Managing Conflict: Strategies and Approaches

1. Chapter10 Managing Conflict

2. Conflict • The process that results when one person or a group of people perceives that another person or group is frustrating, or about to frustrate, an important concern • Directed against another party

3. Conflict vs. Competition • Competition is directed towards obtaining a goal without interference from another party • One way to prevent competition from escalating into conflict is to remove opportunities for interference

4. Changing Views of Conflict • Traditional view: Conflict serves no useful purpose due to its distracting effect on managers; conflict should be avoided • Contemporary view: conflict should be managed, and it can encourage a search for new tactics and strategies and overcome stagnation and complacency

5. Changing Views of Conflict (cont.) • “Goldilocks” point: An optimal level of conflict for any given situation

6. Sources of Conflict • Sources of conflict can be grouped into three categories: • Communication Factors • Structural Factors • Personal Behavior Factors

7. Communication Factors • Believed to be the principle cause of conflict in organizations • Perfect communication is rare • Incorrect, distorted, or ambiguous information can create hostility

8. Structural Factors • Size: Conflict is greater in larger organizations • Staff heterogeneity: Differences among staff members in terms of authority, longevity of employment, values can lead to conflict

9. Structural Factors (cont.) • Participation: Employee participation does lead to increased levels of conflict • Line-Staff Distinctions: Cause conflict due to functions they perform, differing goals, and values and backgrounds of members

10. Structural Factors (cont.) • Reward Systems: If one party obtains rewards at the expense of another party, conflict can be generated among either individuals or in groups • Resource Interdependence: Groups typically compete for resources in organizations and conflicts often result

11. Structural Factors (cont.) • Power: If a group feels that it possesses far less power than it should, or if it believes that an excessive amount of power is held by another group, it is likely to challenge the existing order

12. Personal Behavior Factors • People’s values or perceptions generate conflict of others • Refers to differences between individuals • Some people simply enjoy being argumentative and combative

13. Personal Behavior Factors (cont.) • Conflict-prone individuals possess certain traits • Highly authoritarian: prone to antagonize their coworkers by escalating trivial differences • People with low self-esteem feel more threatened by others and overreact

14. Interpersonal Conflict • Prisoner’s Dilemma: Contrived to determine factors that influence tendencies to compete or cooperate - then conflict exists between people

15. Prisoner’s Dilemma • Two suspected criminals are taken in to custody and separated and there is not enough evidence to convict either of them • Alternatives for each prisoner: • To confess • Do not confess

16. Prisoner’s Dilemma (cont.) • Best option for both prisoners to take is to resist confessing at all, in which case they each receive only three days in jail • By altering the penalty/reward structure for cooperating and competing, one can influence the tendency of participants to compete vs. cooperate

17. Prisoner’s Dilemma (cont.) • The scenario points to the importance of communication between parties as a means of inducing cooperation

18. Strategies for Reducing Conflict • Superordinate Goals • Structural Approaches • Styles of Conflict Management

19. Superordinate Goals • High level goals that are used to avert or reduce conflict, they involve cooperation to achieve success or avoid disaster

20. Structural Approaches • Also used to reduce conflict • May involve transferring an individual to another unit • Moderator may be appointed to attend line-staff meetings

21. Structural Approaches (cont.) • Appeals procedure can be customized to match specific situations; if used, every effort should by the losing party to bring to two parties closer together • Use cross training assignments

22. Styles of Conflict Management • Forcing: attempts to overwhelm an opponent with formal authority, threats, use of power • Collaborating: represents a combination of assertiveness and cooperativeness, and may involve creative approaches, e.g., sharing resources to reduce conflict

23. Styles of Conflict Management (cont.) • Accommodating: combines unassertiveness and cooperativeness, and may merely involve giving in to another’s wishes • Avoiding: involves a person implying that they will either improve a difficult situation or attempt to appear neutral

24. Styles of Conflict Management (cont.) • Compromising: involves intermediate amounts of assertiveness and cooperativeness; seeks middle ground • Selection of style will depend on circumstances, with one style working better than the others

25. Managing Intergroup Conflict • Causes for intergroup conflict include competition for resources, differences in goals, interpersonal conflict, line-staff conflict

26. Managing Intergroup Conflict (cont.) • Can be managed by employing the following strategies: • Rules and procedures • Use of higher authority • Boundary-spanning positions • Negotiation • Teams

27. Strategies for Intergroup Conflict • Rules and procedures: implementation of rules and procedures to reduce intergroup conflict; will work best if they are put in place before conflicts arise; direct approach; helps to avert conflict • Use of higher authority: used in lieu of rules and procedures, but people may attempt to influence authority figure

28. Strategies for Intergroup Conflict (cont.) • Boundary-spanning positions: require that a person serve as a liaison, or communications link between groups

29. Strategies for Intergroup Conflict (cont.) • Negotiation: an interactive process in which two or more groups discuss allocation of resources; commonly used: • Distributive behavior involves win-lose outcomes over a fixed pool of resources • Integrative bargaining is a collaborative, problem solving approach that attempts to create win-win outcomes for both parties

30. Strategies for Intergroup Conflict (cont.) • Teams: collections of employees who are assigned to manage intergroup relations

31. Stimulating Conflict • A modest level of conflict may encourage involvement and innovation in an organization • Signs of the need to induce conflict may include: • Low employee turnover • Shortage of new ideas

32. Stimulating Conflict (cont.) • Strong resistance to change • Belief that cooperativeness is more important than personal competence

33. Conflict Inducing Techniques • Appointing managers who are open to change • Encouraging competition among individuals and/or groups • Restructuring the work unit