Assignment:
Read the Wall and Callister article on conflict and its management. Write a 4-6 pages critique in which you describe a conflict that took place in your organization and analyze it according to the following questions: 1. All the definitions of conflict describe it as a process in which one party perceives that its interests are being opposed or negatively affected by another party. How the conflict you describe fits within this description? 2. What are/were the causes for the conflict you describe? To which of the categories that appear in the article the causes you describe fit? 3. Were there any individual characteristics that contributed to the generation of this conflict, what these characteristics are? 4. How did the conflict affect the organization? Be specific when answering this question and describe any effect on individuals, relationships, communications, behaviors, structure, and issues. 5. Describe how the conflict was resolved. If it wasn’t, suggest de-escalation tactics you suggest to be used in this case.

Organization Overview In order to understand the potential for conflict at different levels I have to describe the complexity of the organization that I served in. I was deployed and part of a multi-service, multi-component organization. This in itself made it a bit challenging because of the different cultures. The post I was assigned to was made up of Navy personnel, Army personnel and Airforce personnel. To break it down a little further the organization included part-time National Guardsman and Army Reservist and personnel from Active duty component. The unit was made up of around 140 or so personnel and small modular type elements. There were 3 separate active duty units, Army Reserve units which were little teams of 7-9 personnel, active duty Airforce made up about 10-15 personnel and the Navy mission was separate from the unit that I served with.
The leadership was co-located in the same headquarters building that included a Major (MAJ) who took care of all the administration of the Human Resources personnel on the ground. Then there was a Lieutenant Colonel (LTC) who was in charge of the operations not to mention she out ranked the Major, however had no command and control over the Major. The two of them had separate bosses that they answered to. So these two leaders had to be careful that lines remained clear regarding the specific lane they were to operate in and their specific lines of responsibility remained separate. They did find a way to make it work with little challenge. This introductory will give the reader an overview of the complexity of the organization.

Nature of Conflict The nature of the conflict that I will talk about does fit into the definition of conflict where my perception felt like it was being opposed and negatively affected by my counterpart. I am a Chief Warrant Officer Two (CW2) and technical in my career field. I served as the Plans and Operations Officer in theater and monitored the short term, mid-term and long-range of inbound and outbound personnel in regard to operations and advised the commander of shortfalls or potential issues.
The nature of the conflict included distorted and mis-understanding between me and my peers and within the leadership, the way the organization was structured, power imbalance and the setup was complex.

Improper Planning by the big Army
Here is where the challenge came in because of the plans made by the big Army did not necessarily align with what is actually happening on the ground because todays plans was done 3-5 years ago. Because of the drawdown of troops both in Iraq and Afghanistan it changed the scope of operations and the amount of people needed on the ground. The deployment of troops was already in motion and it was hard to stop the deployment, because Army Reservist and National guardsmen put their lives on hold from work and family for at least a year.
The Army plans did not work out in such a way that made for a smooth transition. In fact it started when I deployed to the area. The receiving unit was not expecting me. I actually arrived earlier than expected. Typically you will not have more than one Warrant Officer working in the same section. Me and my counterpart worked out the operations internally amongst ourselves which prevented conflict. My transition was smooth I relieved my counterpart after a 3 week turnover period and they relocated his team to another area of the theater. Then 3 months later after taking over the section another team was bought in. We were expecting a Lieutenant with the arrival of the new team however the Lieutenant did not come. The team substituted the team with a by a Warrant Officer One (WO1) in which he served as my assistant Plans and Operations Officer.
The addition of the WO1 to the group worked out fine because he had a skill set that was needed so that kept him adequately engaged in and doing something productive. However there was a small National Guard unit scheduled to arrive in theater in August but they pushed to arrive in June. This created some tension because they bought another Chief Warrant Officer two (CW2) with them which was the same rank as me. He was scheduled to take over the operations as the Plans and Operations Officer position, however I was not scheduled to leave the area until November 2012 that created a five month overlap of confusion.
So for two months I was trained him to take over my duties. Prior to him and his team arriving I informed them as much as could over the telephone without revealing too much over the unsecured network about the current operations. The operations was changing and slowing down so I recommended to them since we had extra bodies that they should consider arriving at the regular time in August or visiting other locations in theater where we had personnel located, so that they could fully understand the operations. I saw this potential conflict brewing.

