Dr. H.

Kwame Afaglo
(PhD, BSc) 2009

Scenario A
A new Managing Director is just taken charge of ABC
Ltd and tasked with profitability targets from the every
first year. Prior to her appointment, ABC Ltd did
record deficit in the last two years. She starts changing
titles of mangers and appointing new personnel as
departmental heads from her previous firms to the
anger of existing employees.

Scenario B
Besides Mr X who is nicknamed Lion man at work
for his competitive, aggressive and abusive personality,

he secretly undermines his colleagues to the boss,

in return for promotion.

Scenario C
She is overloaded with work, knowing very well
she just returned from maternity leave. Back at
home, she nurses three children and husband. Her
babys nocturnal crying and eating habit allows her
only four hours of good sleep, which is on the hind
side of work. She is not able to meet up with job
deadlines as before, hence her job is on the line.

The following attributes can be derived from scenario as;

Scenario A
i. Anger - from existing employees towards new colleagues
which may be manifested directly or indirectly.
ii. Frustration fresh employees are frustrated.
iii. Anxiety Some employees may not be able to cope with
the poisoned environment, so opt out of the firm.
iv. Change policies to bring about change could be thwarted.
v. Productivity If the bottled anger, frustration, anxiety and
change process are not addressed, production would be
underachieved.
vi. Profitability The consequence of low production goes
from dip in returns, share holders dissatisfaction to denying
consumers of desired product or service.

Scenario B
i. Bully An inappropriate abuse of colleagues based on
stereotyping, gender bias etc.
ii. Anger - Unacceptable direction of anxiety.
iii. Self esteem Low self esteem is mostly associated
with latent undermining of colleagues, grass up of
colleagues, etc.
iv. Trust There is obvious distrust among colleagues.
v. Job lose A number of employees who disagree with
the Lion man type loose their jobs from undermining,
before the perpetrator him or herself falls out of favour
and out of work in shame.
vi. Productivity Lose of key staff could have some
regressive effect on production and profitability.

Scenario C
i. Anxiety Pressures of both domestic and work roles
does account for an appreciable level of anxiety.
ii. Corporate insensitivity Maternity and paternity leave
must not only be the legislated ninety days, but go
beyond that. Line managers inability to tailor work on
individual circumstances (especially returning
mothers) may result in lose of hitherto a key staff.
iii. Competing dual roles Parenting and work is a noted
struggle for most people,

iv.

v.

with especially women dropping out of work to

concentrate on parenting. Worsening the
situation for working mothers is corporate
intolerance for female executives because of
anticipated maternity leave.
Female executives Some corporations do not
enjoy positioning women in an executive
position for reasons of high levels of production
from long working hours.
Self esteem Besides the adverse effect on
production levels due to lose of a hitherto key
staff, it does affect the self esteem of affected
mother.

The most common attribute are:

Conflict
Anger
Anxiety
Self esteem
Productivity (production levels)
It is worth using theoretical understanding to divert
anger, anxiety and low self esteem into high production
and possibly profitability at workplace.
What then is conflict and its interplay with the aforementioned characteristics?

Conflict is an inevitable human phenomenon.

Implying we can not live without it, much as it is
said to be undesirable, hence it is prudent to derive
the progressive components and ameliorate the
unpleasant roles for increased productivity.
Psychologist Sigmund Freud brought to focus the
basic human struggle between instinct for life (self
preservation) and that for death (self destruction)
also known as Thanatos. However, the sense of
self preservation is to be upheld in every
circumstances.

The instinctual struggle between life and death

(thanatos) implies conflict is an innate
phenomenon, hence it can not be eliminated.
Nevertheless, conflict can be ameliorated and
energies channelled for useful purposes.
So there is always going to be conflict within the
individual, within groups, between groups and
communities.
Much as the adverse effects of conflict is been
earlier discussed, its causes and then advantages
must equally be highlighted.

Inasmuch as there are various causes of conflict at

workplace, this presentation would feature few of them
to serve the scenario mentioned earlier.

Self esteem self regard is very significant to an

individuals level of satisfaction or otherwise. A staff
with low self esteem exhibits characteristics as:
Indecision the concerned individual tinkers when
faced with choice.
Pushing blame the individual is quick to push the
blame onto colleague(s) and exonerate him or herself.

Team contribution Individuals with low self esteem

feel inferior within, that inhibits him or her from
contributing to group discussions. During group think,
you would hear them say, Whatever the boss says is
right or agree to every suggestion (yes man) or let
me ask my boss? etc.
Leadership Low self esteem individuals also avoid
leadership roles, and mostly suffer in silence in the
presence of unpleasant experience.
Performance Low self esteem is partly responsible
for under performance.
The converse side of low self esteem personality is
over ambitious individual(s).

