Content and process: organizational conflict and decision making.

Area of Science:

• Organizational behavior
• Psychology
• Decision-making theory

Background:

• The Carnegie perspective views conflict as endemic to organizations, driving behavior and decision-making.
• Organizations inherently contain latent goal conflict due to interdependent individuals with diverse preferences and information.
• Existing psychology research focuses on conflict types and their impact on group outcomes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To synthesize the Carnegie perspective on organizational conflict with extant psychology research.
• To highlight the persistent nature of conflict in organizational decision-making.
• To identify future research directions for understanding organizational decision processes.

Main Methods:

• Review and assessment of foundational Carnegie perspective work on organizational conflict.
• Analysis of existing psychology research on conflict content, intensity, and outcomes.
• Synthesis of theoretical perspectives on how conflict is addressed within organizations.

Main Results:

• Conflict is a pervasive and ongoing feature of organizations, stemming from differing goals and perceptions.
• Organizations address conflict through informal processes like sequential attention to goals, information decentralization, resource accumulation, and coalition formation.
• Formal mediating procedures are less emphasized in the Carnegie perspective for conflict resolution.

Conclusions:

• Organizational conflict is a latent, situated, and dynamic phenomenon that is never fully resolved.
• Understanding how organizations address conflict through informal processes is crucial for decision-making.
• Future research should focus on the dynamic and situated nature of organizational conflict to enhance clarity on decision-making.