In any organization, various types of conflicts may arise. Conflict (from Latin conflictus - clash) is a confrontation of divergent interests and positions, disagreement of opinions and views, lack of agreement.

Types of conflicts in a team can be positive or negative. Typically, conflict manifests itself through arguments and decisive actions. The reasons are: differences in values, distribution of resources, divergence of goals, etc. There is an opinion that such incidents must be resolved immediately. But in many situations, the types of business conflicts help identify a diversity of viewpoints, provide an opportunity to express one's potential and consider problems and alternatives. Thus, conflict can lead to organizational development and effectiveness.

Types of labor conflicts

Conflict is a motivation and a driving force. And the fear of conflicts arises from uncertainty in the ability to resolve a conflict situation with a successful outcome. Most likely, it would be more correct to accept conflict as a tool.

13 Conflicts in the organization

Society as an integral entity is characterized by a complex system of relations - economic, social, political, moral, family, spiritual, etc. These relations are based on the needs and interests of people. If obstacles arise in the way of realizing these needs and interests, goals and expectations, this leads to an aggravation of contradictions between people, their social groups, gives rise to tension, crisis situations, private open confrontation, conscious confrontation, and conflicts.

Conflicts in organizations occupy a special place among crisis situations.

An organization is not only a production and technological association of people and means of production. It is also a team of workers who combine their efforts and abilities to develop production and take an active part in solving socio-economic problems. An organization is a collection of people in which individuals are united by certain connections and relationships.

Various types of organizations function in society: enterprises, institutions, universities, institutes, financial structures, public organizations (for example, political parties, trade unions, etc.), associative organizations (for example, a family). Organizations are structurally composed of a number of divisions: shops, shifts, individual services, teams, etc. These associations act as primary groups, i.e. are a social environment in which a person has direct contact with other people.

Organizations perform a variety of functions and differ from each other in the type of activity of their members, the level of organization and cohesion, and their quantitative composition.

Being the most important unit of society, the organization connects and coordinates the behavior of people specializing in different types of activities, includes them in a single labor process, solves not only production problems, but also creates conditions for the development of its members. Here, in the environment of direct communication, people’s initial ideas are formed, opinions are formed, habits are consolidated, inclinations are revealed, and the public reputation of workers is established.

Mutual connections and relationships develop not only on the basis of production activities, but also under the influence of real life conditions: political, psychological, moral, etc. People are united by common interests, ideas, goals, moral norms and principles. However, along with solidarity, conflict situations also arise in the workforce.

13.1. Specifics of conflict in an organization

Conflict in an organization, it is an open form of existence of contradictions of interests that arise in the process of interaction between people when resolving issues of production and personal nature. The precursor to conflict in an organization is social tension in a team. There are several points of view on the essence of social tension.

Social tension in real life appears as awareness by the majority of members of the work collective of obvious violations of the principle of social justice and a willingness to find a way out of the situation through one form or another of conflict.

Social tension is a contradiction between the objective nature of social relations and the subjective nature of the behavior of the subjects of these relations. At the organizational level, the manifestation of tension will be accompanied by a deviation from normal cooperation, which is a specific qualitative characteristic of social relations in the process of work.

3) Social tension is a violation of normal relationships and inadequate functioning of the participants in the interaction.

Highlight two groups of factors contributing to the emergence of social tension in the workforce: internal and external.

1 K internal factors include:

failure of the organization's management to fulfill its promises and unwillingness to explain to people the actual state of affairs; disruption of production due to constant disruption of supplies of raw materials; the inability of members of the workforce to earn good money;

lack of visible results of substantive concern for improving the working, living and rest conditions of workers;

confrontation between management personnel and workers due to the unfair distribution of material benefits and wages;

introduction of innovations and radical changes without taking into account the interests of employees;

incitement activities of informal leaders.

2 External factors:

destabilization of the situation in the country, clash of interests of various political groups;

the emergence of an acute shortage of food and essential goods;

infringement of social benefits in new legislative acts;

a sharp weakening of legal social protection of the interests of members of the labor collective;

ensuring honest and conscientious labor, illegal enrichment of individual citizens.

The increase in social tension in an organization, developing into a conflict, can be overcome with adequate resolution of the conflict situation. Conflicts in an organization develop, as a rule, through confrontation of private and general interests. The balance of interests can be expressed as:

complete identity those. unidirectionality of interests;

difference in the direction of interests, those. what is beneficial to some is not beneficial to others to the same extent;

opposite direction of interests- when subjects must move in opposite directions to satisfy their needs.

People occupying different statuses in an organization may or may not be aware of their objective interests and their inconsistency. But only conscious interests turn into a source of active social action for the employee. This awareness occurs either as a result of independent comprehension of one’s own life experience in the organization, or through the explanatory work of those who have previously realized the contradictory nature of the interests that have arisen, or as a result of manipulating the consciousness of members of the organization. However, awareness of opposing interests does not automatically lead to conflict. Conflict is an open form of existence of conflicting interests.

Conflict can arise both from really opposing objective interests, and from an illusory idea of ​​their opposition. A conflict on artificial grounds can arise when its participants mistake differences in interests for their opposite.

When analyzing a conflict, it is important to understand what type of action underlies it.

Participants in the conflict irrational type (arising from a state of passion, anger, panic, etc.) they act, ignoring the calculation, the ratio of possible gains and losses. An example of this type is spontaneous strikes. Their consequences usually do not coincide with conscious interests and may even be completely opposite to them.

Participants in the conflict rational type take into account the ratio of possible gains and costs, the chances of victory and defeat. Such a conflict begins only when one of the parties is convinced of a high probability of success.

