Organizational Conflicts in Nestlé - OB + BRM ReportPrefaceThis project of Research methodology comprises of the organizational conflicts in Nestle. This Organization is serving our economy from a number of years and proved to be a main contributor in the national income. This organization is performing marvelous from number of years but there is no organization which is without any conflicts. In our research study we concentrated on the major issues that lead to organizational conflicts and their different levels and to determine the root cause of the conflicts.Many researches had already been done relating to this topic but they are general in nature and here we are more objective i.e. realizing the conflicts in Nestle. In this report we added the literature review i.e. the researches already been done and further we sampled the population through questionnaire, interviews and at times we used the observation method to collect data.AcknowledgementAll the praise is for Allah, the most merciful and beneficent, who blessed us with the knowledge, gave us the courage and allowed us to accomplish this task. We are especially indebted to our project supervisor Dr. Naseer Ahmed, Chairman Department of Admn. Sciences, Quaid-I-Azam University, Islamabad, for giving us an initiative to this project.His inspiring guidance remarkable suggestions, constant encouragement, keen interest, constructive criticism, and friendly discussion enabled us to complete this project efficiently. Without his support and proper guidance, it would be almost impossible to accomplish this task successfully.We offer our heartiest tribute and cordial gratitude to present our thanks to General manager Nestle whose cooperation helped us to achieve our target. We have fortunate of having a very nice company of friends and seniors especially Mr. Adil and Mr. Kashif who cooperated with us in all matters relating to the report.Executive Summary

The today’s world moves at neck breaking speed & it calls for a decisive action “Quantum Leap thinking”.The culture is one in which every employee is treated as if he or she is the most significant person in the company regardless of his position. Excellence is demanded from every one at the company from assembly line workers to the CEO. There is a saying that the only constant thing in life is the change. It is a natural phenomenon that every individually responds negatively to the changes in the normal settings. Normally the changes in the strategies encourage developing new conflicts among the employees and with the management This is the actual problem we studied in our report.The occurrence of the organizational conflicts can occur due to, professional or/and personal jealousy, loopholes in the organizational structural design are

quite common.The main emphasis here is on the communication & hierarchic conflicts, these are the conflicts, which cover all the three levels of the company’s hierarchy, because we can have communication & Hierarchy without conflict, but we cannot have conflict without some form of communication & Hierarchy.From the data analysis and theoretical framework certain elements determined as the root cause of conflicts are o Ethnicityo Personal Jealousyo Arrogant behaviours (low temperament) Communication problemsØ In the end it is recommended that deligation of authority should be done on merit bases. Diversification should be encouraged though sometimes it becomes the reason of conflicts but it provides the organizaton with the opportunity to adapt to the changing global market.Section 1

“Literature Review”“We can have communication & Hierarchy without conflict; we cannot have conflict without some form of communication & Hierarchy”. More important, through communication we can minimize the impact of conflict when it occurs, both verbal and nonverbal.James M Lahiff & John M Penrose in 1997 in the book Business Strategies & Skills 5th Edition explained the nature of organizational conflicts as follows:The Nature Of ConflictThey argued that; when conflict occurs, the adrenal glands deliver extra energy. The individual is in a state of tensed readiness in which hearing and vision become more acute. Properly channeled, this type of stress can stimulate a person to put forth-superior effort. In fact conflict is an inevitable by product of an interesting and challenging job. Many active people thrive on conflict, and it can have a beneficial effect on physical and mental health. For example; competition b/w two companies can be healthy for the member of both organization and beneficial to the companies as wellOn the other hand, conflict can be damaging. Too much conflict can be harmful when you’re over stimulated refuses to relax and assume normal activity. Your blood pressure remains high, you back mussel develop spasms, and your judgment is impaired. Excessive conflict over time could make you unable to work.Competition within an organization is potentially dangerous because it can divide loyalties and hamper cooperation. Even competition has apparently harmless, as an interdepartmental bowling league should be examined carefully. Conflict is like one of the modern miracle drugs. The correct dosage can be good for you, but too much can bring damage. Scott, Williams in 1967 suggests two forms of conflicts in his book “Organizational Behaviour” 

