Conflict Transformation not Conflict Management: the ...

Conflict transformation not conflict management 243

Conflict Transformation not Conflict Management: the key to Sustainable Diversity Management Caterina Valentino, PhD, MBA Abstract This paper exposes the opportunities that exist when a conflict transformation perspective rather than a conflict management approach, is taught to address the social identity conflict arising when diversity management programs are introduced into organizations. Teaching conflict management techniques to address the social identity conflict arising from diversity management initiatives results in strengthening bonding social capital that binds like group members together and results in episodic relief from the pressures of social identity conflict, not sustainable change. Teaching conflict transformation thinking builds networks of bridging social capital or heterogeneous cooperative connections that allow organizational members to appreciate the advantages of doing things differently. Professors and students benefit from educational programs that encourage self-reflection. Self-reflection brings about stronger senses of identity and demonstrates to students how inclusive environments can be cultivated.

Please address correspondence to: Caterina Valentino, PhD, MBA, Ryerson University, The Ted Rogers School of Management, 350 Victoria Street, Toronto, Canada M5B 2K3 Phone: (416) 979-5000 ext. 6409; Email: [email protected]

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Introduction There is no question that organizations, having recognized the significant changes in society, globalization, and the ability of employees to flow freely and rapidly around the world (Daft, 2005), have changed their attitudes toward the benefits of employing diverse workers. In spite of this, recognition of diversity or its representations, in one social system, of people with distinctly different group affiliations of cultural significance (Weisinger & Salipante, 2005) has evaded many organizations. Neither following paths of equal opportunity nor affirmative action have resulted in truly transforming organizations into sustained workforces made up of employees with different human qualities. Moreover, to succeed in harnessing the benefits of diversity, organizations must build diversity within their leadership. Sought-after organizational leaders transform organizations through their actions. These leaders address interpersonal conflict arising from diversity programs with lenses that focus on the cultural norms and colloquialisms of groups rather than just fixing the interpersonal conflict. Inclusive leaders thirst to discover the underlying essence of the conflict and transform it into constructive actions that permit all employees to feel connected to the organization. This is an especially important topic for healthcare leaders. Nakhaie and Kazemipur (2013) postulate that institutional and cultural values impede people of diverse backgrounds in reaching their personal career goals because of dense bonding social capital that solidifies homophily (i.e., preference for people that resemble oneself). Gonzaler, Kim, and Marantz (2014) found that ethnic and racial minority patients received lower quality interpersonal care than White patients on the dimensions of patient/physician relationship, communication, and respect. Valentino’s (2014) investigation into the personal and professional beliefs of a sample of Ryerson University health administration alumni and students indicated that unconscious biases with respect to retaining one’s mother tongue and learning in English might contribute to delays in the translation of documents and access to translators. Managers’ professional beliefs that English should be the dominate language may segregate minorities on economic status and intellectual abilities, and hinder the supervisors’ offering of professional development and promotional opportunities to minority healthcare employees. Proactive educators of tomorrow’s healthcare leaders prepare them by initiating these difficult conversations in the safe environment of the classroom. Learners who are taught to understand a conflict transformation approach pull change through their organizations by building an inclusive environment and modeling behaviors where the underlying values that lead to conflict are exposed, explored, and modified. Conflict transformation is critically

Conflict transformation not conflict management 245 important to the delivery of inclusive healthcare. No matter the number of laws enacted or anti-discrimination education received, decisions align with a person’s engrained values, beliefs, and biases (Clements, 2014).

