Workplace Conflict between Departments

Stereotyping in the work place isn’t always about the individual features such as gender or race but sometimes it is as simple as the department you work for within the company. In almost any work environment there is a hierarchy of management and under that, departments. Is one department really that much better than the other, I would think not since all departments are necessary to keep the company running. This idea does seem to escape some upper management views when handling conflicts in the workplace and discrimination can happen.

conflict

This may seem overly exaggerated but it really can be true and the discrimination of either favoring one department or disliking another can take its toll on the employees involved. It is stated that “prejudice is an attitude toward others based solely on group membership” and it’s fairly sad how it can be that easy to judge or worse treat someone based on their group affiliation (Schneider, Gruman & Coutts, 2012). In corporations there seems to be disconnect between sales type employees and service type employees not just between themselves but also how management can treat them as well. This negative stereotype between departments can lead to conflict which can cause employee dissatisfaction, decreased productivity and turnover which can cost a company in many ways.

There’s no affirmative action or laws to help support you because you work in service versus sales, as it’s an internal conflict between departments that happens in companies every day and no one sees the need to fix it. Some may be even blind to the idea that this discrimination is actually going on because it’s never been pointed out and those who feel it are often afraid to speak up.

blindfold

The theory of relative deprivation can help shed some light on this issue. The theory implies “that a person may feel deprived of some desirable thing” and this conflict can be based when a person has compared themselves against this standard and then assumed to be deprived based on their own perception (Schneider, Gruman & Coutts 2012). This could be the feeling of an inferior department in feeling but maybe not actually as in importance. A perceived idea or feeling is just as real so it can be just as damaging to the morale of personnel.

This type of discrimination leads to department conflict and the “lack of cooperation between work groups is a major problem in organizations” but how to help improve this conflict and move forward (Katcher, 2014). Katcher mentions some suggestions that might be worth bringing up in your place of business such as an employee satisfaction survey, rewarding cooperation between departments or even just recognizing the problem (2014). An idea I set forth in my business is having joint meetings with a representative from every department to voice all department’s concerns and trying to address the issues at hand as one unit instead of separately. Also when we make improvements to a process we take employees from all departments to get different points of view to help understand each other.

What it comes down to is it can be a really easy problem to solve and get rid of the department discrimination but calling attention to it in the first place may prove difficult. Those who feel deprived may not want to speak up and others may not want things to change. In my opinion for a company to really thrive this type of discrimination really has to be eliminated because without everyone’s cooperation it’s just pieces of a puzzle and no one can see the big picture. Most have the same goal but different ways we are asked to achieve it in a business but if we really could all be on the same team just think of the difference in our work place.

Team Of 8 Blue People Holding Up Connected Pieces To A Colorful

References:

Katcher, Bruce L., (2014). Improving the Workplace: The Difference between Heaven and Hell. Discovery Surveys, Inc. The Discovery Consulting Group, 2014. Retrieved October 5, 2014 from https://www.discoverysurveys.com/articles/itw-109.html

Schneider, F.W., Gruman, J.A., & Coutts, L.M. (2012). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems (Second ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

 

 

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2 comments

  1. Breanna Michelle Meade

    In order to expand upon your suggestions for a solution, I think having more than one person in power in an office space can help to lessen discrimination from employers.

  2. Breanna Michelle Meade

    I found this blog post to be almost inspiring! Your conclusion was seamless and makes me want to address the stereotyping and mistreatment of employees throughout my own workplace. Also, the graphics used provided an image for exactly what you were describing. I never thought to relate the topics of stereotyping and discrimination back to my workplace, although I can see very clearly how they fit in after reading your post. I agree that it is very sad that people have to deal with things like this in such a professional setting.

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