Subjects or parties, conflict in an organization can be initiated by both private and official persons (representatives of institutions and organizations), both individual employees and entire groups.

The degree of participation of the parties to the conflict can be different: from direct opposition to indirect influence on the course of the conflict. Based on this, they distinguish: 1) main participants, 2) support groups, 3) other participants.

Main participants- these are the opposing sides. Their interests are incompatible and their actions are directed against each other.

Support groups- participants in the conflict, but playing, say, a secondary role. They can:

influence the course of the conflict and have your own interests;

not to pursue selfish interests and not to influence the course of the struggle. But they may accidentally become involved in conflict or may manipulate others to achieve their goals;

contribute to the development of the conflict with advice, assistance or other means;

be the organizers of the conflict, plan the conflict and its development. They can act as independent participants in conflicts (for example, strike committees).

To other participants include mediators and judges. These are strictly neutral persons. They seek to prevent, stop or resolve conflict.

Organizations distinguish between: 1) internal conflicts and 2) conflicts with the external environment.

1 Internal conflicts arise within the organization (enterprise) and are resolved, as a rule, through existing regulations and agreements, i.e. the so-called rules of the game, adopted at a certain level and between interested parties. These conflicts include:

interindividual Conflict is a divergence of personal goals of employees. An example of such a conflict is the conflict between the authoritarian management style of a leader and the desire of some subordinates for initiative and creativity;

intragroup conflict - between rival employees within a department or between department heads on the question “Who is more important in the hierarchy of a department or enterprise?” Mixed motivations often arise here, related to ambitions, career goals;

intergroup conflict - for example, conflict between co-owners of enterprises. This situation is especially complicated if property is divided between government bodies (federal, municipal property) and private individuals.

2 Conflicts with the external environment - these are conflicts for the most part

their managers and owners of enterprises with competitors, clients, suppliers, with their own trade union.

Conflicts in organizations are generated by a certain conflict situation, which can exist long before the direct collision of its participants. The concept of a conflict situation does not coincide with the concept of conflict, because it characterizes only premise, creates the ground for the emergence of a real conflict, as well as real actions of the parties to defend their interests.

In conflict situations, as a rule, socio-economic, moral and other relationships of people are intertwined.

The most characteristic signs of conflict situations in organizations can be:

humiliation of personal dignity in official and informal settings;

evasion of following instructions and orders of immediate superiors;

negative statements addressed to a team member, verbal or physical abuse;

isolation, indifference, solitude, depression of individual workers.

A conflict situation develops into a conflict only if there is action on both sides. Such actions could be: 1) external behavioral acts and 2) actions that are perceived by the opposing party as directed against it.

Conflict actions- these are actions aimed at directly orindirectly prevent the opposing party from achieving its goals. They sharply aggravate the very background of the conflict: they can complicate the conflict,give a tendency to its escalation.

Conditions that influence the occurrence of conflicts in organizations can be:

negative customs and traditions persisting in work collectives;

distrust of the boss in the subordinate (which can manifest itself in excessive care of subordinates when performing their duties);

biased negative attitude of one team member towards another;

a condescending attitude towards people, manifested in excessive tolerance towards them and forgiveness;

the presence in organizations of informal microgroups characterized by dysfunction, which can be expressed in dissatisfaction with the high demands of the leader, in the manifestation of interpersonal antipathies.

This manifests itself most forcefully in small production groups, teams, units, shifts, etc., i.e. where material values ​​are created, the main problems of production are solved.

Conflict is almost always visible as it manifests itself externalNot: high level of tension in the team; decreased performance and, as a consequence, deterioration in production and financial performance, relationships with suppliers, customers, etc.

Conflicts in organizations are the result of contradictions caused by divergent interests, norms of behavior, and values ​​of people. Among them, we should first of all highlight the following types of contradictions: organizational, production, business, innovation.

In accordance with this, we can distinguish the main types of conflicts in organizations:

organizational;

production;

labor;

innovative.

13.2. Organizational conflicts

Organizational conflict- this is a clash of oppositely directed actions of the participants in the conflict, caused by a divergence of interests, norms of behavior and value orientations. They arise due to the discrepancy between formal organizational principles and the real behavior of team members. This mismatch occurs:

when an employee does not comply, he ignores the requirements presented to him by the organization. For example, absenteeism, violations of labor and performance discipline, poor performance of one’s duties, etc.;

2) when the requirements placed on the employee are contradictory and non-specific. For example, low quality job descriptions, ill-conceived distribution of job responsibilities, etc. may lead to conflict;

3) when there are official, functional responsibilities, but their very implementation involves participants in the labor process in a conflict situation. For example, performing the functions of an auditor, standardization, assessment, control.

Organizational conflicts contain problems related primarily to the organization and operating conditions. The situation here is determined by: the state of equipment and tools, planning and technical documentation, norms and prices, wages and bonuses; fairness of assessment of “best”, “worst”; distribution of tasks and workload of people; promotion and promotion, etc.

Today, the organization, like society as a whole, is gradually emerging from the crisis and moving into a qualitatively new phase of its existence - the development phase. The intensification of development in an organization, especially a production one, may be due to a higher degree of interaction between various forces. This, in turn, inevitably leads to expanding the base of the conflict and reducing the time it takes to mature.

During the search and implementation of new organizational forms, conflict can take the form organizational conflict. Such conflict is necessary for the development of any organization. Such conflicts most often manifest themselves in the form of a discrepancy between the tasks facing the team and outdated forms of organization designed to ensure their solution. Their subjects can be both groups of workers and individuals; both workers or employees, and a representative of the administration. Thus, the organizational conflict at the telephone equipment plant clearly expressed the discrepancy between the increasingly complex tasks facing the workforce today and the organizational forms of yesterday. The measures taken to overcome the conflict made it possible to improve the structure of the organization and give it the required quality.

