Introduction
The production process has improved nowadays becoming complex day by day hence requiring people to change the method of production as the technology changes. On the same note, due to division of labor that has become the order of the day; many people have chosen to specialize in certain areas only in order to advance their productivity.
This has led to the need of people to work together so that each can perform the task he or she is well qualified in hence enhancing productivity and quality.
As group working becomes more important so are the issues that affect the groups. Difference in opinions and the fact that people are socialized differently, gives rise to disagreements in any group thus affecting its performance either positively or negatively. Conflicts are evident in every group and their effects to the performance and continuity of the group varies due to different factors.
Conflicts
These are disagreements over various issues affecting the group which can vary from personal behavior and interaction to professional and process accomplishment. Conflicts can be divided into three broad groups that are seemingly distinct from each other and each of which can be addressed separately (Thompson 2008).
These are task conflict, process conflict and relationship conflict. Task conflict can be defined as the disagreement among the group members on how to accomplish a given task given the different ways that are available (Draft 2011). Task conflict is majorly unavoidable since people have different views on how to perform any given duty and many people have the tendency of trusting their view more than that of others. Disagreements on how the current promotion criterion is implemented or on the data base security system are examples of task conflicts (West 2012).
On the other hand, relationship conflict is disagreements on personal factors which are not related to the tasks being performed such as; personal clothing, family issues and social political opinions among others. It is quite difficult to understand the complexity of human diversity which brings about difference in views and opinions, hence a group can perform well if it develops a common culture that relies on shared norms and values thus eliminating the possibility of opinion conflict (Draft 2011).
Relationship conflicts tend to touch on the self esteem of a person and adversely affect how the members of the group will relate with each other. It also to some extent touches on the willingness of a member being ready to interact with others in the group.
Process conflict has been defined as the disagreement among the group members as regards to the execution of a given task, and the most qualified person to perform a certain duty. It highly touches on matters of logistics and division of labor among the participants (Passos 2005). In most cases it has been discovered that process conflict has quite different effects on group performance as compared to task and relationship conflict.
Factors through Which Conflict Affects a Group
It has been noted that conflict affect certain issues that directly influence the outcomes of the group and that it does not in itself directly affect the group. Such issues as the amount of trust that group members have both on the group as a whole and on individual group members highly determine the productivity of the group (West 2012).
In conjunction with that, the bond that puts together individual members in the group is of importance, as it determines the likelihood that the members can enjoy working together hence, influencing group outcomes. The cohesiveness of the group if threatened by the conflicts will therefore negatively affect the outcomes of the group besides hindering the processing of any input.
On the same note, loss of trust, in either a member of the group or the group in general, due to given conflicts will also impact negatively on the group productivity (Sosik & Jung 2002). When there is argument as to why one should be given a certain duty and not any other, trust among the group members is affected thus, reducing the morale of working together therefore reducing the output of the whole group.
Additionally, group members need to feel that their contribution is valued in the group’s proceedings for them to confidently give their opinions. When one’s contributions are openly challenged each time, the person feels that either him or her as a person or the contributions are not respected and therefore becomes unwilling to work with others. This has negative impacts on the group as it reduces productivity while at the same time it jeopardizes the group’s continuity (Child 2006).
Besides, all forms of conflicts have varied effects on the cohesiveness of the group which in turn affects performance given that the productivity directly depends on the ability of people to work as a group.
Therefore, conflict through affecting the confidence that people have with their surrounding, the feeling that group members have as regards to the respect they have from other group members and strengthening or weakening the group bond, is able to influence both group viability and performance (Shaw, Zhu, Duffy, Shih & Susanto 2011).
Group Characters that influence effects of conflict
Certain characters among the group members influence the way conflict affects the group. The way the group perceives and receives a conflict coupled with how the group members think the conflict will affect them individually plays a greater role in determining the effects conflict will have to the group (Brody 2005).
Anger and frustration are common emotional reactions that accompany any form of conflict and these emotions tend to impact negatively on the group performance. Strong and negative emotional attachment to conflicts will reduce trust, respect and weaken the bonds that hold the group together thus reducing the group’s productivity.
On the other hand, members who have had a heated debate, especially over personal issues, where emotions were high and negative would not be able to give any task the concentration it requires for its optimum execution thus they produce below their ability and expectations (Shaw et al. 2011).