Constructive conflict:

One level of conflict may key to up for superior performance, i.e.; moderate conflict. Destructive Conflict:

Is intense or prolonged conflict. Too much conflict may cause worry or fear, hamper your work performance, and in some cases led to ulcers and other forms of physical and mental illness. James M Lahiff & John M Penrose argued in the favour of following levels of conflicts with the intensions of elaborating & explaining the concept of organizational Conflicts as:Levels of conflicts :1. Inter individual conflict: Exists b/w the perceiver and another individual within the organization. Although the other person need not be aware of the conflict, the perceiver of the conflict situation recognizes the present or future impact conflict can have on job performance.2. Intragroup conflict: Occurs b/w perceiver and his or her immediate group within the organization. The immediate group can consist of work team, department or union. Whether fully or only superficially aware of the conflict issue, the perceiver realizes that the conflict can directly or indirectly affect job performance.3. Inter group conflict: Arises b/w perceivers immediate group and another group within the organization. Again, the perceiver’s involvement may not be critical, but he or she must be aware of the situation and the potential impact the conflict can have on work performance.4. Organization-Environment: conflict arises b/w the perceiver’s organization and the environment it is part of. Environment may refer to the city, country or world in which the organization exists. For example, if the environment consists of main office and a number of branches, each branch may be viewed as a single entity within its local environment or as a part of the entire organization within a state, nation or worldwide setting. James M Lahiffconsiders Organizational Environment Conflicts as the most important and he argues that whatever the context, the environmental body should be defined so that the conflict situation is accurately understood. As with the other four conflict circumstances, the perceiver may be acutely or only casually aware of the conflict and its effect on job performance.M.Phillips in 1982 threw light on some of key conditions, which may lead to serious organizational conflicts; he gave his views in the book “Community in Organization”.Conditions leading to Conflict:According to M Phillips certain social relationships characterized various kinds of conflict behaviour. Each one could occur in your work area. The more aware the managers are of these conflict settings, the better are the chances of correcting them and running a smooth operation.1. Ambiguous Jurisdiction:Conflict is greater when the lines that set forth each employee jurisdiction (Area of job responsibility) are unclear. When two people have related jobs tasks with ambiguous boundaries, the potential for conflict b/w them increases.

For example; consider the case of department head to which three first line supervisors report. Each of these should have clearly defined jobs responsibilities so that the potential for overlap among the three is reduced. Otherwise, confusion and conflict result as each of the supervisors tries to do the entire job. The boundaries b/w the department head and the supervisors must also be clearly spelled out. Other wise the supervisors may resent the department heads interference in their work responsibilities. The result is a department full of discord and conflict over unfair limits of authority. Such an antagonistic situation can be avoided if job descriptions are clarified so that all employees know the extent of their work responsibilities.2.Conflict of Interest:Conflict will be greater when people interest diverge. For example consider the conflict b/w the marketing and the plant production manager of a leading producer of chocolate. Each manger would like to have more control over the factors that affect the companies’ profitability. In the face of fierce competition from other chocolate manufacture, the marketing manager wants to run a sampling campaign to support a new candy bar. This manager leads to act fast before competitors match the new product. How ever, when the marketing manger asks for sharply increased production capacity during the sampling campaign, the plant production manager refuses. The hiring and training of new workers would only be temptation. After a sampling campaign is completed the company would lay off the new workers. The result is a conflict of interest b/w the marketing and plant production managers and a competitive edge for rival chocolate manufacturers.3.Communication Barriers:Conflict will be greater when barriers to communication exist. If parties are separated from each other physically or by time e.g.; the day shift versus the night shift-the opportunity for conflict is increased. To illustrate suppose a company employs only one plant supervisor, who works the day shift and leaves orders at the beginning of each week for the workers on the night shift. By the end of the week, how ever, these orders have been only partially carried out. The supervisor cannot figure out why. Obviously, the supervisor absence from the night shift has posed a communication barrier, which in turn causes decreased output. As Bryans, P, Cronin argued in 1984 that Space or time separations could promote isolated group interests rather than advance a common effort towards joint goals. 4. Dependence of One Party:Conflict will be greater when one party is dependent on other. When parties are dependent, the must rely on each other for the performance of tasks or for the provision of resources. For example; a super visor that depends on the preparation of a cost effectiveness report by a subordinate in order to make a marketing decision may monitor the subordinates progress. The subordinate resents this close supervision and in retaliation takes a long time to prepare the report. The supervisor, in turn, reminds the subordinate of a forth-coming performance evaluation. The interdependence of supervisor and subordinate fuels the potential for serious conflict. 5. Differentiation in organization:Conflict will be greater as the degree of differentiation or the division of labour,

