INTERPERSONAL RELATIONS AND LIFE PATHS OF DEPARTMENT MANAGERS IN SMES: A CASE ANALYSIS OF A CONFLICT BETWEEN THE HR DIRECTOR AND THE MANAGER OF A PRODUCTION DEPARTMENT IN A GROWING SME

Abstract

We build a conceptual framework of work conflict analysis by rejecting, on the one hand, the approach of conflict based on its causes, and on the other hand, the hypothesis that there is conflict only if the protagonists are aware of being in conflict. We conceptualize the conflict as a communicative overbids in the context of interpersonal relations, by initially relying on the concepts of interpersonal communication analysis of the "Palo Alto School" (PAS), mainly Paul Watzlawick et al. The study of a case of conflict in a medium-sized growing family business leads us to consider the incompleteness of Watzlawick et al.'s conceptual frameworks. By abduction, we then construct a new conceptual framework that links the concepts of Habitus, Dispositions and Field to those of the PAS. We show that these concepts, if articulated with those of Watzlawick et al., allow us to better encompass the relational dynamics themselves and their escalations which constitute the conflictual process itself. We show the operationality of this theorization by returning to the studied case to explain the relevance of the solution that emerges in this firm.