RESEARCH PROPOSAL

The Impact of Conflict and Conflict Management on

Every successful organization realizes different opposing views and debates in creating

the organizational decisions. The decisions are focused on the side of the business leaders and on

the side of the employees, the conflict is also present. The conflict in workplace is healthy if

there is a clashing of ideas related to the nature of business and the benefit is for the

improvement, but in the matter of personal conflicts, the organization has a great dilemma that is

needed to manage.

Background and Problem Statement

Organization is clearly describes as the collection of people working together to achieve

the common goal. In the concept of organization, the people or the members working under the

umbrella of the leader is considered as a team that has a harmony and creates relationship in

every activities that they do. On the other hand, the conflict is an action where there is

disagreement. The different behaviors of the members are sometimes subject to the conflict.

Conflicts may come from the incompatible goals and interests and the results might destroy the

organization. The need for the appropriate management is anticipated whenever there is a hint of

conflict present in the workplace. However, what are the impacts of conflict and the conflict

management that may affect the performance of the organization?

The study is focused on determining the impact/s of conflict and conflict management in the

organizational performance. In the evolution of the organization as their answer n the growing

competency of globalization, it is important that the organization values the different

relationships of its people. As the supporting idea on the main objective, the establishment of the

appropriate conflict management is also sought after.

Benefits of the Study

By the end of the study, the incorporated ideas regarding the conflict and its management

is highly recommended to be apply as the guiding principle in the organizations in Ghana.

Through the action of different industries to the international competition and economic changes,

it is important that the people working in an organization stays strong and remain competent.

Literature Review

From the social impact theory, the explanation on the efforts of the individuals to finish

the task as well as working with the teams can be explored. The theory views the individuals as

the sources and target of social impact and working with groups emphasizes the idea. The great

the sources and targets of social impact, the less the motivation of a member to contribute in the

group. This is start of the conflict within the team or within the workplace (Furumo, 2008).

Through the disagreements and loss of trust to the other members, the conflict gets bigger that in

due time, like a time bomb, can destroy the team. Before the worst result may happen, the ice-

breaker who is usually the leader or the person that is outside the team should help to resolve the

conflict (Cottringer, 2006). The conflict management is an approach between the opposing
members within the team. The management styles have been related to the quality of agreement

during the negotiations and the other conflict management episodes (Friedman, Tidd, Currall,

and Tsai, 2000; Jehn, 2000; Lewin, 2001). The impact of the conflict management may be much

broader such creating a pervasive effect on the performance of the organizations. The amount of

conflicts creates stress for the individual employees and the different dispositions and the

working environment may play in positive and negative effects. The situation of the person

involved in a conflict might be incorporate in greater problems. The call for the conflict

management styles centered in the main objective and that is to bring the people together to bear

the problems at work (Friedman, Tidd, Currall, and Tsai, 2000). The management style is made

to find solution that will last for only months because the purpose they establish is not to lose any

of the organization’s valuable employees.

Methodology

The design of the method is through the use of experiments. The participants in one

organization were asked about their personal such as age, gender, years in working with the

organization, positions and the current position they have in the organizations, and the past

experience from the other companies. The participants are equally divided into two groups and

the given the same amount of task wherein they should finish at a given time. During the

activity, the participants were observed on how will they act together in the pressure and

contribute their skills to finish the designed task. The cooperation and trust for the other

members of the team matters in the experiment and the timely finishing the assigned task is the

second aim of the activity.

The information taken from the participants might create an impact in the issue called

experience and by there, the study can determine who is the “bossy” participant/s that sometimes

the roots of all the conflicts. Their behavior is also tested in the incorporation of the activities

involved in the method.

References:

Cottringer, W., 2006. Resolving Workplace Conflict: To Overcome Disagreements and Build a
Cohesive Team, a Manager Must Understand What Causes Conflicts, Security
Management, Vol. 50, No. 7.

Friedman, R., Tidd, S., Currall, S., & Tsai, J., 2000. What Goes around Comes Around: The
Impact of Personal Conflict Style on Work Conflict and Stress. International Journal of
Conflict Management Vol. 11, No. 1 [Online] Available at:
http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~jgspaper/P_Currall00_IJCM_Conflict.PDF [Accessed 02 March
2010].

Furumo, K., 2008. The Impact of Conflict and Conflict Management Style on Deadbeats and
Deserters in Virtual Teams, Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.

Jehn, K., 2000. Benefits and Detriments of Workplace Conflict, The Public Manager, Vol. 29,
No. 2.

Lewin, D., 2001. IR and HR Perspectives on Workplace Conflict: What can each learn from the
other? Human Resource Management Review, Vol. 11, No. 4 [Online] Available at:
http://www.sciencedirect.com [Accessed 02 March 2010].