As privatization processes develop, enterprises are transformed into organizational and legal forms characteristic of a market economy (unitary enterprises, limited partnerships, joint-stock companies, limited liability partnerships, etc.). Any of these organizations forms the bodies necessary for its management, ensuring its work and representing it in relations with other enterprises, government bodies and citizens.

Thus, in a joint-stock company, the real right to manage the economy, dispose of and use property has the board headed by the chairman (he may be the general director, executive director, president). Here, contradictions are possible when the powers and interests of the board of directors and the board of directors of a joint-stock company intersect. Sufficiently expressed contradictions can give rise to conflicts.

The reasons for such conflicts may be:

differences in the assessment by the board of directors and members of the board of management of the management style and methods of higher authorities;

cases of discrepancy between the interests of the management and the board of directors on issues of internal production activities;

artificial discrepancy between the interests of production and management, when friction arises between the heads of workshops, sections, services and board members regarding the participation of board members in meetings during working hours;

discrepancy between the interests of the board and territorial government bodies, in particular the district government. In the latter case, there may be a discrepancy between the positions of members of the board of directors regarding the procedure for payments for the needs of the district from funds earned by the enterprise staff and the methods for obtaining them. The board, acting on behalf of shareholders in the role of “owner,” shows an interest in the accounting and expenditure of funds and has the right to object to unreasonable payments at the direction of higher organizations, which can create tension, a conflict situation and even lead to conflict.

In organizations, conflicts may arise between the manager and his deputy during the management process. These conflicts are quickly transferred to the team, because each of the conflicting parties has support in a certain group of the work collective. And here an important role is played leadership style head and his deputy. Consistency in their activities, allowing to avoid a conflict situation, can be achieved if, for example, the manager has a democratic style, and his deputy has a democratic or authoritarian style. Most often, a conflict arises due to incompatibility of styles, when the manager and his deputy adhere to an authoritarian style of activity, according to the principle “Who is more important in the hierarchy of a department or organization?” In this situation, there are mixed motivations associated with ambitions and career goals. Note that the manager and his deputy must complement each other, ensuring the work of the entire workforce.

The success of the company depends on the degree of interest of employees in their professional activities. Therefore, it is important to develop and support the beneficial interests of employees. At the same time, it is worth considering that there are different types of professional interests, and contradictions between the interests of different groups of employees of the same organization can harm business, an associate professor at the Faculty of Business and Management at the National Research University Higher School of Economics noted in the study Tatyana Lobanova.

In recent decades, science has begun to pay closer attention to the concept of interest in the aspect of professional activity. There is plenty of research showing that engaged, engaged employees drive business performance and breakthroughs. However, as noted Tatyana Lobanova, the influence of dominant labor interests on the behavior of workers is still underestimated and the contradictory interests of personnel in modern organizations and in the economic sphere as a whole are poorly taken into account.

In the course of the study, Tatyana Lobanova tried to identify the types of interests of different categories of workers, as well as their influence on labor behavior. She analyzed data from socio-psychological surveys of workers, interviews and focus groups conducted in different years, as well as observation included in the labor process. The results of the study were published in the article “The Impact of Dominant Labor Interests on the Activities of Organizational Employees” in the HSE journal “Organizational Psychology.”

Meaning is required

The concept of interest in modern literature is not always considered unambiguously. There are many approaches to defining what interest is and how it relates to other psychological concepts - such as motive, need, value.

Interest is not just a motive for activity, but a specific, significant, semantic motive that is associated with the emotional sphere of a person, the researcher noted. Without a sense of meaning, as well as emotional appeal, professional activity loses interest, and work that, for example, from the outside looks very simple, can be subjectively perceived as difficult.

In the course of the study, Tatyana Lobanova developed a definition of the concept of labor interest, which is that it is “a value-based, emotionally charged position of the employee’s personality, expressed in an active and practical attitude to his work, in particular to his work and himself.”

However, in order to more clearly define what labor interest is, it is necessary to understand what types of interests can be identified in relation to professional activity.

There are different characteristics of the basis for classifying interests in general, the researcher noted. This, for example, is a characteristic of content - material, spiritual, public interests. They also distinguish between direct (the process of activity as such) and indirect interests (when an object acts as a means of achieving a goal, which consists, for example, in career advancement. Other characteristics of interests: stable and unstable; directed and vague (we are talking about the degree of concentration, the presence of a goal ); passive (when the object of interest arises apart from the efforts of the subject) and active, as well as realizable and unrealizable.

The study proposes a distinction between seven types of employee interests:

• economic (personal);
• professional (narrowly professional);
• career (broadly professional);
• interests of small groups (narrow group);
• corporate (interests of large groups);
• territorial (national);
• general civil (state).

The area of ​​narrow professional interests includes professional development of the individual, knowledge of one’s specialty, as well as systematic updating of knowledge.

Career interests are focused on career advancement and career development.

Narrow group and broad group interests differ in that in the first case, the interests of the structural unit closest to the employee (project groups, branches, etc.) have priority, and in the second case, the employee’s orientation toward the goals of the corporation and interest in its prestige dominate.

Territorial and general civil (state) interests, as Lobanova noted, are also types of group interests in a broader social context - in the public environment.

From shareholder to ordinary employee

The study revealed the dominant labor interests of four different groups of workers:

• shareholders, owners, members of the board of directors;
• board members, top managers;
• line managers;
• hired workers.

