Streaning Star Trek: Insurrection Full Movie
6 years ago
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Conflict In the Workplace
The broad definition of conflict in our text covers a lot of territory: "interaction of interdependent people who perceive incompatible goals and interference from one another" (p. 275). I think line employees experience conflict primarily at the micro level, which can (or cannot) transition to a macro level through the ranks of organizational hierarchy. One mistake that high level stakeholders often make is to assume they can overcome micro level conflict by means of authority and control. Since low level members can seldom challenge authority overtly, conflict is expressed through subversion. One of the articles I am reading talks about the concept of "distancing" - doing no more than what is required to get by. I think of distancing as a form of subversion, in response to unresolved conflict.
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3 comments:
In the research my colleagues and I did on surveillance we found very few instances of overt resistance and not even much covert resistance. But that doesn't mean that organization members didn't encounter conflicts over the surveillance. For the most part, they didn't think there was much they could do about it. I suspect a fair number practice what you refer to as distancing. Several organizational surveillance scholars argue that the cost of elaborate employee surveillance systems simply doesn't pay off for the company. Instead, organizations would be better off developing more productive relationships between supervisors and subordinates, which likely will reduce conflicts and increase job satisfaction.
When I think of "distancing" I am reminded of a colleague at work. He was a creative, like me, working in an organization that is not known for being creative. While working on a project this year I was surprised to hear him say the following: "I'm OK with being competent. I don't need to prove anything." The comment didn’t bother me; I guess it surprised me. I wondered what conflict had transpired that made him feel he didn’t need to do more than was necessary.
How does the high level stakeholder realize that they have this problem of complacency? The organization may lose an important opportunity to develop projects with excellence and quality. The level of complacency may begin to permeate the organization. Creating communication that identifies these “distancing” issues would benefit the organization.
It is interesting how people prefer to get distant from others whenever they can not resolve conflicts. I attribute this decision to the fact that it is very stressful to maintain a dialogue with a person who is not willing to resolve an issue.
Along my professional career I met wonderful people who I got along with perfectly fine. But your comment reminds me of one of my past co-workers I really did not get along with. For some reason we never came to an agreement about anything. We could barely socialize – say hi, good morning, bye-bye, but no more than that. At some point I decided to let it go. I decided to be distant and do not make any attempt to resolve our conflicts anymore.
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