Types of Workplace Conflict
Not getting this information sent to you directly? Sign up for your FREE monthly Smartmanager newsletter today. Sign up now!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Use the Difference in the Two Types of Workplace Conflict to Improve Staff Performance
What Are the Two Primary Types of Workplace Conflict?
Just as disagreements between individuals can be triggered by a myriad of different reasons, workplace conflict can be generated by a number of situations. However, workplace conflict almost always falls into one of two primary types:
- Task conflict (substantive or issue oriented), or
- Personal conflict (often called a personality conflict).
This is not an over-simplification. These two types of conflict occur every day for reasons that are often quickly forgotten. Unfortunately the actual conflict, particularly a personality conflict, may long outlive the reasons for it.
Task, or substantive, conflict involves employee disagreements about workplace issues. Although most people assume that all forms of conflict are harmful, task conflict can sometimes be converted to a positive in the workplace.
Personal (personality) conflict usually involves two or more employees who are simply annoyed by the actions or behavior of another. Often, this type of conflict arises from mere “bad chemistry” between two or more people. In most cases, this type of conflict, if untreated, will be harmful to the workplace, your team, and everyone’s performance. There are few successful examples of group feuding – the 1970s Oakland A’s baseball team that won multiple World Series titles are one exception – that result in high performance or goal achievement.
You might try to identify a third type of workplace conflict, but you’ll typically be unsuccessful. Regardless of the universe of triggers of workplace conflict, the reality will always be reduced to issues or people. Here are some tips to minimize workplace conflict and, where possible, have it work for, not against, you and your management efforts and responsibilities.
How to Improve Staff Performance in the Face of Workplace Conflict
Even the most experienced managers cannot be expected to be trained psychologists, miracle workers, or magic wand wielders. All, however, would probably agree that ongoing workplace conflict seldom improves individual or team performance.
The most important thing you can do is to identify the source and type of conflict you must deal with. Identification gives you the opportunity to take appropriate and effective action to resolve the conflict and/or use it to help, not hurt, staff performance. To help you identify the type of conflict, try some of these suggestions.
- Observe. Carefully watch the conflict in action when possible. Can you tell if it’s a task or personal conflict?
- Determine if the emotional reactions of the participants are appropriate to the seriousness of the situation.
- Do both parties want to win only at the other’s expense? For example, during task conflicts, participants often want to win to help make an issue or situation better. This may result in an eventual win for the other party, too. Conversely, a personal conflict typically involves one party trying to win AND embarrassing or diminishing the other.
- Are the participants displaying a lack of trust or respect for each other? This attitude usually indicates a personal, rather than a task, conflict.
Be aware that if you’re witnessing a personal conflict, no one, including you, can expect to win. There is no substantive, identifiable, or meaningful issue to be resolved. The participants may simply not like each other. Even if a substantive issue created this condition, the reason may have long been forgotten.
However, try to dig deeper and identify the task issue that created this workplace unrest. This may allow you to “move” the conflict away from the personal and back to the issue. If you can do this, it may give you and your feuding staff the opportunity to re-focus on the issue. You may even learn some valuable information and ideas to help your role as “manager as mediator”.
It is important to shift the conflict from a personal (un-winnable) problem to a task (issue) disagreement. If unsuccessful, you’ll be left with a personality conflict, which may only offer the option to request that your unhappy employees put aside their personal conflict for the good of the team while at the workplace. If they agree, you might return to high performance. Should they choose not to cooperate, you may have to transfer one or both, or even separate them from the company.
If, however, you can motivate the unhappy employees to focus on the task issue, you may eventually consider this workplace conflict to be a motivator to better employee performance. But be careful. Seldom will a “laid back” approach be effective for you, as the situation, particularly if it's personal conflict, will not “work itself out”. You need to address the situation and provide guidance and authority. Shifting the workplace conflict from the personal to the issue or task may give you the opportunity to rebuild the performance of your team.