Introduction to conflict management

First fact mantioned in the course

One million workers (18,000 people per week) are assaulted on the job in the United States alone!

What are the types of conflict that individuals may have at work? Which type are you experienced with the most?

There are three types of conflict that can arise within an organization: 1. Intrapersonal conflict 2. Interpersonal conflict 3. Intergroup conflict I am experienced most with the interpersonal conflict.

Understanding Conflict Key Takeaways Part 1

- Conflict can be a problem for individuals and organizations. - There are several different types of conflict, including intrapersonal, interpersonal, and intergroup conflict. - Moderate conflict can be a healthy and necessary part of organizational life. - Too much conflict, or too little conflict, can disrupt perfomance.

Explain how miscommunication might be related to a conflict at work.

- When the argument is focused on individuals instead of problem solving, tasks and ideas.

Role Ambiguity

Role Ambiguity: Perhaps you've been given the task of finding a trainer for a company's business writing training programm. You may feel unsure about what kind of person to hire - a well-known but expensive trainer or a local, unknown but low-priced trainer. If you haven't been given guidelines about what is expected, you may be wrestling with several options.

Role Conflict

Role Conflict: Role conflict involves having two different job descriptions that seem mutually exclusive. This type of conflict can arise if you're the head of one team but also a member of another team.

Types of Conflict

There are three types of conflict that can arise within an organization: 1. Intrapersonal conflict 2. Interpersonal conflict 3. Intergroup conflict

conflict

conflict is a process that involves people disagreeing

Three Types of Intrapersonal Conflict

1. Difference in Roles 2. Role Conflict 3. Role Ambiguity

Is Conflict Always Bad?

A moderate amount of conflict can be a healthy (and necessary) part of organizational life. To understand how to get a positive level of conflict, we need to understand it's root causes, consequences, and tools to help manage it. The impact of too much or too little conflict can disrupt perfomance. If conflict is too low, then perfomance is low. If conflict is too high, then perfomance tends to be low.

Difference in Roles

Difference in Roles: A manager may want to oversee a subordinate's work, believing that such oversight is a necessary part of the job. The subordinate, on the other hand, may consider such extensive oversight to be evidence of a lack of trust.

Intergroup Conflict

Intergroup conflict takes place among different groups. Intergroup conflict takes place among different groups, such as different departments or divisions in a company; between union and management; or between companies, such as companies who supply the same custumer. Departments may conflict over budget allocations, unions and management may disagree over work rules, and suppliers may conflict with each other on the quality of parts. Merging two groups together can lead to friction between the groups -- especially if there are scarce resources to be devided among the group.

Interpersonal Conflict

Interpersonal conflict can arise among individuals such as coworkers, a manager and an employee, or CEOs and their staff. Interpersonal conflict often arises because of competitiin or because of personality or values differences. Keeping conflicts centered around ideas rather than individual differences is important in avoiding a conflict escalation.

Intrapersonal Conflict

Intrapersonal conflict arises within a person.

What are some primary causes of conflict at work?

Intrapersonal: - difference in roles - role conflict - role ambiguity Interpersonal: - competition - personality or values differeces Intergroup: - merging groups - scarce resources - work rules - quality

Middle Range Conflict

The goal is to hold conflict levels in the middle range, between high and low. While it might seem strange to want a particular level of conflict, a medium level of task-related conflict is often viewed as optimal, because it represents a situation in which a healthy debate of ideas takes place. Research focusing on effective teams across time found that they were characterized by low but increasing levels of process conflict(how do we get things done?), low levels of relationship conflict with a rise toward the end of the project(personal disagreements among team members), and moderate levels of task conflict in the middle of the task timeline.