What triggers workplace conflicts, and how has the nature of these conflicts evolved over time? What emerging trends or challenges do you foresee in workplace conflict management?
SS Stephens Robins defines “Conflict broadly as a process that begins when one party perceives another party has been affected or is about to negatively affect something the first party cares about. Conflict describes the point in ongoing activity when inter-action becomes disagreement. People experience a wide range of conflicts in organisations over an incompatibility of goals, differences in interpretations of facts, disagreements over behavioural expectations, and the like. Contemporary perspectives differentiate types of conflict based on their effects. Functional conflict supports the goals of the group, improves its performance, and is thus a constructive form of conflict. For example, a debate among members of a work team about the most efficient way to improve production can be functional if unique points of...