The study was conducted over three years (2011-2013) during the author’s implementation of projects in five companies: telecommunications, financial (bank), manufacturing, insurance and management. 130 people took part in the study. Various methods of working with respondents were used - educational, consulting activities with interviews, focus groups, as well as a specially developed “Corporate Interests Questionnaire”.

The results showed that For employees, personal (economic) interests come first; line management is most interested in professional development; for top managers and shareholders, corporate interests are predominant . Territorial (national interests) were least expressed among all groups of respondents.

Source: article by Tatyana Lobanova

Conflict of interest – ineffective company

One of the goals of the study was to find out how conflicts in interests between different groups of employees affect the company's activities. To do this, all companies under study were previously assessed by experts according to ten performance criteria. Two companies (telecommunications and insurance) received positive performance ratings across seven criteria. For the other three organizations, the picture is less rosy: the management company received positive ratings on five criteria, the financial company on four, and the production company on only two.

As a result of comparing these results with the results of studies of employee interests, the hypothesis was confirmed that existing contradictions between the dominant interests of different groups of employees hinder the effective operation of the organization and the development of the business as a whole .

The study identified the three most significant aspects of conflicts of interest: between employee and employer (economic, personal versus corporate and vice versa); between members of different groups (narrow group versus corporate and vice versa) and between corporate and general civil groups.

A high degree of conflicting interests, as Tatyana Lobanova noted, was recorded precisely in those companies that were classified by external experts as ineffective (in management, financial and production). In the two more successful companies - telecommunications and insurance - no high degree of contradiction was recorded in either interviews or focus groups.

The author provides illustrations of examples of intergroup conflicts of interests. For example, self-interest leads executives to set high salaries and bonuses, enter into contracts that bypass shareholder decisions, and even ignore corporate goals and objectives. Or the boss must fire a negligent employee in order to maintain corporate interests, but this is difficult for him due to the priority of group interests aimed at maintaining friendly relations with colleagues. Contradictions between corporate and civil interests may result in the fact that it is difficult for an employee to sell financial products that are “opaque” to clients, but beneficial for the corporation.

Interest in work can be learned

The study examined the topic of how to work with the interests of different groups of employees in order to increase business efficiency. For example, open consumer and internal corporate channels create opportunities for the convergence of general civil and corporate interests. This is also facilitated by social support programs for employees and charitable assistance to needy segments of the population.

The researcher emphasized that interest in work can be learned, like any other skill, by turning it into a habit. However, this process must be accompanied by emotional reinforcement - both organized by the company and arising in the process of realizing the employee’s own success.

The results of international studies prove that work enthusiasm is generated by achieving success at work . “When people feel that things are moving forward, when they are helped to overcome obstacles, their mood improves, they want to work even harder and achieve more,” says the author of the study, offering specific recommendations for developing sustainable, useful and socially significant interests of employees. These recommendations include promoting employees whose interests match their jobs to key positions, regularly training and developing staff, and providing constructive feedback.

K. Astafiev, General Director of the Ural-Press Group of Companies

What adjustments has the crisis made to your business?

Subscription - the market is falling. The magnitude of the decline is 3 - 7% per year. The crisis increased the decline to 15 - 30%. Our average growth over the past five years is 90% per year. That is, our growth due to new clients so far covers the decline from the crisis. The industrial single-industry towns that suffered the most were Magnitogorsk, Cherepovets, Novokuznetsk, and Nizhny Tagil. Cities that are not overloaded with industry: Krasnodar, Abakan, on the contrary, have so far avoided a drop in subscriptions. Over the past 2008, Ural-Press bought subscription agencies in Khabarovsk, Kamensk-Uralsky, Tyumen, and Arkhangelsk. Negotiations on the acquisition of new agencies are currently suspended.

What is the secret of your rapid growth in recent years?

The fact is that we managed to offer the Russian departmental subscription market the optimal product in terms of price-quality ratio. We became an alternative to Russian Post, and the subscriber was able to choose a supplier and, in the face of emerging competition, demand a high-quality service. The peculiarity of our product is the ease of subscription for the customer, individual delivery of the press at a time convenient for the subscriber, and a reporting form convenient for the subscriber.

The fact that this product turned out to be in demand and allowed the company to rapidly take its market share is confirmed by research from the Expert media holding. In 2009, Ural-Press was among the 80 fastest growing Ural companies, that is, those enterprises whose volumes increased annually by at least 30%. From 2004 to 2008, the turnover of Ural-Press increased 12 times, the number of branches increased from 4 to 62, and the number of employees increased 6 times.

In the West, such companies are called “Gazelles” - they are considered the locomotive of the economy. Tell us about the features of managing the Ural Press group of companies, about the scattered branches, their number, and the number of employees.

How did the work begin?

Ural-Press has been operating in the subscription market since 1992. But we began actively building the network in the fall of 2005. A little earlier, we came to the understanding that the subscription market is online. Just like banking, insurance, retail. That is, some types of business are more profitable to develop as network ones, but others are not. The network is a conveyor belt, with all its pros and cons. The main advantages are that processes are optimized and standardized on the network. Ideally, the best is taken and replicated to everyone, and typical errors, on the contrary, are caught before they can be replicated. For two years we have been working on a model for a network of alternative agencies, taking more from banking networks than from retail. After all, our product is not a product, but a service. For five years we have practically doubled our turnover every year. Today, the number of Ural-Press representative offices is in 62 cities - from Murmansk to Vladivostok. We have more than a thousand employees. Every tenth subscription publication in Russia goes through Ural-Press.

What is the company's future development strategy? Do you have uniform management standards for a large number of branches? Is your company strictly hierarchical or decentralized?

