Giving Compass' Take:

• Stanford Social Innovation Review argues that a healthy perspective on disagreement can increase resilience at nonprofits, particularly international civil society organizations (ICSOs).

• Are we doing enough to embrace our differences, giving room for a variety of perspectives? The caveat is that an abundance of conflict often leads to dysfunction.

• Here are ways to address volunteer dissatisfaction in your organization.

We have spoken to more than 100 people working for 93 ICSOs across 23 countries. A sizable majority of respondents — 60 percent — believe that internal conflicts at their organizations are significant or commonplace, and 75 percent of respondents rate the conflicts their organizations have as moderate to severe, but a mere 5 percent think their organization has an effective conflict-resolution system. The inevitable, unwelcome conclusion is that many ICSO staff function where disputes are common and serious yet systems to solve them are absent.

Such conflicts, when not addressed constructively, often have many costs, both visible and hidden: the physical and psychological toll on staff and volunteers; energy and resources redirected from programmatic work toward crisis management; reputational damage; difficulty in attracting or retaining staff; and problems of motivation, morale, and performance among staff and volunteers. There is also an additional cost: Many ICSOs are missing the opportunity that serious disagreements offer to improve internal functioning and increase their resilience as operating conditions across the world become more turbulent.

In what follows, we analyze how ICSOs can positively address these and other unsettling issues when they uphold a healthy perspective on conflict — one that maintains the intentional and conscious view that addressing conflict can bring gains in two ways. First, these organizations can better respond to external disruptive forces (e.g., significant economic, political, relational, and social changes) by confronting difference and disagreement to build adaptive capacities. Second, they can improve their staff’s work experience, thereby ensuring healthier and more productive relationships.

Read the full article about the upside of conflict at nonprofits by Alan Fowler, Elizabeth Field & Joseph McMahon at Stanford Social Innovation Review.