In business conflicts may occur between different members of staff as different levels of people have different objectives. One example of this is managers who have a lot of responsibility within a business, as they are trusted with handling a large number of people. When a manager becomes this powerful in a business they might start neglecting their duties. Working fewer hours and paying themselves more money. They will be exploiting the company because they can. If they do this objectives for that manager to achieve may not be achieved.

A manager paying himself more and working fewer hours because they can is at the detriment to the company itself because less time is spent in trying to achieve company goals. The most common conflict within business is probably the disputes between managers and employees over rates of pay. Employees usually demand a higher rate of pay to improve standards of living and increase the amount of disposable income they have. Managers response to this is usually quite negative as they have objectives set by board members to increase profits.

Wages are an expense to a business to the higher the wage bill the less profit earned. Managers can be reluctant for this to happen because they may be in line for a bonus if they meet profitability targets set to them so increasing the wage bill would lessen the chance of this. Another conflict that may arise in a business is between employees and managers again. Employees may want better working conditions for example hotter/cooler, more space, cleaner, darker/brighter or even more breaks or longer breaks.

All these things cost money and would be costly to a business looking to maximise profit and make themselves more successful. Changing working practices can also create conflict. Changing practices within business usually occurs to make the firm more efficient and increase productivity through approaching tasks in a different fashion. This can create problems however with the workforce as many see it as just a way of increasing the amount of work that they have to do.

This is not good for a firm as morale can decline and this would mean that the overall output of the workforce could decrease acting against any changes that were made. Perhaps the biggest conflict that a Human Resource activity may create is one over job losses. Creating redundancies is one of the biggest decisions a firm may have to make. If a firm is struggling or they feel they need to become more efficient one of the most effective ways of doing this is to cut the wage bill, as it is usually one of the biggest single costs to a business.

Unfortunately creating redundancies leaves workers without jobs. Some workers being asked to leave may have been working for the firm for many years and showed a strong loyalty to that firm. Trade Unions may become involved to try and stop the job losses or reduce the number. They may also organise strike action against the firm and protest against any redundancies. All this is bad for the firm as morale will be greatly hurt and the firm’s productivity will suffer as a result.