Organizational Conflict: Tension During Meetings

Organizational Conflict: Tension During Meetings

Mike Jones

Saginaw Valley State University

MPA: 560-70

Fall 2017

Organizational Conflict: Tension During Meetings

Introduction

The definition of conflict is “to come in to collision or disagreement” (Dicitionary.com). Most individuals face conflict every day in their normal lives. This conflict can occur at Starbucks when someone ¬¬¬¬cuts you in line. Conflict occurs on the highway when someone swerves in front of you. Conflict also occurs between you and your neighbor when they chop down a tree that was clearly on your property. One of the most common places conflict can occur is in the workplace. Workplace conflict can occur between an individual and a customer. It can occur between and individual and herself. Conflict can occur between an individual and their supervisor. Conflict can even occur between the organization and the individual. In the workplace, it is also common for conflict to occur between co-workers. Conflict between peers is often the hardest to deal with.

Conflict in the Workplace

Every Wednesday the bank’s compliance department gathers at 10 am for their weekly meeting. The purpose of this meeting is to cover current events and changes within the regulatory compliance industry. The meeting allows the compliance department to discuss how current events and changes will directly affect the bank. The meeting also allows the compliance team to discuss what they are working on, and get feedback from others who might have worked on the same project in the past. In theory, this meeting is a fantastic idea and opens up a dialogue among the compliance department team members. However, these meetings are far from organized. The first issue with the meeting is that more often than not people begin talking about non-compliance related topics. These topics regularly take up a huge chunk of the one-hour meeting. The next issue common in these compliance meetings is disagreements about certain compliance topics. While discussion about disagreements can be enlightening, these discussions get out of hand. Generally, the disagreement will escalate until someone gets annoyed and just quits talking, or until one individual says something hurtful or accusatory to another. These hurtful or accusatory words usually take the form of phrases like “I swear you never listen” or “Why do you always get so butt hurt about the littlest things”. The last issue noticed within these weekly compliance meetings involves leadership. There are ordinarily two managers in these meetings, but they do nothing to keep the meeting flowing smoothly. It is their responsibility to facilitate these meetings, and ensure that everyone is granted their time to speak. The constant disruptions and the lack of leadership is really disrespectful to those in the meeting that would like to learn something useful. The disruptions and disagreements take way time that others might be able to use to voice their thoughts. Not being allotted the time to say everything they need to say without interruption creates tension between the employees. Some individuals choose not to voice their opinion due to the fear of being interrupted. During the meeting there should be order, and everyone should view the meeting as a place where they can speak openly. A change needs to be made.

Conflict One

The first type of conflict comes in the form of disrespect to your peers and the organization. This is when individuals in the group choose to hold their own conversations or change the subject to the matter at hand. This is disrespectful to other employees for many reasons. First, it takes up time that others could be using to voice their thoughts and opinions about a compliance related matter. Another reason it is disrespectful is, the topics are often not work appropriate. This may cause someone to take offense to what is being said due to cultural reasons. Third, these side conversations tend to take place while someone is talking. Individuals speaking during the meeting should not have to compete with those individuals who choose to have side conversations. Lastly, these conversations are disrespectful to the company because the company allows these meetings to take place for the benefit of their employees, and the employees do not respect the allotted time. This is a structural source of conflict because the organization has yet to put an end to these negative reoccurring behaviors (Raines pg. 61, 2013).

Conflict Two

The next type of conflict could be considered harassment. This conflict is when at least two members of the compliance team start bickering back and forth, often crossing personal lines. This bickering, puts a hold on the meeting. Unlike the topic conflict noted above, these discussions are usually related to compliance, but often turn negative. This conflict always involves the same two individuals, but other team members will state their opinions now and then as well. Both individuals have a competitive conflict style, therefore they do not care that they have to verbally assault their team member to win an argument (Raines pg. 17, 2013). The leadership team that sits in on these meetings should never let these quarrels continue.

Conflict Three

The last type of conflict that occurs during the weekly compliance meetings is because of management. Generally, there are two managers sitting in on these meetings. The role of these managers during the meetings should be that of a facilitator. They should ensure that their team members stay on topic, and that everyone has a chance to be heard. The managers should