It is almost impossible to work without uniform standards. And when you have more than three points of presence, you will have to polish, prescribe and implement these standards. When we started building the network, we didn’t want to build a strictly hierarchical
company. Such companies often have an unhealthy military atmosphere. We are more democratic, oriented in our development
to an affiliate scheme. In management, they are more inclined to make recommendations than orders. If at some point the network management and
the branch's vision of development does not coincide in some way, we are ready to give more freedom to the head of the branch. We need, first of all, results. We understand that some things are better visible on site than in the central office. And everyone has the right to make mistakes. At the rate at which we are developing now, we expect to develop for another two years until the market niches are filled. At the same time, we will increase efficiency and productivity. Currently, 60% of the subscription market belongs to Russian Post, 30% to alternative agencies (of which there are more than 150), and 10% to the editorial offices themselves. In two years, Russian Post will have 30-40%, editorial offices will have 10-15%, the rest will be divided by alternative agencies, only their number will be reduced by five times.

What kind of management does your company have: by strict rules or by concepts? Explain compensation and remuneration standards.

The basic principle is that the interests of the company and employees should be shaped in the same direction. If you have this, it becomes much easier to develop. Of course, this is possible with good material rewards focused on the results of work. There cannot be too many strict rules, otherwise it will be difficult to comply with them. And for the psychological climate there should be room for creative improvisation. Otherwise the organization will turn into an army.

"Eternal employees" They are present in any organization, outlive both owners and directors, and are carriers of the company’s values ​​and its ballast. Do you have such employees, what do you think about them?

We have couriers who have been working in the company longer than me. As employees, there are no complaints against them. But there are also no big bonuses for working for so long. If tomorrow the quality of their work drops, we will have to abandon them. During the development process, it happened that the company outgrew some of its employees. This is fine. We parted as well as possible. If tomorrow Ural-Press outgrows my competence, I will have to leave this position. We are not building Ural Press for ourselves or our employees, we are building it for market needs.

Could you divide your employees into categories: forwards, defenders, security guards, etc.? Does each type of employee require special motivation and a special approach?

Certainly. Any organization is largely a team, some are involved in accounting, others in sales. In some places you need a penchant for routine work, and in others for creative work. And everyone has their own motivation. But the principled approach, since it is really important, I repeat: the interests of the company and employees should be shaped in the same direction.

Subsistence farming or outsourcing? What processes in the company do you outsource or are you planning to do so?

Mainline forwarding at the moment. But we are ready to consider any processes if it is appropriate.

How has your organization changed since its inception?

In 1994, we had two desks, one telephone fax and, accordingly, one office employee. Now in Yekaterinburg alone, at the head office, more than 64 people work, and in the delivery department - 78. There are 1,056 employees in the entire Ural-Press network. This is if we talk about the staff. If we also look at the technological component of the business, now we have the entire network running in one program, we have a technical support service, the subscription and delivery process is optimized and automated, we have an electronic journal for processing incoming complaints and questions from clients.

The most important thing is that we have created technologies that are easy to replicate when opening new branches.

Managers and employees who have their own opinions and the bad habit of defending them (after discussion) should be prepared for layoffs or...?

Each employee can express his opinion and should be heard, but after discussion and a decision is made, he must implement it, even if he did not agree with it. Still, discipline and the ability to obey are important.

Sometimes successful managers do not even have a higher education, for example, the Japanese owner of a global chain of boutiques, who has three classes of education. What is your attitude towards your own education and the education of your employees?

Yes, it happens that business owners or employees holding high positions do not have a higher education. But I have not yet met people for whom higher education has interfered with their work.

Kalter Bruner has grown a big grudge against Stirlitz: does “wall to wall” friendship or other manifestations of opportunism happen in your company? How to prevent this from happening? What do you do in such cases?

Conflicts are normal. Their presence is the main sign of a healthy psychological climate. If there are none at all or they are very frequent, it means something is wrong. If the situation is out of balance and intervention from above is needed, it is very important to give everyone a chance to speak. Then find and eliminate the source of the conflict.

“There are 10 ways to make a Russian person work, but none of them work” (“Russian Radio”). Your comments?

Russian people are not unique. He may be more complex than an American or less sophisticated than a European. Yes, it is interesting and can even be very original, but it is not unique. Almost anything that makes other people work is good for a Russian. And if you managed to make sure that the interests of the person coincide with the interests of the company, both Russian and non-Russian people will work.

30/07/2014

Introduction

It is customary to talk about a conflict of interest in the case when one person may simultaneously have two conflicting interests, one of which is a protected interest; in this case, the pursuit of another interest may harm the protected interest.

Despite a sufficient number of works devoted to issues related to conflict of interest, the content of this phenomenon has not been studied enough and is understood differently in science. Domestic researchers consider this category mainly from an anti-corruption perspective in the context of relations that arise in the state and municipal service. However, the category of conflict of interest is also of significant importance in corporate law, especially when regulating the activities of joint-stock companies, since in such companies, due to the separation of ownership from management, the effective management of financial resources in order to generate profit for the company and enrich shareholders is not always the main goal of managers.

Let's consider a conflict of interest in a joint-stock company.

Interest

Before moving directly to the consideration of the category of "conflict of interest", it is necessary to clarify the concept of "interest". However, neither the norms of joint stock companies nor other norms of civil legislation provide its definition. There is no consensus of opinion in the scientific literature either.

Let's try to determine the nature of interest, i.e., as V.P. points out. Gribanov, then, “is interest a subjective phenomenon, expressing a certain mental disposition of the subject, or is it objective in nature, that is, it represents “a certain objective condition of human existence.” Different points of view are expressed in the literature on this matter.

