Introduction

Life is a never ending process of one conflict after another. Remember the time when you were a small child and had to choose between a tricycle and a cricket set or say, a set of dolls and a new frock for a birthday present. That was probably your first exposure to a conflict situation. Of course, this is a simplistic example of a conflict, but has life been the same since? Probably not. Think back and recall how each succeeding conflict in your life over the years has, been increasingly complex.

Conflict is a theme that has occupied the thinking of man more than any other with the exception of God and love. Conflict has always been widespread in society but it is only recently that it has generated a lot of interest and has been the focus of research and stud We are living in the age of conflict. Everyday the choices available to us regarding any decision are increasing in number. You may have wanted to become a manager, an entrepreneur or a computer scientist. On the other hand, your father might have wanted you to become a doctor, a lawyer or a chartered accountant. Thus you faced a conflict not only at an intrapersonal level, in terms of the various choices confronting you, but also at an interpersonal level-your choice vs. your father’s choice of a career for you.

Conflict is not confined at the individual level alone but is manifesting itself more and more in organisations. Employees have become more vociferous in their demands for a better deal. Various departments in an organisation face a situation full of conflicts due to a number of reasons like goal diversity, scarcity of resources or task interdependence etc.

Management today is faced with the awesome responsibility of ensuring optimum levels of growth and productivity in an environment that is full of conflicting situations. A survey suggests that the modern manager spends over 20% of his time handling one form of conflict or the other. Top and middle level managers in the same survey have pointed out the importance of conflict management skills.

Types of Conflict

Conflict within an Individual:
You can locate conflict at various levels. There could be conflict within oneself-the intrapersonal conflict. Basically, there are three types of such conflicts. You may have an excellent job offer in a city you are not willing to go to. In such a case, you are attracted to and repelled by the same object-an approach-avoidance conflict. Similarly you may be attracted to two equally appealing alternatives like seeing a movie or going for a picnic-an approach-approach conflict. You may also be repelled by two equally unpleasant alternatives like the threat of being dismissed if you fail to report against a friendly colleague who is guilty of breaking the organisation’s rules-an avoidance-avoidance conflict.

Conflict between Individuals:
Conflict can also take an interpersonal form. Conflict between individuals takes place owing to several factors, but most common are personal dislikes or personality differences. When there are only differences of opinion between individuals about task-related matters, it can be construed as technical conflict rather than interpersonal conflict. Of course, technical and interpersonal conflicts may influence each other due to role-related pressures. The sales manager may put the blame for low sales volume on the production manager not meeting his production schedule and may start disliking the production manager as an incompetent person. It is often very difficult to establish whether a conflict between two parties is due to manifest rational factors, or it emanates from hidden personal factors.

Conflict between an Individual and a Group:
These types of intragroup conflicts arise frequently due to an individual’s inability to conform to the group norms. For example, most groups have an idea of a “fair day’s work” and may pressurise an individual if he exceeds or falls short of the group’s productivity norms. If the individual resents any such pressure or punishment, he could come into conflict with other group members. Usually, it is very difficult for an individual to remain a group-member and at the same time, substantially deviate from the group norm. So, in most cases, either he conforms to the group norm or quits (or is rejected by) the group. Of course, before taking any such extreme step, he or the other group members try to influence each other through several mechanisms leading to different episodes of conflict (much to the delight of the researchers in this field called Group Dynamics).

Conflict between Groups within an Organisation:
Intergroup conflicts are one of the most important types of conflict to understand, as typically, an organisation is structured in the form of several interdependent taskgroups. Some of the usually chronic conflicts in most of the organisations are found at this level, e.g., Union vs. Management, one Union vs. another Union; one functional area like production vs. another functional area like maintenance; direct recruits vs. promotees, etc. The newly emerging field of Organisational Politics has started systematically investigating such types of conflict and in a later section on the effects of conflict we shall give examples of what happens to groups when their conflicts are not solved.

Conflict between Organisations:
Conflict between organisations is considered desirable if limited to the economic context only. The laissez-faire economy is based on this concept. It is assumed that conflict between organisations leads to innovative and new products, technological advancement, and better services at lower prices.