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rganization.

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Effects of Organizational Conflict

This is an important issue because frequent and powerful hostility arisingfrom conflict can have a devastating impact on the behavior of people inorganizations. Psychological withdrawal from the hostility—such asalienation, apathy, and indifference—is a common symptom that keenlyaffects the functioning of the organization. Physical withdrawal—such asabsence, tardiness, and turnover—is a widely occurring response to conflictin schools. Physical withdrawal is often written off as laziness on the partof teachers who have been spoiled by soft administrative practices.Outright hostile or aggressive behaviors—including job actions, propertydamage, and minor theft of property—are teacher responses to conflictsituations that appear to be too difficult to handle or totally frustrating.

Indeed, the behavioral consequences of conflict in educationalorganizations can be, to put it mildly, undesirable. Ineffective managementof conflict (for example, a hard-nosed policy of punishment for offenses,get-tough practices in the name of administering the negotiated contract,emphasizing the adversarial relationship between teachers andadministrators) can—and frequently does—create a climate thatexacerbates the situation and is likely to develop a

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FIGURE 11.1An ineffective conflict-response-climate syndrome leads to a lower state oforganizational health.

downward spiral of mounting frustration, deteriorating organizationalclimate, and increasing destructiveness, as shown in Figure 11.1 .

Obviously, the health of an organization caught in this syndrome tends todecline. Effective management of conflict, on the other hand, can lead tooutcomes that are productive and enhance the health of the organizationover time, as shown in Figure 11.2 . The point to be emphasized is that

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conflict in itself is neither good nor bad; it is (in value terms) neutral. Itsimpact on the organization and the behavior of people largely depends onthe way conflict is treated.

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The Criterion: OrganizationalPerformance

To speak of organizational conflict as good or bad, or as functional ordysfunctional, requires one to specify the criteria used in judging. Somepeople—many with a humanistic bias—simply find conflict repugnant andseek to abolish it wherever it may be found. Others are concerned about theinternal stress that conflict often imposes on individuals. These problems,in themselves, are not of central concern in organizational terms. After all,there are also people who relish conflict, find it zestful, and seek it out. Theissue, then, is the impact of conflict on the performance capability of theorganization as a system.

Again, the problems of measuring the productivity of educationalorganizations and the discussion of the relevance of the school’s system orschool’s internal conditions (that

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FIGURE 11.2An effective conflict-response-climate syndrome leads to an improved stateof organizational health.

is, organizational culture, interaction-influence system) come to the fore.The functional or dysfunctional consequences of conflict on educationalorganizations are understood best in terms of organizational health,adaptability, and stability.

Modern motivation theory makes it clear that challenge, significance, andthe need to solve problems are important attributes of work that people

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find interesting, enjoyable, and motivating. Also, as has been seen,concepts of participative leadership rest on the conviction that manypeople in the organization have good ideas and high-quality information tocontribute to making better decisions in the organization. In this view,Kenneth Thomas (1976) observed that

[t]he confrontation of divergent views often produces ideas of superior quality.Divergent views are apt to be based upon different evidence, differentconsiderations, different insights, different frames of reference. Disagreementsmay thus confront an individual with factors which he had previously ignored, andhelp him to arrive at a more comprehensive view which synthesizes elements ofhis own and others’ positions. (p. 891)

Finally, there is growing reason to believe (based on both research andexpert opinion) that conflict causes people to seek effective ways ofdealing with it, resulting in improved organizational functioning (forexample, cohesiveness, clarified relationships, clearer problem-solvingprocedures). Speaking of society in general, Deutsch (1973) observed that

conflict within a group frequently helps to revitalize existent norms; or itcontributes to the emergence of new norms. In this sense, social conflict is amechanism for adjustment of norms adequate to new conditions. A flexiblesociety benefits from conflict because such behavior, by helping to create andmodify norms, assures its continuance under changed conditions. (p. 9)

He went on to caution that rigid systems that suppress conflict smother auseful warning signal, thereby maximizing the danger of catastrophicbreakdown.

We all have witnessed repeatedly the wisdom of these observations innational and international events of great and small magnitude. Educatorsin the United States also have seen it closer to home, where fearful

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explosions of pent-up hostility have, not infrequently, followed long periodsof frustration brought on by organizations that thought they had eithercrushed or nimbly avoided impending conflict.

Although few who really understand conflict would advocate its deliberateuse in organizational life, fewer still would advocate seeking its eliminationor avoidance. Rather, by applying concepts of conflict management,organizations can minimize the destructive potential of conflict, on the onehand, and make co