Effective Methods of Resolving Conflict in a Diverse Workplace

Running head: RESOLVING CONFLICT IN DIVERSE WORKPLACE

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Table of Contents
Abstract 3
Problem Statement 4
Literature Review 10
Draft Research Design 22
References 29

Abstract Workplace conflict must be analyzed as a social phenomenon and this social context means that conflicts are caused by a wide variety of factors, including an increasingly diverse workplace. The focus of this study is on how these forms of social conflict are managed and resolved in the workplace – which has become increasingly more diverse in recent years – with particular attention to innovative perspectives that facilitate better understanding of conflict resolution and improve approaches to conflict management. Managing conflict is undoubtedly one of the most critically important dimensions of the management of the employer-employee relationship. While conflicts or disputes are a natural result of the structure and operations of the workplace, employers need efficient ways to resolve such conflict quickly and fairly to avoid the many negative costs generated by unresolved problems. As the generally weaker party in the relationship, employees need the protection provided by both formal and informal dispute management systems aimed at achieving organizational justice. This issue, as well as many others, is addressed through an extensive review of previously published literature, as well as primary research based on a survey of various organizations in an effort to determine the most effective methods of resolving conflict.

Effective Methods of Resolving Conflict in a Diverse Workplace
Problem Statement Scholars in organization theory became interested in studying conflict only in recent times. In recent years, there have been renewed interest and significant changes in the study of conflict in social and organizational contexts. The formation of the International Association for Conflict Management and Conflict Management Division of the Academy of Management to encourage research, teaching, and training and development on managing social and organizational conflicts and the publication of the International Journal of Conflict Management attest to this renewed interest. In recent years, a number of universities in the United States, such as Harvard, Northwestern, George Mason, for example, have shown great interest in teaching and research on social and organizational conflicts (Rahim, 2001). Workplace conflict must be analyzed as a social phenomenon and this social context means that conflicts are caused by a wide variety of factors. The focus of this study is on how these forms of social conflict are managed and resolved in the workplace – which has become increasingly more diverse in recent years – with particular attention to innovative perspectives that facilitate better understanding of conflict resolution and improve approaches to conflict management. Conflict within organizations is commonly accepted as a natural occurrence, and one that is not necessarily something to be avoided, as it may indicate effective management practices. In fact, as the literature review will support, an acceptable level of conflict may actually be essential to a productive workplace. While that concept may seem counterintuitive, conflict that is kept within reasonable limits can have the effect of forcing creative solutions to problems or attaining objectives that may not have been possible through other means. In fact, in many cases, an organization that is without conflict may become ineffective and inactive or even make consistently bad decisions, as a result of avoiding conflict at all costs. Of course, if conflict is not controlled and resolved, the workplace and the organization will become even less effective. Therefore, conflict in the workplace should not be totally eliminated but properly managed in order to maintain a properly functioning environment. Understandably, in a workplace that is very diverse, the incidence of conflicts may be more prevalent than in an environment that has less diversity. Even in such a case, there is still a need for moderate levels of conflict in order to reach and sustain an optimum level of organizational effectiveness (Rahim, 2001). However, in this setting, it is the type of conflict that needs to be understood, even more so than the frequency of conflict. In the diverse workplace, conflicts based on emotional issues may arise, and these are conflicts that are not at all productive. On the other hand, conflict that is related to assigned tasks – substantive conflict – is appropriate for attaining and maintaining an optimum level of organizational effectiveness. Approaches to conflict management have varied during the twentieth century. In the present business environment, the type of management mechanisms employed reflect the stage to which a conflict has progressed and whether it is based primarily on interests, rights, or power (Gleason, 1997). These factors determine whether a preventive or remedial approach can be used for a given dispute. This research continues the tradition of a multidisciplinary approach to understanding the challenges faced by those responsible for the ongoing management of workplace conflict. While building on this tradition and extending it, the study will also identify important directions for future research. The study of workplace conflict is a highly interdisciplinary activity, as will be highlighted in the review of the existing literature. However, by way of a brief summary of what that literature details, it can be said that whatever their disciplinary perspectives, scholars generally agree on at least three major conclusions (Deutsch, 1991); first, conflict is a pervasive element of social life in the workplace. It occurs at all levels from the interpersonal to the interorganizational, as disputes are cultural events, evolving within a framework of rules about what is worth fighting for, what is the normal or moral way to fight, what kinds of wrongs warrant action, and what kinds of remedies are acceptable. These perceptions and conceptions influence behavior in ways which cannot be described as rational choice making. Dispute behavior, like other aspects of informal social life, contains aspects of both rational and non-rational behavior; it incorporates the dimension of choice as well as habit, convention, and effect (Merry & Silbey, 1984, p. 153).