in an organization increases. When people work together in a complex organization, there is evidence that conflict is related to the number of organization levels, the no of distinct jobs specialties represented, and the degree to which labour is divided in the organization. For example; consider the administrators in your university; most likely there is a dean; an associate dean; department heads; program advisors and secretaries. All of these people administer some aspect of your curriculum and other educational needs. However, there are at different levels of the organization hierarchy and handle specialized tasks. Although these university employees share a common focus, their different positions and job concentrations can lead to overlap and conflict.6.Associastions of the Parties:Conflict will be greater as the degree of the interaction of the parties’ increases. As used here, degree of association, or interaction, refers both to the parties participation in decision-making and to informal relations b/w them. When parties make decisions jointly, the opportunity for conflict is greater, which may explain why some managers are reluctant to involve others in decision-making. These managers would prefer to make decisions on their own rather than risk of difference of opinion with a colleague. How ever, there is a trade off b/w the possibility of gaining valuable suggestions and the possibility of an argument. The association of parties has constructive and destructive possibilities.7.Need for Consensus:Conflict will be greater when consensus b/w the parties is necessary, i.e., when all parties must agree on a decisions so that no individual believe the decisions as unacceptable. John M Penross & James M Lahiff in 1997 said that it is possible to avoid conflict by having mechanism such as voting to make decisions without the confrontation of consensus. However, such mechanisms themselves may have undesirable consequences. They may offer an easy way out of the immediate conflict but may not solve the problem. Settling the matter by majority rules may only postponed the conflict until the two crises occur. When consensus is difficult to achieve, the resultant conflict should not be avoided but used in a constructive manner. 8. Behaviour Regulations:Conflicts will be greater when behaviour regulations are imposed. Regulating mechanisms, which include standardized procedures, rules and policies, seem to do two things at once. On the other hand they reduced the likely hood of conflict because they make relation ships predictable and reduced the need for arbitrary decisions. Some individuals need specific guidelines explaining how to perform their jobs. They are only comfortable making routine decisions about their work. Other individuals have a greater lead for autonomy and self-control. Regulating mechanism that increases the degree of control may be resisted by some workers and welcome by others. For either type of individual, if the adherence to or the imposition of rules becomes discretionary, further sources of this agreement are created. John M Penross & James M Lahiff also do say that if behaviourall regulations fail to match individual need of employees, conflict is bound to occur. 9. Unresolved prior conflicts:John M Penross considers this condition to be the most important and most

threatening to the organizational culture. He has said that, conflicts will be greater as the number of unresolved prior conflicts increases. That is the longer problems are ignored or postponed, the worse new conflicts become. Suppression of conflict through the use of power are compromises to which the parties are uncommitted created conditions and expectations that may lead to further conflict. Suppose the people in an office want to streamline operating procedures and rearrange desks and other office furniture to fit new office reorganization. The workers are not content with the present office organization and their lack of input into. 

