Organizational Conflicts

Organizational Conflict has been defined in different way by different writers. The common key words which are used in these definitions are frustration, incongruence, incompatibility and mismatch. There are six levels of conflict: Intra-individual conflict, Inter-individual conflict, Intra-group conflict, Inter-group conflict, Intra-organizational conflict and Inter-organizational conflict. Another important organizational concept is the "Organizational Commitment". The four approaches to study and conceptualize OC are: Attitudinal approach, Behavioral approach, normative approach and Multidimensional approach. This paper focuses on the intra-individual conflict level. The three factors of intra-individual conflict are: Frustration, Goal conflict and Role conflict. Frustration occurs when individuals prevented from doing a desired action or achieving a certain goal. Goal conflict has three types: Approach-approach conflict, Avoidance-avoidance conflict and Approach-avoidance conflict. Goal Conflict occurs when individuals face the choice between mutually exclusive goals. Role conflict occurs when individuals face different expectations from different parties. It has three main factors: Work role, Family role and societal role. This paper examines the relationships between intra-individual conflict and organizational commitment in Sudan by surveying 1000 employees. Data were collected from two management levels (out of three), middle and lower management. The study has used Porter et al.'s scale of OCQ to measure organizational commitment, which is a unidimensional scale. Results shows that the three factors of intra-individual conflict that are significantly related to commitment are: role conflict, goal conflict and frustration. These factors found to be negatively associated with organizational commitment. Role conflict plays a significant role in affecting employees' commitment. It is the most important factor of intra-individual conflict