Conflict Management in the 4.0 Industrial Revolution

Khatijatusshalihah, Irin Riamanda

Department of Psychology, Syiah Kuala University, Indonesia

Keywords: Conflict Management, Organization, Workplace, Industrial Revolution.

Abstract: In organizations few things are predictable, but one thing that is a guarantee is that there will always be

conflict. What is important is not avoiding conflict, but instead managing conflict as it arises. Conflict

management is the process of limiting the negative aspects of conflict while increasing the positive aspects

of the conflict. Each style has its pros and cons. It is important to know which type of management style to

use, depending on what type of conflict has arisen. 11 academic journals were analyzed to show all the

different aspects of conflict management and how they all affect each other. Conflict management has much

strength, and also contains some limitations that must be overcome in order to solve conflict successfully.

Finally, theoretical and practical contributions are discussed, including essential components for creating

good conflict management programs.

1 INTRODUCTION

Every day in life we face conflicts. Conflicts occur

in many ways, such as a conflict between family,

friends, colleagues, institutions, and between

ourselves. Some conflicts are destructive while some

others are constructive. Conflict is best defined as

the by-product of inconsistent or incompatible

perceptions and expectations regarding what it is,

what could be, or what should be (Robin, 2014).

In organizational setting, conflicts are a

pervasive fact of organization life; whenever people

need to work together conflicts are likely to emerge.

Conflicts may occur between co-- workers, an

employee and supervisor, teams and division, or on

the inter-organizational level (Ayoko et al., 2014).

Research on conflict management shows that the

way conflict is managed in the workplace impacts

the process and outcomes of conflict, both for

individuals and for organizations (Trudel & Reio,

2011). Poorly managed workplace or organizational

conflict affects the level and frequency of future

conflict and has a negative effect on employee

learning, productivity, and job performance (Trudel

& Reio, 2011).

In the workplace, even minor arguments and

disputes can take a toll on individual careers,

personal health, relationships, teamwork, and overall

productivity. Conflict can sour the climate of the

organization, undermine morale, interfere with

performance, or erupt into dangerous and violent

confrontations. According to Robin (2014)

“conflicts can cause loyal, valuable employees to

become alienated, forcing voluntary or involuntary

terminations. Various studies from the fields of

management and human resources maintain that

supervisors and managers spend 18-25 percent of

their time on conflict management. Additionally,

costs in production, employee turnover, sick time,

and conflict-related absenteeism take an additional

toll.”

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

There are five types of conflict management styles:

(1) integrating (collaborating or problem-solving),

(2) dominating (competing or forcing), (3)

accommodating (obliging), (4) avoiding, and (5)

compromising. Trudel & Reio (2011), Robin (2014).

According to Trudel& Rio (2011) “integrating style

is indicative of a high level of concern for both one’s

goals and others’ goals in conflict. This style

involves a problem-solving orientation and a

willingness to explore and work with the other

person to find options that will be mutually

acceptable and maximize joint gains. Openness and

exchange of information characterize the style. The

dominating style reflects a high concern for one’s

goals along with a low concern for others’ goals.

Khatijatusshalihah, . and Riamanda, I.

Conﬂict Management in the 4.0 Industrial Revolution.

DOI: 10.5220/0009441202170222

In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Psychology (ICPsy 2019), pages 217-222

ISBN: 978-989-758-448-0

217

This style is evidenced by a win–lose orientation

with attempts to accomplish objectives without an

account of the other person’s needs. The

accommodating style involves a low level of

concern for one’s goals but a high concern for

others’ goals. A person who attempts to minimize

differences by giving in to the other person and not

expressing his or her own concerns manifests this

style. The avoiding style is associated with having

low concern for both one’s goals and others’ goals.

It is characterized by attempts to withdraw, deny,

and disengage from a conflict situation. Changing

the topic or making irrelevant remarks are efforts to

avoid conflict. Compromising indicates a moderate

concern for one’s goals and others’ goals. It is

evidenced by a give-and-take approach, seeking

middle ground through each person’s giving up

something to reach a solution.”

Among all those styles, the integrating style is

considered to be the most constructive. Research

indicates that styles of conflict and levels of conflict

were found to be significantly related to individual

job satisfaction, with the integrating and

compromising styles being positively related to

interpersonal outcomes, while dominating,

accommodating, and avoiding styles negatively

related to interpersonal outcomes (Trudel & Rio,

2011).

