The conflict which supports the goals of a group and also improves it performance is known as a functional or a positive conflict. The functional conflict is helpful in the achievement of the goals of a group as it aids in –

(i) Analytical thinking: During a conflict the members of a group display analytical thinking in identifying various alternatives. In absence of conflict, they might not have been creative or even might have been lethargic. The conflicts may include challenge to such views, rules, policies, purpose and plans which entail a significant analysis so as to justify these groups as they are or make other alterations that may be necessary.

(ii) Diffusing tension among the members of the group: When conflict is allowed to express openly it can help in reducing the tension among the members of the group which would otherwise remain suppressed. Suppression of tension can lead to imaginative distortion of truth, sense of frustration and tension, high mental exaggerations and biased opinions resulting in fear and distrust. When members express themselves, they get some psychological satisfaction. This also leads to reduction of stress among the involved members.

(iii) Promote Competition: Conflicts results in increase competition and this increased competition in turn results in more efforts. Some persons are highly motivated by conflict and service competition. Such conflict and competition can result in increased effort and output.

(iv.) Promote group cohesiveness: Some experts believe that conflict creates solidarity among the members of the group it also increases loyalty in the members of the group and inculcates a feeling of group identity as the members of a group compete with outsiders. This increased group cohesiveness can help the management in achieving the organizational goals effectively.

(v) Facing challenges: The abilities of individuals as well as groups can be tested during conflict. Conflict creates challenges for them and to face these challenges individual and group to need to be creative and dynamic. When they are able overcome these challenges successfully it leads to a search for the alternatives to the present methods which results in organizational development.

(vi.) Organizational change: It has been seen that some times conflict stimulates change among the members of a group. Whenever people are faced with conflict, there is a change in their attitudes and they become ready for the change to meet the requirements of the situation

(vii) Increased awareness: Conflict creates an increased awareness about the problems faced by the group. The group members also become aware of the members involved in the problem and the methods adopted to solve the problem.

(viii) Quality of decision: Conflict result s in high quality decisions taken by the members of a group. During the conflict, the members express the opposing views and perspective which results in some high quality decisions. The members share the information and examine the reasoning of other members to develop new decisions.

(ix) Identification of weakness: The weaknesses of a group and its members can be identified easily during the conflict. It becomes easier for the management to remove these weaknesses once it becomes aware of these.

The experts have been divided over the role of conflict in organizations and groups. However there are mainly three schools of thought that emphasize the different roles of conflict in the organizations. These three schools of thought present the traditional view, the human relation view and the interaction view.

(i) The traditional view: The traditional view believed that conflict is harmful for the organization. This view considered conflict as a totally negative phenomenon and considered it synonymous with violence and destruction. In the traditional view conflict was believed to be a dysfunction outcome of factors like poor communication, lack of trust among the employees and a failure of the management to respond to the needs and desired of the employees. It was believed that conflict could cause a loss in productivity and too much conflict at the work place could also distract the managers from efficiently discharging their duties. In this way we see that the traditional view considered conflict as a totally bad thing and advocated its complete avoidance. This sometime resulted in a tendency to suppress the conflict and push it under the carpet. By ignoring the presence of conflict, we somehow try to wish it away. Both the scientific management approach and the administrative school of management related heavily on developing such organizational structures that would specify task, rules, regulations procedures and authority relationships so that if a conflict develops, then these inbuilt rules will identify and correct problems of such conflict. Thus, through proper management techniques and attention to the causes of conflict, it could be eliminated and organizational performance improved.

(ii) Human Relation View: The proponents of human relations view believe that conflict was a natural occurrence in all groups and organizations and the management should accept conflict at work place. This theory says that conflict is avoidable by creating an environment of goodwill and trust. But still conflicts are bound to happen due to differences in opinions, faulty policies and procedures, lack of cooperation, allocation of resources which will lead to distortion and blockage in communication. Accordingly, management should always be concerned with avoiding conflict if possible and resolving it soon if possible, in the interests of the organizations and the individuals.

(iii) The Interactions view: The inter-actionist approach went a step further from the human relations approach which accepted conflict but the inter-actionist view in fact encouraged conflict. This view is based on a belief that conflict could be a positive force in a group but it is even necessary for a group to perform efficiently. Thus this approach encourages conflict as these approaches believes that if there is harmony, peace and co-operation in a group it can become static and non-responsive towards the needs for change and innovation. Therefore it becomes imperative that the leader of the group allows some conflict in the group so that it remains creative viable and self critical. This conflict however should be kept under control at all times so that the dysfunction consequences of conflict avoided.

Conflict is present in everyday life of individual as well as organizations. We can say that wherever there is an interaction, there is conflict. Conflict influences is the behavior, performance and satisfaction of the employees and is a major challenge for the managers when they have to deal with differences among the employees or groups at work. The conflicts pose regular challenges for the managers thus it becomes important for the managers to understand the concept of conflict and also the ways to handle to conflict effectively. There are many ways to define the conflict it has been considered as an expression of hostility antagonism aggression rivalry and negative attitude. It is also linked with situations which involve the contradictory or irreconcilable interests between two opposite parties. Louis R Pondy has given a comprehensive definition of conflict in which he says that the term conflict is used in four different ways:

(i) Antecedent conditions of conflict-full behavior such as scarcity of resources or policy differences.
(ii) Affective states of individuals involved such as stress, tension, hostility anxiety etc.
(iii) Cognitive state of individuals, that is their perception or awareness of conflict situation; and
(iv.) Conflict behavior ranging from passive resistance to over aggression.

Thus we see that conflict is a predictable social phenomenon which can be channelized to used purposes by the managers. From the organizational point of view conflict has following features:

(i) Conflict arises when individual are not able to select the available courses of action

(ii) A conflict between two individuals means that they have contradictory values, perception and goals.

(iii) Conflict involves a series of events and is a dynamic process. Every conflict is made up of a series of inter connected episodes.

(iv.) A conflict should be perceived by the parties involved in it if the parties are not aware of the conflict it is commonly assumed that there is no conflict between the parties.