Professionals en 'the sweet spot of conflict': Een etnografische studie onder vliegers

Professionals and ‘the sweet spot of conflict’. An ethnographic study of pilots. Conflict is a common phenomenon in professional organizations and often results in a power struggle. The objective of this study is to explore how professionals reach the ‘sweet spot of conflict’. When present, disagreements remain content oriented, do not become personal and persons involved perform at an optimal level (Rahim, 2001). Synonyms for this sweet spot are optimal or productive conflict. Reaching this spot contributes to good, professional work. After literature search an exploration was realized in a hospital. This gave insight regarding conflict but not regarding optimal conflict. As pilots have to solve their conflicts to arrive home safely, the main part of the study was conducted in the airline KLM. How pilots handle conflicts has not been studied before. The main research is ethnographic and interpretive in nature. The methodology used are interviews and observations which have been coded and analyzed on four levels through discourse analysis (Alvesson & Karreman, 2000). The findings have been interpreted with the help of the pilots and with several outsiders. The aircraft can be seen as a global village in the sky with inhabitants of different nationalities, sexes, ages, social classes and religions. The crew consists of four to eighteen persons, depending on the type of aircraft. In total 83 conflict cases have been collected in which at least one pilot participated. To deal with conflict the pilots seem to have three different processes which are converging, freezing and escalating. When they converge, they keep conflict small, find a solution and learn from each other. When this is not possible, they freeze or escalate. Freezing means parking conflict and continue working according to standard operating procedures. When they escalate, they stop working together – temporarily or definitely – and sometimes inform higher management. About 50% of the 83 cases are solved and the other half ends in a frozen or escalated situation. In those cases beginning conflict becomes conflict. As very few recent conflicts have been reported in the interviews the conflict frequency of the pilots appears lower than the Dutch annual average. The process of converging seems to produce the sweet spot of conflict as pilots explain that they learn from each other through the exchange of perspectives. The practices they use in this regard are explored in the study. The pilots are convinced that the management of KLM took several measures that enhance the sweet spot of conflict in crews. These measures are also elaborated in the study. 77% of cases result from the use of authority but pilots learn how to prevent this. These coping practices are also explored. It seems plausible that the findings which facilitate optimal conflict reinforce each other. The interaction practices of the pilots seem to be rooted in and steered by an identity discourse (we are open, we want to learn and we want to improve ourselves). The organizational measures also influence the way crews interact together. However, none of the elements seems to be prevailing but the whole facilitates the sweet spot of conflict.