According to Tinsley & Brett (2001) “Conflict

may be managed by (1) Joint decision Making; (2)

Third-party decision making; (3) Separate action,

including unilateral behaviours such as retreat,

withdrawal and tacid coordination.” There is a

misleading stereotype stated that successful leaders

have long been thought to make tough decisions and

then use their power to enforce compliance

(Tjosvold, 2014). Discussions among people with a

diverse perspective very much contributes to making

high -quality decisions, as conventional thinking is

challenged, threats and opportunities are identiﬁed,

and new solutions are forged. Even in a crisis,

leaders are typically more effective when they seek

out diverse views. According to (Tjosvold, 2014)

“rather than making tough decisions alone, effective

leaders are oriented toward promoting the conditions

and relationships for open-minded discussion of

opposing views among colleagues and employees”.

Leaders with different kinds of styles are effective

the more they develop teamwork, speciﬁcally

cooperative conﬂict management among followers.

Transformational leaders were found effective not

by unilaterally directing employees but by helping

employees manage their conﬂicts cooperatively and

constructively. Government ofﬁcials who exercised

transformational leadership promoted cooperative

conﬂict management that in turn resulted in strong

government–business partnerships. Leaders who

valued productivity and people fostered team

effectiveness by encouraging open-minded

discussion among team members.

3 RESEARCH METHOD

This study seeks to explore how conflict

management is being operated in the era of 4.0

industrial revolution. The authors employ a literature

review in doing this study. To address the research

questions, the authors have limited the search to the

following criteria: (1) Articles that were published in

academic journals (2) Used internet, youth,

parenting, digital parenting, social media, character

education as the keywords, (3) Used qualitative,

quantitative or literature review as their method, (5)

Published in 2009-2019. The last criterion was

chosen under the assumption that there were massive

research that has been conducted on these issues.

Therefore, we tend to analyze the most updated

ones.

4 RESULT AND DISCUSSION

Conflict Management is obviously very important to

a company. “Poorly managed workplace or

organizational conflict affects the level and

frequency of future conflict and has a negative effect

on employee learning, productivity and job

performance” (Trudel & Reio, 2011). There are

many strengths when trying to manage conflict,

however, there are also limitations in conflict

management that will slow down the process.

One major strength in conflict management is

that there is a plethora of choices when it comes to

choosing which style you are going to use. As we

discussed, there are five types of conflict

management styles: integrating, dominating,

accommodating, avoiding, and compromising. There

are various types of conflict that will arise in the

workplace, and if you use the same style of conflict

management for every conflict, only a few of the

conflicts will be successfully secured. Having so

many choices of management ensures that there is

always a right option and there will almost always

be a way to solve the conflict, no matter how unique

or different that problem is. While this is definitely

a big strength in managing conflict, it also can

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become quite the limitation. There are so many

choices of management styles that it can become

confusing which style should be chosen based on the

respective conflict. According to Trudel & Reio

(2011) “the manner in which conflicts were

managed (as determined through the preferred

conflict style) predicted the likelihood of uncivil

behavior.” This shows that it is very important to

choose the right style because it is connected to the

wellness of the behavior in the office. It is

imperative that we realize that sometimes the style is

the complete reason for workplace problems. In

research done by Trudel & Reio (2011), their

findings suggest that conflict management style may

both be an antecedent and antidote to workplace

incivility.” It’s displayed that a dominating approach

predicts great frequent of incivility and the

integrative approach can have a much better result

on relationships. After reading the research results,

one might altogether stop using a dominating

approach and use integrative styles much more

often, however, this is where having a variety of

conflict management styles can become a limitation.

These results do not mean abandon dominating and

only use integrative styles, it simply shows that there

are more conflicts that are resolved by the

integrative approach, and only to use the dominating

conflict style when you absolutely know it is the

right move. Overall, we have seen that there are

many types of conflict and various people involved

in said conflict. It is great to have so many conflict

management styles so that we can choose the one

that fits perfectly, but with so many choices we have

to be extra careful to choose the right one, or risk

causing the workplace incivility in the first place.

A big limitation of conflict management is that

conflict is never -ending. In the article “Applying

conflict management research” it is explained that

conflict is common in teamwork, in leadership, and

indeed in many areas within and between

organizations” (Tjosvold, 2014). This means that as

soon as one conflict has been subdued effectively by

management it is almost certain that there is another

conflict right around the corner. This limitation,

however, shows how important an effective conflict

management system is. With conflict always on the

horizon, any moment of weakness could be

detrimental to an organization and its employees.

With all this conflict, a strong organization must

strive to find the strength that lies inside the

limitation. Tjosvold (2014) explains, “Researchers

have documented that conflict is potentially valuable

as well as ubiquitous in organizations”. This is

significant because some people may say that the

best way to solve conflict is to make sure there is

none in the first place, but that would be dead

wrong. “Research suggests that managing conflict

can contribute to the important reviewing goals of

high -quality publication decisions and developing

the motivation and capabilities of researchers and

reviewers.” (Tjosvold 2014). Conflict is a great

modem for good development within an

organization. The article tells of a story where

employees disagreed about how to apply new

information systems. Employees and managers then

restructured into newer workgroups that we're able

to discuss their differences open-mindedly.

