OB Chapter 14
List the 5 stages of the conflict process
1. potential opposition 2. cognition and personalization 3. Intentions 4. behavior 5. outcomes
Integrative bargaining
A win-win solution is possible But: Parties must be open with information and sincere/honest about their concerns Both parties must be sensitive regarding the other's needs Parties must be able to trust each other Both parties must be willing to be flexible In order for integrative bargaining to be successful, parties must be open with information and sincere/honest about their concerns. In addition, both parties must work to pay attention to the needs of the others involved. This all needs to happen so trust occurs. In the process both parties must be willing to be flexible in working toward a solution.
What are the five conflict handling intentions?
Competing Collaborating Avoiding Accommodating Compromising
Intergroup conflict
Conflict between groups or teams
Dyadic conflict
Conflict between two people
What are the implications of conflict for managers?
Conflict is a natural part of the organizational context and it can be constructive or destructive. Excess conflict can be reduced through competition, collaboration, avoidance, accommodation, or compromise. In the end, it is best to seek a negotiation strategy that is a win-win for all parties. Choose an authoritarian management style: In emergencies When unpopular actions need to be implemented When the issue is vital to the organization's welfare Seek integrative solutions: When your objective is to learn When you want to merge insights from people with different perspectives When you need to gain commitment by incorporating concerns into a consensus When you need to work through feelings that have interfered with a relationship Build trust by accommodating others: When you find you're wrong When you need to demonstrate reasonableness When other positions need to be heard When issues are more important to others than to yourself When you want to satisfy others and maintain cooperation When you can build social credits for later issues To minimize loss when you are outmatched and losing When employees should learn from their mistakes Consider compromising when: Goals are important but not worth potential disruption Opponents with equal power are committed to mutually exclusive goals You need temporary settlements to complex issues
Intragroup conflict
Conflict occurring within a group or team
What are the three sources of conflict?
Dyadic Conflict Intragroup Conflict Intergroup Conflict In sum, the traditional view that all conflict should be eliminated is short-sighted. The interactionist view that conflict can stimulate active discussion without spilling over into negative, disruptive emotions is incomplete. Thinking about conflict in terms of type and locus helps us realize that conflict is probably inevitable in most organizations. Therefore, it's important to manage the variables of the conflict process.
Process conflict
How the work is done
Relationship conflict
Interpersonal relationships
Conflict performance curve
Level of conflict can either be too high or too low to be constructive. Either extreme hinders performance. An optimal level is one that prevents stagnation, stimulates creativity, allows tensions to be released, and initiates the seeds of change without being disruptive or preventing coordination of activities.
Individual differences in negotiation effectiveness
Many individual differences are interwoven in the negotiation process and impact the effectiveness of the outcomes. Personality traits will impact outcomes as extroverts tend to be weaker at negotiation because they will want people to like them. Intelligence is not an indicator of effective negotiation skills. Mood and emotion can impact negotiations as anger is often an effective tool in distributive bargaining, whereas positive moods are helpful in integrative bargaining situations. Culture also plays a role in negotiations and the styles utilized. American negotiators will often make the first offer where Japanese negotiators will often wait. North Americans use facts to persuade, Arabs use emotions, and Russians speak more in ideals. Brazilians tend to say no when negotiating much more than Americans or Japanese negotiators will do so. Gender can also impact negotiation effectiveness. Men and women tend to approach negotiations in the same way but may view the outcomes differently. Women may appear more tender in the process where men come across as tough. On the average, men are more likely to be negotiators than women. Personality Traits Little evidence to support Disagreeable introvert is best Moods & Emotions Showing anger helps in distributive negotiations Positive moods help integrative negotiations Culture Negotiating styles vary across national cultures Gender Differences Men are slightly better Many stereotypes Women's self-image as negotiators is poor
Conflict
Process that begins when one party perceives that another party has negatively affected, or is about to negatively affect, something that the first party cares about Conflict primarily deals with perception. If nobody thinks there is conflict, then no conflict exists. Conflict can be experienced in an organization through many different avenues. It can be that the goals of the individuals are incompatible or there is a difference of opinion over the interpretation of facts. Many conflicts also arise through disagreements about how people should behave.
Negotiation
Process that occurs when two or more parties decide how to allocate scarce resources Negotiation or bargaining is the process where the people involved work on creating a deal that is mutually beneficial.
How can you minimize counterproductive conflict?
Recognize when there really is a disagreement Encourage open, frank discussion focused on interests Have opposing groups pick important issues and work for mutual satisfaction Emphasize shared interests
Interactionist view to conflict
Some conflicts are encouraged to prevent groups from becoming stale functional conflict dysfunctional conflict The interactionist view of conflict does recognize that even though functional conflict can support the group's goals and improve its performance there is also dysfunctional conflict that hinders group performance. This type of conflict should be avoided, controlled, or minimized as much as possible. Functional conflict will work toward improving group performance where dysfunctional conflict will hinder group performance.
Describe the first stage of the conflict process, potential opposition.
Stage I of the conflict process is potential opposition or incompatibility. In this stage there are three main conditions that can cause conflict to arise. They are communication, structure, and personal variables. Communication may cause conflict when words mean different things to different people and misunderstandings result. Communication can be functional to a point, but when too much communication is given, it can cause frustrations and sometimes there are barriers in place to effectively hear what is being communicated. 3 main conditions that can cause conflict: Communication Barriers exist Too much or too little Structure Group size, age, diversity Organizational rewards, goals, group dependency Personal Variables Personality types Emotionality
Describe the second stage of the conflict process, Cognition and Personalization.
