what is the nature of conflict in organizations? how can conflict be managed? what is the nature of...

What is the nature of conflict in

organizations?

How can conflict be managed?

What is the nature of negotiation in

organizations?

What are alternative strategies for

negotiation?Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 10-2

Conflicts occur whenever disagreements exist in a social setting or when emotional antagonisms create friction between individuals or groups.

Substantive

A fundamental disagreement over ends or goals to be

pursued, and the means for their

accomplishment.

Emotional

Interpersonal difficulties that arise over feelings of

anger, mistrust, dislike, fear, resentment, and the like.

Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 10-3

"If I had a formula for bypassing trouble, I would

not pass

it round. Trouble creates a capacity to handle it.

I don't embrace trouble; that's as bad as treating

it as an

enemy.

…But I do say meet it as a friend, for you'll see a

lot of it and had better be on speaking terms

with it."

—Oliver Wendell Holmes


Functional conflict

Results in constructive, positive benefits to

individuals, the team, or the organization.

Dysfunctional conflict

Destructive to an individual or team.


Potential benefits of functional conflict

Brings important problems to the surface so

they can be addressed.

Causes decisions to be carefully considered.

Increases amount of information used for

decision making.

Provides opportunities for creativity.


Potential outcomes of dysfunctional conflict

Diverts energies.

Hurts group cohesion;

Promotes interpersonal hostilities.

Creates a negative environment.

Can decrease performance and job satisfaction.

Can contribute to absenteeism and job turnover.


Culture and conflict

Culture and cultural differences must be

considered for their conflict potential.

Sensitivity and respect when working

across cultures can often tap the

performance advantages of both diversity

and constructive conflict.


Conflict resolution

Situation in which the underlying reasons

for a given destructive conflict are

eliminated.


Conflict antecedents

Establish the conditions from which

conflicts are likely to emerge.


Perceived conflict

When the antecedents become the basis for

substantive or emotional differences between

people or groups.

Felt conflict

Conflict experienced as tension that motivates

the person to take action to reduce feelings of

discomfort.


Manifest conflict

Expressed openly in behavior.

Conflict aftermath

Removing or correcting antecedents.

Conflict suppression

No change in antecedent conditions occurs even

though the manifest conflict behaviors may be

temporarily controlled.


Causes of conflict

Vertical conflict Occurs between levels and commonly involves supervisor-subordinate

and team-leader disagreements over resources, goals, deadlines, or

performance results.

Horizontal conflict Occurs between persons or group working at the same hierarchical

level.

Line-staff conflict Involves disagreements between line and staff personnel over who

has authority and control over decisions on matters such as budgets,

technology, and human resource practices.


Role ambiguity conflicts Occur when the communication of task expectations is

unclear or upsetting in some way.

Task and workflow interdependencies Occur when people or units are required to cooperate to

meet challenging goals.

Domain ambiguities

Occur when individuals or teams lack adequate task

direction or goals and misunderstand such things as

customer jurisdiction or scope authority.


Resource scarcity

When resources are scarce, working

relationships are likely to suffer.

Power or value asymmetries

Occur when interdependent people or

teams differ substantially from one another

in status and influence or in values.


Indirect strategies:

Managed interdependence Decoupling, or taking action to

eliminate or reduce the required

contact between conflicting parties.

Buffering is another approach that

can be used when the inputs of one

team are the outputs of another.


Appeal to common goals

Focusing the attention of potentially

conflicting individuals and teams on one

mutually desirable conclusion.


Upward referral

Problems are moved from the level of conflicting

individual or teams and referred up the hierarchy

for more senior managers to address.

Altering scripts and myths

Superficial management managed by scripts, or

behavioral routines, that become part of the

organization’s culture.


Lose-lose conflict

Nobody gets what he or she wants;

underlying reasons for remain unresolved.

Strategies include:

Avoidance.

Accommodation- playing down differences.

Compromise- giving up something valued.


Win-Lose conflict

One party achieves its desires at the

expense and to the exclusion of the other

party’s desires.

Competition - achieve domination through force,

superior skill, or domination.

Authoritative command – formal authority used

to end conflict.


Win-Win conflict Achieved by a blend of both high cooperativeness and

high assertiveness.

Collaboration or problem solving

o involves recognition by all conflicting parties that

something is wrong and need attention. It Stresses

gathering and evaluating information in solving

disputes and making choices.


Think of a conflict you had with a co-

worker…

Was it handled directly or indirectly?

How was it resolved? Think about the

technique that was used.

Has the conflict re-appeared?


Negotiation

The process of making joint

decisions when the parties

involved have different

preferences.


Substance goals

Outcomes that relate to “content” issues under

negotiation.

Relationship goals

Outcomes that relate to how well people involved

in the negotiation and any constituencies they may

represent are able to work with one another once

the process is concluded.


Effective negotiation factors:

Quality – negotiation results offer a “quality”

agreement that is wise and satisfactory to all sides.

Harmony – negotiation is “harmonious” and fosters

rather than inhibits good interpersonal relations.

Efficiency - negotiation is “efficient” and no more

time consuming or costly than absolutely

necessary.


Ethical aspects of negotiation

The motivation to behave ethically in

negotiations is put to the test by each

party’s desire to “get more” than the other

from the negotiation and/or by a belief that

there are insufficient resources to satisfy all

parties.


Distributive

negotiation› Focuses on

positions staked out or declared by the conflicting parties.

Integrative

negotiation› Sometimes called

principled negotiation.

› Focuses on the “merits” of the issues.


Distributive negotiation

“Who is going to get this resource?”

“Hard” distributive negotiation (win/lose)

Each party holds out to get its own way.

“Soft” distributive negotiation (lose/lose)

One party tries to find the ways to meet the

other’s desires.


Bargaining zone

Range between one party’s minimum

reservation point and the other party’s

maximum reservation point.


Integrative negotiation

“How can the resource best be used?”

Less confrontational than distributive

negotiation.

Allows a broader range of alternative

solutions to be considered.

A win-win solution is possible.


Foundations of Integrative

negotiation

1. Attitudinal

Willingness to trust, share information, and

ask concrete questions.


2. Behavioral Separate the people from the problem.

Don’t allow emotional considerations to affect the

negotiations.

Focus on common interests rather than solutions.

Avoid premature judgments.

Keep the identification of alternatives separate from their

evaluation.

Judge possible agreements by set criteria or standards.


3. Informational

Each party must know what he or she will do if an

agreement can’t be reached.

Each party must identify and understand their

personal interest in the situation.

Each party must know what is really important to

them in the case at hand, and they must come to

understand the relative importance of the other

party’s interests.


Third party negotiations

A neutral third party works with persons

involved in a negotiation to help them resolve

impasses and settle disputes.

Arbitration

A neutral third party acts as a “judge” and

has the power to issue a decision that is

binding on all parties.


Mediation

A neutral third party tries to engage the

parties in a negotiated solution through

persuasion and rational argument.


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