Conflict

What is conflict?

Conflict within a group is where a task or outcome can not be accomplished or completed due to peoples disagreement. Conflict can arise due to several different reasons including a difference in culture, gender, personality style, or people being too stressed out or over worked. (Diamond, 2011)

Conflicts can potentially lose businesses money and/or waste their assets or stock. If a conflict occurs between staff, then they wont be working effectively or efficiently so the business could suffer. Team leaders need to be able to reduce conflict as much as possible in the workplace to ensure that tasks get carried out effectively and efficiently; if they don't, then tasks may go unfinished.


Whilst studying my A-Level business course we were asked to complete a group piece of coursework with two of our classmates. At first it was going well and we worked effectively to complete a couple of tasks within the coursework. After a while we began to get different ideas as to what we should include in the coursework assignment.

To reduce the conflict within our group we had a meeting and discussed as a group what we should include in the coursework. We put our points forward and we eventually decided to collaborate all of our ideas that we all thought were relevant into our coursework. This meant that we can include all of the information that each person thought was relevant.

To prevent future conflicts within the group we looked at each individuals skills and worked out who was going to undertake each task to make sure that we could get the best possible outcome without any further conflicts.

French and Raven's different 'Sources of Power'

French and Raven believe there are 5 sources of power that people adhere to; Coercive, Reward, Expert, Legitimate, and Referent power. These different sources of power are the reasons why people obey the instructions of the people who possess one or more of these 'powers'.

(Levy et al., 2010)

Coercive power:
Coercive power is when someone can control someone else because they are believed to have the ability to punish people who do not comply. (Lee-Chai and Bargh, 2001)

For example, police have coercive power as they have the power to arrest and detain people who do not do what they say. If people do not comply with a police officers instructions then the police officer can punish them. This gives them the power they need to complete their job.

Reward Power:
People obey instructions from people with reward power because they feel like they will benefit as the instructor has something to reward them with. This is most commonly found in the workplace as employers can reward employees financially for undertaking work. (Lee-Chai and Bargh, 2001)

For example, an employee in Sainsbury's would obey instructions from their manager because they get financially rewarded for working. If employees did not obey the instructions of their manager, then they might get disciplined, then leading to their dismissal. This means that if the employee doesn't do the work that is asked of them then they will not receive their financial reward.

Expert Power:
People obey instructions from people with expert power as they believe that they have more experience, skill or knowledge of the subject. This is commonly found with architects. People employ architects to help them build a building or structure as they have the desired skill, knowledge and experience to help them complete their build. (Lee-Chai and Bargh, 2001)

An example of someone with expert power would be architects. Architects get employed by people to help them build a building or structure. Architects have expert power as they are more experienced, they have more skill, and more knowledge than their client. This gives them power over the client as they know the subject a lot more than the client does.

Legitimate Power:
People with legitimate power can control others because they are believed to have the right to give orders to others and expect compliance and obedience. Legitimate power often comes with the job role or title rather than the person themselves. This means that legitimate power can vanish if the person loses their job role or title. (Lee-Chai and Bargh, 2001)

An example of someone with legitimate power is the CEO of a business. They hold this formal, official positions and often get their power through the organisational structure. People believe they have the right to demand as they created the business and are at the centre of the organisation structure.

Referent Power:
Referent power is often acquired through the persons appeal, admiration, charm and charisma. People gain referent power through respect. Referent power can be easy to acquire and you may not have to do anything to get it. As well as being easy to get referent power is also easy to lose; as soon as people lose respect for someone, they lose their referent power. Someone with referent power looking for long term power would need to combine referent power with another source of power as referent power isn't a reliable source of power. (Lee-Chai and Bargh, 2001)

An example of people with referent power are celebrities. Through peoples respect for celebrities, they are able to influence people about the decisions they make such as the brands or products they buy.

Recent News Stories

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) conducted a report looking into work related stress, what the causes are, and how it effects Britain's businesses.
This news article explains the findings of the report conducted by NICE. The report goes on to say that more than 13 million working days a year are lost because of work related stress, which equates to £28.3bn a year lost by employers.

The report also shows that "Bad managers were the single biggest cause of problems" (BBC, 2009) This relates to conflict between different roles in a business. According to Mullins, one source of conflict is between peoples roles in the business as this is often gives people different perspectives; causing disagreements.(Mullins, 2010)



Conclusion

Team leaders in a business need to keep conlict to a minimum to make sure the business runs smoothly. If conflicts within the workforce aren't addressed properly then the business could lose money, stock, or assets. For team leaders to effectively sort out conflicts, they need to be able to control their employees; this means they need power. All of French and Ravens sources of power are effective in their own way and all ensure power over subordinates.


References:

BBC (2009) Tackle Work Stress, Bosses Told [online].BBC Available from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8343074.stm [Accessed: 15th January 2012]

Diamond, A. (2011) Conflict in the Workplace: Causes and Cures.

Lee-Chai, A.Y. and Bargh, J.A. (2001) The use and abuse of power: multiple perspectives on the causes of corruption. illustrated ed

Levy, D.A., Parco, J.E. and Blass, F.R. (2010) The 52nd Floor: Thinking Deeply about Leadership.

Mullins, LJ. (2010) Management & Organisational Behavior. 9th ed.