Together, these teams, along with top management

actually developed their company’s new strategic

advantages. There is a very fine line when accepting

conflict into an organization. Conflict can “disrupt

solving problems and learning” but if managed well

and in a normal quantity, discussing conflict openly

can help deal with biases and contribute to making

high -quality decisions (Tjosvold, 2014).

Another strength of conflict management is

results that come from it. Conflict Management

systems can bring a lot to the table if run correctly.

According to the article “Do conflict management

systems matter?” by William Rochel& Paul Teague,

(2012) “Conflict management systems are seen as

contributing to such employer outcomes as

improved productivity”. The article also goes on to

say these systems dramatically reduce the cost of

conflict management to improve employment

relations and give a sense of organizational morale

and loyalty. The advantageous outcomes keep

rolling as they say “Employees outcome associated

with conflict management systems include

perceptions of procedural justice, satisfaction with

outcomes as well as procedures, a better capacity to

resolve destructive conflict, higher work satisfaction,

higher organizational identification and

commitment, more productive working” (Roche &

Teague 2012). As you can see, conflict management

systems have a ton of benefits if implemented

correctly and efficiently.

One thing people might not think about is

conflict management that involves teams composed

of people in different countries. According to

“Getting it together: Temporal Coordination and

Conflict Management in Global Virtual

Teams”(Montoya- Wiess, Massey, Song 2001)

“New pressures Facing organizations have many to

the use of global virtual teams”. A big strength in the

conflict management process is something called

temporal coordination mechanisms. These

mechanisms are “a process structure imposed to

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intervene and direct the pattern, timing and content

of communication in a group and we expect

temporal coordination to affect the causes and

consequences of virtual team conflict” ” (Montoya-

Wiess, Massey, Song 2001). As we discussed

earlier, there are five types of conflict management

styles, however, in virtual teams these behaviors

would have different effect on performance. With

this temporal coordination, we are able to “moderate

these effects” (Montoya- Wiess, Massey, Song

2001) and thus conflict management is even strong

when these teams are not even in the same country.

As it is illustrated, there is a lot that goes into

conflict management, and with a subject so broad

there is are bound to be many strengths and

weaknesses that go along with that. What is

important is not to simply dwell on the strengths and

work around the limitations, but use strengths to

break through your limitations. With so many styles,

and the confusion that may come with it, work your

hardest to create a training program that makes it

crystal clear what style to use in what situation. With

so much conflict being a limitation that makes it

seem like there is no end, you must make sure you

make it clear that conflict is not a bad thing. Conflict

is useful in building stronger relationships and

innovating new ways of solving problems. It is all

about mentality when looking at your limitations,

and mentality can make a world of difference.

5 CONCLUSION

Wherever there are people, there always will be

conflict (Olu, 2014). As discussed above, conflict is

a never-ending issue; however, it is meaningful to

build stronger relationships in an innovative method

while conflict management is taking place. Conflict

management is the ability to be able to identify and

handle conflicts sensibly, fairly, and efficiently. As

future Human Resource Development (HRD) and

Training and Development (T&D) practitioners, we

have to deal with conflict in the workplace every

day. The most important thing is to not only know

what conflict management is about but also to have

the capability to identify problems among colleagues

and to assist them in overcoming and solving the

problems. By doing so, we have to know the

significance, effect, and consequence of conflict

management in HRD and T&D fields.

People’s issues are much more important than

technique issues in business settings. With a Human

Resource Development (HRD) perspective, the

HRD practitioners have to understand the

significance of conflict management because it plays

a very important role at workplaces to prevent

conflicts in order for the employees to concentrate

on their work (Olu, 2014). Nothing productive will

ever come out if the employees are constantly

engaged in conflict with each other. In order to

motivate employees, HRD practitioners are required

to know employees’ strengths and weaknesses, as

well as to understand their needs both at work and

outside of the workplace (Olu, 2014). This way,

employees would feel more supportive and have

more motivation for commitment to the

organization. It is always the key to motivate

employees to one hundred percent of work

efficiency to ensure maximum productivity. No

organization runs for charity and it has to make

money to survive well.

