The difference between functional and dysfunctional conflict is that functional serves a purpose in the organization such as the interest and dysfunctional serves no purpose but to threaten the organization ((Kinicki A. Kreitner R. 2008 p. 277). The five antecedents of conflict are the “overlapping or unclear job boundaries, inadequate communication, unreasonable or unclear policies standards or rules, unreasonable deadlines or extreme time pressure, and competition for limited resources” (Kinicki A. Kreitner R. 2008 p. 77). First overlapping or unclear job boundaries are very common in the workplace, as I come to realize. I was working for this company, whom made it clear my job was a receptionist. Around three month on the job an employee ask me to help with a patient so and I did. Shortly thereafter I was asked to do all types of things, from ordering supplies to patient check-ins. I realize my work was overlapping, all my paper work was not being submitted on time to the department that needed this information to continue their job.
I had no job boundaries, so I went to management and explain what was going on it was explain to me that they were boarding my duties and I will be getting a letter on the matter, two week after I resigned from the company because it was just too much. If I was told of these duties when I was hire it I would have made my decision on whether to accept the job. Inadequate communication can be harmful to a company; I also believe employees and management need to communicate for the organization to be successful.
For example if the company had discuss the changes that was forthcoming I would have taken this into consideration before resigning. Instead other employees were telling me management said to do this and do that. I such not have to be the one to go to management for information a notice should have been sent out to all employees. I believe this would have been effective communication. Unreasonable or unclear policies standards or rules, policies and rules need to emphases before an employee begin his or her job. For example I have seen where one the policies or rules of the company were not upheld.
This policy was diversity; this company pride themselves on that being one of their best attribute. Working in the human resource office you hear and see numerous things, but one situation really stated with me. A potential employee, with all the qualification that they were looking for, but they decided not to hire that person because they had enough of their kind (This was a statement from one of my coworker). I ask the person what she meant by that and she just say they have to have so much employees from different background and they had enough of that group, so they can’t hire that person.
Unreasonable deadlines or extreme time pressure, sometimes management can give employees numerous works in the morning and want it back by the end of the day. You can get so overwhelm because of the time pressure you become stress and can make mistake that can cause the company. Competition for limited resources can be limited funds for certain projects. So employees go against each other for those resources to complete their job, and this becomes a survival of the fittest kind of thing. The “three desired outcomes to conflict are agreement, stronger relationship, and learning” (Kinicki A. Kreitner R. 2008 p. 78). If employee can be in agreement in certain job situations, for instance when one employee is having problem with a project the other employee can give this or her input to help with the project without any resentments. Stronger relationship with your fellow employee can make the work place more pleasant, because everyone respects each other position opinion. Learning is an ongoing process we each can learn from each other as we progress in life. Reference: Kinicki, A. Kreitner R (2008) Organizational Behavior: Key concepts, skills & best practices, Third Edition. Boston, New York: McGraw- Hill Company.
