Page 305 - DMGT402_MANAGEMENT_PRACTICES_AND_ORGANIZATIONAL_BEHAVIOUR

Management Practices and Organisational Behaviour

Notes 1. Structural Factors: Structural factors stem from the nature of an organisation and the way
in which work is organised. The causes of conflict related to the organisation's structure
include specialization, interdependence, common resources, goal differences, authority
relationships, status inconsistencies and jurisdictional ambiguities.
(a) Common and Limited Resources: Perhaps the most fundamental fact of organisational
life is that resources are finite. Any time multiple parties must share resources, there
is potential conflict. Even the most successful companies have found that they are
limited in what they can accomplish. With this realization, groups and individuals
see that there will be times when they will have to fight for what they want. One
resource often shared by managers is secretarial support. It is not uncommon for a
secretary to support ten or more managers, each of whom believes his or her work
is most important. This puts pressure on the secretaries and leads to potential conflicts
in prioritizing and scheduling work. The most obvious manifestation of this problem
comes when the annual budget is set. Each department typically submits a request
for its needs during the next fiscal year and top management adjusts the request
based on its knowledge of the total organisation. Department heads often see their
requests cut back because the resources for the total organisation are limited. When
cutbacks occur, however, the potential for conflict increases because the heads of
various departments begin making value judgements about why management
decided to cut back one department but not another. As a general rule, "the greater
the scarcity of resources, the greater the potential for conflict".
(b) Interdependent Work Activities: Added to the basic problem of finite resources is the
problem of organisational units having to work together. Work that is
interdependent requires groups or individuals to depend on one another to
accomplish goals. Depending on other people to get work done is fine when the
process works smoothly. However, when there is a problem, it becomes very easy
to blame the other party and conflict escalates.

It is important for managements to know the nature of work interdependence so
systems of work can be implemented that will reduce the potential for dysfunctional
conflict. As a general rule, "the more interdependent the work activities, the greater
the potential for conflict".
(c) Specialization and Differentiation of Activities: We noted above that interdependence of
work activities is an important source of conflict in organisations. Backing up one
step further, we can see that the mere existence of groups doing different functions
creates the potential for conflict. Especially when jobs are highly specialized,
employees become experts at certain tasks. Highly specialized jobs can lead to
conflict, because people have little awareness of the tasks that other perform.

A classic conflict of specialization is one between salespeople and engineers.
Engineers are technical specialists responsible for product design and quality.
Salespeople are marketing experts and liaison with customers. Salespeople are often
accused of making delivery promises to customers that engineers cannot keep because
the sales force is felt to lack the technical knowledge necessary to develop realistic
delivery deadlines.
(d) Authority Relationship: The traditional boss-employee relationship makes employees
feel uncomfortable. The boss is superior to the employees and can dictate terms to
his subordinates. For many employees, this relationship is not a comfortable one
because another person has the right to tell them what to do. In addition, some
bosses are autocratic and manipulative and this increases the potential for conflict.
To add to the problem, some employees resent authority more than others, and
obviously this creates conflicts.

300 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY