, days off, promotion, a raise or gifts. This source of power too can be misused, this is when the power wielder becomes pushy or wants to have everything done in unrealistic time constraints. An example of reward power is when a manager offers a worker a promotion if he does an extra piece of work.
Exper power
This is a highlz specialised power as it is only relevan to the wielder's specific expertise, the power is determined by the wielder's ability or skills in his area of expertise. i.e. an electronics specialist is called in and if he can fix the damage in a certain time frame he will be given a full time job there.
Legitimate power
This is the power of name and title, the power is from their position and responsibilities in the company. This may be seen as formal delegation. This is the most important kind of power and is also usually displayed by uniforms, offices ... An example of this is a tesco's floor managers gives a cashier an order to open/close their till.
Referent power
This is when the individual gains loyalty and trust from workers. Interpersonal skills and charisma largly determine the amount of power. The individual is admired by his peers and seen as a role model or idol because of a trait, which gives him/her power over them. Those under the power want to be seen as followers of the wielder and want to identify with their personal qualities. A good example of this is nationalism or patriotism because soldiers go into war to defend the honour and glory of their country.
Avoiding conflict at work
There are many things that can minimise conflict at work, some examples are;
- Equal pay and opportunities and other human resource management policies and procedures, this avoids favouritism.
- Making sure that decision making is well communicated and consulted and that there is high involvement.
- Make sure the goals are clear and that everyone knows what they need to do.
- Ensure there is a complaints area to try and eliminate the cause of the complaints.
- Make sure that everyone knows the codes and rules.
In "West Coast Customs", a tv series about a hot rod and customs garage there can be conflict at times buy is mainly managed well. In the series most conflicts occure because employees individualise their work more than their bosses want them to. Usually this conflict is evapourated by legitimate power of "Boyde" who is the boss of the garage and his work goes. This can sometimes lead to greater conflict if the worker resists. Most of the conflicts are resolved by the second in command who quiets down the situation by seperating the members of the conflict and listening to them individually this calms down the situation because the causes of conflict are seperated and then calmed down by a respected member of the garage.
Overall I think there are lots of opportunities for conflict at work however if handled right they can be eliminated or even prevented. Also any form of power should not be missused as this will not only by inefective it will also cause conflict to occure.
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