The Role of Organizational Culture on Informal Conflict Management

Presented by-Prakash Regmi &

Israt ZahanMPPG 6th Batch

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Loredana Di Pietro

Francesca Di Virgilio

AuthorsProfessors in Business Organization- University of

Molise, Italy

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Study on…

This research analyzes the ties between organizational culture and its effect on how conflict is handled within the workplace.

Seeks to understand the context and the behavioral norms in which workplace conflict exists in order to understand the role of organizational culture.

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What is culture?• Culture is a system

of shared cognitions or a system of knowledge and beliefs. (Rossi & O’Higgins 1980)

• Culture is usually defined as a social normative glue that holds an organization together. (Tichy, 1982)PPG-505

Culture in Organizational Context

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Organizational Culture

Socially constru

cted

Shared culture

Transferred for

generations

Contains multiple layers

Culture in Organizational Context contd…

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Conveys the sense of identity of organization member

It facilitates the generation of commitment to something larger than itself.

It enhances the social system stability

It serves as sense making device that can guide and shape behavior.

Culture can be seen as an internal organizational variable that fulfills several important

functions ( Argyres & Silverman, 2004; Bate at al.,

2000)

Culture in Organizational Context contd…

Organizational Culture Social Interaction

Interpretations of organizational Identity are formed

The way Individual interprets events

And how they interact to those events

Strongly influences how employees are likely to act as well as how they understand their own and others’ actions

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Organizational Culture Goffee and Jones(1998)

Two dimensions Sociability: friendliness of relationships between people

Solidarity: describes the ability of people to pursue shared goals ofthe organization

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Shared

ideas, attitudes,

interests and values.

withoutmuch regard for the impact on individuals and the relationships between them.

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Presentation Title

Your company information

Culture Culture

CultureCulture

What is Conflict?

A clash or disagreement, often violent, between two opposing groups or individuals.

(Wikitionary)

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Conflicts in Organization

• Conflict in an organization arises due to the culture itself.

• The reasons for organizational conflicts are due to variations in words, ideas, values, behaviors, attitudes, archetypes, customs and rules

• The organizational culture is the important component that allows people/employee within an organization think and respond to conflict

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Organizational Conflicts contd……

• Conflicts in an organization becomes institutionalized through common attitudes, values and rituals.

• As a result, conflict can be a part of culture of an organization without members being aware of its presence.

• Furthermore, conflicts gained within the culture of an organization can be extremely hard to identify and thus break down.

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Sources of workplace conflicts

Interpersonal conflict Organizational conflict

Sources of workplace conflict are categorized in two:

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Interpersonal Conflicts

GOSSIP

RUMOURS

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Interpersonal Conflict

Arises from

RESULS

Harassment&

Discrimination

Organizational Conflicts

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Conflict of persons at different hierarchical levels

Among Managers

Among Employees

Between Managers

&Employees

Organizational Conflicts contd…

Organizational Conflicts can arise from- Over resource allocation Distribution of duties Workload and benefits Tolerance for risk taking Varying views of accountability There may also be work style clashes and seniority and

pay equity conflict

Organizational Conflicts

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To find out the real context for generating Conflict……

Asking employees about their perceptions of the amount and types of conflict and how they handling it.

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Methodology

• Organization: A territorial public administration which includes 412 human resources.

• Region: Molise (Italy)• Questionnaire (20)• Time for participants to complete the surveys: 3 months

(march-June 2011)• Direct survey method- contact respondent personally

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Participants

168 public administration employees84 managers (head officers, directors and senor executives)84 college levels non-managers (professionals)

Methodology contd…

Main research question : RQ1: What is the relationship between organizational culture and

informal conflict management processes? 3 derived research questions : RQ1a: What types of conflict and how much conflict exists in

organizations? RQ2: What are the behavioral norms for handling conflict and do they

differ from formal methods? RQ1b: What is the relationship between the types and amount of

conflict in organizations and the behavioral norms used to informally manage conflict?

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Key Findings The most predominant conflict in an organization is

miscommunication-77%. Next personality-69% and attitude- 62.5%.

1.How respondents perceive the level of conflict in their workplace:

Manager is more likely to perceive a lot of conflict in the workplace than an employee.

Employee Manager0

102030405060708090

LittleSomeA lot

Key Findings contd…

2. Who people talk to first when facing a conflict: Talk to the person- 42%(majority); talk to a different co-worker-

33%(2nd popular answer) Their co-workers consult another co-worker rather than talking to the

person- 44%; avoiding the conflict, talking to their manager or HR representative- 21%

Talk to a non-manager co-worker first- 73%; perceive their co-workers to talk to non-manager co-worker first- 81%. (Behavioral norms)

Key Findings contd…

Whether there was a formal conflict management process, Yes- 46%

Among them always followed the formal process- 7% 62% said only sometimes followed the formal process while rest

said that no one ever followed the formal process of conflict management. (supports informal conflicts management exists in organization)

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Key Findings contd…

How respondent react in ‘Miscommunication conflict’

•

Yes No0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Talk to personConsult friend/co-workerAvoidTalk to managerTalk to HR

Conflict is a Miscommunication

Youdo

whatina

conflict

Key Findings contd…

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Always Sometimes Never0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

A lotSomeLittle

Outside activities

AmountsOfConflicts

How the existence of outside activities interacts with the amount of conflict

Key Findings contd…How the existence of outside activities interacts with who respondents talk to first

