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Conflict in the workplace can arise in many different forms, however, the three most common are personality conflicts, intergroup conflict, and cross-cultural conflict. By understanding the causes of these conflicts, you will have a greater chance of successfully managing and reducing their negative impacts on your employees.

Personality conflicts

Personality conflicts can be defined as interpersonal opposition based on personal dislike and/or disagreement.^[1] It can arise from something trivial or major, such as an employee not liking another based on their dress sense, work ethic, attitude, or communication style etc. As minor as it seems, if personality conflicts are not dealt with from the beginning, they can have serious effects on employee morale and significantly hinder team performance. Therefore, as a leader or manager, it is crucial that you carefully select your team not only based on their ability, but also consider their compatibility and commitment to your company's work culture.

Another common cause of personality conflict is incivility. Examples include the use of vulgar language in the workplace, or not cleaning up after using shared facilities. To combat this sort of behaviour, some organisations have resorted to workplace etiquette training for their employees. However, as a leader or manager, you will have to lead by example and act as caring and courteous role models if that is what is expected from your employees.

Traditionally, personality conflicts were either ignored or a party to the conflict would lose their job. However, this may lead to discrimination lawsuits so there are more effective ways for dealing with personality conflicts. The following are some suggestions for dealing with such conflict:

• Investigate and document the conflict.
• Attempt informal dispute resolution and encourage the parties involved to work out their differences in a constructive and positive manner.
• Avoid dragging other team members into the conflict.
• Do not take sides.

• Seek help from human resource specialists or professional counsellors if you are still unable to resolve the issue.

Intergroup conflict

Intergroup conflict generally arises when there are conflicts of interests within competing groups within an organisation. It is often the result of group cohesiveness, which is the "we feeling" that binds group members together. Although a certain level of cohesiveness is essential for an effective team, too much can also generate adverse effects, including:

• Members of in-groups view themselves as a collection of unique individuals, while they stereotype members of other groups as being all alike.
• In-group members perceive themselves in a positive manner and as politically correct, while other group members are negative and immoral.
• In-groups view outsiders as threats.

Some other common causes of intergroup conflict include:

• High levels of conflict within a group, often leading to conflict amongst other groups
• Negative interactions between groups as a whole or individuals
• Third parties engaging in negative gossip about a group

As intergroup conflict can seriously hinder your organisation's performance and productivity, there are certain things you can do to prevent or minimise intergroup conflict which include:

• Providing team building exercises to reduce conflict within a group and prepare them for working with other groups
• Encouraging friendships and good working relationships amongst different groups
• Appropriately dealing with negative gossip as soon as they arise

Cross-cultural conflict

Cross-cultural conflict can be defined as conflict between individuals or groups that are separated by cultural boundaries. In today's workplace, the ability to deal with people from different cultures is absolutely critical in order to achieve success.

The main cause of cross-cultural conflict is miscommunication. For example, if you have employees from high-context cultures, such as Japan, China, Mexico and Arabic nations, you may find that they heavily rely on nonverbal communication to get their message across. In contrast, people from low-context cultures such as Australia, North America, Germany and Switzerland, usually prefer to use verbal and written communication to convey their message.

To avoid misinterpretation and misunderstanding with your employees, you should have a good understanding of key differences within different cultures. However, you should not stereotype a person based on their cultural background as you may often find that some people are able to easily adapt to their surroundings.

As cross-cultural conflict can have major impacts on the productivity of your team, you should always be proactive. Some of the ways to build cross-cultural relationships include:

• Being a good listener
• Being sensitive to the needs of others
• Being cooperative, rather than overly competitive
• Compromising rather than dominate
• Regularly engaging in conversations to build relationships
• Being compassionate and understanding

^{[1] Kinicki, Organizational Behavior: core concepts.}