The South African and American milieu, divided along racial lines (with on one side the ‘Whites’ that are conceived as the majority group and on the other side the ‘Blacks’ that constitute the minority group) reify this ‘conflictual’ dynamic.
To maintain social order and a degree of social stability and harmony, many countries such as South Africa have adopted policies of affirmative actions to ensure adequate representation of minorities. However, in other cosmopolitan countries in which positive discrimination is not the political practice, competition for access to secure and safe employment is often unbalanced.
Recruitment is usually practised on the base of patronage which is a form of favouritism based on racial and/or group affiliation. In other words, businesses tend to recruit people from their immediate network. A causal relationship can be identified between these recruitment practices and group conflicts since minority groups are systematically discriminated against as over-represented in unsecure and underpaid jobs.
While, as exemplified above, group conflicts can result in ‘unfair’ discriminations, they can also be good for the organisation as long as managers are skilled in conflict management. Sociologists and management specialists have reported that conflicts are inevitable in organisations that might result from:
• Dynamic changes
• Break down of communication channels
• Abuse of power
• Dysfunctional competition and
• Environmental and hygienic factors
For example, building on Maslow’s Theory, conflicts within the organisation emerge when, firstly, the goals of individual employees and of the organisation diverge and, secondly, when the former cannot meet their goals and needs and thus their motivation and satisfaction levels are low.
For conflicts to be profitable to the organisation, managers need to manage these situations adopting an interactioninst attitude and approach towards conflict solving. Behaviourists and interactionists have reported that conflicts can provide to organisations growth opportunities if negotiated, responded to and resolved in such a way that they are transformed in, I quote, ‘productive learning experiences’.
Managing conflicts might seem complex and stressful but to develop creative conflict-solving strategies, one should understand the underpinnings and consequences of these behaviours. Therefore, a constructive and efficient management of conflicts should adopt a holistic approach that takes into consideration their psychological, emotional and physical dimensions. In addition it should be highlighted that conflicts are predictable.
While for the traditionalists, conflicts are a threat to good management and should be eliminated, for the behaviourists, they are an inevitable component of organisational management and relationships and therefore should not be suppressed but on the contrary should be encouraged. It is worth noting that for behaviourists, conflicts are signs of a healthy working and organisational environment.
