Conflict Resolution at Work for Dummies®

Chapter 3. Determining How Groups Contribute to Conflict

In This Chapter

• Identifying how your employees fit within your organization

• Highlighting common areas of conflict within groups

• Avoiding negative group behaviors

Put two or more people in a work setting and you're bound to have conflict. The conflicts can range from minor squabbles about who drank the last cup of coffee to major disputes involving discrimination or sexual harassment. Anytime people interact, disagreements and disputes can result.

Whether you wear a white tie, a blue shirt, or a uniform, your workplace has naturally and artificially formed groups that add characteristics to the work environment and, ultimately, to conflict. You've probably heard phrases like group think and mob mentality used to describe what can happen when people get together. And with terms like these floating around, it's natural to assume that groups are bad. But, as a manager, you know that groups are essential!

Created based on similar job assignments (like the accounting department) or pulled together based on skill sets (like a selected task force), groups are required to get the work done. Teams can work like well-oiled machines that win awards, exceed sales projections, solve what seem like insurmountable problems, and build elaborate buildings in record time. So if groups have the capacity to do such great things, what is it about them that causes conflict?

In this chapter, I share how the company, its culture, and the phenomenon of group ...