Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Conflicts are Healthy Signs of Collective Action?
All nice people, good hand shakes, patting each other, sugar coated words. Is it the really good collective action? Do conflicts have more curative function than damaging function for collectives? What kind of curative functions are possible? How to use conflicts as instruments for better outcomes?
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Conflict has had positive and negative effects in case of collective action. Taking the example of sugar co-operatives in Maharashtra where power conflict is highly prevalent. Here we observe internal conflict among the members as leaders of co-operatives aspire to be political leaders. These leaders in turn have brought about a lot of development. On the other hand there is a draw back as well as political considerations take over business calculations in this case.Now taking the example of milk co-operatives in Gujarat we observe external conflict in the form of competition has worked wonders in enhancing their position.
No conflict situation is created by non decision making. This is a way to conceptualize a system where there is no conflict. If a critical issue there to be discussed and resolved is not in the agenda then it is likely to suppress the conflict. Allowing the status quo to continue will bring about short term benefits to the collectives. But it may produce negative impact in the long term. So it is better to address the conflict at the beginning stage itself to prevent its cumulative effect in the long term and to get better results.
Conflicts are necesssary unless they cross the threshold. It helps the organisation to grow and welcome new thoughts and ideas. It challenges the status quo position and helps to adapt to changing environment and uncertainites. For e.g. when the milk cooperatives have reached the stagnation the idea of NGCs emerged as a result of internal conflicts. Also, it is the conflict in the cooperative banks(e.g. Saraswata Bank) that helped to survive after its failure 3 years back due to lack of new ideas, competence & adaptability
However,very often the conflicts in collective action relates to bad politics restricted to seeking powers and its misuse for e.g. the case of sugar cooperatives in Maharashtra and failure of Milk Cooperatives in 'Cow Belts' i.e. U.P. and Bihar owing to caste conflicts and politics associated to it. So, conflicts are both good and bad for success of collective action.
Conflicts do have curative function if it is healthy and not allowed to run to pathological extremes. A good collective action is not only about nice people, it needs a stimulus which is conflict. There must be some dissatisfaction with the status quo before conditions are right to initiate change. This was absent in case of milk cooperatives in Gujarat which lead to no breakage of lineage. Conflict with an external agent (Polson) lead to their formation but continuation of status quo by avoiding conflicts will not lead to a better outcome.
Conflicts are a means of introspection and improvisation. This same logic is applied in case of collectives. When a group of people come together for directing their efforts towards an objective which is perceived as “common” by them, each individual draws a different mental picture of the path to reach it. When the mental images do not match, conflict arises and may take any form as desired by the group. If the issue of conflict is considered for finding the loopholes and correcting them then conflict is definitely an instrument for better outcome.
Some great personality has said- “I have never learnt a thing from people who always agreed with me.” True words I believe. No one is perfect and no idea is perfect. When some idea is implemented as a collective action we should have had a look at all the prospects and consequences of it. People who confront an idea, in most cases are aware of the glitches in the present idea. Their views should also be listened as healthy criticism. This will definitely make the idea richer and devoid of its glitches.
Conflicts can actually influence a collective action in a positive way as they help to bring in different perspectives to the situation and thus sometimes help in determining the best possible solutions.If everybody thinks in same direction then it may bring stagnation.Also the real test of collective action occurs when it is put to test i.e. conflicts
A collective comprises of individuals and every individual has distinct rationality and ethics. This diversity makes conflicts in any collective inevitable. However, it depends on the members how they deal with such issues. Sustainability of any decision is dependent on the belief exhibited by the people who have taken the decision. Continuous improvement and learning are the broad means through which any collective will remain competitive and this stipulates an environment where conflicts are taken as opportunities rather than debts.
12 Angry Men
This legendary movie makes us ponder over the 'goods' conflicts can do.
Conflicts can be another way of saying 'Lets discuss' rather than agreeing easily and this sometimes brings out the best outcomes. A small manifestation is the group assignments we do. We get the best perspective only when we sit together to discuss our varied, sometimes conflicting, opinions. At village level also, the Gram Sabhas where people question the workings of Panchayat, seek explanations and express their disagreements are the ones where the Panchayat System works more effectively. Accepting everything that may come, only leads to stagnation and ineffectiveness.
Yes, conflict has more curative function than damaging function for collectives. But conflict should not end with itself only. Member should come up with the solution to the problems. For example, while conducting Anand Run, members had two different opinions, whether to conduct it with Vadodara Run concurrently. But it was good to see that this conflict did not prolong more and members irrespective of their opinions volunteered to make this event successful with extra care. Had there not been this conflict, Members might not have worked so hard to make it successful. So it is good to have conflict to some extent.
Conflicts upto a certain level are necessary and healthy since they may try to bring out the best from the actions. But above that they make take a damaging form in a way that may hamper the collective action altogether. Unnecessarily creating conflicts may affect the very cause of the action. The curative function of the conflicts depends on their required necessity. A conflict can work as a curative in collective actions where the sole purpose of the actions are misappropriated due to various rationale reasons by few individuals. In such cases conflicts can help in a positive way.
Conflicts are sometimes required to know underlying realities. If people always present themselves in the best possible manner then it's hard to know their actual motives. In any collective action its important to accentuate positive conflict and minimize the destructive conflicts. At times it leads to a better situation which would not have been realized by the group earlier. Life is about choosing options rightly, so the emphasis on opting for choices having positive effect will lead to better outcomes. Process of choosing the options are critical and the members must be aware of the possible outcomes of their actions.
When conflict does occur, the results may be positive or negative, depending upon how those involved choose to approach it. Conflict is always difficult, but it leads to growth and change, which is good. No one likes pain, but pain wakes you up and tells you when to react. Hence we can say there is a threshold limit until which conflict is good and healthy but when conflict crosses that limit, it need to be addressed to minimize losses to involved entities.
It depends on the context.These sugar coated words are not always good for collective action, as the group has to be told about the reality.One person could be made aware of multiple view points of other parties in case of conflicts, and if we see the negative effects, it could politicise the situation
Conflicts, which represent divergent views are essential for decisions to be made in a well-rounded manner. Indeed, sugar coated words, nice behaviour may be symptomatic of sycophancy which cannot be good for the collective action. Thus differences in opinions and the conflicts arising from there can be sorted out at round-table meetings and the end result will more often than not be beneficial to the decision making process of the collective action. Having said that, conflicts arising out of malicious intent are unlikely to be productive and must be nipped in the bud.
conflict has mostly positive effect and works as more curative than defective for the collective. e.g. conflict of interest among the polson dairy and the farmers of Kheda district led to establishment of milk cooperative in the District. This led to white revolution in India, the fruits of which we are seeing today.
Conflicts can be both health and unhealthy. Healthy conflicts if taken in the spirit of competitiveness result in growth while unhealthy conflicts might lead to differences which are hard and take time to sort out. Such conflicts should be avoided. Conflict taken up collectively for a purpose may result even in a revolution.
Conflicts are healthy when the parties involved in conflict are ultimately working for the same cause. It would bring in light different viewpoints of handling problems and thus provide meaningful solutions which would satisfy all viewpoints. But such conflicts are fruitful only when the self interest of individuals does not come in the way of the larger cause of the collective action.
Conflicts are necessary as it brings improvement if we could use it effectively, but it may also break cooperatives as differences might lead to formation of cliques among those who have similar interests. To use conflicts constructively, we need to understand both the sides of the story and ask the opinion of all the members and then take decison,so that every one gets benefit.
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