Paper Topic:

Leadership, Power, and Politics

LEADERSHIP , POWER and POLITICS

Conflict , Management and leadership

Conflict is a natural outcome originating due to individual and group interaction . It is a `friction ' produced due to emotions and behaviors of people working closely rubbing against each other . When people from various backgrounds and beliefs work together , consciously or unconsciously they try to pass their own principles in work aspects creates conflict . However , conflict is not always destructive or regressive . When well managed and directed , it has great utility in substantially improving an organization 's functional and production aspects , along

with helping individuals to evolve a joint philosophy of work and cooperation . However , poorly managed conflict situation impairs the organizational outcome , creating stress , introducing dissatisfaction and reducing efficiency

Characteristics of Conflict

The round the clock work schedules , trans-national nature of jobs , and strain in today 's world have worked together to make conflict an unavoidable part in life of people . Work related stress , with pressures of allocation and management , setting , defining and achieving challenging goals , and all the time trying to coordinate with different individuals give rise to perfect conditions for conflict to emerge within organizations (Bergman and Volkema , 1989 . But before any attempt to resolve conflict it is important to understand the characteristics of conflict that an organization generally faces . According to Baron (1990 , a study of various organizational parameters indicated towards five characteristics of conflict . These are

1 . Conflict due to contrasting or opposing field of interests between or among individuals or groups

2 . Recognition of these opposing interests by the interested parties

3 . Conflict centers on a perception by each side that its opposing party would injure its interests

4 . Conflict is not a stage , rather a process and it results from the way individual and groups define their relations through the past interaction

5 . Actions and efforts by each party with the intention of negating other 's goals

Conflict management and leadership

Leadership has a great role to play in conflict resolution . A leader with qualities with excellent communication , understanding and negotiation can be instrumental in bringing the positive outcome through the issues involved in the conflict . As the business and corporate management has realized , leadership greatly helps to alleviate conflict situation due to its inspirational value . Leadership essentially about encouraging people to pool themselves together towards achieving common goals and objectives (Rosenbach and Taylor , 1998 , 1 . Leadership further empowers individuals , helps them to rise above their rank and position within the organization to associate themselves and their colleagues with specific works , duties and responsibilities and enables them to identify and set their own directions , work on commitment and take challenges (Day and Halpin , 2004 , 3 . Its not surprising then that companies are ready to invest hugely in leadership development program as a guaranteed way to emerge ahead than their competitors

Within every social , institutional or organizational structure , a leader is always looked upon the person with abilities to broach reconciliation and resolution in situation of conflict . Leadership entails elements of power and authority that are...

5 pages

31.5 KB

Free sing-up