Power And Communication Relationship With Organizational ConflictsM.Phillips in 1982 in his book “Community in Organization” discussed the relationship between Power (Hierarchy Superior ship) & Communication with the Organizational conflicts as follows:Power systems involve more than the control of individuals. A study by Joseph Julian indicates that the communication system within an organization is also affected by the power arrangements. M.Phillips also mentioned some of the important communication problems in the organizations that are very important factors in the promotion of all forms conflicts within the organizations.COMMUNICATION PROBLEMSIt is clear that communications in the organizations are not perfect. The basic consequence of existing communications systems is that messages are transferred or altered as they pass through the system. The fact that they are transformed means that the ultimate recipient of the message receives something different from what was originally sent, thus destroying the intent of the communication process.OmissionGutzkow suggests that there are two major forms of transformation omission and distortion. Omission involves “deletion of aspects of messages”, and it occurs because the recipient may not be able to grasp the entire content of the message and only receives or passes on what he is able to grasp. Communications overload can also lead to the omission of materials, as some messages are not handled because of the overload. Omission may be intentional, as when certain classes of information are deleted from the information passed through particular segments of the organization. Omission is more evident in upward communications, since more messages are generated by the larger number of people lower in hierarchy. As the communications are filtered on the way up, the omissions are brought in to the system. DistortionDistortion refers to altered meanings of messages as they pass through the organization. People are selective, intentionally or unintentionally, about what they achieve as messages.Distortion is as likely to occur in horizontal communications as in vertical, given the differences b/w organizational units in objectives and values. They occur in all communication systems, from the family to the total society. They are crucial for organizations, however, since organizations depend upon

accurate communications as a basis for approaching rationality. OverloadA communication problem that is perhaps more characteristic of organizations than other social entities is communications overload. Overload, of course, leads to omission and contributes to distortion. It also leads to other coping and adjustment mechanisms on the part of the organization. M.Phillips suggests a device used when overload occurs called “Queuing”. This technique lines up the messages by time of receipt or some other such criterion. Queuing can have positive or negative consequences. If the wrong priority system is used, less important messages may be acted upon before those that are really crucial reach the recipient. Katz and Kahn & H. Hall in his book “Organization Structures and Process” have suggested that if Queuing and filtering of the information is used, these conflicts can be ignored.A modification of queuing what can be useful device is the filtering process, which involves setting priorities for messages. The critical factor here is the nature of the priorities.Possible SolutionsWith all the problems, potential and real in the communication process, it is obvious that a “perfect” communication system is unlikely. But although perfection, like rationality, will not be achieved, organizations do have mechanisms by which they attempt to keep the communications system as clear as they can. Downs (Organizational theory, A Behavioural analysis for management) suggest several devices that are available to reduce the distortions and other complications in the communication process.Redundancy, or the duplication of reports for verification, while adding to the flow of paper and other communications media in an organization, allows more people to see or hear a particular piece of information and respond to it. This is a correction device. Downs also suggest that communication recipients should be aware of the biases of the message senders and develop their own counter biases as a protection device- as process that, of course, can be carried too far and be overdone, but that is the “grain of salt” that is part of the all communications. This technique assumes that the recipient knows what the sender’s bias are, which is not a guaranteed situation. Another method Downs advices is that in vertical communication the supervisor should often bypass intermediate subordinates and go directly to the source of the communications. While this can help eliminate some distortion, it can create low morale in those bypassed.

Section 2

“INTRODUCTION”Background of the problem All of us experience some type of conflicts in our daily lives. Tensions, antagonisms, and frustrations always occur when people work together. There

are disagreements, perhaps even fights, between employees and the supervisor or between co-workers. Aside from personality clashes, people simply have different viewpoints; about the way things should be done.Conflict is an appropriate topic for a business environment because it relates directly to communication & hierarchic matters.This is the main issue for which we have done the research also another main cause on working this project is to get the idea of research procedure. And in this context we got the opportunity to perform our research in one of the top organization (Nestle) and we visited its office in Islamabad and Lahore to gather data regarding our project i.e. “Organizational conflicts’ and also it would not be wrong if we term our research the Basic research i.e we worked for increasing our knowledge about this particular subject.

