Scholarly Paper Proposal: Perceptions of Workplace Conflict

Abstract

Conflicts are an inevitable part of life, and proper communication is critical to a successful resolution. Professional conflicts should be constructive, but toxic workplaces have superiors and employees who cannot maintain constructive disputes. This causes many employees to leave, leading to a high turnover rate for the organization, leaving the remaining staff with no other option to suffer through being overworked and underpaid. Moreover, unresolved conflicts can decrease productivity, as employees may feel demotivated or distracted by the ongoing tension. Conflicts often stem from imbalanced perceptions of power and can ignite intense emotions among the participants. According to Wilmot (2021), power is not owned by any particular person but is a product of the communicative relationship. In some cases, superiors may misuse their perceived control, threatening resources and interpersonal linkages, which hampers communication and creates toxic situations with strained relationships. Wilmot (2020) states that when you want to learn to participate in conflict responsibly, you can maintain supportive relationships with less frequent conflict. With its potential to bring about positive change, this research study aims to understand workplace conflict and its effects on employees. The following research questions were designed to address key aspects of this study: RQ1: What conflicts have you been involved in or witnessed in the workplace? RQ2: What perceptions of power do you have in workplace conflicts? RQ3: How do workplace conflicts affect other employees, departments, or the team? RQ4: How will improving these workplace conflicts affect the business and the teams? The findings of this study will determine that constructive conflict in the workplace can increase productivity, lessen the brand’s turnover rate, and create happier employees. The validity of these perceptions is conferred by existing literature on conflict communication.

Introduction

Conflict should be faced appropriately by both parties involved. This constitutes a constructive conflict. Practicing open-mindedness to another perspective will provide better conflict resolutions instead of retaining tensions and resentments involved with destructive conflicts. Conflicts are unavoidable, and proper communication is critical to a successful resolution. A comprehensive understanding of power dynamics in relationships, the variations in power definitions and their effects on relationships, as well as strategies to balance power, can foster more positive communication in conflicts while delving into the reflection of conflict history and conflict systems will allow a better understanding of how to navigate through life’s conflicts.

A shared sense of power is vital to relationships, causing more collaborative disputes and providing equal dependency. At the same time, an unequal power dependency can be misconstrued as laziness and powerlessness. Power currencies also have a role in how relational power is viewed. Someone designated to have control of another’s resources has resource control that can impact the perception of power in the relationship. A network of others that an individual obtains through interpersonal linkages also gives a perception of attained power. People can develop relationships with one another through communication skills, which increase their perception of power. An individual is perceived to have a higher value because of the skills and knowledge that they acquire, which gives a sense of having more power than others.

Knowing the different styles of conflict makes it easier to have constructive conflict with others when there is an awareness of aggressive, avoidance, and collaborative conflicts so that there is more open-mindedness to another’s point of view. Avoidance gives one time to think about conflict and keeps a person from being efficiently used by another. Wilmot (2021) states this style can be instrumental if more demanding issues require more attention. The dominating conflict style is excellent for emergencies due to the quick decisiveness it requires. It can also show the other party that the issue is essential. This is mainly effective for short-term relationships. Compromise gives a sense of power balance while allowing the accomplishment of important goals. Compromising can provide quick solutions while under time constraints. Accommodating can maintain harmony in the relationship if the issue is important to one and not the other. This demonstrates reasonableness in minimizing another’s losses. Integrating shows respect to all involved in the conflict by everyone committing to the solution. This builds a team approach to conflict, preventing destructive means (Wilmot, 2021). Although there are many advantages to these conflict styles, there are also many disadvantages. Avoidance preserves the conflict by letting it stew rather than reducing the tensions of the conflict. It gives a perception that there is no mutual influence, even though that is certainly not true. Dominating conflict style causes competition with the need to win the conflict, ultimately harming your relationships. The compromise style can be viewed as taking the easy way out and giving the participant in conflict who chose to compromise a sense of loss, creating a power imbalance. Accommodation or obliging can be seen as weak or having low power, which causes resentment in the relationship by only giving a pseudo-solution. If the integration style is not used correctly, it is a manipulation tactic that creates a power imbalance. If one of the participants is not as committed to the relationship, then integrating is not even worth the effort.

Balancing perceived power makes for stronger relationships with collaborative conflict resolutions. Understanding the differences in how others define power will assist in the different techniques that can be utilized to ensure that the power is balanced and that there is no abuse of power. Understanding the various conflict styles’ advantages and disadvantages will create a recognition amidst conflict to know how to react or counteract appropriately. Overall, giving a positive perception of power and the conflicts within will create better conflict resolutions and more effective, stable relationships.