Diversity management The aim of diversity management and affirmative action programs to increase the varied composition of the workplace triggers a complex mix of reactions from employees and healthcare professionals (Kidder, Lankau, CharobotMason, Mollica, & Friedman, 2004; Friedman & Davidson, 2001). As the workforce composition is molded to meet diversity targets, salient threats from dominant groups directed toward minority groups result in interpersonal conflict (Dalton, 2003; Friedman & Davidson, 2001). As organizations push diversity (Kotter, 2000), managers often are blinded to the fact that individuals differ widely in how much they identify with their given beliefs, race, ethic background, or gender (i.e., their social identity). Diversity management programs (Kidder et al., 2004) that are pushed by administration – rather than pulled by employees (Kotter, 2000) – through the organizational hierarchies allow biases (known and unconscious) to create intergroup conflict that prevents diverse workers from attaining their personal and organizational goals. Intergroup conflict brought about by diversity management programs has clear implications for middle managers. Specifically, middle managers are forced to hone their conflict management skills in response to organizational changes that threaten their employees’ sense of identity. It is at this critical point that the opportunity exists for managers to employ conflict transformation processes (Lederach & Maiese, 2005) that bridge (Foster, Meinhard, & Berger, 2003) cultural differences, rather than conflict management techniques (Lussier & Achua, 2004) that bond and solidify employees into separate homogenous group affiliations. For example, one of mediator Vince Ready’s (Fire Fighting in Canada, 2006) responses to Richmond’s female firefighters’ complaints of sexual harassment against the Richmond Fire Rescue Department was to recommend the City of Richmond British Columbia, Canada, address the lack of separate female washrooms and shower or change facilities at many Richmond fire halls. Using this conflict management technique of directing only serves to push government officials to “administratively” fix the problem. It does nothing to expose the underlying cultural beliefs of the dominant group – male firefighters – about female firefighters appropriateness and abilities to be firefighters. Coupling mediator Ready’s comment with that of Mr. Townsend, Richmond City’s spokesperson, that the city “make changes to increase gender diversity

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and overall diversity within the fire department” (Fire Fighting in Canada, 2006, ¶10) on a surface level perpetuates the notion of paying lip service to diversity and providing a handout to under-represented groups. As long as the social identity conflict arising from a diversity management program is addressed with conflict management approaches, no sustainable resolution to the issue will be achieved. A conflict transformation approach pulls change through the organizations by providing a platform where the underlying values that lead to conflict are explored and modified. Conflict transformation inquiries foster sustainable change by bringing into focus the underlying personal, relational, structural, and cultural dimensions of human experience that resulted in the interpersonal conflict (Lederach & Maiese, 2003).

Diversity management paradigm: a complete organizational change Perpetuating diversity management programs that prescribe quotas for underrepresented groups (Bowens, Merenivitch, Johnson, & McFadden-Bryant, 1993) fails to move organizations beyond a human resources model of affirmative action and compliance, and fails to fully embrace the inherent value that flows from a diverse workforce (Gilbert, Stead, & Ivancevich, 1999). A well-thought-out diversity management program’s underlying belief is that society is not a melting pot. It is a salad bowl where each unique ingredient contributes to making the dish tasty. Rather than focusing on the economic benefits an organization reaps from employees who are different, diversity management must create a culture that recognizes the visible and hidden cultural differences, and provides an environment that allows them to flourish (as cited in Pant & Vijaya, 2015). Increased organizational diversity is purported to enhance group problem-solving capabilities, provide better service to diverse customers, and boost organizational creativity (Pant & Vijaya, 2015). A diverse workforce brings insight and cultural sensitivity to marketing efforts and increases the probability of attracting, recruiting, and hiring the best people in the face of shrinking and changing labor pools (Kidder et al., 2004). The intent of a diversity management program is to integrate the entrance of diverse employees into the workforce (Pant & Vijaya, 2015), based on valuing differences as opposed to assimilation. Diversity management programs should not be introduced to meet mandated quotas that superficially provide an appearance of an inclusive workforce.