“Limitations of Study”To do an effective and efficient research study, it requires a lot i.e. time, finance, concentration, dedication, and transportation. For developing this Research project on organizational conflicts in Nestle. We faced these familiar sorts of problems, such as:Ø LIMITATIONS OF TRANSPORT FACILITIES.Ø LIMITATIONS OF CURRENT STATISTICAL DATA.Ø LIMITATIONS OF FINANCIAL RESOURCES.Ø LIMITATIONS OF TIME.Ø NON COOPERATION OF EMPLOYEES AS WELL AS MANAGERS.Due to the nature of the topic, a traditional approach to collect data and draw deductions was nearly impossible. To cope with this problem three questionnaires for three levels of hierarchy were designed. The information gathered from questionnaires was matched with the non verbal responses of the respondents during the interviews. Interviewing the employees at the will of the manager is an ideal situation not reality. Further managers were hesitant to provide with the information about the internal issues of the company.Some of the questions that were very important in nature had the obvious wrong answers, these answers were again matched with the data from interviews, non verbal responses & rephrased questions in the questionnaires.In case of upper management. They were also not ready to give information about their organization. Because they were afraid of the reason that we might leak their strengths and weakness to some other competitor organization. So they were reluctant to give information.So in such cases when people haven’t cooperated with us. Then we use the method of observation. But observing the employees and mangers and their behavior with each other and with their subordinates.

Inspite of all these limitations we made a conscious and devoted effort in making this report and overcame these limitations.

“Problem Statement”“The research study is about the analysis of the organizational conflicts and to determine the root cause of these conflicts in Nestle and to measure the effect of these conflicts on the performance of employees and of organization as a whole”The basic problem is the “Hierarchic (Structural) & Communication incompetence”. This problem occurs in almost all the companies. But almost everywhere it is not perceived correctly. The out come of this problem is the generation of Conflicts. These conflicts are of two types:Ø Horizontal Conflicts: Are between the employees who are from the same hierarchic levels in the organization.Ø Vertical Conflicts: These conflicts may be Upward or Downward in the organizational hierarchy. These conflicts are very threatening for the Middle management because of the fact that they experience the upward & downward conflicts.

It is the hierarchy that defines who reports to whom and gives the balance between the authority and responsibility; if the planning in the hierarchy is not good then there are various outcomes. Similarly communication barriers are another basic problem occurring in the organizations. These barriers’ outcome is the Conflict. To solve the problem of conflicts between the employees in the organization, these Hierarchic & Communication incompetence needs to be solved.

Section 3“Theoretical Framework”

Explanation”The dependent variable here in this situation is “Conflict”, the independent variables have been differently been explained by various authors, web sites & various other sources of primary information like Interviews & questionnaires. The variance in the dependant variable (Conflict) is explained by the following independent variables identified:Ø Excessive competition.Ø Working together in groups.Ø Unclear job responsibilities.Ø People having related jobs.Ø Supervisors doing all the jobs.

Ø Two departments having different interests.Ø Interdependence of supervisors and subordinates.Ø Increase in division of labour.Ø Increase in interaction between the groups.Ø Parties making decisions jointly.Ø Consensus among the groups.Ø Behavioural regulations imposed.Ø Unresolved prior conflicts.Ø Communication Barriersa) Omission.b) Distortion.c) Overload.Ø Lack of training.Ø Selection biases.Ø Authority responsibility imbalance.Ø Lack of consistency.Ø Big decisions taken by the manager.Ø Improper communication channel.Ø Employees bypassing the manager.Ø Lower management bypassing the manager.Ø People having different ethnic backgrounds.Ø Arrogant nature of boss.Ø Incapable middle management.Ø Super seeded employees staying in the company.It has been identified by various authors that excessive competition in the organization may foster serious conflicts among the employees at all levels. It is very common in most organizations that employees compete with each other and sometimes the management promotes the competition to get the efficiency. But these competitions may lead the employees to indulge in some unethical practices which are not fruitful for the organization and which lead to conflicts among the employees. In some cases more the competition among the employees, the more will be conflicts among the members.Similarly the more the people stay in the groups and work in the groups, the more will be conflicts among the group members. So the companies that encourage the tasks to be performed in the groups may face this problem. This is due to personal disliking. This problem can be rectified if there is a well-designed coordination set up in the organization.Some authors have also pointed out that if the management fails to clear the job responsibilities among the employees there may be serious vertical conflicts in the company.People having related jobs also encourage the conflicts among the employees or if the supervisor tries to do all the things by himself, leads to conflicts. The

