In the workplace, interpersonal conflicts can significantly impact the operations' effectiveness and team members' morale. Interpersonal conflict is an inevitable part of every organization since it is where multiple individuals work together to achieve a common goal. Such conflicts are often caused by differences in personalities, communication styles, beliefs, values, and cultural norms, among others. When such conflicts arise, they tend to affect the overall performance of the workforce through several ways. This paper will discuss how interpersonal conflicts influence operational effectiveness and morale in organizations.
How do interpersonal conflicts influence operational effectiveness?
When conflicts occur between workers, their abilities to work effectively are negatively affected due to distractions, stress, and low productivity levels. Conflicts lead to emotional turmoil which makes employees feel stressed, anxious, frustrated, sad, angry, or even depressed. This situation reduces employee engagement and motivation towards performing well within the job description.
When people spend time arguing or competing for resources like money, time, attention, power, or recognition, they cannot focus on delivering quality services to customers.
Loss of productivity
Research shows that conflicts cause a significant decline in productivity within organizations. Employees become unproductive because they lose concentration during meetings, decision-making processes, brainstorming sessions, problem-solving activities, and other activities related to achieving organizational goals.
If two workers have issues with each other, one may refuse to share ideas or listen to suggestions from the other party. They can also be uncooperative and create more problems leading to delays and incomplete projects. As a result, they might end up missing deadlines or failing to achieve set targets.
Decreased collaboration
Interpersonal conflict is destructive to teamwork and cooperation, leading to decreased collaboration among members. When workers have personal issues against each other, they tend to avoid contacting or working together. Teamwork requires trust, respect, empathy, and mutual understanding, all of which disappear after disagreements arise. Workers will feel unwilling to cooperate since there is no spirit of unity. Poor collaborations affect workplace effectiveness as team members fail to develop healthy relationships, leading to misunderstandings, confusion, delays, and poor communication.
How do interpersonal conflicts influence morale?
When employees experience conflicts within their organization, it negatively impacts their self-esteem and confidence levels. The situation makes them feel isolated, hopeless, powerless, embarrassed, or even guilty for being unable to solve the problem independently. This feeling leads to low morale, causing stress-related illnesses such as anxiety attacks, depression, sleep deprivation, fatigue, headaches, or high blood pressure. Employees also become disengaged from their duties due to lack of motivation to perform.
Disrupts focus on tasks
The morale of employees is affected by interpersonal conflicts in that they are distracted from work.
If two colleagues argue during a project implementation process, one may be worried about the argument throughout, making it difficult to concentrate. Such employees end up spending too much time thinking about what happened instead of focusing on deliverables. A decline in concentration reduces productivity levels, compromising work performance and effectiveness.
Negative perception towards management
Conflicts within an organization can lead to negative perceptions towards management. If management does not take action when issues emerge, workers might feel ignored, undervalued, unsupported, or unappreciated. They will be reluctant to participate in organizational activities and refuse to share ideas with others, which hinders their development and growth within the company. Poor management decisions can also make employees lose faith in top leadership, affecting their loyalty and commitment to the organization.
Resolving interpersonal conflict requires effective communication strategies, team building exercises, open dialogues, positive attitudes, and active listening skills. When these solutions are implemented, operational effectiveness and morale within organizations improve significantly.
How do interpersonal conflicts influence operational effectiveness and morale?
Interpersonal conflicts can have various negative impacts on operational effectiveness and employee morale within organizations. These include decreased productivity, missed deadlines, increased absenteeism and turnover rates, lowered job satisfaction, reduced trust among team members, and an overall decrease in organizational commitment. When employees experience conflict with their colleagues, they may become distracted from their work tasks and struggle to focus on achieving goals, leading to decreased performance and efficiency.