Bridging and bonding social capital Sustainable diversity management demands a complete organizational cultural change designed to foster appreciation of demographic, ethnic, and individual differences with the intent of fostering employee integration (Gilbert et al., 1999; Foster et al., 2003). Bridging social capital creates cooperative connections with people from different walks of life. It fosters organizational cultures of inclusiveness. It exposes social networks that bind across heterogeneous groups, allowing employees to retain their own cultural identity and capitalize on the benefits of doing things differently. Inclusive workforces are based on valuing differences – bridging social capital – as opposed to assimilation that imposes the dominant characteristics on those who are different. Assimilation creates bonding social capital (Foster et al., 2003). Bridging ties allow employees to retain their own cultural identity and capitalize on the benefits of diversity. Organizations that embrace diversity develop opportunities to overcome functional work silos that bond employees together and instead build cross-functional communication networks of bridging social capital where ideas and skills are freely exchanged among workers. The creation of bridging social bonds foster inclusivity and doesn’t permit any dominant group to interfere with everyone’s full participation in organizational processes. In a nutshell, bonding social capital reinforces cooperative connections among like people fostering fraternities when like-minded people (i.e., similar backgrounds, occupations, interests, or tastes) flock together excluding others that are different (Putman, 2000).

Employment equity and affirmative action programs Employment equity and affirmative action programs, based on federal and provincial legislation, are remedial programs designed to increase employment opportunities for designated groups and minorities that are underrepresented in a workforce (Kider et al., 2004). The underlying rational of such equity programs is to alleviate historical discrimination. The work of Lind and Taylor (1988) demonstrates that, for the most part, these programs have drawn more opposition resulting in conflict, especially by Whites who perceive equity programs as being procedurally unfair. Furthermore, it has been found that non-prejudiced employees often oppose affirmative action (Kidder et al., 2004) because it violates the distributive justice norm of equal allocation – career progress based on merit. Research (Gilbert et al., 1999) also suggests that some of the staunchest resistance to affirmative action policies come not from the dominant workplace group, but rather from minority groups that the policies were intended to

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benefit. Heilman (as cited in Gilbert et al.) found that women who perceived that they were hired as a result of affirmative action mandates suffered stress, experienced job dissatisfaction, and selected less demanding work assignments than women who felt that their gender was not responsible for their employment. These negative perceptions eventually led to the downfall of affirmative action programs as hiring techniques for increasing organizational diversity. Consequently, affirmative action programs became known as handout programs in which the discount principle, phenotype, is the dominate screening criterion (Gilbert et al., 1999). At both the individual and group levels, employees pay attention to how fairly resources are allocated among identity groups in their organization. When inequalities are perceived, social identity conflict arises. While equity management programs can lead to decreased levels of frustration and turnover for minorities, issues of backlash and conflict from other employee groups (Kidder et al., 2004) can occur.

Diversity management: conflict and backlash Backlash (Kidder et al., 2004) is a negative response that occurs when a person thinks that others have received undeserved benefits. Higher status majority groups or in-groups experience backlash (Foster et al., 2003) when they believe that traditionally lower-status group members have received preferential treatment. As organizations rush to capitalize on the presumed benefits of workplace diversity by pushing (Kotler, 2000) diversity management initiatives through their organizational hierarchies, the resulting changes in the composition of the workforce shift the delicate balance from the dominate group’s social identity, which leads in turn to episodes of overt and covert social identity conflicts, or backlash. In professional bureaucracies (academic preparation for licensure) (Mintzberg, 1981) and para-militaristic organizations (police and fire services) perceived minimizations of one’s status are problematic and can create negative reactions to the implementation of diversity management programs (Hornsey & Hogg, 2000). A persistent example is the backlash from male firefighters to the affirmative actions taken to increase the number of female firefighters. Richmond female firefighters reported that human feces was left in her boots; another reported she was stalked by a male colleague (CBC News, 2011, December 31; Major, 2015). This backlash (Kidder et al., 2004) to diversity programs has engendered a complex mix of reactions within organizations that breeds mistrust and failed attempts to foster inclusiveness. One cannot overstimate the power of the dominant or in-group to resist the introduction of diversity management programs when they feel their future, potential opportunities, or status are threatened through the recogni-

