Blog 5 : Conflict

Conflict can be defined as behaviour that is intended to obstruct another individual from achieving their goal. Brooks (2006) stated that ' conflict is apparent when at least one party perceives that it exists and where an interest concern of that party is about to be compromised of frustrated'.

At the beginning of my university academic studies, all students doing the similar course as me were put into groups were we had to come up with a business idea. Therefore, many people wanted to be in groups with their friends, however, groups were made by the teacher which made me work with another person that I didn't have good relationships with. Indeed, I really wanted to have a great grade which would help me have a good final grade module, therefore, I was willing to work lot on that business idea. However, my group mate wasn't motivated at all and just wanted to finish this as quick as possible which led to a conflict between the two of us. Therefore, we decided to delegate the half of the work that he would need to research individually and they present it in front of the classe. This worked effectively as he didn't want to have a bad grade and look bad in front of his classmates. As an end result the new business idea was created and presented in lectures.

French and Raven had five different sources of power and these included coercive, reward, expert, legitimate and referent power.
Indeed, the Legitimate power includes people who has achieved the right to detain the power, it is usually people with high social hierarchies, cultural norms, and organisational structure.For example, if hey have worked they way up the company's hierachy structure rather than coming through the back door at managerial level.
Also, Coercive power is when people are afraid of their managers so their power is based on fear.Reward power is achieved when individuals have the perception that they will be rewarded in the future. This power can be related to expert, when an individual has the expertise to carry out the job so is therefore rewarded with the power.Finally referent power is caused as result of influenced due to the person's characteritcs towards other which could alloz them to gain some respect in the organisation. This is also known as charisma that could also appeal to the subordinates and allow them to be comfortable towards their leader. For example, the representatives of a certain part who can have a referent power to gain people's approval and support for any strategies they could have planned.

A Guardian article suggests that work is related to stress mainly caused by too much work in the UK as people have to work long hours which leads to more stress and tiredness. Indeed, as people have to work long hours which leads to more stress. This is also believed that work related to stress is the cause of more illnesses such as heart diseases . This article links back to the lecture on work related stress because work reduces employees well being.Therefore, this also links back to the article where stress has lead to illnesses that have lead to workers taking more time off work and being compensated.


Overall, a conflict has its advantages and disadvantages in work places. An advantage of conflict would be the fact that everyone's views and opinions are considered. This shows good communication in the organisation and could reduce any more conflict arising in the future as it could affect the performance of the organisation.Conflict also may not be healthy for certain organisations that may not need it. Also, French and Raven's power have their advantages and disadvantages. Indeed, a leader can not rely on one power source as this may not lead to them being a good leader.However, if a leader were to only rely one power source this could lead to confluct amongst the subordinates to have a better leader, as they may not find their leader having the right qualities and this also links to work related stress as overload work could impact on someone which might feel pressure due to monitoring subordinates.

Organisation Culture

Organisational culture was defined by Hofstede (1984) as ' a body of learned behaviour, a collection of beliefs, habits and traditions, shared by a group of people and learned by people'. People working within the organisation develop their own culture in the same way a national identity is developed in societies. Culture normally refers to a group of people that follow the same behaviour, when relating this to an organisation it gives a sense of identity for example 'what we do' and 'how we should behave'.


Visible aspects of organisational culture relate to the physical and social environment. There are two main theories which explore the levels of culture within an organisation these are Schein and French and Bell. According to Mullins (2010) Schein suggested in 1992 that ' the most visible level of culture was artefacts and creations'. This level includes technology, language both written and spoken and the behaviour of group members. This theory is often related to an onion  as the outer layers are visible aspects of culture, the middle layers are deeper aspects of culture and the centre is the basic beliefs on which the organisation was built.

Schein (1992)

The second theory is French and Bell' organisational iceberg. French and Bell (1990) suggested that tehre were two constrasting aspects to organisations, the first is visable and formal , whereas the second is more hidden and refers more to what goes on despite the formal structure.

French and Bell (1990)



Organisation culture can be classified in many different ways. Indeed, There is four types of organisational culture : Power culture, Role culture, Task culture and Person culture.

