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ACCA Applied Knowledge · Business and Technology · Sources of conflict and techniques for conflict resolution

Which of the following is most likely to be a functional (beneficial) outcome of conflict within a finance department?

Disagreement that leads a team to test alternatives and adopt a better reporting process is functional conflict. It improves decisions and methods. Withholding information, falling morale and absenteeism, and rivalry that displaces departmental goals are all dysfunctional effects that harm the organisation.

  1. ATeam members stop sharing information to protect their own positions
  2. BStaff morale falls and absenteeism rises as hostility grows
  3. CDisagreement over a reporting method leads the team to test alternatives and adopt a better processCorrect
  4. DTwo managers compete for resources so that departmental goals are forgotten

Explanation

Functional conflict produces constructive outcomes such as challenge to existing methods, better ideas and improved decisions. Testing alternatives and adopting a better process is such an outcome. The other options describe dysfunctional effects: information hoarding, lower morale and absenteeism, and the displacement of organisational goals by rivalry.

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