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the Workplace
Managing Conflict
Be stimulating or unnerving
Increases involvement
Improves communication
Builds cohesiveness
Diverts energy
Destroys morale
Polarizes groups
Deepens differences
Neg.
Low High
Level of Conflict
Conflict and Unit Performance (cont’d)
Task vs. Socioemotional
Conflict
Task-related conflict
Conflict is aimed at issue, not parties
Helps recognize problems, identify
solutions, and understand the issues
better
Potentially healthy and valuable
Socioemotional conflict
Conflict viewed as a personal attack
Introduces perceptual biases
Distorts information processing
Toward Effective
Management of
Differences
Because the presence of differences can
complicate the manager’s job, it is of
utmost importance that he understand
them fully and that he learn to handle
them effectively
Manager’s ability to deal effectively with
differences depend on:
His ability to diagnose and to understand
differences
His awareness of, and ability to select
appropriately form, a variety of behaviors
Sources of Conflict
• Different values/beliefs
Differentiation • Explains cross-cultural and
generational conflict
• Increases stereotyping
Communication • Reduces motivation to communicate
Problems • Escalates conflict when arrogant
Interpersonal Conflict Management:
Cooperativeness:
• Attempting to satisfy the other party’s
concerns.
Assertiveness:
• Attempting to satisfy one’s own concerns.
Assertive
Unassertive
Uncooperative Cooperative
Assertive Competing Collaborating
Compromising
controversy
I shy away from topics that are sources of
Unassertive Avoiding
Uncooperative Cooperative
Interpersonal Conflict
Management Styles (cont.)
Competing –Satisfy one’s interest
regardless of the impact on the other
party
Strongest win-lose orientation
Suggested by the following statements
I insist that my position be accepted during
a disagreement
I usually hold on to my solution to a problem
after the controversy starts
Competin
Assertive
g
“My way or the highway”
Useful for:
•Quick action
•Unpopular decisions
•Vital issues
•Protection
•when fostering intimate or supportive
relationships is not critical
Unassertive
Uncooperative Cooperative
Interpersonal Conflict
Management Styles (cont.)
Accommodation – Involves giving in
completely to the other side’s wishes, or
at least cooperating with little or no
attention to your own interests
Usually are favorably evaluated by
others, but perceived as weak and
submissive
Illustrated by the following statements
If it makes other people happy, I am all for it
I like to smooth over disagreements by
making them appear less important
Useful for:
•Creating good will
Assertive •Keeping the peace
•when maintaining the relationship
outweighs other considerations
Unassertive Accommodating
Uncooperative Cooperative
Advantage: Accommodating
maintains relationships
Disadvantage: Giving in may not
be productive, your may be taken
advantage of
Interpersonal Conflict
Management Styles (cont.)
Compromising – Trying to reach a middle
ground with the other party
Based on give and take, involves a series of
concessions
You attempt to satisfice rather than maximize
your outcomes and hopes that the same
occurs for the other party
Does not always result in the most creative
response to conflict
Not as useful for resolving conflicts that stem
from power asymmetry, because the weaker
party may have little to offer the stronger
party
Illustrated by the following
statements
After failing in getting my way, I
usually find it necessary to seek a fair
combination of gains and losses for
both of us
I give in to others if they are willing to
meet me halfway
“Let’s make a deal”
Compromising
Assertive
Useful for:
•Moderate importance
•Time constraints
•Temporary solutions
•Equal power & strong
commitment
Unassertive
Uncooperative Cooperative
Interpersonal Conflict
Management Styles (cont.)
Collaborating – Collaboration is trying to
find a mutually beneficial solution for
both parties through problem solving
An individual who use this style tends to
See conflict as natural, helpful, and even
leading to more creative solution if handled
properly
Recognize that when conflict is resolved to
the satisfaction of all, commitment to
solution is likely
Interpersonal Conflict
Management Styles (cont.)
Collaboration (cont.)