Scientists who consider interest to be a subjective phenomenon point to its inextricable connection with consciousness and argue that the existence of interest outside consciousness is impossible. Supporters of an intermediate, “objective-subjective” position agree with them, who define interest as “a certain combination of objective and subjective aspects”, “a reflected need, a necessity that has passed through the consciousness of people and taken the form of a conscious impulse.”

In our opinion, the third position is the most justified, according to which interest is considered as an exclusively objective category from the point of view of both form and content. The content of interest represents the objective needs necessary for the subject to exist and develop; their presence does not depend on whether the person himself is aware of them. Otherwise, we will have to admit that minors and people with mental disorders have no interests at all, but this is obviously false.

What has been said does not mean at all that interest and consciousness are in no way connected; as R. Ghukasyan rightly points out, their connection is manifested in the fact that “interest is a social category, and its existence presupposes conscious activity.” The realization of interest, in turn, is impossible without its awareness.

The legal means of realizing interest is the acquisition and exercise of subjective rights and obligations. It is interest that is a prerequisite for the dynamics of the legal relationship. As V.A. correctly notes. Bublik, “it is through interest in civil law that such a fundamental quality of the civil law method as the legal initiative of subjects is realized: the need to satisfy certain interests is an internal motivating factor that initiates active actions of subjects and encourages them to enter into relationships with each other.”

Depending on the subject-bearer, interests are divided into private and public (state and public). Public interests, in turn, break down into the interests of the state, subject of the federation, municipality, etc. By private interests we mean the individual interests of individuals and legal entities. Among the latter, we can highlight, in particular, the interests of legal entities of certain organizational and legal forms.

Let us move on to the analysis of the interest of a joint-stock company and its specifics, which, in our opinion, causes the emergence of a conflict of interests in a joint-stock company, which explains the need for special legal regulation.

Corporate Interest

The interest of a joint stock company can be briefly characterized through its following characteristics.

1. Independence. A joint stock company, being a legal entity, has its own interest (sometimes called “corporate”). Corporate interest is the result of the unification of the individual interests of the founders (shareholders) of the company, which cannot be reduced to their simple aggregate. It consists only of their common interests, for the implementation of which the corporation was created. As S.N. wrote Bratus, the common interest of the members of the collective, “expressed in a single goal for the achievement of which it is organized, and the general will of the participants determined by this goal, are objectified in the specific economic activity of this collective.”

The main goal of a joint stock company as a commercial organization is to make a profit (Clause 1, Article 50 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation). This goal determines the corporate interest of society, i.e. objectively determines his needs, sets the framework and general direction of their development and implementation. This framework is also formed by other norms of civil legislation, in particular the prohibition of donations between commercial organizations (clause 4 of Article 575 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation).

The objective main goal of a joint stock company’s activities should be distinguished from the subjective goals of each specific organization, which are precisely formed on the basis of corporate interest.

The question of the independent nature of the interest of a legal entity is debatable. However, at present, the predominant point of view is the legislator. As S.V. rightly points out. Mikhailov, the existence of an independent interest of a legal entity follows from the norm of Art. 53 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation: a legal entity is endowed with independent legal personality, i.e. has its own socially significant interest; also, by direct instructions of the law, the interests of a legal entity are realized by its governing body.

The legislator separately mentions two groups of interests in a joint-stock company: the interest of the joint-stock company (clause 3 of article 5, clause 2 of article 69, clause 1 of article 71 of the Federal Law “On Joint-Stock Companies”*(17); hereinafter referred to as the Law on joint-stock companies) and the interests of shareholders (clause 1, article 1, clause 7, article 49, clause 6, article 68). Thus, the legislator once again emphasizes that these interests are not only not identical, but may also contradict each other.

2. Productivity. Depending on the method of occurrence, we propose to divide interests into primary and derivative.

Only the interests of individuals are considered primary. They arise on their own and are not determined by the interests of other entities.

Derivatives should include the interests of all other subjects (public legal entities, public associations, legal entities). This group is formed on the basis of initial (or other derivative) interests and represents a complex of the latter.

The fundamental difference between initial and derivative interests lies in the mechanism for their implementation. The bearers of the former have the opportunity to directly realize their interests, in contrast to the bearers of derivative interests, who, being artificial formations, realize them through bodies specially created for this purpose (other similar formations). The final subject who actually realizes any derivative interest is an individual.

The interest of a joint stock company, being derivative, also has an indirect mechanism of implementation. In this case, the interest belongs to the subject itself (the joint stock company), but in fact it is realized and objectified by the volitional actions not of the bearers of the interest, but of other persons - members of the management bodies of the company.

So, by corporate interest we propose to understand the independent, objectively existing, socially determined needs of a joint-stock company, formed on the basis of the common interests of its founders (shareholders), determined by the main goal of the company’s activities (making profit) and implemented through specially created management bodies of the company.

Conflict of interest

As noted, the emergence of a conflict of interests in a joint-stock company is due to the specifics of corporate interest, independent, on the one hand, and derivative, on the other, and the indirect mechanism for its implementation.

Realizing corporate interest, the entity performing the functions of the management body of a joint-stock company, at the same time, has its own independent (individual, private) interest, since “the bodies of a legal entity are living people provided for by law, charter or regulations who develop and implement its will” . Thus, the same person has the opportunity to realize two interests: corporate and personal, and the first may be largely formal in nature, while the second may be vital for its bearer. In addition, this person, being a member of the management bodies of several legal entities, can realize several corporate interests at once. It also consists of certain social relationships (family, marital, etc.), which means that its actions can be guided by the personal interests of other persons. Consequently, competition inevitably arises between these interests, which can develop into a conflict of interests.

