Conflict Assignment: Functional and Dysfunctional Conflicts

Functional and Dysfunctional Conflicts
Name
Institution
Introduction
According to Chambers, Schlenker & Collisson (2013), conflict is defined as a disagreement where by the parties that are involved perceive a threat to their concerns, needs, and concerns. Despite the fact that many people have always thought that conflict is a bad thing, however, it is important to note that the conflict can be a positive occurrence especially within an organization. It is also important to note that conflict can actually bring about a positive change, provide new solutions, as well as improving situations. There are two types of conflict that can occur in an organization and they include functional and dysfunctional conflicts.
This essay examines functional and dysfunctional conflicts that I have experienced in my life.
Functional Conflict
Functional conflict is defined as the type of conflict that supports the objectives and goals of a group and improving the performance of the group, it is also referred to as the positive conflicts. It is important to note that the functional conflict is useful for achieving the objectives and goals of the group as it helps in easing the tension among the group members, analytical thinking, promoting competition and promoting group cohesiveness and also enables for facing challenges. Personally, have experienced the functional conflict in my life when was working as a manager in one of the organizations in the country. The organization that I was managing was dealing in the business of real estate. During my time at the organization, I spent quite a lot of time trying to work on better ways for expanding the business. As one of the ways for expanding the business, I spent a lot of time and energy trying to develop a working relationship with the residents and the authority of the local town where the business was situated. The Organization that I was managing wanted to acquire or purchase a piece of land for the purposes of building townhomes for sale. I had developed a good working relationship with the politicians in the town and the citizens of the town (Massey & Dawes, 2007).
However, an issue arose over the planned usage of the land by the organization. The town management authority and the people had agreed that they will sell the land to our organization, but were of the opinion that the building of townhomes was not a good thing for the entire community. Their major concern was the additional cost and there will be the increase in the number of kids in the town and this was viewed as a burden that will be brought by townhomes. The organization and I was actually understood the concern...