Statements consistent with this
style include
I tell the other person my ideas,
actively seek out the other person’s
ideas, and search for mutually
beneficial solution
I try to dig into an issue to find a
solution good for all of us
Collaborating
“Two heads are better than one”
Assertive Useful for:
when peer conflict is involved
when trying to gain commitment
through consensus building
•Integrating solutions
•Learning
•Merging perspectives
Unassertive
Uncooperative Cooperative
Advantage: both sides get what
they want and negative feelings
eliminated
Disadvantage: takes a great deal
of time and effort
All five styles and their variations are equally available
responses to conflict
The fact that a person prefers a given style does not
mean he or she will not use other styles
Indeed, this model assumes that we use each style at
one point or another
Nevertheless, our dominant style reflects our particular
beliefs about conflict, our preferences and comfort
zone
Secondary choices constitute backups preferences
when we find it necessary to abandon our preference,
creating a response hierarchy
It is important to emphasize that we have
the ability to change our dominant style
and our response hierarchy
If a person genuinely desires to have a more
constructive approach to conflict
management, change is entirely possible and
it is a personal option
To change our style, we must become aware
of the available options and then undertake a
conscious program of building skills where we
need them
Structural Approaches to
Conflict Management
Emphasizing Superordinate Goals –
Common objectives held by conflict parties
that are more important than their
conflicting departmental or individual goals
Useful where conflict is caused by goal
incompatibility
By increasing commitment to corporate
wide goals, employees feel less conflict with
co-workers regarding competing individual
or departmental level goals
Structural Approaches to
Conflict Management
(cont.)
Reducing Differentiation
Alter or remove conditions that create these
differences in the first place
Differentiation is mainly based on unique
experiences and values – not just the
symbol of differences
Japanese companies move people around to
different jobs, departments, and regions so
that they eventually develop common
experiences with other senior decision
makers in the organization
Structural Approaches to
Conflict Management
(cont.)
Improving communication and
Understanding
Direct communication
Dialogue meetings – A process of
conversation among team members in
which they learn about each other’s mental
models and assumptions, and eventually
form a common model for thinking within
the team
Intergroup mirroring – a structured conflict
management intervention in which the
parties discuss their perceptions of each
other and look for ways to improve their
relationship by correcting misperceptions
Structural Approaches to
Conflict Management
(cont.)
Reducing task Interdependence
If cost effective – might occur by dividing
the shared resource so that each party has
exclusive part of it
Introduce buffers between people
Buffers might take the form of resources
such as adding more inventory between
people who perform sequential tasks
Human buffers in organizations – who
intervene between highly interdependent
people or work units
Structural Approaches to
Conflict Management
(cont.)
Increasing Resources
Clarifying Rules and Procedures
One way to clarify rules is to establish
a schedule for sharing scare
resources
Negotiation in Conflict
Management
What is Negotiation?
“A decision-making process among
interdependent parties who do not
share identical preferences”
It is an attempt to reach a satisfactory
exchange among or between the
parties
Bargaining
Your Positions
Zone Model
Initial Target Resistance
Area of
Potential
Agreement
Location
Physical Setting
Audience
Effective Negotiator
Behaviors
Preparation and Goal Setting
Gathering Information
Communicating Effectively
Making Concessions
Bargaining Strategies
Distributive versus
Integrative Bargaining
Bargaining Strategies
(cont.)
Integrative bargaining is preferable to
distributive bargaining –builds long term
relationships and facilitates working
together in the future
Conditions necessary for this integrative
bargaining
Include parties open with information and
candid about their concerns
Sensitivity to each other’s needs, ability to
trust and willingness to maintain flexibility
Third-Party Involvement
Any attempt by a relatively neutral
person to help the parties resolve
their differences
Types of Third-Party
Intervention
Mediation – A neutral third party who
facilities a negotiated solution by using
reasoning, persuasion, and suggestions for
alternatives
In labor disputes, international relations,
and marital counseling
What Do Mediators do?
Almost anything that aids the process or
atmosphere of negotiation can be helpful
The mediator might also intervene in the content
of the negotiation, highlighting points of
agreement, pointing new options, or encouraging
concessions
Types of Third-Party
Intervention (cont.)
Mediation (cont.)
Best for everyday disputes between
of conflict
The mediator must be perceived as