Conflict management goes a long way in

strengthening the bond among employees and

minimizes the problems, and eventually closes the

gap among them (Kehinde, 2011). HRD

practitioners should know individual differences

such as gender, race, age, personality, capability and

believe that everyone is unique with his or her own

strengths and limitation. So, it is critical to create a

welcoming and open-mind work environment that

makes everyone feel motivated at work and feel free

to share any new ideas. Before implementing new

ideas, it must be discussed with everyone, and no

one should ever feel ignored or left out. This way,

every employee feels indispensable for the

organization and thus strives hard to meet the

expectations of his or her colleagues and to

contribute to the organization in the best possible

way.

In the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, it

is essential to train employees and even leaders

about conflict management skills. People tend to

view conflict as a negative force operating against

successful completion of a group or common goals;

however, conflict can create a negative impact to

group but may also lead to positive effects

depending on the nature of the conflict (Kehinde,

2011). Conflict management skills help to find a

middle way to solve existing problems and

successfully implant new ideas for teamwork. As

we mentioned earlier, there are five conflict

management styles that are integrating, dominating,

accommodating, avoiding, and compromising.

There are also different kinds of conflict that will

arise in the workplace. Problems must be addressed

at the right time with appropriate conflict

management style or skill to prevent conflict and its

adverse effects at a later stage. Through conflict

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management skills, employees have the

opportunities to explore all the possible reasons to

consider which might cause a big issue and try to

resolve it in a timely manner. Conflict is not always

a bad thing. Through conflict management training

and practice, employees will build a healthy

relationship within the team. They will feel

motivated, open-minded, less stress, happy which

made the world definitely becomes a better place to

stay and commitment as a result of conflict

management.

Furthermore, we have to know that conflict is

bound to happen in the workplace. Whether it is

functional or dysfunctional (Olu, 2014), the impact

of conflict can be far-reaching. There are potential

positive consequences of functional conflict arise in

the workplace such as leading to new ideas,

stimulating creativity, motivating changes, helping

employees and groups establish identities, and

leading better communications. Functional conflict

is more likely to yields positive consequences. It

can create trust among employees and within the

organization as a whole. Employees can learn and

grow from each experience through functional

conflict. Moreover, employees are able to express

their thoughts or opinions in a stress-free manner,

which is critical for open and effective

communication. Through functional conflict,

employees could not only build a supportive

network but also create a positive interpersonal

relationship with each other.

On the other hand, however, there are also

possible negative consequences of dysfunctional

conflict such as diverting energy from work,

lowering moral, wasting resources, creating negative

climate, breaking down group cohesion, and

increasing aggressive behaviors. Dysfunctional

conflict often resulted in reducing morale, self-

esteem, and motivation. This negative conflict is

more likely to wedge barriers between individuals,

groups, hindering customer service, creating

negative communication and relationship, which

limits work efficacy as well as an organization’s

development. As a HRD or T&D practitioner, the

keys are to allow healthy conflict to play out and

resolving negative conflict without damaging

employees and the organization.

With what has been illustrated through the

research, conflict management as an Organization

Development (OD) and Training and Development

(T&D) tool has a significant impact on employee's

and leaders’ work effectiveness and organizational

development. Duke (1999) observed that conflict

could arise between individuals or groups in an

organization if the goals are not specified or when

the management shift blame on all. OD and T&D

practitioners, holding a positive attitude toward

conflict is always the first step to find out a solution.

With a positive attitude, most of the negative

conflicts can be managed, resolved, or even

transferred into a positive force. We could also

increase knowledge of differences between

employees and leaders in term of cultural attitudes

and conflict management styles. The second step is

for all the members to learn skills and techniques to

communicate more effectively and focus on the

issue rather than personalities. Not all conflicts are

bad and not all conflicts are good. Hence,

management are duty-bound to resolve conflicts for

the sake of increasing organizational performance,

because the results of successful conflict

management will result to good communication,

time management, good cooperation and increases

organizational performance (Kehinde, 2011)

In conclusion, conflict is an everyday

phenomenon in each organization (Olu, 2014). It is

a natural part of interacting with others. For an

organization to grow effectively and efficiently it

depends on the way it manages the conflict within its

organization (Olu, 2014). Quite often, conflict

arises out of opposing goals, values, and needs. One

important task of conflict management is to create

an environment in which individuals and groups of

people can cooperate with one another to achieve

their goals and the goals of the organization as a

whole (Olu, 2014). With what we have discussed in

this paper, we have gained a better understanding

and more knowledge about the theoretic foundation,

strength and limitation, impact, and application of

conflict management. A well-conceived Conflict

Management System provides qualified assistance

early in the conflict cycle. It serves as an effective

and invaluable Training Development and

Organizational Development tool which can be

utilized to stimulate employees’ motivation, build a

positive network among employees, improve work

productivity, and thus to enhance the organization’s

development and long-term growth.

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