Question

From your own experience, describe a situation you were involved in where the conflict was dysfunctional. Describe another example, from your experience, where the conflict was functional. Would the other parties in the conflicts agree with your assessment of what is functional or dysfunctional?

Answer 1

A dysfunctional conflict is a conflict between 2 groups or individuals that results in negative outcomes. The dysfunctional conflicts are unhealthy and results in destructive outcomes. Its decreases the employees morale and loyalty towards the organisation.

Real life example of dysfunctional conflict from my experience is when two workers started fighting only because they wanted to take water for drinking from the water cooler before each other. This is a conflict for no reason, they were not gaining anything from doing that. Finally they both were charged fine for their activity and taught them to understand things. So, this was an example of dysfunctional conflict.

A functional conflict is a conflict between 2 groups or individuals that results in positive outcomes. The dysfunctional conflicts are healthy, positive and results in constructive outcomes. Its increases creativity and employee personality development.

An Example from my own experience of dysfunctional conflict is the case of last month when two of our employees started arguing while designing and developing a product of the organisation. One employee had brought suggestions regarding improvements in some sections of the design. Then the original designer (other employee) did not accepted it till the other employee explained him every thing. They settled the issue themselves and made improvements in the design of the product themselves, This is functional conflict.

Yes, both the parties agreed that their respective conflicts were functional and dysfunctional.