Methodology

Our findings are based on qualitative research methods, including a critical literature review of conflict and conflict resolution. This approach has allowed us to verify our findings and reach a proper conclusion about addressing workplace conflict. We conducted a thorough examination of Wilmot’s book, Interpersonal Conflict, Oetzel and Ting-Toomey’s book, The SAGE Handbook of Conflict Communication: Integrating Theory, Research, and Practice, and Teylon’s article, “Managing and Resolving Conflict in a Positive Way.” As a reminder to the reader, the focus of this study is an examination of adults' perceptions of workplace conflict by exploring what conflicts they have been involved in or witnessed, what are the perceptions of power in workplace conflict, how workplace conflict affects other employees, departments, and teams, as well as how improving these conflicts will affect the business and the teams.

Sample

In-depth interviews shall be conducted with adult individuals who have been employed and faced a workplace conflict. These participants, aged 18 to 70, have unique experiences and insights crucial to our research. The researcher should start with people they are acquainted with so that they feel a sense of trust that encourages them to share the information needed for this study and then work their way out to people that they do not know but possibly that their initial participant knows so that there is a sense of trust. Their perceptions and attitudes on workplace conflict will be invaluable to the study.

Wilmot’s book, Interpersonal Conflict, was used in a communication conflict class at Purdue Global University and can be accessed through the Purdue Global online library. Oetzel and Ting-Toomey’s book, The SAGE Handbook of Conflict Communication: Integrating Theory, Research, and Practice, was accessed through Arkansas State University’s Dean B. Ellis online library. Teylon’s article, “Managing and Resolving Conflict in a Positive Way,” was found through an online Google search. The keywords used to search for these works were “communication conflict,” “conflict in communications,” and “communication conflict resolution.”

I glanced through chapter titles and skimmed sections for keywords such as “organizational conflict,” “theoretical frameworks,” “qualitative research,” and “constructive conflict.” The literature was received from scholarly sources, making it valid for use.

Interview Instrument

The interview process will involve a series of open-ended and follow-up questions designed to understand the participants' perceptions and attitudes toward workplace conflict. The informed consent statement will be shown to all participants so they can read it, and all participants will have to agree verbally to it before the interview is conducted. Responses will be recorded through audio only to maintain the participants' anonymity and then transcribed by the researcher into the study. The in-depth interview will consist of open-ended and follow-up questions to better understand the responses.

The interviews, conducted through audio recordings, will be transcribed into this study. The researcher will also take occasional notes on paper to capture the general observations of the participants. Once the interviews are transcribed and the notes are entered into this study, all audio interviews will be deleted, and the notes will be destroyed and discarded. These measures are not just protocols but a testament to our commitment to ensuring the complete anonymity of the participants in this study and maintaining the highest ethical standards.

Limitations

The course’s accelerated time frame presents a challenge in conducting this study as comprehensively as we would like. We acknowledge that due to the short time frame, interviews, data, and literature cannot be examined more thoroughly to provide a better understanding of the research. A limited amount of participation can be done within the five-week course. Interviews will have to be conducted separately to understand people’s perceptions of workplace conflict better. We understand that a bigger sample size would create more extensive data among a more diverse group, leading to better findings for this study. We want to ensure that you, as our audience, are aware of these limitations and understand their impact on the study’s outcomes.

Literature Review

Wilmot’s book, Interpersonal Conflict, explores conflict on an interpersonal level, whether in our personal or professional lives. It provides crucial theoretical knowledge on facing conflict, with an in-depth explanation of the different conflict styles and the perceptions of power dynamics in conflict. Wilmot then enters the negotiation stages of conflict to understand how to reach resolutions.

According to Wilmot (2021), power is not owned by any particular person but is a product of the communicative relationship. A high-power person can show restraint and empower a lower-power person, giving them a sense of balance in their relationship. For example, a boss might retrain an employee who has not grasped the concept of the job that they were hired to do instead of just firing the employee. This would give the employees a sense of shared power and, in return, empower them to learn and do better. Lower-power people can utilize the interdependence of a high-power person. Wilmot (2021) states that people are interdependent in getting things done and being acknowledged for their contributions to enhance the relationship. Lower-power people can maintain calm persistence to get to a higher-power level. Remaining engaged and calmly presenting values, beliefs, strengths, and weaknesses will connect you emotionally to the relationships built, giving you a positive outlook on power and their conflicts. Integrative negotiations are when both parties consider each other’s interests, so there is a win/win perspective in conflict resolution. This provides a perceived balance of power. According to Wilmot (2021), this requires both parties to have diverse and everyday interests, resulting in both parties having something to gain from these negotiations.

