Conflict's role in Organizations

Most people probably regard conflict as negative and something to be avoided at all costs. However, Hatch sees conflict as being functional and beneficial for organizations. On page 304, she says that "conflict can stimulate innovation and adaptability". This view was reinforced by an article I read in this month's issue of The Harvard Business Review. Jeff Weiss and Jonathan Hughes write about how conflict can help companies achieve higher levels of collaboration in their article “Want Collaboration? Accept--and Actively Manage—Conflict”.
There are many ways that companies try to improve collaboration among the various departments of the organization. Some of these include incentive initiatives to promote cooperation across units, restructuring the organization itself, and group training to foster teamwork. Sometimes these initiatives do generate success, but most produce only some degree of impact on the dissolution of “organizational silos” and promoting collaboration. So what is the problem? The problem is that most companies focus on the symptoms ("Sales and delivery do not work together as closely as they should") rather than on what is the main cause of failure in cooperation: conflict. Collaboration can't be improved until the issue of conflict is addressed. The authors offer six strategies for effectively managing conflict. The first three strategies focus on the point of conflict. This is what Hatch calls “horizontal conflict” (p. 305). They suggest:
1. devise and implement a common method for resolving conflict
2. furnish workers with criteria for making trade-offs
3. use the escalation of conflict as an opportunity for coaching
The second three strategies focus on escalation of conflict up the management chain which would be what Hatch calls “vertical conflict” (p. 306). These strategies attempt to
1. insist on joint escalation
2. make sure that managers resolve escalated conflicts directly with their counterparts instead of allowing it to escalate up the line
3. make the practice of escalated conflict-resolution transparent
Used together, these six strategies provide an agenda to effectively manage conflict in daily managerial decisions. A barrier to cross-organizational collaboration will be removed and the organization will prosper.
jane