Every team, even a healthy one, ends up involved in a small or big conflict at some point. In fact, to some level, conflicts are an indicator of a healthy and growing team. It is usually not a good indicator if a manager claims their team is conflict-free.

The severity of conflicts is variable, and as a manager, it is your responsibility to help resolve those. Conflicts can be between a manager and their reports, the manager and their leadership, or within team members. Sometimes conflicts can be with other teams and customers as well. In this lesson, we’ll focus on conflicts among the team members.

The goal of conflict resolution is always to find a resolution in the most amicable way possible. Depending on the type of conflict, you may be able to restore things to where they previously were, but it might not be possible to resolve every conflict entirely.

So, what is a conflict? In the context of management, we define a conflict as a varying degree of disagreement between different parties working on the same project or deliverable. Conflict resolution can be defined as resolving these disagreements.

Sources of conflict

As a manager, the first step in resolving conflict is to identify its source. The primary source, particularly of minor conflicts, is miscommunication. Indirect communication leads to communication gaps, which becomes a major cause of conflict among the team. Let's look at some more sources of conflict and how these can be identified and mitigated.

A misalignment in expectations can also lead to conflicts. This means that different members perceive the responsibilities of other members differently. For example, Person A expects Person B to design and implement a feature, whereas Person B's responsibility is only to design it. Miscommunication often leads to conflicts of expectations.

Another source of conflict can be the differences in the personalities and working styles of individuals. If Person A is a passive communicator while Person B always prefers proactive communication, this can lead to some friction between them.

Having different working hours can also lead to communication gaps. This shows up more when people from different time zones collaborate for work.

Differences in interests may also be a source of conflicts. For example, Person A prioritizes some tasks according to their interests and personal goals, which may not align with the overall team or organizational goals and timelines. In such cases where the team or organizational goals differ from personal goals, conflicts may arise between different members. Conflict of interest may also emerge between two competing individuals in the same team. In teams where the team culture is set up in a way that individuals compete with each other to gain personal growth instead of sharing team wins, conflicts are inevitable.

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