subordinates may feel that they are being misutilized or not being fully utilized by the company management. Or they may feel that their supervisor does not believe on them, it creates an environment of mistrust among the employees and the manager.It is natural that various departments in the organization have different goals, that is the reason that there is a conflict on the interests and priorities between the departments which slows down the work, that is why the director of Sintec systems is nor in favour of departmentalisation. When someone is dependant on other to complete his task, then there are chances that he may not complete his task completely this is due to personal disliking and people do not cooperate with others completing their work.When interaction between the groups increases or when the decisions are taken jointly or increasing the consensus, there are conflicting interests among the groups.These authors also say that if problems are ignored or prior conflicts are not coped with, the more serious new conflicts are likely to be developed. So the more the small conflicts persist in the companies, the more the companies will face the larger and serious conflicts.Large number of communication books has mentioned that, the more the communication barriers in the organization, the more will be conflicts of different nature. They have explained three types of barriers:§ Omissions: Which lead to upward conflicts.§ Distortion: Which leads to Horizontal Communication.§ Overload: Which leads to omissions and Distortion, which in turn leads to different conflicts depending upon the situation. Here the omission and distortion act as intervening variables. To cope with this situation, Katz and Kahn & H. Hall in his book “Organization Structures and Process” have suggested that if Queuing and filtering the information is used, these conflicts can be ignored The manager and the Director of Nestle have said that if the employees are not provided with the sufficient training, they nay caught up in various types of conflicts. The manager further added that when the top management exercises selection biases, it leads to conflicts between the manager and the top management. Here if a moderating variable like Authority responsibility balance is provided to the manager, this conflict does not emerge.Arrogant nature & in capabilities of the boss are another independent variables which have a positive relationship with the conflicts.“Generation of Hypothesis”1. The greater is the persistence of ethnicity in the organizations, the greater will be the organizational conflicts among the employees and/or with the management. 2. The more the employees in the organizations will have a low temperament,

the greater there will be the organizational conflicts among the employees and/or with the management. 3. As the top management’s interference in the selection of the employees and in other managerial job increases, the conflict between the managers & the top management increases.4. There is a positive correlation between the difference in the opinions between the individuals in the company & the generation of the organizational conflicts.5. The more there will be communication barriers in the organization of any type, the likely hood of increase in the conflict increases.6. The more number of employees are subjected to training the fever are the chances of building up of conflicts among the employees.7. With the increase in the number of unresolved prior conflicts in the organization, the more new & intense conflicts among the employees are generated.If the number of the super seeded employees increases, then the conflicts will increase. 8. The more there will be imbalance in the authority responsibility, the more upward conflicts will generate.9. If lower management will bypass the manager, then there will be conflicts between the manager & employees. Section 4

“The Research Design & Sampling Procedure”

The unit of analysisThe unit of analysis is the individuals. (Employees from the staff under manager excluding the first line management, manager & top management members) The study type It is a field Study with all the activities going in the natural non contrived settings.Sampling Procedure

Convenience sampling was conducted for the purpose of selecting the samples. For the purpose of further stratification, Two regional branches were sampled. The name of the company sampled is:1. NESTLEi. Rawalpindi Branchii. Lahore Branch

iii. Islamabad BranchOut of sampled branches, a total of 30 samples were selected. The number of employees from the lower management was 20 and the number of managers & Top management was evenly distributed.

