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Conflict

Power. Conflict. Coalition. Patricia Murthy. Bolman , L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2003). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership . San Francisco, CA: Jossey -Bass Chapter 9 – Power, Conflict, and Coalition. What event in US history happened 10 years ago, this past Friday?.

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Conflict

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  1. Power Conflict Coalition Patricia Murthy Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2003). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Chapter 9 – Power, Conflict, and Coalition

  2. What event in US history happened 10 years ago, this past Friday? 17 years earlier, the Challenger met with the same result Space Shuttle Columbia exploded upon its return from its space mission

  3. Political assumptions Five propositions for the political frame NASA 1. Organizations are coalitions NASA was part of a complex coalition of contractors, Congress, the White House, the military, the media, and the American public. NASA wanted more funding, while the public wanted lower taxes. Astronauts wanted more safety, while NASA wanted to maintain its flight schedules. 2. Coalition members have enduring differences Time and money were both in short supply. 3. Important decisions involve allocating scarce resources. 4. Scarce resources and enduring differences make conflict central and power the most important asset. NASA was Thiokol’s only customer (=power). 5. Goals and decisions emerge from bargaining, negotiation, and jockeying for position among competing stakeholders. Thiokol managers feared if they acknowledged problems with their products, it would “erode the company’s credibility”.

  4. Power and Decision Making • Alliances in an organization need power to accomplish • their common goals. • Structural theorists say - Power --> authority --> decisions. • H.R. theorists say – Influence --> mutuality --> collaboration • (= participation, openness, and collaboration substitutes power). • Authorities and Partisans (Gamson, 1968) • Authority is a form of power. • Scarce resources cause group needs to collide. • Authorities are entitled to make decisions on partisans. • “If partisans are convinced that existing authorities are too evil or incompetent to continue, they risk trying to wrest with control – unless they regard the authorities as too formidable. Conversely, if partisans trust authority, they will accept and support it in the event of an attack.”

  5. Sources of Power • Position power (authority) • Control of rewards • Coercive power • Information and expertise • Reputation • Personal power • Alliances and networks • Access and control of agendas • Framing: control of meaning and symbols Conflict “Conflict is the gadfly of thought. It stirs us to observation and memory. It instigates invention. It shocks us out of sheep-like passivity, and sets us at noting and contriving…conflict is a sine qua non of reflection and ingenuity.” John Dewey Can undermine effectiveness Encourage new ideas and approaches to problems. • Distribution of Power: • Over-bounded system – highly concentrated and everything is tightly regulated. • Under-bounded system – diffuse and the system is very loosely controlled. • Conflict in Organizations: • Horizontal conflict – in the boundary between departments or divisions • Vertical conflict – at the border between levels

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