Managing Conflict, Power, and Politics

1. Managing Conflict, Power, and Politics Teacher: Yao-sheng Liao Student: Cheng-chang Chen

2. Figure 14.1: Cooperation and Competition Among Organizational Stakeholders

3. Figure 14-2: Relationship Between Conflict and Organizational Effectiveness

4. Outline-1

5. Outline-2

6. What is Organizational Conflict? (1/3) • Organizational Conflict: The clash that occurs when the goal-directed behavior of one group blocks or thwarts the goals of another • Because the goals, preferences, and interest of stakeholder groups differ, conflict is inevitable in organization

7. What is Organizational Conflict? (2/3) • Some conflict is good for organization and can improve organizational effectiveness • Can overcome inertia and lead to organizational learning and change • Can improve decision making and allow an organization to better change and adapt to its environment

8. What is Organizational Conflict? (3/3) • Beyond a certain point, conflict becomes a cause for organizational decline • Conflict leads to inability to reach consensus and indecision • Too much time spent on bargaining rather than acting swiftly to resolve problems • On balance, organizations should be open to conflict and recognize its value

9. Outline-3

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11. Pondy’s Model of Organizational Conflict (1/5) • Conflict is a process that consists of five sequential stages • Stage 1: Latent conflict:no outright conflict exists, but there is a potential for conflict because of several latent factors • According to Pondy, all organization conflict arises from vertical and horizontal differentiation

12. Pondy’s Model of Organizational Conflict (2/5) • Sources of conflict include: • Interdependence: Subunit’s desire of autonomy leads to conflict • Difference in goals and priorities: Once goals become incompatible, the potential for conflict arises • Bureaucratic factors:A classic type of bureaucratic conflict occurs between staff and line function • Incompatible performance criteria:The organization’s way of monitoring, evaluating, and rewarding different subunits bring them into conflict • Competition for scarce resources: When resources are scarce, subunit have to compete for them

13. Pondy’s Model of Organizational Conflict (3/5) • Stage 2: Perceived conflict:subunits begin to define why the conflict is emerging and begin to analyze the events that have led up to it • Conflict escalates as groups battle over the cause of the problem • Stage 3: Felt conflict: each subunit develops a us-versus-them mentality that puts the blames for the conflict squarely on the other subunit • If nothing is done to solve it, small problem will escalates into huge conflict

14. Pondy’s Model of Organizational Conflict (4/5) • Stage 4: Manifest conflict: one subunit gets back at another subunit by attempting to thwart its goals • Open aggression • Passive aggression – doing nothing • Manager need to do all they can prevent from reaching the manifest stage, for two reasons: (1) breakdown in communication; (2) aftermath of conflict

15. Pondy’s Model of Organizational Conflict (5/5) • Stage 5: Conflict aftermath: conflict is resolved in some way • conflict is resolved in some way, often by the decision of some senior manager • If sources of conflict are not resolved, the aftermath will sour future working relationships, and the organizational culture is poisoned by permanently uncooperative relationships

16. Figure 14-3: Pondy’s Model of Organizational Conflict

17. Outline-6

18. Managing Conflict: Resolution Strategies (1/3) • Organizational conflict can escalate rapidly and sour an organization’s culture • Managing conflict is an important priority • Organizations must balance the need to have some “good” conflict without letting it escalate into “bad” conflict • The method an organization choose to manage the conflict depends on the source of the problem • Conflict can be resolved by two ways: (1)changing organization’s structure; (2) changing the attitudes of individuals or replacing the individuals themselves

19. Managing Conflict: Resolution Strategies (2/3) • Acting at the level of structure • Because task interdependence and differences in goals are two major sources of conflict, altering the level of differentiation and integration to change task relationships is one way to resolve it • Increase the number of integrating roles • Assign top managers the responsibility for solving conflicts between divisions • Make sure the design of an organization’s hierarchy of authority is in line with its current needs • Good organizational design should minimizes the conflict

20. Managing Conflict: Resolution Strategies (3/3) • Acting at the level of attitudes and individuals • Establish procedures for airing grievances • Important for conflict between management and unions • Bargaining and negotiation • Exchange/rotate/terminate individuals • Replace members of top management • CEOs can also use their power to resolve conflicts and motivate units to cooperate

