Effects of Employees’ Perception of Interpersonal and Intergroup Conflicts on Organizational Effectiveness in Automobile Industry of Pakistan

Abstract

This study was undertaken with an aim to find out the influence of interpersonal and intergroup conflicts on organizational effectiveness, with particular reference to Affective and Substantive conflicts, in Pakistani automobile industry. To cover the entire automobile industry, two main players i.e. Pak Suzuki motors and Honda Atlas motors were chosen for the study. A total of 110 managerial level employees were approached for collecting quantitative data with the help of a research instrument, a well-structured questionnaire prepared on a Likert scale of 1 to 5. Statistical tools including Regression analysis and Pearson’s correlation were used to calculate the influence of interpersonal and intergroup conflict on organizational effectiveness. The findings of study indicated that there was a positive effect of substantive conflict on team effectiveness whereas the impact of affective conflict on employee cohesiveness and performance was negative. Hence, the results of study were found in favour of substantive conflict whereas in case of affective conflict, the results were discouraging. Furthermore, the findings suggest that conflicts are generally considered to have negative connotation in Pakistani culture. The study is considered quite useful for the management of automobile industry in realizing the importance of conflict and taking measures to keep the conflict within functional limits i.e. at lower or middle level. The study can be equally beneficial for managers in the organizations of other industries.