Table-1

Existence of outside activities

Respondent talk to firstAnother

co-worker

Manager HR Total

Always 21 7 2 30

Sometimes 80 33 O 113

Never 22 3 0 25

Total 123 43 2 168

How the existence of outside activities interacts with whom co-workers talk to first

Table-2

Existence of

outside activities

Respondent talk to firstAnother

co-worker

Manager HR Total

Always 21 7 2 30

Sometimes 94 19 0 113

Never 21 4 0 25

Total 136 30 2 168

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Key Findings contd…How Participation in outside activities

interacts with whom respondent talks to firstTable-3

Participate in outside activities

Respondents talk to firstAnother

co-worker

Manager HR Total

Always 40 11 2 53

Sometimes 74 28 0 102

Never 9 4 0 13

Total 123 43 2 168

How Participation in outside activities interacts with whom co-workers talk to first

Table-4

Participate in outside activities

Co-workers talk to first

Another co-

worker

Manager HR Total

Always 40 11 2 53

Sometimes 88 14 0 102

Never 8 5 0 13

Total 136 30 2 168

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Research Result

Table-1,2,3&4 suggests that existence of outside activities

and participate in outside activities does in fact

influence who co-workers talk to first in a conflict situation.

The overall results, therefore, suggest that organizational

culture, in terms of sociability, influences informal conflict

management.

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Implications and Recommendation

Since the formal process does not actually change the culture of the organization regarding the conflict, hiring someone to create a formal conflict management is just a rubber stamp for the management.

Public administration managers should recognize the informal process and embrace them for conflict management of the organization.

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Implications and Recommendation

This research recommends that companies and managers actively explore informal conflict management processes that already exist among employees and use this processes to aid in the development or existence of formal conflict management.

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Limitation

It would be essential to study the cultural norms in conflict situation. However, this method is too sensitive and may cause social harm to the employees.

Lack of time, failed to analyses the strengths of interpersonal and organizational conflicts both in terms of recency error (remember the most recent event) and in terms of comparability among answers.

Some more relevant demographic variable such as gender of participants and their contractual position was excluded in this study.

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Learning Points

Informal conflict management arises from organizational members along with the organizational culture.

Employees creates informal systems with behavioral norms to deal with a conflict.

This study proved that conflicts of an organization are due to miss match of organizational culture and behavioral norms.

A strong culture of socialibility will inevitably impact the informal conflict management, specifically who employees talk to in conflict situations

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Rupak Muhammed Nasrullah Zaidi, MBA, Asstt Vice President & Head of HR & Admin, Prime Finance & Investment Ltd and Director, World Academy for Research & Development [WARD]

www.wbiconpro.com/441-Zaidi.pdf Organizational Conflict – an HR Challenge in the 21st

Century: Bangladesh Perspective

Related Case Studyon

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Data were collected from 80 individual responded from 10 different organizations. Among these 80, there were 5 management representatives and 75 (55 Male, 20 Female) employees.

Data were collected through cross sectional survey method through a structured questionnaire.

Related Case Study on

Contd….

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• Existence of Conflict: Yes- 95%.• Type of Conflict: Major concern is the employee &

employee and the employee & employer.• General Cause of Conflict: Personal Attitude- 28%

(majority)• Relationship between employee and employer- In

77% organization - acceptable not good.• Relationship between employee and employee:

good- 36% ; acceptable- 49%.• Level of Job satisfaction: Low level - 52%

organization; moderate levels - 43%.PPG-505

Major FindingsOf the Study

on

Cost of conflict: Conflict in most of the organization in Bangladesh has no positive feedback. The cost for conflict in organizations in Bangladesh is inefficiency of the employee, low productivity, lacking of employee loyalty etc.

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Nepali Context:Prof. Dr. Fatta Bahadur KC, Faculty of Management –

Tribhuvan University, Nepal

Conflict Management in Nepalese Organization, Tribhuvan University Journal.

Is available online at:http://www.nepjol.info/index.php/TUJ/article/view/

3787/3239

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Methodology

• Data collected from primary source.• 15 public enterprises are sampled.• 60 top level executives of sampled public

enterprises• Study is based on opinion questionnaire

survey

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Major findings….

• Conflicts mostly occurs at interdepartmental Interpersonal levels.

• Main cause of conflict in public enterprises are competition between individuals as well as departments. Other reasons are competition between groups, scarcity of resources, ambiguous rules and regulations, change in organizational structure and introduction of new technologies

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Major findings….

• No executives believes that conflicts has positive value to the organization, their view is based on traditional approach.

• Executive perceives that conflicts leads to poor coordination, duplication of efforts, poor performance and wrong communications.

• More than 56% of executives respondents answered that they have never tried to manage conflict and havenot adopted any devices of managing it , only few used some devices to manage it.

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Major findings….

• The common method used to manage conflict in Nepal is staff Meeting. Only few enterprises used job enrichment, job enlargement, process consultation and confrontation meeting.

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Conclusion

• Traditionally, conflict was viewed negatively so it had to be eliminated immediately when it occurs in the organization.

• The failure of traditional approach was its failure to differentiate between the functional and dysfunctional conflict.

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Conclusion

• The modern approach argued that the functional conflict supports the goals of the organization and improves its performance.

• On the other hand, dysfunctional conflict should possibly be minimized and resolved carefully.

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Conclusion

• Since conflict has both constructive as well as destructive consequences, it must be identified properly, analyzed carefully and managed tactfully.

• In some cases, constructive conflict should be created and stimulated by the administrators and the managers, whereas destructive conflict must be resolved.

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Thank You

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