The relationship between traditional structure and conflict in public organizations

The classical theorists had negative attitudes toward conflict and believed that in order to create and maintain balance in the organization, conflict must be prevented. Such a view is seen in the rules and nature of the organizational structure proposed by classicists. The present study was conducted to investigate the relationship between the traditional structure and conflict from the viewpoints of the managers of government organizations in Deylam, Iran. The structures of government organizations were studied through Robbins’ structure questionnaire and conflict was measured using a questionnaire developed by the researcher and validated and tested for reliability. Data gathered from 26 managers were analyzed through Spearman correlation coefficient and Kendall's Tau b. The findings indicated that the traditional structure and conflict were negatively correlated in the population. Moreover, the structural variables (formality, concentration, complicacy, and conflict) were negatively correlated. The findings were analyzed and suggestions were made based on the results.