A second major conclusion reached by scholars about workplace conflicts, and that still is a focus of current theory, is that most conflicts involve parties who have both cooperative and competitive interests, i.e., most conflicts are ‘mixed-motive.’ A useful definition of conflict, therefore, “…is an expressed struggle between at least two interdependent parties, who perceive incompatible goals, scarce rewards, and interference from the other party in achieving their goals; they are in a position of opposition in conjunction with cooperation” (Frost & Wilmot, 1978, p. 9). Since conflict between employees and between employees and management is the result of social interaction and high interdependence at the workplace, it can reflect a wide variety of causal factors, and such factors are obviously multiplied as the workplace becomes much more diverse. These factors range from the structural features of the workplace, job frustration, and personality characteristics to differences in culture, race, values, gender, personal preferences, and social status (Gleason, 1997). The complexity created by multiple factors means there is virtually an infinite number of sources of conflict. As a consequence, conflict can vary substantially in such features as the scope, intensity, number of participants, the objective being sought, and ultimate outcomes. Managing conflict is undoubtedly one of the most critically important dimensions of the management of the employer-employee relationship. As discussed above, conflicts or disputes are a natural result of the structure and operations of the workplace. Employers need efficient ways to resolve such conflict quickly and fairly to avoid the many negative costs generated by unresolved problems. As the generally weaker party in the relationship, employees need the protection provided by both formal and informal dispute management systems aimed at achieving organizational justice, and this issue is also addressed in the literature. Another reason why the topic of effectively resolving conflict in the workplace is an important area of research is that employers have become increasingly concerned about finding more cost-effective methods of conflict resolution. As discussed by several authors in the literature, there is widespread discontent with the costs and delays of grievance procedures, arbitration, and litigated settlements. Less costly and faster alternatives with more satisfactory outcomes are being sought. This search for better methods has encouraged some employers to experiment with preventive approaches to empower employees to self-manage conflict, including a variety of forms of labor-management cooperative activities, and integrated conflict management systems. There has long been a recognized historical trend in workplaces in the industrialized countries toward more participation by and less coercion of employees. This is seen in the willingness to view conflict resolution as a decision making process based on the multilateral and interactive involvement of appropriate parties to a dispute. It is a nonadversarial, analytical approach that considers the concerns of affected parties before decisions are made, a form of problem solving that ensures a variety of values and world views are considered and multiple options explored as potential outcomes. It also gives organizations the flexibility to respond more readily to employees and groups of employees with conflict and negotiation styles that vary by gender, ethnicity, and a variety of other factors. There seems to be a direct connection between the study of organization theory and conflict. Over the decades of progression in the study of organizations, opinions have changed regarding the effect of conflict. Initially, the classical organization theorists stated adamantly that all conflict was negative and should be eliminated – in particular through a bureaucratic structure. Next followed the neo-classical theorists who still believed that conflict was to be avoided, but recommended that this be accomplished through adjustments in the organization’s social system. Modern theorists have reached the conclusion, as stated in previous paragraphs, that conflict within organizations does not have to be negative, as long as it is resolved constructively (Rahim, 2001). However, as the literature also shows, this modern concept has not been accepted by all writers on the subject of conflict in the workplace. As this study will show, the conflict management systems commonly used today in public and private sector organizations are quite varied. They may include only preventive voice procedures, only remedial voice procedures, a mixture of both, or have no clearly identified approach. Procedures may be informal as in many small and medium-sized non-union organizations, highly structured and formal as in the grievance procedures of large unionized companies or some mixture of informal and formal. The aim of this study is to use both primary and secondary sources in an attempt to clarify which methods of conflict resolution have proven to be most effective in the current diverse workplace. In that regard, the purpose of the research is to review methods of conflict resolution and management across a wide range of workplaces to reach a consensus on what works and what does not work. Relating the diversity of a workplace to how the organization handles conflict resolution will be a key component of this study, as it is critical to understand how diversity affects the functioning of the work environment on a daily basis. The primary research question therefore, based upon the preceding statements is: What are the most effective methods of resolving conflict in a diverse workplace? In order to support that primary question, the following secondary research questions are put forth to be answered by this study: R1: How pervasive is conflict in most organizations? R2: Does diversity in the workplace increase conflict? R3: How capable are managers at resolving conflicts related to diversity? R4: Do most organizations include employees in conflict resolution? R5: Is conflict resolution in a diverse workplace different than in a more homogeneous environment? R6: Are their any recurring themes in conflict management within diverse workplaces?