Power Culture
Within a power culture, decisions are often made as quickly as communication is made in person. Indeed, 'A power culture is often found in small businesses as it relies deeply on trust, empathy and personal communication'

Role Culture
A role culture is decided via rules and regulations. The job role or title is often seen as more important than the individual and therefore, the power is based on the level in the company hierarchy.
People in a role culture, work to a job description, these are often seen in the public sector such as for instance, hospitals.

Task Culture
A task culture is a project based on the organisation that involves a lot of teamwork. This type of culture uses the right resources and people to create a unique business. A task culture is more based on expert power rather than personal power. Within this type of culture there is a a lot more freedom and flexibility.

Person Culture
Person culture is mainly based on when the individual is the central focus and more important to the organisation. This means that there isn't a hierarchy as the company only exists to serve the interests of those within it. For instance ,  a group of doctors can start their own private practice or surgery. Therefore, this means that the organisation has a person culture as a result there is no hierarchy. This organisation will then exist to serve the main interest of those within the organisation.


To conclude, organisation culture refers to the behaviour, beliefs and traditions of a group of people within an organisation. Indeed, there are a few theories that explore organisation culture on a similar concept but Schein splits an organisation into three layers whereas French and Bell only split it into two. Every organisation is unique, and will therefore have a different culture. These can be classified under by the four types of culture, however this is not always possible as many organisation contain different aspects of all four cultures.


Bibliography

Mullins, L. (2010) Management and organisational behaviour.9th ed. Essex: Pearson Education Limited.

Schein (2012) [online]. Available from: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3653/3521730263_64bf4fd5fe_o.jpg [Accessed: 25th March 2010].

Blog 3 : Leadership

Before examining the role of a leader, it is necessary to look at the concept of a leader. A number of theories about leadership have been devised over the years. Most of theories assume that leadership has to do with an individual intentionally exerting influence on others to structure the relationships in an organization.(Browaeys and Price, 2008)

Related to this is the question of the difference between a manager and a leader. One can be a leader without being a manager and vice versa. The leader is a person who will have a strong influence on others subordinates, indeed, a leader is born with the ability of influencing people in order to motivate his co-workers by generating ideas and inspiring others. We could also say that the leader is an asset in a organization because  he can anticipate the future of the organization by being more personal with the employees and then by communication and encouraging in order to be more efficient within the organization .However, the manager is a person often seen as someone who is planning and controlling his subordinates in order to achieve results through a specific process and a specific method .Indeed, the manager may be more impersonal and have not very good communication skills and have a low emotional involvement with the employees in order to plan, control, organise to achieve the results.

An example of an organization is my sixth form class in France. The key leaders in this organization were the teaching staff because they organized weekly meetings about what they could improve about their teaching and the student life at the school. Indeed, I worked for my school for a certain period of time in the social committee which made me contribute more to my next courseworks.

 As a result I’ve became more involved every day and my teachers were watching if everything was all right and so they could told me what was wrong in order to make me improve in this area of relationship with other people. This means that my teachers could see what they had to change about future students involved in the social committee and then they would develop new ideas and methods to help improve the academic staff performance. This links to the Goleman’6 leadership styles where the leader is a pace setter and push the students to accomplish tasks. This then links to how the teacher will push the students to accomplish their grades by working with them, however, that is if the students are willing and motivated enough. 

To conclude, the key leaders of my college were the teaching staff because they were effective as they were more passionate about their jobs and with their students, also, they found innovative ways to help the students to be motivated. This links to the Goleman’s theory were the leader is democratic which means they can participate, listen to the bad and the good news in order to gain valuable input from his co-workers. This shows how teachers can help students if they are going through any form of any stress that could affect their studies. However, it depends if the teachers have the right skills and potential to deal with the students issues. In my opinion, I think that the committee and the staff teachers are leaders in an academic organization if they are involved enough to take some time to listen to their students in order to keep them motivated and willing to get involved in their studies.

Bibliography

Browaeys, M.-J. and Price, R. (2008) Understanding Cross-Cultural Management. 1st ed. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited.