speech 140 chapter 10 conflict management in groups 1 in mixed company chapter ten conflict...

Speech 140 Chapter 10 Conflict Management in Groups

1

In Mixed Company Chapter Ten

Conflict Management In Groups


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Conflict Defined

• Conflict is the expressed struggle between two interconnected parties who perceive incompatible goals and interference from each other in attaining those goals.


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Destructive and Constructive Conflict

• Moderate amounts of conflict can be a constructive force in groups if the conflict is managed competently.

• The principal difference is how competent the communication is when transacting the conflict.

• Destructive conflict is characterized by dominating, escalating, retaliating, competing, defensive, and inflexible communication patterns.

• Constructive conflict is characterized by communication that is We oriented, de-escalating, cooperative, supportive, and flexible.

• The principle focus is on trying to achieve a solution between struggling parties that is mutually satisfactory to everyone.


4

Styles of Conflict

• A communication style of conflict management is oriented toward conflict.

• Since conflict can be an essential catalyst for growth in a system, increasing conflict may be required to evoke change.


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Collaborating: Problem Solving

• The collaborating style is a win-win cooperative approach to conflict. It attempts to satisfy all parties. Someone employing this style has a high concern for both task and social relationships in groups.

• A collaborating style has three key components: confrontation, integration, and smoothing.


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Confrontation: Addressing the Problem

• The overt recognition that conflict exists in a group and the direct to manage it effectively is confrontation.

• Not all issues are worth confronting, members who confront even trivial differences of opinion or can’t let a momentary flash of pique go unattended.

• Groups have to decide which issues and concerns are priorities and which are tangential.


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Confrontation: Addressing the Problem

• Integration, a collaborative technique that devises creative solutions that are mutually satisfactory for all parties in conflict.

• The act of calming the agitated feelings of group members during a conflict episode is called smoothing.

• Since collaborating is such an effective communication style for solving conflicts of interests, why isn’t it always used in the solutions.

• Collaborating usually requires a significant investment of time and effort along with greater-than-ordinary communication skills.

• Collaboration is based on trust.

• Parties in a conflict sometimes do not share the same emotional investment in finding an agreeable solution for all involved.


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Accommodating

• Accommodating style yields to the concerns and desires of others.

• Someone using this style shows a high concern for social relationships but low concern for task accomplishment.

• Yielding on issues of incidental concern to your group but of major concern to other parties while holding firm on issues of importance to your group usually achieves mutually advantageous outcomes.


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Compromising

• We give up something to get something. Someone using this style shows a moderate concern for both task and social relationships in groups.

• When an integrative solution can’t be achieved, when a temporary settlement is the only feasible alternative or when the issues involved are not considered critical to the group, comprising can be useful.


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Avoiding

• A communication style of withdrawing from potentially contentious and unpleasant struggles.

• Someone using the avoiding conflict style shows little concern for both task and social relationships in groups.


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Competing

• Someone using a competing or forcing style shows high concern for take but low concern for relationships in groups.

• Someone using a competing or forcing style shows as a means of furthering personal more than group goals (Me-Not-We-Orientation)

• Making friends and developing a positive social climate are secondary and expendable.


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Communication Styles of Conflict Management

Style Task-Social Dimension

Collaborating (Problem Solving)

High task, high social

Accommodating (Yielding)

Low task, high social

Compromising Moderate task, moderate social

Avoiding (Withdrawing) Low task, low social

Competing

(Power-forcing)

High task, low social


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Task Conflict: Routine or Non Routine

• A routine task is one in which the group performs processes and procedures that have little variability and little likelihood of change.

• A non-routine task is one that requires problem solving, has a few set procedures, and has a high level of uncertainty.

• Conflicts about routine tasks often have a negative effect on group performance, while conflicts about non-routine task often have a positive effect.


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Relationship Conflict

• If a relationship is one of trust and cooperation, regardless of the power disparities, then collaborating has real potential.


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Interconnectedness of Task and Relationship Conflict

• Recognizing the interconnectedness of task and relationship dimensions of groups can be critical arises.


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Values Conflict

• Values are the most deeply felt views of what is deemed good, worthwhile, and right.

• Beliefs are what we think is true and probable.

• Values conflicts are especially difficult to manage when members of different cultures clash over divergent worldviews.


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Negotiation

• Negotiating strategies are the ways we transact these joint decisions when conflict arise.

• Conflict spirals- the escalating cycle of negative communication that produces destructive conflict.

• Reformed sinner strategy initially competes or acts though, then cooperatives and relaxes demands.


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Graduated and Reciprocated Initiatives in Tension Reduction (GRIT)

1. Issue a sincere public statement expressing a desire to de-escalate the conflict.

2. Specify the concession to be made, clarifying what, when, how, the action will be undertaken.

3. Follow through and complete the concession, but do not make this contingent on reciprocation by the other parties.

4. Encourage, but do not demand, reciprocation from the other parties.

5. Make no high-risk concessions that leave you vulnerable or in an indefensible position. Don’t give away the store.


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The Four Principled Negotiation• Principled negotiations changes the rules from

competitive to cooperative. The four basic elements to this approach with corresponding principles for each element.

• Separating the people from the problem.• Negotiating interests first, not arguing positions, is

critical.– Positions are the concrete things one party wants. Interests are

the intangible motivations needs, desires, concerns, fears, aspirations-that lead a party in the conflict to take a position.

• Generating a variety of options is another aspect of principled negotiation which rests on establishing objective standards for weighing the merits and demerits of any proposal.


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Anger Management

• The difference between constructive and destructive anger depends on tow conditions the intensity and duration.– Intensity of anger can very from mild irration

to outright rage.– Duration or how long it lasts determines

whether anger is constructive or destructive.


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Managing Your Anger

1. Reframe self-talk

2. Listen non-defensively

3. Deliberately calm yourself

4. Find distractions


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Managing The Anger of Others

1. Be asymmetrical- do not strike back in kind

2. Validate the other person

3. Probe

4. Distract (Shifting the other person’s focus)

5. Assume a problem orientation

6. Refuse to be abused

7. Disengage

speech 140 chapter 10 conflict management in groups 1 in mixed company chapter ten conflict...

Documents

destructive conflict

styles of conflict

conflict episode

collaborating style

effective communication

mixed company chapter

interconnected parties

struggling parties