Causes of the Conflict
There were many underlying causes to this conflict one was distorted and misunderstanding which falls under communication (Wall Jr. & Callister, 1995, p. 520). It was understood that as of 31 Aug 2012 my peer would be the officer in charge of the operation. There was also distrust which falls under interpersonal factors. Warrant Officers are a small network in the military that are tight. Typically we work out and handle issues without outside influences. I developed a lack of trust toward my peer the CW2 and my leadership. The MAJ, Company Commander and LTC director of operations would continue to bypass me underlying my operational authority. They would go directly to my peer and he was not in charge. This could have been unconsciously or knowingly. I believe my peer played both sides. He knowingly knew that I was left out of the process. Both the MAJ and LTC would have allowed this to happen if they had someone working with them that were their peer that is just not the military way. My expectation of my peer was that he would have professionally corrected the officers and reinforce that I was in the position as the Officer in charge and that they should not bypass the process because that can create some conflict. Now that I think about it I could have done the same. That is what we do as technical professionals.
The second thing is he was plotting in my opinion because I was not scheduled to leave the country until early November. They were trying to figure out what I was going to do from the end of August until November. The reason I say that he was plotting because the MAJ called a meeting invited another MAJ and my peer to work out any issues and what I was going to do until I leave. It was a lopsided meeting and felt betrayed. This is something me and my peer could have worked out off line. I expressed that in the meeting first that I was embarrassed that we had to have two MAJ’s mediate Warrant Officer business. My peer thought that I would relinquish my duties of my position to him and then work for him until I left. My question to him was what made you think that I would turn over the section to him and turn around and work for you, and I am the Senior Warrant Officer? He did not have an answer, but this is what he thought. I would image this also had something to do with power imbalance under the structure of the organization (Wall Jr. & Callister, 1995, p. 521) .
So I shut down in the process and expressed that to the Commander that I did not trust him. We had a conversation the night before and he did not mention any concern about what I would be doing prior to me leaving. So it lead me to assume they had a conversation about me and not with me. When he called me and told me about the meeting, I asked him what was the meeting about and he told me to trust him. He did not give me a clear idea about what the meeting was about or even the parties that would be there. So that definitely created some tension. As you can see this was a complex issue.
How did the conflict affect the organization?

The conflict had very little impact on the subordinates in the organization. It was initially a little confusing to the Soldiers because they themselves have not worked in an organization that had three Warrant Officers. I nipped that in the bud at our weekly synch meeting to let them know as of 1 September 2012 the new CW2 would be in charge. The effect was mostly felt at the leadership level the communications was minimal between me and my peer. Although tense we all maintained a professional relationship as Warrant Officers in front of the junior Soldiers.

How was conflict resolved The conflict was resolved by removing myself from the organization. I requested to be released early from the operation since they were in a good posture and did not need three Warrant Officers to run the section. I was intimately involved with the past, present and current plans of the operation and knew they did not need all three of us. The MAJ tried to push me to come up with my own job description to keep me occupied for two months. There just was not enough work to keep all three of us engaged. I explained to them that we have a responsibility to the taxpayers and the government we have to exercise stewardship responsibility over finances and taxpayer dollars. There was no finger pointing I made it about removing me out of the operation. I presented an argument that the military is paying me a lot of money to sit around for the next two months and they are not getting the return on their investment. I am not being fully utilized by the Army to the best of my ability, so I requested to be released early. The MAJ was a bit upset at first but could not argue with my request because I was his advisor for seven months and providing accurate information. It was endorsed by the LTC and the leadership and they approved to let me leave early. By releasing me early the operation can work as designed and not how people feel it should operate.

In Summary As you can see conflict can be complex or simple. The idea is to identify the root cause and try to prevent escalation of the conflict. There are many causes of conflict and effects on people or organizations. The idea is to manage the conflict as best as possible and prevent from escalate. Although I experienced a conflict within our organization all involved remained professional and managed the conflict in a way that did not negatively affect the organization.

References:
Wall Jr., J. A., & Callister, R. R. (1995). Conflict and Its Management. Journal of Management, 21(3), 515-558. Retrieved October 22, 2012, from http://www.sagepublications.com