The traditional view of conflict in the workplace is that it serves no purpose and distracts managers. It is seen as a result of poor management and harmful to the organisation. Conflict is caused by ‘trouble-makers’ and ‘boat rockers’. The traditional view holds that through proper management and the removal of trouble maker’s conflict can be eliminated.
The contemporary view of conflict is a lot different and far more progressive. Conflict is seen as inevitable. It is sometimes necessary to ensure high performance. It accepts that in some situations conflict may be harmful however it recognises that some forms of conflict may be useful in achieving desired goals. Conflict may encourage the search for new tactics and strategies and focuses on the successful management of conflict as opposed to the total elimination. (Extracted from Vecchio 2005)
Successfully managing conflict requires expertise. Many smaller organisations can’t justify employing HR professionals to do the managing of this and many other human resource related issues. The option of employing a part-time HR professional is one they may consider….I’d love to think so.