…the case for managing the impacts of disagreements and conflicts within a misaligned workplace culture
The best time to repair the roof, as the saying goes, is when the sun is shining. The statement reflects a need for a proactive conflict management guide, and solutions becoming an integral part for which the organisation is built, leadership commits and invests to preserve an aligned business culture. For it is a fact that most organisations of our contemporary business world are highly political entities, and much of their goal-related efforts are directly attributable to political processes. The political nature of organisations exemplifies the intensity of political behaviour resulting in its political actors engaging in some acts, behaviours and attitudes that conflict with set rules.
Although it is necessary to build a level of mutual respect crucial for a healthy workplace or organization culture, the situation with some organisations may differ – somewhat creating a pathway for disagreements and conflicts. But it is acknowledged that all successful organisations thrive on alignment. Their culture, strategy and talent must all shift and move in harmony. If any of these three pillars of success are askew, there is oftentimes disagreements and conflicts – hence danger for performance.
Perhaps the culture of any organisation has a role to play in all workplace conflict situations because conflicts occur as a state of discord caused by the actual or perceived opposition of needs, values and interests between people working together. Having mentioned that, workplace culture ought to be seen as the most significant factor influencing employee engagement, work relationships and job satisfaction.
Conflicts, which are common problems in many workplaces, groups and organisations, unfortunately can lead to a number of negative influences – not only on individual employees, but the business itself. The resultant effects lead to negative behaviour; such as physical or verbal fighting, lower productivity due to job-related stress and dissatisfaction.
However, an organisation built on aligned culture always seeks to unite people with different backgrounds, temperaments, experiences and preferences along a common goal. The organisation’s culture will determine whether it will succeed or even survive in disagreements and conflicts. Again, the organisation’s culture has greater impact or influence in whether there will be more occurring conflicts in the organisation; and if they do happen, there are approaches to deal with them so that their impacts are not destructive.
Meanwhile, to manage organization-related conflicts is to improve organisational practices that can help resolve the conflicts – including establishing superordinate goals; reducing vagueness; minimising authority and domain-related disputes; improving policies, procedures and rules; reapportioning existing resources or adding new, altering communications; movement of personnel and changing reward systems.
The character and culture of politically-charged organisations
Everyone has experienced situations whereby some individuals within organisations wield their power in inappropriate ways. The character of a conflict-prone organisation demonstrates differing personal values and segregation.
Whenever an organisation’s policies are changed, inconsistently applied or are non-existent, misunderstandings are likely to occur. When employees do not know and understand the rules and policies and have to resort to guessing, it poses a great challenge. The absence of clear policies or policies that are constantly changing can create an environment of uncertainty – and conflict, as well.
The obvious outcome is that when goals of the organisation are ambiguous, more room is available for politics. As a result, employees may pursue personal gain under the guise of pursuing organisational goals. Again, one will equally find politics surfacing when resources are scarce and allocation decisions are not appropriately made. Under political behaviour conditions, ambiguity and uncertainty are increased; thereby triggering political groups interested in pursuing certain courses of action detrimental to the organisation’s welfare.
Understanding Conflicts within an Organisation
The subject of disagreements and conflicts at workplace now lay at the periphery of corporate life as never before; such that the way people feel about themselves and others in the workplace greatly affects their productivity and overall success of the organisation. When conflict occurs in the workplace, it certainly reduces morale, lowers work productivity, increases absenteeism and causes large-scale confrontations that can lead to serious and violent crimes.
Meanwhile, the need to know and manage workplace conflicts will provide the framework to help managers understand when and how workplace conflict can become corrosive, and how to navigate them more effectively to harness their potential to strengthen the organisation.
Generally, conflict is seen as sharp disagreement or opposition of interests or ideas. In other words, what I want does not match what you want. Conflicts or tension here can be caused by a number of different factors. These factors may be minor or major issues about certain changes in the work environment which can lead to increased aggression that could be attributed to heightened anxiety and stress.
Its resultant impacts are the effects on productivity of both managers and employees, which can have a far-reaching impact on overall organisational performance if not managed well. The array of behaviours and disagreements may lead to consequences of causing bodily harm to employees, posing physical danger for customers, creating public relations crises, and harming the firm’s business reputation as a whole.
