Primary Causes Of Conflict

In the recent past, conflict has been on the rise due to opposing interests and capabilities amongst the parties, because of diverse individual perceptions and expectations. Conflict—organizational, group and individual—is also attributable to the disruption in the structure of expectations and the existence of a will to conflict. According to Sande (2004), conflict is a “difference in opinion or purpose that frustrates someone’s goals or desires.” And some of the primary causes of conflicts are: poor communication—(Joshua 22:10-34), competition over limited resources, such as money and time—(Genesis13:1-12), sinful attitudes and habits that leads to sinful actions and words—(James 4:1-2), and differences in goals, priorities, values, expectations,

interests, and opinions—(1 Cor. 12:12-31).

This is interesting because Sande is looking conflict from the Christian perspective. As such, he said that “we should see conflict neither as an inconvenience nor as an occasion to force our will on others, but rather as an opportunity to demonstrate the love and power of God in our lives.” He however based his statement on 1 Corinthians (10:31-11:1), that says “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God—even as I try to please everybody in every way.” It follows that this Biblical passage is advising us to see conflict as an opportunity to serve others, glorify God and grow to be like Christ. Similarly, Robbins and Judge (2009) defines conflict as “a process that begins when one party perceives that another party has negatively affected, or is about to negatively affect something that the first party cares about.” Most importantly, they went further to define interactionist view of conflict as “the belief that conflict is not only a positive force in a group but that it is also an absolute necessity for a group to perform effectively.” This is important because it is in agreement with Sande’s Christian view of conflict, and I agree with the way they view

conflict.
The reason I agree with them is because I have experienced certain organizational behaviors, such as, our new manager yelling at me in front of other employees.

And I have also watched him address other employees in the same manner, rather than addressing whatever concern he might have one-on-one inside his office. One good thing about the incident with my boss was that an employee later asked why I wasn’t angry, and I said it is because of my love for God, as such, I have learned to be patient and tolerant in the midst of an ugly situation. In fact, she promised to visit my church as a result of that incident. Thus, that incident appeared to have brought glory to God. This is a clear example of poor communication which is
Conflict process—Communication:
. Communication can be defined as a process by which information can be exchanged between two people or more. That is, between a sender and a receiver and it creates meaning between the parties. It involves the process of transmitting, receiving, and sharing ideas, facts, attitudes values, and opinion (Ortmeir & Meese 2010). Hence, Communication is no doubt, one of the sources of conflict in an organization. For example, my recent experience with my new boss suggests that he needs to improve his communication skills, if not, conflict is guaranteed.

Negotiation:
According to Fischer (2015), negotiation is a process in which two more parties exchange goods or services and attempt to agree on the exchange rate for them. This goes show that negation is very important in an organization. Unfortunately, some organization fails to utilize negotiation as a means of settling conflict when it arises. For instance, my boss needs to start making use of negations, rather that yelling at employees in presence of other employees.