Inter Organizational Conflicts its Sources and MethodsThe nature conflicts found out through the personal (unstructured) interviews and through questionnaire with the director & the manager of NESTLE Rawalpindi are as follows:The first thing, which was found was the lack of training given to the employees, they said that in the organizations, employees always have to work together in groups, and if some one feels that he/she cannot work within the group, then there is some problem with that employee, but at the same time they said that it is the organization’s responsibility to teach the employees how to work together in groups through proper training. They mentioned that without training the organizations might face serious types of irresolvable conflicts, which are definitely not fruitful to the organization.The second main reason mentioned by the manager of the company was the “Selection Biases”, he said that selection biases may also lead to conflicts within the company, and these conflicts are normally personal as well. The manager said that if in cases the top management interferes in the process of hiring the employees, they might select the wrong person for the right job. On the other hand there may be serious conflicts going on between the manager & the top management on the issues of authority and responsibility balance. Further if the manager takes big decisions like job confirmation, & salary decisions, then, there may be conflicts, these must be taken by the top management. The manager of NESTLE also mentioned the improper channels of communication. He said that through the manager every thing should be communicated, whether it is upward or downward. If in any case any employee bypasses the manger, there may be a conflict between them. He also said that there is no need of any employee who bypasses the manager to access to the top management. Usually the organizations do have “Coordinators” who are directly answerable to the top management. He said that the manager will not be able to properly deal with him and conflicts between them will arise.The manager said that young unmarried employees usually indulge in office politics and make conflicts among the employees. According to him only married and experienced persons should be provided with the jobs.Ethnic problems also create conflicts among the employees. Bad attitude of the manager and arrogant nature of the boss is also one reason of conflicts. The manager said that effective person but highly cooperative person would be proffered in place of an efficient but uncooperative one. 

The manager presented the following ideas to prevent conflicts:

Contractual Jobs

Hire & fire system.

Authority to the managerThe Director of DIRECTORS had a bit different views. He held the middle management’s capabilities responsible for the conflicts within the organization. He also said that there is no relationship between the authority and reasonability with the conflicts. He proffered the autocratic style of management in the beginning, but it should be shifted to the democratic style in the later portions. He said that although the centralized system slows down the process of working, but it will also decrease the conflicts between the employees. The Director said that, if you (Employee) have to be successful in the company, then you have to become a big “YES SIR”. He also mentioned that horizontal conflicts are more common. Super seeded persons normally indulge in making conflicts. He said that super seeded persons should be terminated in place of super seeding them. Dress code can experience the resentment from the employees due to Ethnic affiliations to some dresses. The Director of NSTLE was strongly in favour of “Coordinator”, he said that a coordinator channels the communication process between the manager and the top management. He also gave the following ideas to prevent the possible conflicts in the organizations:o Trainingo Annual Confidential Report (ACR)o Motivational Tools (like Achievement bonuses)o Promotionso Clear line of Authorityo Not more than one employee from same Regional locations and same institutions/Universities.“INSTREMENTS OF DATA COLLECTION”

Considering the research we under took and the characteristics of population we considered questionnaire to be the best data collection method and also at times we used the other sources like observation and interviews.A screening questionnaire is prepared for the employees, managers and top management. This questionnaire is as follows:

Section 5

“Data Gathering & Analysis”

“Responses Of The Employees”Out of 20 sampled employees from organisation, the following responses were

obtained:“Frequency Table” 

Variables Frequency

Preference to work with:

Friendly but incompetent Colleague 09

Difficult but competent colleague 11

Preference to work forA competent but difficult boss 13

A lenient but incompetent boss 07

Receiving assignments with proper resources to executeYes 15

No 05

Favouring the dress codeYes 20

No 00

PreferringPermanent Jobs 13

Contractual (Attractive Salary) Jobs 07

Facing Ethnic problems

Yes 12

No 08

Management is easily accessible

Yes 14

No 06

Efficiency of employees is a threat to organizational stabilityYes 08

No 12

More organisational hierarchic conflicts are faced byTop 05

Middle (manager) 15

Lower 00

Level which should be held responsible for that:

