Conflict In The Workplace Essay

In this assignment, I will discuss the type of conflict that was most common in my workplace, and how we resolved it. Some conflict in the workplace can be healthy and increase the drive of an individual or the group, and with the right processes and mediation, can lead to a cohesive organization. If persistent conflict is ignored or members are afraid to make decisions because of it, the organization can fall short of goals or even crumble. My organization faced a substantial amount of conflict among members of varying experience, mostly due to background and biased opinions on how to accomplish operational tasks. These tasks included processes and steps taken when disarming Improvised Explosive Devices (IED’s). U.S. Navy EOD Technicians,
Senior members of the organization were overbearing towards junior members and made statements like “In Iraq this is the way we disarmed Improvised Explosive Device’s, you are not in school anymore, greenhorn.” They are referring to prior ways of accomplishing the job, and disregarding what the junior members, who are fresh out of school, bring to the organization. This is very detrimental in two instances: they are not approaching problems in innovative ways with an open mind, and they are suggesting to junior members that lessons learned during school can be disregarded. This is a very good example of Daft’s (2016) “intergroup conflict,” and demonstrates how senior members of the organization felt hindered and threatened by junior members, and they conceived the need to demonstrate dominance (p. 515). These persistent prejudices only hindered our
With experience come a sense of pride and knowledge, but this needs to be exerted upon junior members in the correct fashion. There are many ways to handle conflict, but to ignore it is not one of them, these actions should be met head on. In our situation, we implemented a process that properly mediated our members, and maximized organizational