The difference between functional and dysfunctional conflict

Functional Conflicts

Conflicts give us a chance to learn and develop. While each challenge lets us to be a problem solver in future, who are ready to changes and who use the difference for enlarging the area of development of skills. This is functional view to the conflict that sees it as a productive power, which can motivate and stimulate all its members for development of knowledge and capabilities. This way each member becomes potentially more effective for contribution to the efficient achievement of common organizational goals. By conflicts that are based on the  job, contradictory points can be put on the same table so that later on they can be used as a main source of new ways of doing things.

Rather than trying to eliminate conflict, or suppress its symptoms, your task becomes managing conflict so that it enhances people and organizations, rather than destroying people and organizations

 Each manager must observe the conflict and direct it in a way that it enhances the development of people. Because logically conflicts are inevitable we can‘t stop them by trying to eliminate or suppressing its symptoms. Rather than that, we can  just use the energy of conflict in a positive way. Taking benefits of it on maximum level, decreasing all possible negative effects.

Conflicts can be good for organizations because it encourages open mindedness and helps avoid the tendency toward group think that many organizations fall prey to. The key is learning how to manage the conflict effectively so that it can serve as a catalyst, rather than a hindrance to organizational development

  Again emphasizes the importance of skills for using the conflict on functional way creating open mindedness. This skills will serve contemporary managers to play a role of catalyst rather that an obstacle

Conflicts is an unpleasant fact in any organization as longer as people compete for jobs, resources, power, recognition and security. Organizational conflict can be regarded as a dispute that occurs when interests, goals or values of different individual or groups are incompatible with each other

Last definition says conflict is negative if it‘s a competition for above mentioned

items. This definition is common with others in one notion: interests are incompatible. Participants always exert to achieve their goals and objectives. Main reasons of the conflict may be the scarcity of position, freedom and resources. Any of these items can be a result for conflict, hence the party whose main value is independence will tend to resist against any small attempt contradicting his objective.

While conflict is always perceived as dysfunctional, it can also be beneficial because it may cause an issue to be presented in different perspectives. Conflict has both positive and negative effects

The logical reason of this definition is that, conflict can be positive, only if it encourages the innovation, new approach and point of view at old conditions, and if it improves and develops participants capabilities. In opposite, if conflict creates resistance to change and development and creates chaos and undermines the systematic flow of operation in any environment, creates a feeling and need of defense and extends the gap of mutual understanding

Several Conflict management scientists have proposed that some of the strategies related to CM include the consideration of following mentioned issues:

1. Certain types of conflicts, which may have negative effects on individual and group performance, may have to be reduced. These conflicts are generally caused by the negative reactions or organizational members (e.g., personal attacks of group members, racial disharmony, and sexual harassment).

2. There are other types of conflicts that may have positive effects on the individual and group performance. These conflicts relate to disagreements relating to tasks, policies and other organizational issues. Conflict management strategies involve generation and maintenance of a moderate amount of these conflicts.

3. Organizational members while interacting with each other will be required to deal with their disagreements constructively. This calls for learning how to use different conflict-handling styles to deal with various situations effectively.

Conflict is an ever-present process in human relations. That is why various organizations have changed their approaches to enable them to manage their organizations effectively to avoid at all costs

Conflict is a fact of life in any organizations as longer as people compete for jobs, resources, power, recognition and security. In addition, dealing with conflicts is a great challenge to management

Dysfunctional Conflicts

 In comparison to the functional conflicts, this view emphasizes the negative effect of conflicts.

 As it‘s mentioned before conflicts are always inevitable of which

its not possible to avoid. Actually conflicts are part of organizational life cycle. Conflicts that are not managed purposefully will never bring a positive result to the organization. According to the dysfunctional view, conflicts must be minimized. Some managers say that its better to eliminate conflict rather than spend energy and time for its management.

The difference between functional and dysfunctional conflict is that functional serves a purpose in the organization such as the interest and dysfunctional serves no purpose but to threaten the organization

Thus dysfunctional conflict totally contradicts to the positive criteria for development of organization, and achieving its common goals on predefined timeframe.

In addition, dysfunctional conflict is believed to reduce team performance and member satisfaction, because It produces tension and antagonism and distracts people from their task performance.‖

Team member‘s performance is vital for the organization, while dysfunctional conflict distracts players from concentrating on their job, by producing a negative environment.

People who work in environments where conflict isn't managed effectively tend to exhibit both low job satisfaction and reduced productivity. The overall culture of the group or organization tends to be very negative

The last definition mentions that conflicts are dysfunctional when they create impact on culture of organization and reduce the motivation of employees. There are various approaches to the dysfunctional conflicts

Conflict is unhealthy and associated with negative outcomes, e.g. distortion and withholding of information to the detriment of others within the organization, hostility, and distrust during interactions

Dysfunctional conflicts can harm the organizations. When CM techniques are implemented professionally organizations can be healed and taken back to their main track. Dysfunctional conflicts may be different according to the scale of damage they do. They may be based on emotions that occur on interpersonal level or may be based on competition on limited resources that occurs on interdepartmental level. Not depending on the level dysfunctional conflicts must be detected on time and eliminated professionally.

In dysfunctional work environments, a significant part of the problem is that the management of the organization is unable, or unwilling, to establish a positive environment. The net result is that organizational communications, trust, customer service, and accomplishments are undermined by management practices.

Meaning that each organization must be managed properly to keep positive environment for long time base on trust, firmly established relationships and customer services. In spite of this when dysfunctional conflicts occur, the organizations important pillars are being damaged by negative effects. Dysfunctional conflict is considered as a hinder to the group performance, wasting the organizations‘ resource