Top 06

Middle (manager) 14

Lower 00

Termination of super seeded employeesYes 08

No 12

Key posts’ appointments should be through:

Direct Appointments 07

Promotions 13

Employees are Properly informed about decisions takenYes 10

No 10

There is a free flow of communication among the employeesYes 18

No 02

There is a consistency in the management’s policiesYes 11

No 09

Employees usually face communication problems with:

Top management 04

Manager 16

Who should be blamedTop management 04

Manager 16

“Graphical Presentation”

“Analysis of the Responses”There were three types of questionnaires designed for top management, middle

management & employees below the manager level. As the nature of all the organizations is always like a pyramid, therefore the questionnaires distributed at the top were least and maximum at the lower level. Due to the abstract nature of the topic, the non-verbal responses of the respondents were also gathered at the time of the filling of the questionnaires. Maximum number of the employees preferred to work for a cooperative competent subordinate and boss. On the whole difficult but competency was preferred. Maximum number of employees admitted that, they received assignments with proper resource allocation and were in full support for the dress code, (on papers). But the managers’ statements were totally contrary to that of employees; they claimed that employees were against the dress code. Employees strongly favored the permanent jobs the people always want to play safe. Thus whole permanent jobs were preferred. Almost all the sampled employees faced the ethnic problems vertical and/or horizontal. The responses sampled from the Lahore branch was highest in number in facing ethnic problems. The maximum respondents blamed the manager for the hierarchic conflicts whether vertical or horizontal. According to the employees, the manager is a key post and he should be perfect on all grounds and if not, conflicts would emerge of all types.employees were in favour of termination of the superseded employee, . Promotions not direct appointments, was the response, one reason was that, every one who is in job would vote against his professional growth if he preferred the direct appointments. But the top management argued in favour of direct appointments.A large proportion of employees blamed in consistency of the strategies as core reason for the vertical conflicts.

“Conclusion”“The Organizational Conflicts” is itself not a problem, but it is a serious symptom of some factors that are usually ignored while designing the organizational structures. From the literature review, theoretical framework, , taking samples (convenience) & analysis of the data gathered, some factors are identified that usually are the root cause of the conflicts. Some of these are:o Ethnicityo Personal Jealousyo Arrogant behaviours (low temperament) o Communication problemsDue to the nature of the issue the responses from the top, middle & lower management were totally contrary with each other. For this purpose the structured interviews were conducted and intentionally the format of the

questions in interview and questionnaires were kept same. That made the deductions possible by comparing the non verbal responses and the rephrasing the same questions two-three times to check the consistency of the replies. The ethnic issue is the most important and it justifies the hypothesis. Due to ethnicity no sampled branch has been successful in implementing the dress code yet. Even though, all the respondents favoured it. It is observed that employees belonging to NWFP are very low tempered. Their frequency of jobs switching is higher than others. It proves that they cannot work in teams and work with an arrogant manager.To conclude, who should be held responsible for conflicts? The Manager. The manager is the key person who channels the communication whether upward or down ward.“Recommendations”The current thinking should be for the maximum utilization of the company’s resources and to push the power and decision making authority down the hierarchy of the organization. This can create more power and flexibility within the company as a whole.Good leaders should not have any problem in delegating power and responsibility. Disagreement with the supervisor should be encouraged as long as it leads to productive results.It is critical for the manager to get diverse work force to work well together and respect their differences. Diversity should be encouraged because it can help the organization in future to adapt to the changing global market.All problems can be prevented from happening and/or rectified, if the middle management (Manager) of the company justifies its position. Middle management plays an anchor role. Manager should be able to deal with all the employees who have different cultural backgrounds, personalities & priorities. Hiring experienced and matured managers and providing them training could help the case. On job training of the employees.Open house discussions should be there at least one a month.While assigning the groups to the employees for tasks, it must be assured that all the groups are properly matched.