Chapter Eleven –
Organizational Conflict
Understand a definition of conflict.
Know the major types of conflict in organizations.
Define intraorganizational conflict.
Know the types of intraorganizational conflict.
Define interorganizational conflict.
Describe the stages of a conflict episode.
Know conflict behaviors.
Define conflict management.
Describe process interventions and structural interventions.
Understand the limits to conflict management and its
application to criminal justice organizations.
 Understand the role of conflict in organizations.
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 A dynamic process in which two or more individuals in an
organization interact in such as way as to produce “conflict
episodes” that may or may not lead to hostile behaviors (Pondy,
1985).
 Pondy (1983) suggests four ways of understanding conflict in
organizations.
o Antecedent conditions – resource scarcity, policy
differences, disagreement over outcomes.
o Producing affective states in workers – stress, hostility, or
anxiety.
o Individual employee’s cognitive states – the employee’s
awareness of the conflict.
o The conflict behavior itself – passive resistance, outright
confrontation, or aggressive behavior.
 There are four general types of conflict
within organizations.
o Personal
o Group
o Intraorganizational (within the organization)
o Interorganizational (outside the organization)
 Exists within the individual.
 Usually caused by some form of cognitive
conflict.
 Typically the result of failed expectations.
 Cognitive dissonance (Festinger, 1957)
o Occurs when an employee cannot
reconcile his own expectations with those
of his superiors.
 Occurs when individuals disagree or compete for
resources.
 Resolution is essential to the survival of the group.
 May even enhance the group’s effectiveness in the long run.
 Group conflict can be defined by its nature and scope.
o Task conflict – conflict among group members about
the content of the tasks being performed.
o Relationship conflict – conflict caused by
interpersonal incompatibility among members of the
group.
 Task and relationship conflict may affect group cohesion,
but the effects may vary.
 Caused by the structural makeup and delegation of
authority in an organization.
 Four major types
o Vertical conflict – exists between workers at different levels
in an organizational hierarchy.
o Horizontal conflict – exhibited by units that are at the same
hierarchical level in an organization.
o Line-Staff conflict – apparent in public organizations, when
staff personnel are used to augment and supplement the
work of line managers.
o Role conflict – occurs when an individual is not able to
comprehend or accomplish assigned tasks.
 Role conflict should not be confused with role
ambiguity.
o Role ambiguity occurs when a subordinate perceives
that information about the required tasks of the job is
unclear and inconsistent.
o Role conflict occurs when a subordinate perceives
incompatible expectations about how the tasks should
be performed.
 Role conflict appears to be widespread and
potentially problematic in criminal justice
agencies.
 Occurs when different organizations share a
common purpose but disagree about how that
purpose will be achieved.
o Common form of conflict between components of the
criminal justice system.
o Best solved through improved communications
between agencies.
o Even when solved it can exist among individual actors
within separate agencies.
 Five stages of a dynamic conflict episode.
o Latent conflict - occurs when the conditions that are
the underlying sources of the conflict are present.
o Perceived conflict – occurs when at least one of the
two parties recognizes that a conflict situation exists.
o Felt conflict – occurs when a party personalizes the
conflict situation.
o Manifest conflict – characterized by overt or covert
behavior to bring out the conflict.
o Conflict aftermath – may occur when the antecedent
conditions of the conflict are not resolved satisfactorily.
 Awareness of conflict behaviors helps us
understand the role conflict plays in criminal
justice organizations.
 Thomas (1985) proposed a two dimensional
model each representing an individual’s intention
in a conflict situation.
o Cooperativeness
o Assertiveness
 Different combinations of cooperativeness and
assertiveness produce five distinct conflict
behaviors.
o Competing (assertive, uncooperative) –when one person
places his or her concerns above those of the other person.
o Accommodating (unassertive, cooperative) – satisfies the
concerns of the other individual rather than one’s own.
o Avoiding (unassertive, uncooperative) – neglects both
concerns.
o Collaborating (assertive, cooperative) - attempts to satisfy
the concerns of both parties.
o Compromising (intermediate in both assertiveness and
cooperativeness) - seeks the middle ground.
