Conflict management for Managers

1. Conflict Management
Shilpi Arora

2. Conflict
 A 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.
 Encompasses a wide range of conflicts that people experience in organizations
– Incompatibility of goals
– Differences over interpretations of facts
– Disagreements based on behavioral expectations
 Conflict may be defined as the disagreement between two or more individuals or
groups over an issue of mutual interest. Conflicts can range from small disagreements
to violent acts

3. Perspectives of Conflict

4. THE TRADITIONAL VIEW OF CONFLICT
 The belief that all conflict is harmful and must be avoided
Conflict was bad and to be avoided
 it was viewed negatively and discussed with such terms
as VIOLENCE,DESTRUCTION and IRRATIONALITY to
reinforce its negative connotation.

5. THE INTERACTIONIST VIEW OF CONFLICT
 the belief that conflict is not only a positive force in a
group but also an absolute necessity for a group to
perform effectively.
 It encourages conflict on the grounds that a harmonious
peaceful,tranquil,and cooperative group is prone to
becoming,apathetic,and unresposive to needs for change
and innovation.
 functional conflict dysfunctional conflict

6. Forms of Interactionist Conflict
 Functional Conflict: That supports the goals of the group and
improves its performance.
 Dysfunctional Conflict: Conflict that hinders group performance.

7. Types of Interactionist Conflict
 Task Conflict
 Relationship Conflict
 Process Conflict

8. Sources of Conflict
 Organisational Change
 Interpersonal Relationships
 Supervisor vs. Employee
 External Changes
 Poor Communication
 Subpar Performance
 Harassment
 Limited Resources

9. TYPES/LEVELS OF CONFLICT
1) INDIVIDUAL LEVEL
Interindividual Conflict
Interindividual Conflict
2) GROUP LEVEL
Inter Group Conflict
Intra Group Conflict
3)ORGANISATIONAL LEVEL CONFLICT
Intra Organizational Conflict
Inter Organizational Conflict

10. LEVEL1-Intra-individual/Intrapersonal Conflict
 Occurs within an individual.
 The experience takes place in the person’s mind. Hence, it is a type of conflict that
is psychological involving the individual’s thoughts, values, principles and emotions.
 Furthermore, this type of conflict can be quite difficult to handle if you find it hard
to decipher your inner struggles.
 It leads to restlessness and uneasiness, or can even cause depression. In such
occasions
 it would be best to seek a way to let go of the anxiety through communicating with
other people.

11. LEVEL1-Inter-individual/Interpersonal
Conflict
 Conflict between two individuals.
 This occurs typically due to how people are different from one another. We have
varied personalities which usually results to incompatible choices and opinions.
 Apparently, it is a natural occurrence which can eventually help in personal growth
or developing your relationships with others.
 In addition, coming up with adjustments is necessary for managing this type of
conflict.

12. LEVEL2-INTRA GROUP CONFLICT
 is a type of conflict that happens among individuals within a team.
 The incompatibilities and misunderstandings among these individuals
lead to an intragroup conflict.
 It is arises from interpersonal disagreements (e.g. team members
have different personalities which may lead to tension) or differences
in views and ideas.

13. LEVEL2-INTER GROUP CONFLICT
 takes place when a misunderstanding arises among different teams within an
organization.
 For instance, the sales department of an organization can come in conflict
with the customer support department. This is due to the varied sets of goals
and interests of these different groups.
 Competition also contributes for intergroup conflict to arise.

14. The Conflict Process

15. Stage - 1: Potential opposition or incompatibility:
 These conditions (cause or source) of conflict:
 Communication: It is reported that jargon, insufficient exchange of
information and noise in the communication channel are all barriers to
communication and potential conditions to conflict.
 Structure:The larger the group size and the more specialized its activities,
the greater the likelihood .
 Size and specialization of jobs – Jurisdictional clarity/ambiguity –
Member/goal incompatibility – Leadership styles – Reward systems
 Personal Variable: The evidence indicates that certain personality types such
as highly authoritarian and dogmatic people who demonstrate low self-esteem
lead to potential conflicts.

16. Stage II: Cognition & Personalization
 Perception or sense making plays a major role in the resolving conflict.
 Conflict may either be perceived or felt in nature.
 Perceived conflict is defined as awareness by one or more parties of the
existence of conditions that create opportunities for conflict to arise.
 Felt conflict is defined as emotional involvement in a conflict creating
anxiety, tenseness, frustrations or hostility.
 Negative emotions have been found to produce over simplification of issues,
reductions in trust, and negative interpretations of the other party’s behavior

17. Stage III: Intentions
 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 his or her
own concerns) – five conflict handling intentions can be identified.
 There are as follows:
 i) competing (assertive and uncooperative)
 ii) collaborating (assertive and cooperative)
 iii) avoiding (unassertive and uncooperative)
 iv) accommodating (unassertive and cooperative)
 v) compromising (mid-range on both assertiveness and cooperativeness).

18. Stage IV: Behavior
 All conflicts manifest in behavior somewhere along with continuum ranging from no
conflict or minor conflict such as minor disagreements or misunderstanding,
 aggressive physical attacks or overt efforts to destroy the other party.