It is important to note that, negative emotions tend to mostly affect the outcomes of the group, if the conflict in question is relationship conflict. On the contrary, as far as task and process conflicts are concerned, negative emotions does not in any way influence the performance of the group.
The way various conflict issues are addressed also influences the effects of conflicts on group performance (Thompson 2008). If members felt that they would openly discuss their opinions with others, then the effects of task conflict on cohesion, trust and respect among the group members is positive hence the performance of the group is enhanced.
But as relationship conflict is concerned, the norms of discussing openly the issue of the conflict have adverse negative effects on self esteem and thus, reduces the viability and productivity of the members.
On the other hand, encouragement of open discussions as regards to process conflict will encourage people to feel free to seek for guidance where they are not sure of which action to take and therefore, increase the productivity of the group (Passos 2005). It is therefore advantageous if the group encourages open discussion on matters that are directly related to the task to be completed and the logistics of completion, while discouraging the same on personal issues which are not task related (Brody 2005).
The probability that the group members perceives in the opportunity to resolve the conflict will also to larger extent influence how the conflict will impact on the group’s output. If a certain member who has a relationship conflict with another in the group has no hopes that the conflict can be resolved, there is no possibility that the two can ever be at ease when working together and this will negatively impact on the group’s continuity.
Process conflict and task conflict are also highly affected by the possibility of conflict resolution among the individual group members. When group members have the belief that it is possible to solve any issues that may arise from a conflict, they stop thinking that conflicts are only detrimental to the group and thus, their personality is boosted which triggers positive effects on trust as well as group bonding therefore, improving group output.
On the same note, high possibility of conflict resolution enhances cooperation among the group and reduces competition which would lead to every person wanting to outdo the other in their actions thus, disregarding some contributions which would be helpful (John, Greer, Levine & Szulanski 2008).
Though some researchers have argued that the importance attached to a certain conflict by group members influences the effects of the conflict to the group, this has been refuted by many recent researchers who have noted that it is not necessarily the case. In recent researches, it has been depicted that the interpretation of the level of importance is what matters (Child 2006).
Conflict Effectiveness
Relationship conflict tends to have negative effects on the group performance though mostly, people try to avoid directly working together with those they share different views with or they avoid bringing personal issue to work place hence, effects of relationship conflict are not very pronounced. On the other hand, task conflict is moderated by open discussions which tend to restore trust and respect of the group members.
Furthermore, task conflict and process conflict can be avoided by developing, as part of the group culture, the opinion that it is actually possible to solve any conflict that may arise (John et al. 2008). It should however be noted that to some extent some level of task conflict is advantageous as it has led to innovation.
Additionally, all these types of conflicts are correlated to a larger extent and therefore, the possibility of one conflict leading to another one is very high. It is important to note that, open discussions are partly advantageous and partly detrimental as far as process conflict is concerned and should therefore be handled with care.
Conclusion
Group working is inevitable and therefore group conflicts will always be an issue that should be addressed diligently for the sake of performance. Though research on the effects of conflicts to group performance and how the negative effects can be mitigated, more still needs to be done as these researches present several limitations.
The interrelationship of the conflicts together with the effects of different group characteristics, still need to be explored more. Furthermore, given that sometimes the conflicts present both positive and negative effects, it is paramount that it is known what type of conflict to encourage to what extent and the method of achieving this.
References
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Child, D. (2006). The Essentials of Factor Analysis. New York: Continuum International Publishing.
Draft, L. R. (2011). Management. Stanford: Cengage Learning.
Passos, A. M. (2005). Exploring the Effects of Intragroup Conflict and Past Performance Feedback on Team Effectiveness. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 20, 231-244.
Shaw, D. J., Zhu, J., Duffy, K. M., Shih, H. & Susanto, E. (2011). A Contingency Model of Conflict and Team Effectiveness. Journal of Applied Psychology, 96 (2), 391-400.
Sosik, J. J. & Jung, D. I. (2002). Work-Group Characteristics and Performance in Collectivistic And Individualistic Cultures. The Journal of Social Psychology 142 (1), 5-23.
Thompson, L. L. (2008).Making The Team Work: A Guide for Managers. Upper Saddle River: Prentice hall.
West, A. M. (2012). Effective Teamwork: Practical Lessons from Organizational Research. Hoboken: John Willey & sons.
John, A. K., Greer, L., Levine, S., & Szulanski, G. (2008). The Effects of Conflict Types, Dimensions and Emergent States on Group Outcomes. Springer Science Business Media B.V 2008, 465-495.