Conflicts in Workplace Relationships

Conflicts in Workplace Relationships
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Date Conflicts in Workplace Relationships Introduction             Interpersonal communication plays an essential role in interactions among individuals in the workplace. Individuals are required to speak to their peers, seniors, and other organizational stakeholders to ensure operations can run smoothly. Consequently, communication not only plays a role in transmitting knowledge and information to each other but also enables the development of relationships (Solomon & Theiss, 2022). The ability to converse and share through interpersonal interactions thus remains a key pillar of socialization for human beings. Therefore, while the results of such interpersonal communication are aimed at being beneficial to its users, it can also be harmful when handled inappropriately, leading to workplace conflicts. With individuals coming from different backgrounds, organizations are bound to have a variety of cultures and beliefs that can possibly differ leading to misunderstandings (Jones et al., 2018). It is, therefore, important in professional settings to understand how to use communication effectively to enhance the working environment and promote meaningful interactions among employees. Interpersonal Communication in the Workplace             There are various elements of interpersonal communication involving the message, channel, context, feedback, and the parties themselves. The communication parties involve the sender, who originates a message, and the receiver, who is the intended recipient. The message entails the information or data intended to be passed to another party, while the channel involves the element used to move the message from one individual to the other (Lane, 2016). Context is essential in communication since it considers the general atmosphere and mood in the area and the people to whom the message is to be sent. This is particularly important because, despite a message's importance or relevance, bringing it up in the wrong context can develop serious problems among the involved parties. Apart from that, the feedback entails the reactions once the message starts being delivered to the other party (Aloia et al., 2020). These elements must work together for information to be passed and for appropriate communication to occur. Further, each element must be considered during packaging information to form a message since conflicts can arise from misusing one of these elements. Furthermore, different types of interpersonal communication are used in the workplace, including verbal, non-verbal, written, and listening. Verbal communication involves the use of words to speak and send a message, while non-verbal communication requires the use of cues, such as facial expressions or gestures that imply differently when communicating. Apart from that, written communication includes writing to pass a message, while listening requires receivers of messages to pay attention and focus on the message to interpret and respond to it correctly (Berger & Roloff, 2019). These areas of communication are extensively used in the workplace, where messages require prompt and accurate action to run operations efficiently. In this case, appropriately engaging these different types of interpersonal communication promotes quick and effective models of interaction that are key in managing organizations. Ineffective interpersonal communication has serious consequences for organizations, including chaos, misunderstandings, and conflicts that negatively affect them, wasting time and resources to correct the situations. With teams consisting of different people with different capabilities, the possibility of conflicts arising at any point in time is very high. Some consequences of such conflicts include increased frustration, misdirected anger, temporary fixes, and increased disrespect (Guo & Cionea, 2017). In the long run, unresolved issues in the workplace grow to unmanageable levels that can ultimately impact service delivery and sometimes result in high staff turnover. Therefore, understanding how these conflicts develop and expand in the workplace becomes essential to put in place measures to intervene and prevent them from affecting operations. Development of Conflicts in the Workplace Conflicts in the workplace are common phenomena that occur between two or more individuals. These conflicts can be triggered or occur in an organization for several reasons hence individuals need to understand and acknowledge the presence of conflicts to provide an opportunity for them to be resolved. Comprehending how these conflicts can affect the relationships among employees and how they can be resolved can lead to improved interpersonal communication skills (Crossman, 2022). With organizations nowadays having a huge workforce from multicultural backgrounds, conflicts can become inevitable due to differences in perceptions, understanding, and beliefs. Therefore, both employers and employees should be able to look for verbal and nonverbal signs that point to a developing or ensuing conflict in their organizations. The most prevalent types of conflicts in the workplace include value, ego, and fact conflicts that are due to personal beliefs and behavior that may be different from others. In the case of value conflicts, individual beliefs about certain aspects of life, such as religion, can differ in significant ways and hence cannot be solved easily. Value conflicts are more prevalent in organizations with diverse employees hence multiple individuals from multicultural backgrounds work together. In such cases, such conflicts require a compromise where each party can acknowledge the values of others and learn to work together. On the other hand, ego conflicts arise when neither party agrees to accept defeat leading to further escalation. In contrast, fact conflict occurs when information or perceived truths differ among people, showing a difference in knowledge and perception capabilities (Brett, 2018). Ego and fact conflicts are majorly caused by interpersonal convictions of superiority, hence can only be solved when such individuals accept the point of view of others. These types of conflicts can adversely affect the relationships among coworkers or with the employer, thus hindering optimal working conditions. Consequently, it is important to understand how employees and employers can identify signs of conflict and implement measures to avoid or resolve them in time. Effects of Workplace Conflicts             Conflicts in the workplace have significant effects on the operational efficiency of an organization. This is because of the disruptions that continually occur during and after the conflict that require the disruption of attention from the major issues in the company. The major effects of workplace conflicts are identified to be poor performance, reduced morale, development of misunderstandings and overall revenue loss. The compounding of such negative effects of conflicts can lead to irreparable damage to an organization in the long run if interventions are not implemented or fail to work.             Firstly, an effective workplace requires an optimal environment that enables employees to work harmoniously. However, when conflicts emerge, this environment becomes toxic to the performance of the employees. This is because a majority of their time is wasted in unnecessary gossip and arguments trying to determine who is right or wrong. As a result, this leads to the development of stress and tension among them due to the underlying problems that caused the conflict. Wolfgruber et al. (2022) examined the various communication factors that affect the development of inclusive workplaces. Their findings showed that the presence of formal interpersonal communication within the organization was essential in promoting inclusivity and reducing the perceptions of favoritism. Such interpersonal communication is thus important in developing workplace relationships that provide an environment that is considered optimal for increased productivity. The resultant errors and poor decisions in interpersonal communication are, therefore, detrimental to the performance of employees, ultimately affecting the organization's ability to deliver on its mandate.             Apart from that, conflicts can further add to the reduction in employee morale in the organization. Wor...