In the legislation on joint stock companies, the concept of “conflict of interest” is not used, but is taken into account by the legislator when establishing certain legal structures.

Legal science also lacks a unified understanding of conflicts of interest. Two points of view can be distinguished.

The first group of authors considers a conflict of interests as a contradiction, a discrepancy between the interests of various subjects, without taking into account whether one of the subjects has the opportunity to realize the interests of the other (at least, such a possibility is not decisive).

So, A.V. Gabov believes that reducing the category of “conflict of interest” to the problem of the “principal-agent” relationship “somewhat narrows the breadth of the problem.” The scientist proposes to understand a conflict of interest as “a situation (state) in which the interests of a person - a participant in corporate relations - do not coincide with the interests of the corporation (joint stock company) itself and (or) other participants in corporate relations.”

A.B. Ageev believes that “if you strictly adhere to the “conflict of interest” construct, you will have to exclude from consideration corporate conflicts in which the subjects - the conflicting parties act in their own interests” (in this case, the author is primarily referring to conflicts between shareholders).

It seems that with this position there is an unreasonable confusion of the concepts of “conflict of interest” and “corporate conflict”: they are used as synonyms.

We believe that a corporate conflict should be discussed in the event of contradictions between participants in corporate legal relations. Thus, the Code of Corporate Conduct understands a corporate conflict as a contradiction between a body of the company and its shareholder (shareholders), as well as between shareholders, if such a conflict affects the interests of the company. Positive legal regulation of social relations in general (corporate law in particular) is aimed at ensuring a balance of interests of various subjects. Particularly noteworthy is the situation when divergent interests belong to different persons, but only one has the opportunity to realize them. Consequently, he has the need to choose in connection with his dual position in a situation where the simultaneous realization of both interests is completely impossible. It is in this case that we should talk about a conflict of interest.

The second group of researchers considers conflicts of interest in the context of actions in favor of third parties, the need for one person to choose between the implementation of several interests when they collide. This approach, in our opinion, is preferable.

So, D.I. Dedov, considering the conflict of interests comprehensively - as a phenomenon inherent not only in relations in a joint-stock company, but also in other relations (for example, the institution of representation), understands it as “a generally accepted term denoting a contradiction between interests that are protected by law and must be satisfied by the actions of another the person authorized by the principal (attorney, agent, director, trustee), and the personal interests of this authorized person." Sharing the author's position in general, we propose to clarify this definition. A conflict of interests in a joint-stock company is a clash (contradiction) between the interests of the joint-stock company and the personal interests of the person realizing the interests of the joint-stock company (manager, shareholder and other subjects of the conflict), in which the simultaneous implementation of both interests in full (without damage to one of them) is impossible . We propose to legislate this definition.

Let us explain the proposed definition.

Firstly, the personal interest of the subject of the conflict, in addition to his own (individual, private) interest, is understood as the interest of a third party, the possibility of realizing which is given to the subject of the conflict, performing, for example, the functions of the executive body of another legal entity, as well as the interests of third parties, which - in a way related to the subject of the conflict, which the latter can be guided in his actions (for example, the interests of spouses, relatives, etc.).

Secondly, a clash of interests, in which their simultaneous implementation without damage to any of them is impossible, can arise for both objective and subjective reasons - objective and subjective impossibility.

An example of subjective impossibility is the presence of an “informal” (friendly, etc.) connection with the counterparty of a joint-stock company in a transaction.

A striking illustration of objective impossibility is the conclusion of a transaction by a legal entity with its director. Subjects of civil legal relations acquire and exercise civil rights of their own will and in their own interests (clause 2 of Article 1 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation): the director of a joint-stock company, making a transaction with the latter, will objectively be able to act either in his own interests or in the interests of society, since in this In this case, the participants in the transaction are counterparties. The legislator does not use the term “conflict of interest” in relation to such transactions, calling them “transactions in which there is an interest” (Article 81 of the Law on Joint Stock Companies).

A conflict of interest when making transactions in a joint stock company objectively arises if there are the following relations between the person realizing the corporate interest (or his spouse, parents, children, brothers and sisters, adoptive parents and adopted persons and (or) his affiliates - “related persons”), and the counterparty (beneficiary) of the transaction:

the coincidence of a person who has the opportunity to realize (influence the implementation) of a corporate interest (in the terminology of the law - an interested party), or persons related to him and the counterparty (beneficiary) of the transaction: the interested party is a party to the transaction (the beneficiary of the transaction);

relations of representation (mediation): the interested party (related persons) is an intermediary or representative in the transaction;

ownership relations: the interested party and (or) persons related to him (each individually or collectively) own 20 percent or more of the shares (shares, shares) of a legal entity that is a party, beneficiary, intermediary or representative in the transaction;

management relations: the interested person (or persons related to him) holds a position in the management bodies of a legal entity that is a party, beneficiary, intermediary or representative in the transaction, as well as positions in the management bodies of the management organization of such a legal entity (Article 81 of the Law on Joint Stock Companies ).

The Russian legislator does not provide for other circumstances under which a conflict of interest arises. This can be explained by the fact that transactions are the main legal fact that mediates the dynamics of property relations of joint-stock companies.

Meanwhile, a conflict of interest in a joint-stock company can arise not only when concluding transactions, but also when the company performs other legally significant actions (for example, when concluding employment contracts, which from the point of view of the traditional scientific approach are not transactions, when carrying out procedural actions). Thus, a conflict of interest is inevitable when the director of a joint-stock company concludes an employment contract with his wife, or when the director refuses to claim (recognize the claim) in favor of the wife. Thus, the conflict of interests goes beyond the scope of civil law relations. We believe that the legal regulation of these situations will require special legal structures.