19. Stage V Conflict: Outcomes
 The outcomes of conflict may be functional or dysfunctional.

20. Conflict Management Techniques

21. 1. Avoidance
 Avoiding mode is used when the individual is both unassertive and
uncooperative – that is, the person has a very low concern for his own and his
opponent’s needs. The individual follows the following three methods:
 Non-attention: The manager totally avoids or ignores the dysfunctional
situation
 Physical separation: It involves moving conflicting groups physically apart
from each other. The rationale is that if the groups cannot interact, conflict
will diminish.
 Limited interaction: Groups are allowed to interact only on formal situations.

22. Avoidance style can be very beneficial under
the following conditions:
 When the issue involved in the conflict is trivial,
 When more pressing issues are to be handled by the individual with a limited
time frame.
 When one’s power is very low and there is no chance of satisfying one’s
concern
 When more information is needed to make a good decision
 When someone else can resolve the conflict more effectively
 When you require time to regain more strength and look into different
perspective

23. 2.Accommodation:
 Accommodation is a negotiation style where one party is willing to
oblige or adapt to meet the needs of the other party.
 That party that accommodates loses and the other party
 Accommodation is useful for negotiation on minor matters.
 In all these cases, the individual neglects his or her own concern to
satisfy the concerns of their other party. There is an element of self-
sacrifice.

24. Accommodating is useful in the
following situations:
 Where the individual realizes that he or she is wrong
 By yielding, the person indicates to the other conflicting person that he is
reasonable
 When an issue is much more important to the other person than to the
individual
 By being accommodating, the person maintains good will and a cooperative
relationship and also build social credits.
 When preserving harmony and avoiding disruption are especially more
important

25. 3.Competition
 Competition occurs when one party negotiates to maximize its results at
the expense of the other party’s needs.
 Competition leads to one party gaining the advantage over the other.
 One party wins while the other party loses.
 Although it is quick and can be used as counter against another person,
this option usually produces a win-lose result.
 Competing is a power oriented mode of resolving tensions and one uses
whatever power one has or can muster such skills, knowledge, abilities,
rank being well-connected etc to win.

26. Competing is useful in the following
situations:
 When the resources are limited and the system has to be pruned
 When quick and decisive action has to be taken during emergencies
 When one has to take unpopular decision such as enforcing discipline,
unpopular rules, cost cutting measures
 When issues are vital to the survival of the company where one is
aware of the right solutions.

27. 4.Compromising
 Compromise is the settlement of differences through concessions of one or
both parties.
 In compromising, the party tries to find some expedient, mutually acceptable
solutions with partially satisfies both parties, though neither is fully satisfied.
 A compromising stance addresses the issue without avoiding it, but does not
explore the alternative in a way that would be completely satisfying to both
parties as in the case of collaboration.

28. Compromising is a useful mode in the
following situations:
 When the goals pursued are important, but not so important that it is worth
potential disruptions by taking very assertive or unyielding positions.
 When two parties with equal power are strongly committed to mutually
exclusive goals such as in labor-management bargaining situations
 When interim solutions are required till a more thorough and permanent
solutions to the problem can be found.
 When solutions have to be arrived at under extreme time pressures
 When both collaboration and competition fail to work effectively in resolving
conflicts.

29. 5. Collaboration
 Collaboration occurs when people cooperate to produce a solution
satisfactory to both.
 Collaborating involves an attempt to work with the other person to find
solutions that would be satisfying to both parties.
 A creative solution usually emerges because of the joint efforts of both the
parties who are keen on both gaining from the situation without hurting the
other.

30. Collaboration is useful in the following
situations
 When two goals of the two parties are both too important to be compromised
 When the commitment of both parties is essential for important projects to
succeed
 When the objectives of the parties are i) to learn ii) to merge insights that
different people bring to a problem because of their backgrounds, training,
discipline or orientations iii) to work through hard feelings which are
interfering with a desired interpersonal relationship

31. Dimensions of conflict-handling intentions:
 – Cooperativeness • Attempting to satisfy the other party’s concerns
 – Assertiveness • Attempting to satisfy one’s own concerns

32. Conflict Resolution Techniques

33. Conflict Stimulation Techniques

34. Negotiation
 Negotiation is a process in which one party agrees to exchange a product or
service with another party in return for something.
 In an organizational context, the most common example of negotiations is
that of collective bargaining between labor unions and management.
 Management may agree to increase the wages of the workers by a certain
amount on the condition that workers improve their productivity.

35. Approaches of Negotiation
 Distributive Bargaining: Negotiation that seeks to divide up a fixed
amount of resources; a win-lose situation
 Integrative Bargaining: A negotiation that seeks one or more settlements that
can create win-win situation. Sales-credit negotiation is one such example
where both the parties try to gain

36. Distributive versus Integrative Bargaining

37. The Negotiation Process

38. Individual Differences in Negotiation
Effectiveness
 Personality Traits – Extroverts and agreeable people are weaker at
distributive negotiation; disagreeable introverts are best
 – Intelligence is a weak indicator of effectiveness
 Mood and Emotion – Ability to show anger helps in distributive bargaining –
Positive moods and emotions help integrative bargaining
 Gender – Men and women negotiate the same way, but may experience
different outcomes

39. Third-Party Negotiations
 Four Basic Third-Party Roles
 – Mediator • A neutral third party who facilitates a negotiated solution by
using reasoning, persuasion, and suggestions for alternatives
 – Arbitrator • A third party to a negotiation who has the authority to dictate
an agreement.
 – Conciliator • A trusted third party who provides an informal communication
link between the negotiator and the opponent –
 Consultant • An impartial third party, skilled in conflict management, who
attempts to facilitate creative problem solving through communication and
analysis