 Thomas (1985) identifies two ways of dealing with
conflict situations.
o Process interventions – attempts to become directly
involved in the ongoing sequence of events that resolve
the conflict. Two types.
o Structural interventions – attempts to alter the
conditions in a organization that influence the direction
of the conflict episodes. Two types.
 Each approach attempts to resolve conflict.
 Equally effective in intraorganizational and
interorganizational conflict.
 Consciousness-raising interventions – direct
attempts (by supervisors) to change experiences
that shape the parties’ behaviors. Occurs in six
stages.
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Confrontation – each party assumes ill intent.
Truce – confrontation ended by a third party.
Collaboration – ill intent remains but work goes on.
Cooperation – common activities are completed.
Interdependence – both work to resolve conflict.
Integration – support for common good and growth.
 Interaction management – when supervisors
intervene directly in the conflict and suggest
resolution and avoidance of future conflict.
 The organizational conditions that can be altered,
by supervisors, during process interventions
include.
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Personal characteristics – personality conflicts.
Informal rules – used when necessary for resolution.
Constituent pressure – pressure from other groups.
Conflict of interest – incompatibility between parties.
Power and status – affects intensity of conflict.
Organizational policy – can resolve or initiate conflict.
 Designed to reduce conflict by examining and
altering the organizational preexisting conditions
that promote conflict.
o Selection and training interventions. (people)
• Screening procedures to find qualified people.
• Training to insure employees understand objectives.
o Contextual-modification interventions.
(situations)
• Change the context in which the parties interact.
• Aggressive leadership in policy development
process.
 Conflict resolution may be beyond the scope of the
organizations involved.
o Agencies may not have the authority to intervene in the
conflict.
o Agencies may not have the resources to resolve the
conflict in the long term.
 Administrators must accept that sometimes they will not
be able to handle a conflict situation. They might even
make it worse.
 This does not, however, absolve the administrator from the
responsibility to at least attempt a resolution.
 Because compromise is not always possible,
resolving conflict through goal attainment may
not be likely in criminal justice organizations.
 Administrators must be aware of the
consequences (e.g. loss of productivity) of
unresolved conflict between competing groups.
 Conflict management must be economical of
time and effort.
 Conflict can be both beneficial and harmful.
 Beneficial conflict;
o Improves system responsiveness,
o Promotes change, or
o Improves relationships.
 Harmful conflict;
o Jeopardizes the functioning of the unit, or
o Escalates to the point of violent confrontation.
 Conflict is a dynamic process that affects workers
differently.
 The major types of conflict are personal, group, intraorganizational and inter-organizational.
 The types of intra-organizational conflict are vertical,
horizontal, line-staff and role.
 Inter-organizational conflict occurs when differing
organizations sharing a common purpose but disagree on
how that purpose will be achieved.
 The stages of a conflict episode are latent, perceived, felt,
manifest and aftermath.
 The types of conflict behaviors are competing,
accommodating, avoiding, collaborating and
compromising.
 There are two types of interventions in conflict
management – process and structural.
 Conflict management in criminal justice agencies may be
limited by competition, consequences and economics.
 Conflict within criminal justice organizations can be both
beneficial and harmful.
 The Chief of Police and District Attorney at are at odds with
each other.
 The Chief of Police believes that the District Attorney is too
quick to offer plea bargains to driving while intoxicated
defendants, thereby reducing their sentences and the
potential for increased penalties for subsequent offenses.
 The District Attorney argues that plea deals improve her
efficiency, especially when dealing with “borderline” cases.
 Both parties have publically expressed their conflict in the
local media.
 What type of conflict is this?
 From the perspectives of both the Chief of Police and the
District Attorney, what stage is this conflict in?
 Using Thomas’ (1985) model, how would you classify these
individuals’ conflict behaviors?
 Which strategy (process or structural) would most likely
resolve this conflict?
 What limitations exist (within the criminal justice system)
that would impede a resolution of this conflict?