PS5035: ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE AND CONFLICT (2024-2025)

This course will aim to cover two vital areas related to the effective performance and safety of industrial organisations and their workers: culture and conflict.

In today’s global economy, with multicultural organisations and teams, understanding culture, and the impact it might have on staff behaviour, has become ever more important.  Organisational culture and norms (implicit rules or guidelines to accepted behaviours within the organisation – ‘the way we do things around here’) and organisational safety culture (shared perception of safety, guidelines and hazards), should guide employee behaviour and interactions.   However, although an organisation may have an overarching norm, or culture, it is likely that norm differentiation also exists.  This is the suggestion that within any organisation there can be the existence of sub-cultures, or norm differences, across work sites, between work groups and sections.  The differentiation can be prompted by professional differences across roles or training background, or may be influenced by national culture.  Research indicates that this kind of differentiation can lead to potential conflict and errors, particularly within high risk industry.  This course will define, and explore, the role of culture and the impact of cultural variation, on organisations from an applied psychology and human factors perspective in order to develop student knowledge and understanding of this important aspect of human behaviour at work.  

In addition to culture this course will also cover conflict, and conflict management, in the workplace.  Conflict is a relatively broad term that encompasses any instance of disagreement between employees, often linked to differences in staff values, needs, opinions or goals.  Negative behaviours linked to conflict include rudeness, aggression, arguments and, in some cases, bullying.  Research indicates that conflict in the workplace can have a range of adverse impacts, from emotional distress, to performance reductions, including an increase in errors and subsequent negative impact on safety.  The course will explore the causes and effects of conflict at work, along with discussion and development of conflict management strategies.  Students will be encouraged to reflect on any instances of conflict within their own organisation, and will develop a thorough understanding of conflict management strategies to support their response to conflict in the future.

Part 1: Culture

The first 6 weeks of the course will focus on four culture types:

• Organisational culture
• Safety culture
• Professional culture
• National culture

Each culture type will be explained, with the impact on worker effectiveness and safety discussed with reference to the research literature.  Cultural influences within accident reports will also be critically examined and discussed.  Students will be encouraged to reflect on cultural influences within their own job role and organisation.

Part 2: Conflict

The second half of the course will focus on issues surrounding worker conflict and resolution in the workplace:

• Sources of conflict
• Incivility and rudeness
• Harassment and bullying
• Conflict management and resolution

Each aspect of conflict will be examined with reference to the research literature. The impact on worker well-being, job satisfaction and performance also covered.

There are no assessments for this course.