Introduction
Conflict is an essential element in the functioning of any society. In today’s world, when the “speed of life” increases daily, when stresses are familiar to almost everyone, when people connected by ties of joint business activities collide in their interests, then conflict occurs. It disorganizes people, puts them in a state where they are ruled by emotions rather than reason. While in ordinary life, conflict situations, for the most part, except for stress and temporary mental instability, do not present us with anything in life, for any leader conflict is one of the main enemies, because the consequences of it can be the most unpredictable. Therefore, managers need to accurately identify the causes of conflict and develop coping strategies appropriate for the situation.
Background Information
In any, even the most prosperous and cohesive team, sooner or later, conflict situations arise. The manager, according to his role, is often in the center of the conflict and is forced to deal with it in all possible ways. Managing conflicts in the organization is one of the main tasks of the manager. To develop the right line of behavior in various conflict situations, it is very useful to know what conflicts are and how people come to an agreement (Wheeler, et al., 2020). And in order to formulate the basic principles of the approach, which will allow us to effectively “work” with conflicts, it is necessary to answer, to understand the causes and sources of conflict in society (Wheeler, et al., 2020).
This will contribute to the possibility of preventing the emergence of disagreements that lead to quarrels. Interpersonal conflict involves two or more individuals who perceive themselves to be in opposition to one another in terms of goals, dispositions, values, or behavior. It is perhaps the most common type of conflict. These conflicts are usually based on objective reasons (Wheeler, et al., 2020). Most often, it is a struggle over limited resources or material means.
Purpose Statement
The main goal is to improve the general atmosphere in the organization, to establish communication between colleagues. It is necessary to maintain the current efficiency of the employees, as well as to increase it. The fact is that conflicts are directly related to the state of an individual because of psychological factors. Conflict situations provoke negative emotions, distraction and counter-productivity, which arise from the unstable state of the individual (Coy, 2018). Preventing the development of misunderstandings and disagreements in the team will keep workers psychologically stable, focused on work, and will save time. The latter is because conflict takes up a lot of time because it involves showdowns, arguments, emotional outbursts, and time to worry. All the time spent can be reorganized into productive work, which will be good for the organization and for the team as a whole.
Suggested Solution
In order to solve the situation with constant conflicts between employees, the solution is to have a psychologist in the team. The point is that the professional skills of the psychologist will allow to pre-determine the possible situations and actions of individuals that may lead to quarrels or disagreements. Thus, thanks to the specialist, possible confrontations will be prevented and avoided (Coy, 2018). At the same time, in cases where a quarrel has already occurred, it is the psychologist who can deal with the tense atmosphere and emotional overload to which the members of the conflict have been subjected. One of the important functions of the specialist in this situation is to introduce an opinion from the side, allowing both to understand the non-seriousness of the quarrel and to enter into the position of the opponent. In this way, the number of conflict situations will be reduced and the animosity between employees will be eradicated.
Another suggestion is to appoint a leader who meets the characteristics of a charismatic manager. A key aspect here is the individual’s willingness to help and the ability to enter into the employee’s situation. Such qualities make team members feel valued and competent and cared for (Coy, 2018). This will eradicate one of the main sources of quarrels – feelings of doubt about the skills of the worker, an indirect indication of incompetence or unprofessionalism of the specialist.
Scale and Organization of the Proposal
An important prerequisite is that the organization will not incur large costs in the implementation of these innovations. It is necessary to allocate a certain share of the budget for the psychologist’s position and salary. Nevertheless, it is necessary to carry out a survey among workers on availability of related knowledge. One of the distinguishing factors of modern education is that some individuals have deep knowledge in various fields, and with the help of the survey, it is possible to identify an employee who has the data of a specialist in the field of psychology. If such an individual is combined into a coach and a leader at one time, there will be little redistribution of personnel in the organization.
Suggested Approach and Candidate Qualifications
Once the right person has been found or hired, it is necessary to establish the credibility of the psychologist among employees. It is important to emphasize that employees should understand and feel able to seek emotional or mental support from a specialist. One effective way would be to declare the qualifications of the psychologist with the help of, for example, a diploma or client reviews (Drenth & Henk, 2018). In contrast, it will take some time for a leader to be challenged. Before taking a managerial position, any employee should have the necessary knowledge and skills, be good at working with other employees, and have the leadership traits listed above (Wheeler, et al., 2020). This is why you should look at your workers from the outside, discovering their strengths and weaknesses, and finally identify one or more potential candidates for the job and train them. Eventually, this will lead to the creation of a full-fledged effective leader with the confidence and authority already present among the subordinates. Thus, the organization will be one step closer to solving its conflict problems.
Conclusion
To summarize all of the above, it is important to point out that conflict is an inevitable aspect of any human interaction. The work environment is no exception, but in an organization, quarrels and disagreements lead to great losses in the form of reduced team productivity and a breakdown in employee communication. Psychologically competent specialists allow avoiding negative consequences of conflicts, because most quarrels are psychological. In addition, competent leaders can reorganize the energy of employees and the time spent on disagreements in the appropriate productive direction. It is essential for an organization to implement such solutions at the earliest stages. If ignored, the team will cease to work as a unified mechanism, followed by layoffs and poor quality of work.
The main solution to the problem of conflicts among employees is the identification of a charismatic leader and the appearance of a psychologist in the team. The main feature of the psychologist is the development of sustained communication and the reduction of psychological barriers formed as a result of disagreement (Drenth & Henk, 2018). Among other things, the psychologist controls emotional stability, encouraging workers when necessary and reducing the concentration of negative emotions (Drenth & Henk, 2018). Together, these actions have a positive effect on the cognitive abilities of the human brain (Drenth & Henk, 2018). A tremendous benefit to the company would be increased stability and effectiveness of the team, because a comfortable atmosphere and normal relationships of workers contribute to a faster solution of the tasks assigned to them.
All conflicts have several causes. The reasons are strong negative emotions in next situations:
- Punishment for something for which people are not responsible;
- Individuals are not asked when dealing with issues in which they are competent;
- Rewards for what some people have done go to others;
- Individuals are deemed incapable of doing something on their own, the task goes to someone else;
- The individual comes up with ideas and suggestions, someone passes them off as their own;
- Workers are presented with attractive prospects in order to attract them to the job, but in the end, when they agree, the work looks very different. There is a sense of frustration, which is the ground for resentment and resistance;
- Employees perform inappropriate or extra work (Wheeler, et al., 2020).
Charisma is a form of influencing others through personal appeal, evoking support and recognition of leadership, which provides the possessor of charisma with power over followers. As a source of leadership power, charisma refers to the power of example, related to a leader’s ability to influence subordinates by virtue of their personal qualities and leadership style (ZĂşquete, 2020). Charisma gives the leader the advantage of influencing his or her subordinates more effectively. Having a charismatic leader leads to a host of beneficial consequences for the organization, key among which is the emphasis on shared power and the tendency to delegate some of it to followers (ZĂşquete, 2020). In this way, the team will be emotionally and professionally uplifted because each individual member will feel his or her own importance and competence.
References
Coy, P. G. (Ed.). (2018). Research in social movements, conflicts and change. Emerald Publishing Limited.
Drenth, P. J., and Henk, T. (2018). A handbook of work and organizational psychology. Volume 1: Introduction to work and organizational psychology. Taylor & Francis.
Wheeler, A. R., Baur, J. E., Halbesleben, J. R. B., and Buckley, M. R. (Ed.). (2020). Research in personnel and human resources management. Emerald Publishing Limited.
ZĂşquete, J. P. (2020). Routledge international handbook of charisma. Taylor & Francis.