Aligning Culture with Organisational purpose
What happens when there is a misaligned organisational culture is that the entire organisation suffers. The key is that culture is extremely important to performance of the organisation’s health, people performance and strategy execution.
The warning signs, however, are that an organisation may have a misaligned culture characterised by indications of lacking leadership commitment to model the desired culture; inaccessible senior executives; no clear culture link to business strategy; low employee engagement; lack of rewards and recognition; power and control of critical resources, and more.Obviously, the organisation’s culture clearly sees leadership starting at the top. So, for instance, if the leadership is out of sync with the desired culture, employees will notice and eventually adopt behaviours that are detrimental to successful, modelled and rewarding functioning of the organisation.
However, if employees feel out of touch with business leaders – either because their leaders are unapproachable or too alike in their thinking – a positive organisational culture is hard to sustain. In any aligned culture, openness and diversity add richness to solving problems, making decisions and forging new ground.
Managing for goal and cultural alignment
When the team isn’t stepping up to the plate, performance is low; there is lack of innovation and creativity and the status quo stifles growth. When the same issues are revisited again and again with little progress, its a sure sign that the employees are not on the same page because there is no clear, committed strategy; or expectations are from goal and culture misalignments.
Since an organisation’s greatest asset is its employees, who make up the mindshare and knowledge base to serve the current and future customers, internal alignment is essential to success of the business. Get alignment right and the organisation creates a pathway to growth. Get it wrong, and misaligned priorities stifle the organisation’s growth and success.
Therefore, leaders of the organisations ought to be responsible for managing alignment within the organisation to curtail possible conflicts and internal wrangling. Whereas external alignment, where the focus is on positioning the organisation to be in the right place and at the right time for success, internal alignment ensures all the gears of a company are turning in the same direction and keeping the momentum flowing. If internal alignment is skewed, there will inevitably be friction and turbulence; hence hindering results and leaving the organisation in a bad spot.
Leaders must identify gaps between Strategy and Performance
When there is a disconnect between the strategy and performance of an organisation, employees are often left out of the loop and this may create conflict. Just because leadership thinks strategy aligns with organisation performance does not mean it’s aligned with the corporate strategy. That’s where effective leadership comes in to bridge the gap between the idea and the reality.
By aligning goals across the company, leadership make room for their employees’ freedom and sense of autonomy needed to pursue their own goals within the larger framework of corporate strategy. This process can align through the project and contribute to pursuing the organisation’s strategy, with the result leading to a successful conclusion for employees and the business.
Making this strategy work for the organisation is gratifying, but can also be a balancing act on its own. As a leader, how do you know when goals may not be attainable, and/or how progress of current goals and individuals is performing?
The role of leadership to manage conflicts
Leadership of teams must be on the same page regarding expectations, and this starts with having clearly defined and aligned core values. This is just the first step; once core values are defined, the behaviours that exemplify the value must be identified and clearly communicated. Expectations can then be set around all team-members and consistently implemented to reinforce desired behaviours to avoid conflicts.
Teams are normally united in a common purpose, which builds a solid foundation for an organisation. This is accomplished by communicating and collaborating with each member on company strategy, goals, vision, mission, values and role expectations. For leadership with the strategy and skills for success, aligning the people to core business and organisation purposes is highly important.
The best way to manage misaligned organisation culture is to create a sense of connectedness around a common goal. When people unite around a problem or an idea, they have greater buy-in to the process. It gives them a more immediate sense of belonging, and defines what their failure to perform at a high level will mean for their peers.
Leaders must commit to revisiting and measuring performance metrics continuously. An effective, cohesive leadership team is critical in developing the sustainable, competitive edge necessary for consistently realising results and addressing conflicts. To that effect, in politically-charged organisations, leaders must necessarily be able to engage, energise and mobilise their teams toward understanding and driving a common goal through the provision of reward incentives, clear guideposts and awareness creation.
Discovery….Thinking solutions, shaping visions.
Frank is CEO and Strategic Partner-AQUABEV Investment and Discovery Consulting Group.