Strain - An overly ambitious staff causes anxiety to

him or herself and a strain between themselves and
colleagues.
Production target Unrealisable individual targets are
set by overly ambitious persons, of which makes them
work oriented (workaholic).
Competitive In an attempt to achieve high targets,
overly ambitious individuals become very competitive.
Health Over ambition, extreme competitiveness,
running around to achieve targets, talk a lot and less
listening, more work and less leisure oriented are
characteristics of a Type A personality. Type A
personalities are highly prone to cardio-vascular heart
diseases.

Besides the individual causes of conflict mentioned in

early slides (pages), inter-group and intra-group
differences are another contributing factors.
The We vs. Them or They vs. Us are clichs
associated with inter-group conflicts.
Competition Rivalry among firms rendering the same
or similar products and or services could be intense,
but generates new products , innovation resulting into
lower and affordable pricing. E.g. price war between
Wal-Mart and Tesco in U.K.
Aggression Aggression is instinctual and is needed
for business survival.

Expansionism Share holders ever increasing

demand for higher dividends is driving firms to
expand into the global marketplace. Firms seeking
global clientele must be prepared to meet stiff
competition, more trouble shooting and increasing
meetings at varying levels, etc.
Cultural differences Ethnic differences of staff in
new operating geographical locations other than
home country of firm compared with organisation
culture does breed conflicts.

Rewards and punishment - serve as bases for

individuals to learn to be aggressive or otherwise.
The media (newspaper and television) indirectly
reward less competitive firms per advertisements
and strengthens the customer base of market
leaders with the repeatedly showing of their
images. Another powerful tool is the internet. It is
used for aggressive marketing, which mostly is
intrusive and unacceptably evades individuals
privacy through social networking and emails.

Intra-group conflict is imminent in large societies

where the saying that all men are equal but some
are more equal or inner members , priority
members , ordinary members etc.
Power The lust for authority be it legitimate or
otherwise drives dividing lines within a group.
Aggression Lust for authority and dividing lines
is likely to breed aggression.

Propaganda The ever growing trend of mass

media being used for classification of firms based
on product value, price, customer feedbacks and
other features, to the disgust of non-performing
firms is another cause. It creates animosity
between top firms and mediocre ones, although it
is in favour of consumers and leads to product or
service improvements and expands choice.
Further, propaganda is used to create price wars
between firms. E.g. price comparison website.

i.

ii.

Inasmuch as workplace politics is associated with

acrimony between individuals, groups, xenophobia
among others, causing under-productivity, it is a
mangers responsibility to harness the positive energy
inherent in conflicts for positive use.
Opportunity Conflict gives the subordinate the
chance to air out his or her pent-up feelings and
reservations about superior(s).
Aggression some amount of aggression is needed for
industrial survival and market leadership. Also in
activities as take-overs, price wars, competitiveness
and profitability, market penetration, expansion and
globalisation.

iii.

iv.

v.

Communication conflict resolution pulls down

the barrier between competing departments per
improved communication.
Sublimation Distress among staff could be
reversed into increased productivity with the
help of consultants.
Staff retention- overtly expressing grievance at
workplace through dialogue improves the health
of affected staff and prevents dissatisfied staff
from resigning. Invariable, keeping staff has a
corresponding upshot to production and profits.

Against the backdrop that conflict is inevitable

hence channelling its energises into productive use
is equally important and can be achieved through
managerial approaches. Some of the techniques
are; dialogue, win-win, subordinate goals, coping
mechanism, trouble shooting, among others.
Dialogue Arbitrating between feuding groups
with an external go-between is preferably
recommended to litigation. This saves cost on all
sides (firm, groups or individual).

Catharsis - Giving the aggrieved parties the chance to

speak out is therapeutic in itself, it relieves them of
their anxiety and pent-up feelings.
Win-win agreement As much as possible all parties
involved in the conflict must count some win(s) based
on negotiations.
Superordinate goals Tasking feuding groups on the
same activity from time-to-time would force them to
share thoughts and cooperate for success. Eventually,
the stereotypical (We vs. Them) attitudes would be
minimised and leading to increased production.

Coping mechanism Organisations must engage

psychologist(s) to take staff through psychotherapy to
harness the positive energies in conflict. Besides
sublimation mentioned earlier, repression is another
technique that is useful.
Exercise In-house gyms to be used by staff for
exercising is useful in coping with anxiety from
conflict(s).
Meditation Meditative practices as yoga and
religious activities are also helpful in releasing pent-up
feelings from conflicts and depressing activities.

Thank you.