With its thorough analysis and in-depth exploration of the different aspects of conflict, this comprehensive book is an excellent scholarly source for further research on conflict, conflict resolution, and negotiations.

The SAGE Handbook of Conflict Communication: Integrating Theory, Research, and Practice is a detailed book that guides readers through various conflicts and has chapters on using conflict in quantitative and qualitative research. The authors identify scholarly traditions and other workplace conflict literature and provide research within the perspectives, delving into 10 the two broad precursors of conflict and taking an even deeper dive into the outcomes of workplace conflict. The literature shows off the modern aspect of conflict by including how conflict affects virtual teams and networking.

“The instrumental perspective views workgroup conflict in terms of its effects on group performance and related outcomes. They considered aspects of diversity, technology, and networks within this framework. The developmental perspective views conflict as a natural part of workgroup development; conflict is treated as a phase in a group’s life cycle that offers an opportunity for growth to the group and its members.” (Oetzel & Ting-Toomey, 2013). Oetzel and Ting-Toomey (2013) provide the results of previously conducted studies that demonstrate the direct effects of the different perspectives of conflict on outcomes in the workplace.

This literature is a fantastic source with its detailed definitions, previously conducted studies, and thorough analysis and examinations of all the different aspects of conflict. This book helps further any research related to conflict.

Andrew Teylon’s article, “Managing and Resolving Conflict in a Positive Way,” gives an overview of healthy constructive conflict while providing a few unhealthy responses to conflict. The article details what causes conflict, proving the author’s point that conflict is inevitable and often involves the actions of others. This article outlines the characteristics of unhealthy and healthy responses.

Teylon delves into how others' abilities can create successful conflict resolutions, highlighting the interdependence in conflict management. Teylon (2021) states that conflict mismanagement can damage a relationship. Still, if handled respectfully and positively, the conflict will provide growth, ultimately strengthening the bond of the people involved.

Although Teylon seems to use intimate relationships as the objective of this article, these same concepts can still be applied to a workplace setting in relationships with superiors or coworkers.

References

Oetzel, J. G., & Ting-Toomey, S. (2013). The SAGE handbook of conflict communication: integrating theory, research, and practice (pp. 321-348). SAGE Publications, Inc. https://search-ebscohostcom.ezproxy.library.astate.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e000xna&AN=986795&site= ehost-live.

Teylon, A. (2021). Managing and resolving conflict in a positive way. Journal of Organizational Culture, Communications and Conflict, Suppl.Special Issue 4, 25, 1-2. https://ezproxy.library.astate.edu/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.proquest.com%2Fs cholarly-journals%2Fmanaging-resolving-conflict-positiveway%2Fdocview%2F2608929982%2Fse-2%3Faccountid%3D8363

Wilmot, W. W. (2021). Interpersonal Conflict (11th ed.). McGraw-Hill Higher Education (US). https://purdueuniversityglobal.vitalsource.com/books/9781264164264

Appendix

Interview Instrument Consent to Participate in Perceptions of Workplace Conflict

The following information is provided to inform you of the research project that will be conducted by ____________ under the tutelage of ____________ at ______________. You were selected to participate in this study because you have been employed and faced or witnessed a workplace conflict.

1. Purpose of the study: This study involves research. The purpose of this research is to understand the perceptions and attitudes of workplace conflict. Your responses to interview questions are confidential and only available to the researcher and supervisor.

2. Confidentiality and limits to these assurances: No personally identifiable information will be collected, and the survey will be taken anonymously through willing participants.

3. Procedures to be followed and approximate duration: Participants in the research will participate in an in-depth interview focusing on workplace conflict. This survey will last approximately ___________, and your responses will be combined with other participants.

4. Risks: This research involves no more than minimal risk. The probability and magnitude of harm or discomfort anticipated in the research are not greater in and of themselves than those ordinarily encountered in daily life or during routine physical or psychological examinations or tests.

5. Voluntary Consent: Participation in this interview is completely voluntary. You are free to stop participating and exit the interview at any time. Participants can refuse to answer individual questions throughout the interview. There is no penalty for refusal to participate.

6. Contact information. If you have any questions about this study, you can contact the person(s) below:

Researcher Name: _____________________

Researcher Email: _____________________

Supervisor Name: ________________

Supervisor Email: ________________

Basic Research Questions

Demographic Questions

What is your age?

What is your gender identification?

What is your educational background?

What is your current employment status?

RQ1: What workplace conflicts have you been involved in or witnessed?

RQ2: What perceptions of power do you have in workplace conflicts?

RQ3: How do workplace conflicts affect other employees, departments, or the team? RQ4: How will improving these workplace conflicts affect the business and the teams?