Conflict occurs when one party perceives that its interests are being opposed or negatively affected by another party (Kinicki, 2017). Two types of conflicts exist in an organization: Functional and dysfunctional. The functional view of organizational conflict, sees conflict as a productive force, one that can stimulate members of the organization to increase their knowledge and skills as well as their contributions to organizational innovation and productivity (Baca l, 2004).
This type of conflict according to sources is regarded as constructive and cooperative, and is characterized by useful give and take, consultative interaction, a focus on the issue and mutual respect. An example of functional conflict is when members of opposing viewpoint can comfortably disagree and allow each other to present their own viewpoint to advance the organization’s interest. The dysfunctional view of organizational conflict is embedded in the notion that organizations are designed to achieve goals by creating structures that perfectly define job responsibilities, authorities, and other job functions (Baca l, 2004).
An example of dysfunctional conflict is when members’ disagreement exists such as miscommunication, misunderstanding, waste of resources etc., and can easily lead to duplicating efforts, and diminish the organization’s effectiveness. In general, people for whatever the reason tend to avoid conflict and they will likely go out of their ways to avoid it. Some of the reasons people avoid conflict include: Fear of harm to self or others, rejection, anger, to be seen as self- serving, saying the wrong thing, failure. It is also said that some people feel undeserving of certain success and are self-sabotaging (Kinicki, 2017).
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While people may want to avoid conflict, if left unchecked, it will just not go away, but it will grow instead and can lead to diminished returns for both the members and the organization. Patrick Lencioni, a management consultant once said: “The only thing worse than engaging in conflict is not to do so”. Resolving dysfunctional conflict aims at reduction, elimination or termination of conflict; whereas, managing functional conflict involves cultivating certain behaviors and attitudes, and designing effective systems and strategies that enhance the constructive functions or conflict in order to improve learning and effectiveness in organizations (Wall and Callister, 1998).
In conclusion, dysfunctional conflict threatens an organization and makes it inefficient. Functional conflict on the other hand is positive and helps advance the organization’s interest as it allows diverging views to be shared which will help develop new way of conducting business. This will also allow to be “movers and shakers” by challenging weaknesses in order to help strengthen their organization.