Stage II looks at the recognition or cognition of the conflict and the personalization or the emotional part of the conflict. As stated earlier, in order for conflict to be present there must be an awareness of its existence, defined as perceived conflict. Once people are aware of the conflict, emotions are expressed that can impact the outcome of the conflict; this is defined as felt conflict. Emotions can include anxiety, tension, frustration, or hostility. Potential for conflict is actualized Parties "make sense" of conflict by defining it and its potential solutions Emotions play a major role in shaping perceptions Perceived conflict Felt conflict
Describe the third stage of the conflict process, intentions.
Stage III starts to look at the intentions of the individuals involved. These intentions include the determination to act in a certain way, but it is important to realize behavior does not always accurately reflect intention. Sometimes people act out of emotion and not rational thinking. Intentions: Decisions to act in a given way Inferred (which is often wrongly) intentions may cause greater conflict Five conflict handling intentions: Competing Collaborating Avoiding Accommodating Compromising
describe the fourth stage of the conflict process, behavior.
Stage IV moves us beyond intentions to the chosen behavior in the conflict. This is when conflict becomes visible. Usually each party is using overt attempts to implement their own intentions. Annihilatory = Highly destructive. This step may cause a reaction in others, either because the individual miscalculated someone's intentions or he or she was not skilled in translating his or her intentions into behavior. This can cause functional conflicts that may be helpful, or dysfunction conflicts that can be highly destructive. Functional conflicts are usually at the lower range of the continuum, while conflicts that reach the upper range of the continuum are almost always dysfunctional.
Describe stage 5 of the conflict process, outcomes.
Stage V looks at the outcomes of conflict resolution. Functional outcomes include increasing group performance, encouraging interest and curiosity, and creating an environment for self-evaluation and change. Dysfunctional outcomes include discontented workers, reduced group cohesiveness, and infighting. In order to create functional conflict, it is important to reward differences of opinion and punish conflict avoiders. Functional Outcomes: Improves decision quality Stimulates creativity and innovation Encourages interest and curiosity Problems are aired Accepts change and self-evaluation Dysfunctional Outcomes: Group is less effective Reduces cohesiveness and communications Leads to the destruction of the group
Three categories of conflict
Task conflict Relationship conflict Process conflict
Desired conflict levels
Task conflict arises when there is conflict over the content and/or goals of the work. If this type of conflict exists at low to moderate levels, then this is a functional conflict that can help individuals seek clarification or new ideas on how to accomplish their goals. Relationship conflict is based on problems between individuals and is almost always dysfunctional. Process conflict occurs when there is disagreement on how the work gets done. Low levels of process conflict represent functional conflict.
The negotiation process
The negotiation process is best understood through the negotiation process. The grid in this slide outlines the steps: Preparation and planning, definition of ground rules, clarification and justification, bargaining and problem solving, and closure and implementation. You should determine your BATNA and that of the other party before proceeding with negotiations. BATNA represents the Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement or the lowest acceptable value you will take for a negotiated agreement. Then anything above your BATNA is a good negotiated outcome.
The traditional view of conflict(in the 1930-40s)
The traditional view of conflict believes that conflict is bad and should be avoided as much as possible. This view was more prevalent in the 1930s and 40s than it is today. This view held that conflict was the result of poor communication, lack of openness, or failure to respond to employee needs. All these things are negative and can be fixed. Thus management thought that conflict could be fixed and should be fixed. All conflicts are harmful and must be avoided Linked to violence, destruction, and irrationality
What are the global implications for conflict?
There are numerous global implications in the area of conflict as different cultures will view conflict through unique lenses. For example, U.S. managers are more likely to use competing tactics whereas Japanese managers will tend toward compromise and avoidance. Culture influences conflict resolution strategies Collectivist cultures try to use indirect methods to preserve relationships Promote the good of the group as a whole Individualist cultures confront differences of opinion directly and openly
Bargaining Strategies
There are two main approaches - distributive and integrative. Distributive bargaining seeks to divide up a fixed amount of resources and often creates a win/lose situation. Integrative bargaining seeks one or more settlements that can create a win-win situation for all parties involved.
Distributive Bargaining
This exhibit depicts distributive bargaining. Each negotiator has a target point that defines his goals and a resistance point that marks the lowest acceptable outcome. The area between these points is the settlement range in which both parties' goals can be met.
Describe the conflict intentions model
Using two dimensions - cooperativeness (the degree to which one party attempts to satisfy the other party's concerns) and assertiveness (the degree to which one party attempts to satisfy her own concerns) - we can identify five conflict handling intentions: competing (assertive and uncooperative); collaborating (assertive and cooperative); avoiding (unassertive and uncooperative); accommodating (unassertive and cooperative); and compromising (midrange on both assertiveness and cooperativeness).
Task conflict
Work content and goals
Perceived Conflict
awareness need for actualization
Felt conflict
emotional involvement- parties experience anxiety, tension, frustration, or hostility
Dysfunctional conflict
hinders group performance
Functional conflict
improves group performance
