Intraorganizational Conflict

The 4 types of intraorganizational conflict. Select one of these types of conflict and explain the role of communications in creating that type of conflict. You should refer back to Chapter 4, page 84, to the Barriers to Communication. How would you use communications to overcome that type of conflict?

Interorganizational conflict deals with the "structural makeup of an organization" (Stojkovic,Kalinich and Klofas, 2003, p269) The four types of interorganizational conflict are: vertical conflict, horizontal conflict, line-staff conflict, and role conflict.

Vertical conflict can be explained by thinking about your supervisor always telling you what to do and trying to micromanage instead of letting you do your job. The conflict exists between the worker and the superior. The book used the example of the corrections department. This type of conflict exists within many police agencies, state agencies and city agencies.

Horizontal conflict occurs between employees within the same unit. The difference between vertical and horizontal is the level from which the conflict is coming from. Horizontal is one unit to another unit-both units being on the same level. Conflict can exist for many reasons, including ideas or decisions that are made that the whole unit or units also on the same level do not agree with.

Line-Staff conflict occurs between support staff and actually units within a department. The example I would use would be between a police file clerk and an officer who is looking for a cold case file. The police officer can argue that he put the file back in the correct spot when the support staff (file clerk) can say that they didn't. Conflict would occur in this situation.

Role conflict has been explained in our reading as an officer having conflict due to not fully understanding the assignment they have been given. Communication issues and conflict issues can also contribute to the role conflict topic. In the reading role conflict is the most prevailing conflict in law enforcement agencies.

If I was to pick one of these conflict styles I would pick the role conflict. The role of communication with the role conflict is that of confusing and misunderstanding. The employee/officer does not understand what is expected of them. This can be caused due to lack of communication with the officer and Sergeant. This can occur because the officer did not pick up on all of the information they should have during training. This can occur because the officer is really not qualified to be in the position they are in employment wise.

I would use several communication skills to help remedy this situation. I would use both verbal and non verbal communication skills. Some individuals learn better hands on while others learn better with books and writing. I would make sure that meetings were setting up frequently between the officer and sergeant or training officer to make sure the officer understands exactly what is expected of them throughout their training time. I would not put an officer in a situation that they did not yet feel comfortable in. By putting them in a situation like this they could not only cause harm to themselves but to the other officers they would be working with.