The Faces of Conflict in a Political Organization: The case of the People’s Justice Party (Parti Keadilan Rakyat-PKR) of Malaysia

Priyowidodo, Gatut and Swestin, Grace and Vidyarini, Titi Nur (2014) The Faces of Conflict in a Political Organization: The case of the People’s Justice Party (Parti Keadilan Rakyat-PKR) of Malaysia. In: 10th Biennial PACA Convention, 24-26 June 2014, Universitas Padjajaran Bandung.

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Abstract

Politics is inevitably mediated by cultural practices. As such, the conduct of a political party as an organization is suffused with culture with its own values, concepts and meanings. Malaysia is an interesting case in point. In this paper, the writers expound on the dynamics of organizational conflicts experienced by the People’s Justice Party (Parti Keadilan Rakyat-PKR) as an opposition party in Malaysia. By utilizing a phenomenographic approach to capture the participation, perception and understanding of party leaders and members, this paper focuses on three research problems, namely the levels of internal party conflicts, styles of conflict management and factors that influences the process of conflict resolution. There are several highlighted findings. First, the level of conflict occurs on the levels of inter-organizational, intergroup, intragroup, and interpersonal. Secondly, the styles of conflict management adopted by individuals in the party consist of collaborative, competitive, accommodating, compromising and avoidance styles, which vary according to character and political needs. Lastly, conflict resolution in the party is heavily influenced by (1) personal factors such as individual member’s conceptions on internal party conflicts as well as their references to how conflicts have been solved before (2) relational factors, i.e. relationships between members of the party which are fostered by an interdependence to reach a common goal as an opposition party, and (3) PKR’s organizational culture which is built around a juxtaposition between the heterogeneity of geographical and ideological backgrounds and the authority of a charismatic leadership.

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