Professor Says Today's More Diverse Workplace Increases Need For Conflict Management

Offers tips on addressing conflict within an organization

By Mara McGinnis

Release Date: April 16, 1999 This content is archived.

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BUFFALO, N.Y. -- As diversity continues to increase in the workplace so does the opportunity for conflict, says a University at Buffalo expert in organizational behavior.

Debra Connelley, assistant professor in the Department of Organization and Human Resources in the UB School of Management, says that much of the conflict in today's workplace can be attributed to "increasing diversity and increasing emphasis on team-based organizational structures where people have to interact closely with others who may be very different from themselves."

Connelley, who teaches cross-cultural leadership in UB's International Executive Program, has a special research interest in intergroup cooperation and conflict and most recently has focused on issues involving cultural diversity, specifically gender and race.

She says intergroup conflict occurs when the interests of one or more groups are blocked by the interests of another. "Conflict does not necessarily involve threats or overt hostility. It can range from minor disagreements to outright efforts to destroy the other party."

Getting groups to work together requires flexibility, creativity and the willingness to change, says Connelley, who gives presentations at universities and conferences nationwide on the challenges of managing a diverse workforce.

"The first step is to rid oneself of ethnocentrism, or the attitude that the goals, values and beliefs of one's own group are superior," she explains.

"The next step is to recognize differences between groups -- particularly in terms of goals, values and beliefs -- understand why these differences exist and respect different points of view. Groups have to learn to accept and even incorporate other values and beliefs into their own world view to create an environment where the interests of all parties can be accommodated."

Consequences of failing to address conflict can be harmful to an organization since the problem can escalate, adds Connelley.

If the conflict is not dealt with effectively, she warns, the organization will experience increased levels of distrust and hostility, decreased communication, greater polarization between groups on an increasing number of issues, growth in the use of coercive tactics, extremism in demands and the spread of conflict by enlisting other parties to take sides.

"We know that intergroup conflict increases when individuals focus on group boundaries…so most of the techniques we look at for defusing conflict involve decreasing the salience or relevance of group boundaries."

According to Connelley, signs that conflict is causing trouble in an organization include decreased employee satisfaction, decreased organizational commitment, increased absenteeism, higher turnover and lower productivity.

However, she emphasizes that conflict in the workplace is not always negative.

"Moderate levels of conflict lead to improved quality of decisions and stimulation of creativity and innovation. The key is to manage the conflict so that the organization receives the benefit of increased performance, not the dysfunctional outcomes that accompany uncontrolled conflict."

The emphasis on intergroup cooperation in the working world today, Connelley says, can be attributed to changing organizations.

"The current trend is toward 'horizontal' organizations, where work is organized around core processes rather than traditional functions," she explains.

"People have to move out of their comfortable 'silos' -- where everyone thinks just like them -- and into cross-functional teams. This requires skills in working cooperatively with people who see the world in very different ways."