Draft Research Design As mentioned previously, the aim of this study is to use both primary and secondary sources in an attempt to clarify which methods of conflict resolution have proven to be most effective in the current diverse workplace. In that regard, the purpose of the research is to review methods of conflict resolution and management across a wide range of workplaces to reach a consensus on what works and what does not work. This will be accomplished both through the literature review as well as the primary research that will be carried out. Once again, the primary research question is: What are the most effective methods of resolving conflict in a diverse workplace? Techniques for research are classified as either qualitative or quantitative, with the main difference being that quantitative techniques usually involve data that can be counted (numerical data) while qualitative techniques attempt to address information that is more abstract. According to Veal (1997), quantitative data can be analysed statistically, while qualitative techniques do not generally fit into a statistical framework. Therefore, in order to accomplish the goals of this study, the primary data collection for the current study will utilise quantitative research based on the survey method. Secondary sources – including the literature review – will be gathered using university library materials that are available and relevant to the search, as well as additional sources including Questia and EBSCO host databases, which contain a wide variety of professional and peer reviewed journals and research papers as well as books. The test instrument used for this primary research will consist of a questionnaire based on the Likert unidimensional scaling method. This quantitative method typically uses a rating method, which corresponds with whether the person answering the question is: strongly unfavorable to the concept; somewhat unfavorable to the concept; undecided; somewhat favorable to the concept; strongly favourable to the concept (based on a five point scale). These surveys will be distributed to organisations of varying sizes and in different sectors, based upon a determination, through a pilot study, that they would be able to provide valuable data if they participate in the study. While the Likert scale surveys will be eventually sent to 300 selected organisations of varying sizes and in different sectors, which will constitute the final research sample size, the initial pilot study will attempt to include 50 companies – which will be contacted through email or telephone for preliminary interviews. These interviews will be relatively short, and will seek to establish the groundwork for constructing the survey. Since attitude response, formulated via the five-point Likert Scale, will be acquired for each of the statements listed in the questionnaire, the median of the responses reached symbolises the attitude of the majority of the contributors towards each of the statements put to them. Moreover, this quantitative analysis will be conducted utilising preparatory computer software (SPSS), and the results tabularised. In addition, the frequency of each response will be included to give an idea on the number of contributors who agreed or disagreed to a particular statement. Using SPSS software, the significance of the responses will be obtained, and how these differ from the true median response if all those surveyed had completed the questionnaire, with the assumption being that the sample’s average response for each statement is equal to the true median response. Subsequently, with a 95% confidence level, rejection will occur when the p-value based on Wilcoxon Signed-Ranks Test is less than 0.05, which is the amount of error allowed in the generalisation.
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