Southwest Airlines Professional Communications Certification Practice Exam

Which of the following conflicts can be categorized as a group conflict?

1. Conflict between a company's sales and marketing departments

2. Disagreement between two individuals

3. Employee disagreements about project timelines

4. Management and staff tension over work hours

The correct answer is: Conflict between a company's sales and marketing departments

The correct choice identifies a situation in which two distinct groups—specifically, the sales and marketing departments within a company—are at odds with each other. This type of conflict is characterized by differing goals, perspectives, and priorities that arise within the dynamics of a team or organization. The interaction between groups often leads to misunderstandings or misalignments in objectives, which is typical in organizational settings where different teams may have competing interests or interpretations of a target market, product strategy, or customer engagement approach. In contrast, disagreements between two individuals (the second choice) represent interpersonal conflict, which is not considered a group conflict since it involves a single interaction rather than multiple stakeholders representing larger entities within an organization. The third choice highlights employee disagreements about project timelines, which, while it may involve multiple individuals, is still fundamentally rooted in personal disagreements rather than in the context of group dynamics. Similarly, the fourth option of management and staff tension, although involving distinct roles, does not fully encapsulate the larger notion of group conflict, as it pertains more to the relationship between different hierarchical levels rather than distinct teams or departments vying for different objectives.