An Investigation into Workplace Conflict

An Investigation into Workplace Conflict

Abstract

As is commonly the case in new areas of research, workplace bullying researchers and practitioners has struggled to establish a single agreed-upon definition of this phenomenon. As a consequence, there are numerous definitions of workplace bullying currently in use around the world to investigate this serious workplace issue, to educate the workforce about this form of harassment and to assess claims involving allegations of workplace bullying. Additionally, little is known about how employees and people in general define workplace bullying behaviour, and whether current researcher, practitioner and legal definitions coincide with lay definitions of bullying. To compare researcher, practitioner and legal definitions of workplace bullying with lay definitions, the content of definitions composed by adults from diverse personal and professional backgrounds (N = 1095) was analysed. Results confirmed that components commonly used by researchers and practitioners, including the occurrence of harmful and negative workplace behaviours, were frequently cited by participants as central defining components of bullying behaviour. In addition, lay definitions often included themes of fairness and respect. The emergence of these themes has important consequences for organisations responding to, and attempting to prevent the occurrence of workplace bullying behaviour in that organisations in which bullying is tolerated may violate both local laws as well as their ethical responsibility to provide employees with a safe, professional and respectful workplace.(Salin,2001)

Table of Content

Abstract2

Table of Content4

Chapter15

Introduction5

Background of Study5

Purpose o F Study6

Hypothesis7

Chapter28

Literature Review8

Organizational Conflict - The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly10

Conflict:11

Conflict management typologies:12

Competence-based view to conflict:14

Adult-Adult relationship20

In Training, Free Choice is the Key22

No blame environment22

A Learning Organization24

Walking the talk26

Chapter327

Methodology and Result27

Participants27

Materials and procedure29

Results31

The perpetration of a negative behavior37

Negative effects of workplace bullying38

Unprofessional conduct39

Intent40

Discussion41

Chapter446

Conclusion46

References49

Chapter1

Introduction

Background of Study

A major issue facing organisations worldwide is the occurrence of bullying behaviour amongst employees. Prior to the 1990's, research on workplace harassment focused primarily on the serious issues of racial discrimination and sexual harassment. Harassing workplace behaviours that did not stem from race, gender or other legally protected attributes were underinvestigated. In 1992, Adams coined the term “workplace bullying” to describe a category of harassing behaviour that employees may be subjected to at any stage of their career, regardless of their membership in a protected class based on gender, ethnicity, age, etc. Preliminary investigations of this relatively new topic of workplace research demonstrate that employees report being subjected to bullying more frequently than to other harassing behaviours including gender discrimination, as well as sexual and racial harassment. Moreover, a growing body of research has documented the negative, sometimes devastating consequences that workplace bullying can have on both the employees who are targeted and on the organisation . Given the prevalence of bullying and its potentially negative influence on employee and organisational well-being, it is not surprising that since the early 1990's, this workplace issue has attracted the attention of researchers worldwide. In the past decade, a number of studies have been conducted to advance our understanding of this complex interpersonal behaviour.(Einarsen,1997)

Purpose o F Study

The key aim of this study was to investigate the ...