Conflict Identification and Resolution
BUS 610 Organizational Behavior
Prof. Adriene Osborne
March 11, 2014

Conflict Identification and Resolution
Conflict may be defined as a circumstance in which one party negatively affects or seeks to negatively affect another party (Baack, 2012). Conflicts can take on two forms in organizational context, functional and dysfunctional. Functional conflict supports the goals of the group and improves performance, while dysfunctional conflict hinders and destroys group performance (Unknown). Three types of conflict are task conflict this is conflict over content and goals of the work, relationship conflict this is conflict based on interpersonal relationships, and process conflict this is conflict over how work is done (guida1704). Levels of conflict include intrapersonal conflict occurs within and individual, interpersonal conflict occurs between two or more people, intragroup conflict occurs among members of a group, and intergroup conflict occurs between two or more groups (Swlearning).
A conflict situation that I personally experienced at work was over program training. I had been with my company for three years total and with my new county for one and a half years at the time, the conflict took place. Since my time in the new county, they had only sent me to one major training and a minor training for a program that would not be released for a few months. The offer came in to send two workers to program training that could help me be of more assistance to my county. The training session was offered to a veteran of the county and a newbie that had been with the county less than six months. I was upset that I was bypassed for the training as it would have given me more experience and made me more valuable to the county. By seniority standards, I should have been the worker picked to go to the training over the newbie, but I was not. This made me feel inadequate as a worker and made me question my work performance. Instead of talking to my superiors right away about my problem with their decision to not send me to the training, I let myself stew to the point that something had to be said. At that point, I called a meeting with my superiors and asked one of my peers to be present for the meeting. In the meeting, I let my superiors know what was bothering me and why it was affecting me the way that it was. They understood why I felt the way that I did and apologized for not explaining their decision. Because, I had recently been to training for the program that would not would not be released for a few months, it was decided that it was too soon to ask me to cram more policy and information into my brain. This made sense to me and I understood their decision, my only regret was not coming to them with this problem sooner.
My conflict was intrapersonal and it began as a functional conflict a conflict that hindered only the improvement of my performance (Baack, 2012). Since I chose to sit and stew on my problem instead of talking with my superiors, I turned it into a dysfunctional conflict. A conflict that began to hinder my work performance because I was letting the problem build instead of talking about it (Baack, 2012). The conflict had gotten to be such a problem that my superiors knew there was something wrong thus created a felt conflict (Baack, 2012). Most of my peers knew what was going on and some had empathy yet there was nothing they could do, as this was not their problem, also known as a perceived conflict (Baack, 2012). Once I finally chose to deal directly with the conflict in a face-to-face meeting with my superiors, I feel that I have increased my self-respect for taking the action, I feel that I now have a stronger relationship with my superiors, and I have found personal growth and development in understanding how I responded (Baack, 2012). It was a rough way to learn a lesson of what