Organizational and personal dimension's of the conflicts. Strategies for managing group conflicts

• Author: Simona Mina
• Position: Senior Lecturer, PhD, University Ovidius of Constanta, Romania
• Pages: 677-683

Interdisciplinary Dimensions of Communication Science

677

Organizational and Personal Dimension’s of the Conflicts. Strategies for

Managing Group Conflicts

Simona Mina

1

Abstract: The area of conflictology finds itself between the border of interest and challenge. Whatever the

communication skills we might master, interacting is a difficult exercise; the ongoing interacting will

determine the ongoing situations of conflict and crisis, as well. Conflict is a r eality, a natural consequence of

interacting; here is an approach that we propose in this volume. The misunder standings are intermediary

steps to conflict, generated by the different reception of the message, other than the intentions of the emitting

factor. However, we are too vain to admit when we are wrong, as an emitting factor, when we cannot make

ourselves understood and our messages are received differently t han their main intentions, for which they

were initiated (nobody understands me, we are on different communication channels: this is the way we

think and behave in misunderstood situations). However, communication above all, is perception. That is

why, misunderstandings are solved straightforward by using the c ommunication techniques (we reformulate

the initial message, making sure we made ourselves understood). This scientific endeavor’s objective is to

offer just s uch an approach in s olving interpersonal conflict. Managing conflicts is difficult to handle due to

the dynamics of conflicts also

Key words: conflict; avoidance; smoothing; dominance; power intervention

JEL Classification: D74; D23; M5; M54; O15; H12

1 Introduction

The single-party conflict would be two opposing opinions within a single individual. The value system

may be in conflict with the organization’s values: an individual manager may believe in “fair play” but

the company asserts that “anything goes” and “all’s fair in love, war and business organization.”

Individuals involved i n situations in which the individual’s sense of values conflicts with what the

organization expects or when the individual’s ethical sense is radically different from the values

embedded within the corporate culture may experience internal conflicts that can assume life-

threatening dimensions. The organization may not be very sympathetic to the individual in conflict,

believing that the worker should be efficient either go along with what the organization desires, or get

out. Single-party conflict may also arise when there are two methods of accomplishing an

organizational goal and the individual cannot decide which method to select. The two methodologies

may be in conflict within the same manager and a third party, such as an organizational superior,

might be needed to resolve the conflict. There is a great temptation to regard conflict, especially the

single party form, as destructive. Conflict wastes limited managerial time and energy. It has the power

to interrupt the flow and effectiveness of organizational communication. Ultimately, the desire to

avoid conflict may produce uncontroversial decisions designed to “fit” within the acceptable range of

organizational behavior.

Conflict can stimulate innovation in problem solving and thereby be beneficial for the organization.

Individuals caught in a single-party conflict may become truly creative in finding a satisfactory

1

Senior Lecturer, PhD, University Ovidius of Constanta, Romania, Faculty of Law and Administrative Sciences, Blvd.

Mamaia, 124, Constanta, Romania, 900527, tel: +4 0241 606 470, Corresponding author: simonamina@univ-ovidius.ro.