Conflict transformation not conflict management 249 tion of others with distinctly different group affiliations. As aptly argued by McLean, Parks, and Banas (1996, p. 5), “those in control may view themselves as a cohesive in-group by virtue of their positions, and therefore may tend to view actions by organizational out-groups and external parties as possible threats to their control and organizational well-being.” In spite of using cognitive tools such as impression management (Kidder et al., 2004; Kotler, 2000), beliefs that mandated diversity targets result in preferential treatment including the hiring of supposedly unqualified minorities (Kidder et al. 2004) increase the opportunity for social identity conflict to arise between majority and minority groups. Cross-cutting, the practice of distributing employees with different social and demographic characteristics across organizational roles (Dalton, 2003), dilutes the delicate balance of the in-group membership and threatens one’s sense of who he or she is, leading to social identity conflict. This dilution results in clashes because the unwritten group expectations, values, and norms are broken (Lussier & Achua, 2004). A social identity analysis of leadership (Hornsey & Hogg, 2000) suggests that effective management of tightly knit groups where the superordinate identity feels threatened by the subgroup identity requires middle managers to champion the subgroup identity vigorously in order to prevent the polarization and further bonding of the in-group prototype. Kirstin Rudolph, a former volunteer firefighter from Fort. St. James, British Columbia stated her chief said if she, “…want a promotion why don’t I [Kirstin Rudolph] put on my [her] knee pads and blow him under his desk” (Mayor, 2015 November 8, ¶4). These social identity conflicts that take the middle managers away from their leadership and management roles to focus on conflict resolution brought about by diversity management have clear implications for middle managers. Specifically, middle managers spend more time dealing with the interpersonal issues between diverse individuals and groups. Hence, managers are forced to focus their efforts on effective conflict management of a diverse workforce rather than focus their attention on gaining a competitive advantage from diversity.

Managing conflict Managers who fail to understand the underpinning of conflicts that results from the introduction of organizational diversity tend to address these situations with one of the five managerial conflict management styles (Lussier & Achua, 2004). Conflict management techniques are single-use techniques designed to smooth over interpersonal conflict arising from differences between people. Applying conflict management techniques to interpersonal conflict surfacing

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from individual differences rather than investing time in unearthing and understanding the underlying sources of the conflict negates the very attribute that diversity management programs are trying to cultivate – celebrating the differences between people. The five conflict management styles are based on two dimensions of concern: concern for the other’s needs and concern for one’s own needs. These concerns result in five types of conflict behavior (Lussier & Achua, 2004; Daft, 2005): (a) an avoidance or passive style results from failure to address the concerns of any party and results in festering social identity conflict; (b) an accommodating conflict style, giving in, results in one party winning and one party losing; (c) a high concern for your own needs and a low concern for others’ needs results in forcing an aggressive behavior where your concerns are met without regard for the concerns of another; (d) a moderate concern for your own needs and others’ needs results in compromising behavior where negotiating the end results in some wins and some losses; and (e) cooperating with other parties to find a mutually satisfactory solution – collaborating behavior – enables participants to dine on a Thursday Night Soup of leftovers rather than a salad where each of the different ingredients remains intact and individually add to the dish’s taste. To the busy and time-deprived manager, these conflict resolution techniques provide a normative framework (Meyer, Gemmell, & Irving, 1997) that strikes a balance between providing guiding principles that are relatively straight forward, easy to understand, and resolve the conflict, at least momentarily. Unfortunately, this creates a role paradox for the middle manager (Meyer et al. 1997) where both the organization and the subordinates expect the manager to behave in a manner that serves their best interests. It is at this juncture that the opportunity exists for managers to employ conflict transformation processes (Lederach & Maiese, 2005) that bridge (Foster, Meinhard, & Berger, 2003) cultural differences rather than conflict management techniques that bond (Foster, Meinhard, & Berger, 2003; Lussier & Achua, 2004) employees into a homogenous group.

