Conflicts are natural. They are a given in almost any situation. No
matter the situation be personal or work related. Avoiding or eliminating
conflicts are next to impossible in any situation. The origin of conflict
can be frequently traced to improper perceptions. (Burton, 1968) In an
organization, conflict can play an important role in offering workers and
the management direction and purpose. The trend to use teams and groups to
undertake different projects or changes in an organization is increasing.
Getting together a group of people often from different functional lines is
a definitive way to create differences in opinions or dissonance.
Dissonance, or a need to find a better way of doing things, is often the
seed, which spurs on the team to higher levels of investigation.
Without any conflict, organizational life would be stagnant. It would
eventually get obsolete and collapse. Research and development department
teams, for example, welcome cognitive dissonance. Research can be carried
out effectively only if individuals in the team are willing to question and
investigate previously accepted norms and ideas. If all conform to the
acceptable trends of the day the research will not be ground breaking. For
example the Swiss first discovered the quartz crystal's application for
time keeping. The Swiss watch industry however failed to realize the
significance of this discovery and was more than happy with the traditional
watch making industry that existed. They gave away this technology only to
realize in a few years that they lost the watch making industry as well to
There are two different types of conflict: emotional and cognitive. The
first being "Emotional conflict" is personal. The manifestations are often
defensive and based on resent. It is also known as "A-type conflict" or
"aff...