21. Outline-7

22. What is Organizational Power? • Organizational power: the ability of one person or group to overcome resistance by others to achieve a desired objective or result • The possession of power is an important determinant for conflict resolving • Conflict and power are intimately related. • Individual and groups use their power to influence decision making • Power can come from many different sources

23. Outline-8

24. Figure 14-4: Sources of Organizational Power

25. Sources of Organizational Power(1/7) • Authority: power that is legitimized by the legal and cultural foundations on which an organization is based • A managers exercises a legal right to control resources • Superiors hold on power by restricting the information they give to subordinates to make a decision • Managers have to realize the difference between decentralization and loss • Empowerment: the deliberate decentralization of authority

26. Sources of Organizational Power(2/7) • Control over resources: as the organization controls more and more resources in its environment, power within an organization comes from the control of resources • Power is not a fixed quantity • Money or capital is the ultimate organizational resource • The ability to generate financial resources is a source of power, too

27. Sources of Organizational Power(3/7) • Control over information:access to strategic information and the control of the information are sources of considerable power • The control of information is the source of the power of many people or subordinate • Those who control over critical information can own the most power

28. Sources of Organizational Power(4/7) • Nonsubstitutability: if no one else can perform the tasks that a person or subunit performs, that person or subunit is nonsubstitutable • Only it can provide the resources that other subunit or organization requires

29. Sources of Organizational Power(5/7) • Centrality:the subunits that are most central to resource flows have the ability to reduce the uncertainty facing other subunits • An organization’s strategy is a crucial determinant of which subunit is central in an organization

30. Sources of Organizational Power(6/7) • Control over uncertainty:a subunit that can actually control the principal sources of uncertainty has significant power • Changes in contingencies facing the organization alter which subunits have this power

31. Sources of Organizational Power(7/7) • Unobtrusive power:controlling the premises of decision making • Another important source power stems from the power of the dominant coalition • Unobtrusive power: the power flowing from the ability to control the premises behind decision making • The power of a coalition resides in its ability to control the assumptions, goals, norms, or values that managers use to judge alternative solutions to a problem

32. Outline-9

33. Using Power: Organizational Politics (1/6) • Organizational politics: activities taken within organizations to acquire, develop, and use power and other resources to obtain one’s preferred outcomes in a situation in which there is uncertainty or disagreement about choices

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35. Using Power: Organizational Politics (2/6) • Tactics for playing politics(1/3) • Increasing indispensability: become indispensable to the organization • Increasing nonsubstitutability: develop specialized skills or knowledge that enables one to control a crucial contingency facing the organization • Increasing centrality: accept responsibilities that enhance one’s reputation or that of one’s function • Associating with powerful managers: • supporting a powerful manager who is clearly on the way to the top

36. Using Power: Organizational Politics (3/6) • Tactics for playing politics(2/3) • Building and managing coalitions • Forming relationships with stakeholders and other subunits around some common issue • Skills in coalition building are important • Influencing decision making • Must be circumspect in the use of power • Controlling the agenda • By setting the agenda, managers can control the issues and problems to be considered

37. Using Power: Organizational Politics (4/6) • Tactics for playing politics(3/3) • Bringing in an outside expert • Use supposedly neutral outsiders to support the views of the coalitions

38. Outline-11

39. Using Power: Organizational Politics (5/6) • Costs and benefits of organizational politics(1/2) • To manage organizational politics and gain its benefits, an organization must establish a balance of power in which alternative views and solutions can be offered and considered by all parties and dissenting views can be heard • Balance of power should shift over time toward the party that can best manage the uncertainty and contingencies confronting the organization

40. Using Power: Organizational Politics (6/6) • Costs and benefits of organizational politics(2/2) • If balance of power does not encourage allocation of resources to where value is created, the organizational effectiveness suffers • If powerful managers can suppress views against their interests, debates become restricted, checks and balances fade, bad conflict increases, and organizational inertia increases

41. Figure 14-5: Maintaining a Balance of Power

42. Summary

43. Summary