Managing Conflict and Negotiation

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Managing Conflict and Negotiation
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Chapter
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Conflict

• Conflict One party perceives its interests are
  being opposed or set back by another party
• Is conflict always bad?

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The Relationship between Conflict Intensity and
Outcomes
Positive
Outcomes
Neutral
Too littleconflict
Appropriateconflict
Too muchconflict
Negative
Low
ModerateIntensity
High
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Functional vs. Dysfunctional Conflict

• Functional Conflict serves organizations
  interests
• Typically issue-focused
• Stimulates creativity

• Dysfunctional Conflict threatens organizations
  interests
• Typically person-focused
• Breeds hostility
• Stifle communication

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Desired Conflict Outcomes

• Agreement strive for equitable and fair
  agreements that last
• Stronger Relationships build bridges of goodwill
  and trust for the future
• Learning greater self-awareness and creative
  problem solving

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Types of Conflict

• Personality
• Intergroup
• Cross-Cultural

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Tips for Employees Having a Personality Conflict
Table 13-1

• All employees need to be familiar with and follow
  company policies for diversity,
  anti-discrimination, and sexual harassment
• Communicate directly with the other person to
  resolve the perceived conflict
• Avoid dragging co-workers into the conflict
• If dysfunctional conflict persists, seek help
  from direct supervisors or human resource
  specialists

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Tips for Third-Party Observersof a Personality
Conflict
Table 13-1

• All employees need to be familiar with and follow
  company policies for diversity,
  anti-discrimination, and sexual harassment
• Do not take sides in someone elses personality
  conflict
• Suggest the parties work things out themselves in
  a constructive and positive way
• If dysfunctional conflict persists, refer the
  problem to parties direct supervisors

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Tips for Managers Whose Employees are Having a
Personality Conflict
Table 13-1

• All employees need to be familiar with and follow
  company policies for diversity,
  anti-discrimination, and sexual harassment
• Investigate and document conflict
• If appropriate, take corrective action
• If necessary, attempt informal dispute resolution
• Refer difficult conflict to human resource
  specialists or hired counselors for formal
  resolution attempts and other interventions

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Minimizing Intergroup Conflict
Figure 13-2
Level of perceived intergroup conflict tendsto
increase when
Recommended actions

• Work to eliminate specific negative
  interactions between groups
• Conduct team building to reduce intragroup
  conflict and prepare employees for
  cross-functional teamwork
• Encourage personal friendships and good
  working relationships across groups and
  departments
• Foster positive attitudes toward members of
  other groups
• Avoid or neutralize negative gossip across
  groups or departments

• Conflict within the group is high
• There are negative interactions between
  groups
• Influential third-party gossip about other
  group is negative

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Ways to Build Cross-Cultural Relationships
Table 13-2
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Stimulating Functional Conflict

• Devils Advocacy Approach assigning an individual
  the role of critic
• Action proposed
• Devils advocate criticizes it
• Both sides presented to decision makers
• Decision is made and monitored

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Stimulating Functional Conflict

• Dialectic Decision Method requires a structured
  debate of opposing viewpoints before making a
  decision
• Action proposed
• Assumptions identified
• Counterproposal generated on different
  assumptions
• Debate takes place
• Decision is made and monitored

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Five Conflict-Handling Styles
Integrating
Obliging
High
Compromising
Concern for Others
Dominating
Avoiding
Low
High
Low
Concern for Self
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Integrating (Problem Solving)

• Confront the issue and cooperatively identify the
  problem, generate and weigh alternative
  solutions, and select a solution.

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Obliging (Smoothing)

• Satisfy the other partys wishes, or at least
  cooperate with little or no attention to your own
  interest.

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Dominating (Forcing)

• Requires that other parties follow your wishes
  without significant consideration of their needs
  or concerns. You may use formal authority to
  force.

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Avoiding

• Passive withdrawal from the problem or active
  suppression of the issue.

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Comprising

• Reaching a middle ground with the other party.
  Both parties seeks to offset losses by equally
  valued gains.

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Conflict-Handling Style Matrix
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Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR)Techniques

• Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) avoiding
  costly lawsuits by resolving conflicts informally
  or through mediation or arbitration

• Mediation
• Neutral third party guides parties to make a
  mutually acceptable solution
• Arbitration
• Parties agree to accept the decision of the
  neutral arbitrator

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Negotiation

• Negotiation give-and-take process between
  conflicting interdependent parties
• Distributive negotiation Single issue
  fixed-pie win-lose.
• Integrative negotiation More than one issue
  broadening the piewin-win.

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Test Your Knowledge

• Alfonso tends to be an agreeable person with a
  high need for affiliation. When he encounters
  conflict situations at work which conflict
  management style is he most and least likely to
  use, respectively.
• Dominating Integrating
• Integrating Compromising
• Compromising Avoiding
• Obliging Dominating
• Avoiding Obliging

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Test Your Knowledge

• Before entering a negotiation with a client over
  the price of his companys service, Ben thinks
  about the clients interests and his companys
  interests. He then brainstorms several options
  that would satisfy both needs. The approach Ben
  is taking represents
• Integrative negotiation
• Distributive negotiation
• I win, you lose negotiation
• Compromise negotiation