Kevan Hall is CEO of Global Integration, consultants and trainers in matrix management, virtual teams and global working. He is also the author of "Making the Matrix Work."

Many international organisations are moving away from a hierarchical structure to a matrix organisation, designed to improve work and processes that cut across the traditional vertical silos of function and geography. Even those without a formal matrix structure are using virtual teams and cross functional working to become more “horizontally” connected.

Organisations need to be connected in this way to serve global customers, run supply chains that span the world and operate more integrated business processes and internal functions like HR and IT. Globalisation has led to the need and information technology has enabled it to happen.

However, this more complex way of working, can easily lead to increased conflict:

• multiple reporting lines (whether solid line or dotted line) and overlapping accountabilities mean there are often different goals that compete for our time and attention
• even people with just one boss may be working on multiple teams with different demands on their time
• resources are limited and shared more widely across the organisation – resource allocation is one of the most heated issues in many companies
• prioritisation is a challenge in a single line reporting organisation, in a matrix it is more complex and subject to faster change
• teams will include more diverse groups of colleagues from different functions and cultures. The different world-views that these people bring create more opportunities for misunderstanding and different values and perspectives
• communication through technology introduces additional opportunities for misunderstanding and dispute that can be more easily spotted and resolved face-to-face.

So there are some additional factors that can cause an increase in conflict in this matrix and virtual way of working, but is conflict always bad?

Conflict can be a sign of passion, of people with strongly held genuinely different opinions about the best thing for the business. An organisation with no conflict may well be filled with people who don’t really care. However, conflict is only healthy, when it is resolved; unresolved conflict will just re-occur. The only way that this type of conflict will be resolved is through the skills of the people involved.

Our matrix management training uses a simple conflict management sequence to help leaders identify and cope with conflict. There are four stages:

1. Recognise and flag the problem –this can be a challenge in distributed organisations, how do you know that your colleague on a conference call is irritated? How can you tell the different signs of conflict in colleagues from other cultures?

We need to create mechanisms to identify and be more explicit about conflict and we also need the confidence to "flag" the issue. Many inexperienced leaders try to suppress conflict as they consider it risky, but unfortunately, if it isn’t recognised, it can never be resolved.

2. Understand the differences – we need to create an opportunity, ideally face-to-face, to really understand how people differ and what drives them in the way they think. Leaders need the skills to facilitate these sessions and keep them focused on facts rather than emotions.

3. Create shared purpose – if all we do is "storm" issues and make them explicit then this might make us feel better short term, but it doesn’t resolve the underlying problem. We need to give the time, immediately after we understand the differences, to find areas where we share a common purpose or already have some level of agreement. Without this fixed point of agreement (and there is nearly always something), we can’t start to build new norms and new ways of working for the future.

4. Build and deliver agreement – the output of a conflict management session should be a clear written agreement of how the parties involved will work together in the future to prevent the conflict from re-occurring. The leader should look for tangible opportunities to review whether these agreements are being delivered.

If leaders don’t feel they have the skills or confidence to drive this process, then they should use a HR advisor or specialist to support this. This should only be necessary for serious and ingrained conflict.

Most conflict starts out between two individuals, but it can grow to infect a team, or even a whole organisation, if it does not get resolved. It is best to nip the conflict in the bud and deal with it at an early stage before emotions get in the way and people get into entrenched positions.

If you see conflict in your team or organisation, make sure that you have identified it and make it explicit to the leaders involved. Ensure there is a process in place for resolving it because sweeping it under the carpet is not a successful strategy.

If you want the leaders in your organisation to have the confidence and skills to deal with conflict successfully make sure they have adequate training in the techniques required for successful conflict management. It is an area of leadership that feels risky and without a framework and methodology leaders may be unwilling to address the conflict that is getting in the way of their success.