The legislator also does not take into account the subjective impossibility of one person to act simultaneously in several interests. Thus, a whole series of relationships in which a person realizing a corporate interest and performing legally significant actions for society, may be guided by another interest, falls outside the scope of regulation. In this connection, we believe that the responsibility for identifying a conflict of interest not provided for by law and informing about such a conflict should be assigned to the subject of the conflict (manager, shareholder, etc.) with the possibility of subsequent application of sanctions in case of non-fulfillment.

Types of conflict of interest

Depending on the entity realizing the corporate interest, the following types of conflicts of interest can be distinguished:

conflict of interests of the manager: a member of the board of directors (supervisory board) of the company, a person performing the functions of the sole executive body of the company, including the management organization or manager, a member of the collegial executive body of the company and the company;

conflict of interests of the controlling shareholder and the company: in the Law on Joint Stock Companies, a shareholder capable of influencing the implementation of corporate interests is recognized as a shareholder of the company who, together with its affiliates, has 20 percent or more of the company’s voting shares;

conflict of interests of other persons capable of influencing the implementation of corporate interests (for example, persons who have the right to give instructions to the company that are binding on it) and society.

The conflict of interests of the shareholder and society deserves special attention. As M.I. rightly noted. Kulagin, the controlling shareholder, exercises “undivided dominance in society,” commanding capital that is many times greater than his contribution to the company’s capital. A joint stock company is an organization of capital owners, in connection with which “the bodies of a joint stock company must, first of all, serve to form and identify the collective will of the owners.”

Being a member of the general meeting of shareholders (the management body of a joint-stock company), a shareholder, primarily a majority shareholder, has the opportunity to realize corporate interests.

A conflict arises when the personal interest of the controlling shareholder conflicts with the corporate interest. A shareholder can use the company to achieve private negative goals, and in extreme cases, not be interested at all in the existence and functioning of the joint-stock company.

In addition to the conflicts of the own interests of the entities implementing corporate interests and the joint-stock company, it is possible to identify conflicts of interests of the company and third parties, whose interests the manager (shareholder) of the company also has the opportunity to implement. For example, N is a director of joint stock company A and at the same time a member of the board of directors of company B. In this case, N has the opportunity to realize the interests of two companies simultaneously. Under certain circumstances, for example, when a transaction is made by company A and company B, these interests will be in conflict; N may find himself in a situation of conflict between these interests and an inevitable choice between them.

Legal structures for regulating conflicts of interest

In order to regulate conflicts of interest in a joint-stock company, the main tasks of the legislator are:

determining the circle of persons who have the opportunity to realize corporate interests;

effectively identifying circumstances in which a conflict of interest may arise;

development and implementation of certain legal structures (i.e. “normative regulatory schemes”, “standard constructions of powers, duties, responsibilities, procedures”) to prevent conflicts of interest and level out its consequences.

From a functional point of view, we can distinguish the following civil law structures used to regulate conflicts of interest in a joint-stock company:

regulatory-static: structures that establish the main responsibilities of the entity implementing corporate interests, within which it acts freely (for example, establishing the obligation of managers to act in the interests of society, to exercise their rights and fulfill their duties in relation to the company in good faith and reasonably (Article 71 of the Law on joint-stock companies), establishing a ban on the person performing the functions of the sole executive body of the company and members of the collegial executive body of the company holding positions in the management bodies of other organizations without the consent of the board of directors (supervisory board) of the company (Article 69 of the Law on Joint-Stock Companies);

regulatory-dynamic: structures aimed at determining the order of behavior of the parties in a situation where a conflict of interests has already arisen (for example, special regulation of transactions in which there is an interest, the procedure for their approval);

protective: structures aimed at eliminating the consequences of offenses arising as a result of a conflict of interest (responsibility of managers for losses caused to society, recognition of a transaction in which there is an interest as invalid, etc.).

The choice by the legislator of a normative scheme for regulating specific relations is determined, in particular, by the degree of risk that if a conflict of interests arises, priority will be given not to the interests of society, but to another interest. Thus, the risk of violation of corporate interests by the majority shareholder is obviously lower than the risk of violation of this interest by the manager. By participating in a company, shareholders bear the risk of losing their financial investments in the capital of the company, therefore, in a significant number of cases, the corporate and personal interests of the shareholder coincide. Consequently, the likelihood of a conflict of interest tends to zero in most cases. The coincidence of corporate interests and managerial interests is less likely.

Accordingly, the legislator uses different legal structures to regulate conflicts of interest between a joint-stock company and managers, a joint-stock company and shareholders (for example, shareholders do not bear fiduciary duties towards the company). However, some structures are universal and are used to regulate both conflicts of interest (in particular, special regulation of transactions in which there is an interest).

In conclusion, I would like to note the essential importance of the principles of law for regulating conflicts of interest in a joint-stock company. Due to the indirect nature of the mechanism for realizing corporate interests, a special role is played here by the general civil principle of good faith, which is specified in certain legal structures, including in the norms of paragraph 3 of Art. 53 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation and clause 1 of Art. 71 of the Law on Joint Stock Companies.

These norms also enshrine the priority of the interests of the joint-stock company over the personal interests of the manager. It is, to a certain extent, an exception to the principle of legal equality, but it is quite justified. This exception is aimed at equalizing the position of a joint stock company as a subject of civil law, since, due to the derivative nature of the interest, it does not have the opportunity to directly realize it, and therefore is in a deliberately unequal position in relation to an individual as a subject of civil law.