Conflict transformation Conflict transformation approaches require middle managers to make sense of the social identity conflict (Lederach & Maiese, 2003, Friedman & Davidson, 2001). A conflict transformation perspective forces managers to look beyond the immediate conflict situation. It pulls managers to understand the deep relationships that bond homogeneous employees in order to identify the opportunities for building social networks of bridging social capital that replaces the group’s tight bonding social capital. Middle managers must move beyond

Conflict transformation not conflict management 251 finding a quick problem resolution by addressing the identity issues of the parties in conflict. Middle managers need to recognize, design, and implement transformational platforms that address the context, content, and the structure of the conflict (Lederach & Maiese, 2003). The conflict transformational approach (Lederach & Maiese, 2003) begins with the middle manager assuming a positive and opportunistic attitude toward change, and a willingness to engage in conflict with the aim of producing constructive long-term growth rather than short-run conflict resolutions. Conflict transformational managers seek to understand the range of identify conflicts within the context of larger patterns of human relationships that bond and bridge persons of diverse backgrounds. Transformational conflict managers see conflict as an opportunity to stop, take stock, re-group, self-evaluate, and re-assess how they plan, organize, lead, and control. It is an opportunity to build new relationships, social structures, and networks of bridge relationships (Foster et al., 2003) that form a transformational framework of change based on the appreciation of individual differences that are self-sustaining (Lederach & Maiese, 2003) dynamic, and adaptive. Conflict transformation behaviors pull middle managers to look beyond the immediate conflict to see the many windows of creative opportunity that exist for organizational transformations. Transformations not based on a win/ lose frame of reference but on a framework that allows for the attainment of interdependent multiple goals (Lederach & Maiese, 2003). Middle managers who employ conflict transformation view complex conflicts as an opportunity to find platforms of change from which diverse people can attach in order to prosper personally and organizationally. Middle managers who practice conflict transformation recognize that social identity conflict is relational and requires moving people beyond the surface artifacts of the conflict: to view their diversity as a growth opportunity, not a limitation. This transformational framework consists of the present situation, the horizon of the preferred future, and the development of the change processes that links the present to the future (Lederach & Maiese, 2003). The present situation provides the content. It is the ability of the middle managers to transform the issues into opportunities that connect the future with the past, and to locate the new opportunities, different sets of patterns, and platforms for constructive, long-lasting, sustainable change. Together the circular feedback loops of opportunities combined with the linear patterns of ongoing and adaptive change toward conflict transformations pulls (Kotler, 2000) employees beyond the conflict into the building of long-lasting relationship networks (Lederach & Maiese, 2003). Conflict transformations expose the organizational patterns of

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values and trust, as well as individual and group behaviours. These processes and structures remain unchallenged during conflict resolution techniques that are brought to the forefront in conflict transformation and provide the potential power for continuous constructive change. For example, in an ongoing saga in the Canadian Armed Forces (Milewski, 2015; Ryan, 2016), leaders must move beyond the present situation of addressing systematic gender and sexist practices with promises of mandated linear policy changes. The appreciation and acceptance of the equality of diverse workers to achieve organizational goals will only begin to be achieved when managers honestly examine the fundamental patterns of engrained behaviours that have been passed down as the correct way to think and act. When managers are allowed to transform the conflict into new social relationships that expose the underpinnings of the social identity conflict, then and only then will diverse employees be provided with an environment that allows them to achieve both their personal and organizational goals.

Conclusion While diversity management programs enhance an organization’s problem solving capabilities, provide better service to a diverse customer base, and boosts organizational creativity, they come with a price - increased internal social conflict (Dalton, 2003). Currently, this increase in social identity conflict forces middle managers to hone their conflict management skills in response to organizational changes that threaten their employees’ sense of identity, subsequently impacting organizational productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness. In a step-wise fashion, the potential benefits and costs associated with diversity management programs are exposed. It is these benefits coupled with the advantages of conflict transformation processes, instead of conflict resolution techniques, that make conflict transformation the tool of choice to address the social identity issues created with the introduction of diversity management programs. As well, this paper outlined the opportunities that exist for managers to employ conflict transformation processes to bridge cultural differences, rather than conflict management techniques (Lussier & Achua, 2004) that bond (Foster, Meinhard, & Berger, 2003) employees into distinct homogenous group affiliations. Through the implementation of conflict transformation, organizations can celebrate and capitalize on diversity without frustrating their communities. Educators need to embrace the conflict transformation process as a legitimate way to address social identity conflicts associated with diversity management and expose students to its power to transform people and organizations. More fieldwork studies are needed to fully document the power of this tool.


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