Conflict, Barriers and Resistance in Consultation

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Conflict, Barriers and Resistance in Consultation
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Conflict and Conflict Management
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Conflict A Definition

• Any situation in which one person or group
  perceives that another person or group is
  interfering with his or her goal attainment
• Increases naturally as professionals begin
  working together
• Meeting some persons needs will often result in
  others needs going unmet
• Inherently neither good nor bad!
• Knowing ones own style of managing conflict is
  important

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Conflict Management Styles

• Competitive Style
• Avoidant Style
• Accommodating Style
• Compromising Style
• Collaborative Style
• Vary along dimensions of cooperativeness and
  assertiveness

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Conflict Management Styles
Competing
Collaborating
(high)
Assertiveness
Compromising
(low)
Avoiding
Accommodating
(high)
(low)
Cooperativeness
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Conflict Management Styles

• Competitive try to overpower others with whom
  you have contact and win the disagreement
• Relationships are low in importance
• Avoidant try to ignore discrepancy between your
  own goals and those of others
• Own goals are unimportant

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• Accommodating set aside your own goals (give
  in) to ensure that others needs are met
• Relationships are more important than goals
• Compromising give up some ideas and demand that
  others do the same
• Look for common ground
• Collaborative requires commitment to
  relationships and goals
• Conflicts are seen as opportunities

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Barriers and Resistance in Consultation
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Practical Barriers

• Time Limitations
• Scheduling Issues
• Novelty of Consultation

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Congruence Among Expectations

• Goals for Consultation (examples?)
• Goals for Client (examples?)
• Expectations for Consultation Roles
• directive vs. collaborative consultant
• active vs. passive consultee
• confusion regarding data collection and plan
  implementation roles
• Others??

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Acceptability of Consultation Interventions

• "Judgments by lay persons, clients... of whether
  treatment procedures are appropriate, fair, and
  reasonable..." (Kazdin)
• Factors Affecting Acceptability
• Problem Severity
• Time
• Type of Treatment Approach
• Effectiveness
• Understanding

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Standardization
Potential Problems

• Reduces verbal flexibility
• Reduces attention to nonverbal and affective
  messages
• Related to effective consultation outcome
• Important for assuring consultation integrity
• Permits efficient and effective training
  Provides formal record of consultation
• Best Practices
• Preserve integrity of consultation services
• Preserve important relationship factors

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Resistance

• Definition
• An emotional response based on a rational or
  irrational fear or concern related to whatever
  change is proposed or occurring
• Resistance can be related to
• the proposed change itself (values, orientation)
• the personal impact of the change (skill issues,
  effects on personal life)
• homeostasis (preference for sameness, fear of
  the unknown)
• other attitudes, affective issues

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OvercomingBarriers and Resistance
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Understanding Resistance

• Resistance to change is a natural human
  phenomenon! -- Try to see the others point of
  view.
• Resistance may be determined in part by the
  expectation of what will be gained and lost with
  a successful intervention (e.g., for consultee or
  client, change in behavior may result in a
  nonreinforcing outcome)
• May reflect attributions or beliefs that are
  incompatible with the behavioral intervention
  process (e.g., Kids should behave without
  rewards)

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Dealing with Resistance

• Know that it will occur, and be able to identify
  it!
• Maintain positive relations.
• Use consultees frame of reference.
• Maintain a systems orientation
• Identify and support informal leaders of the
  organization.
• Observe norms for communication and work within
  standard parameters.

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Identify Resistance

• Indicators of Resistance
• Refusing to participate (not performing expected
  behaviors)
• Supporting without substance
• Displacing responsibility
• Deferring until a future time
• Relying on past practice
• Negative verbalizations

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Maintaining Positive Relations

• Helpful at organizational level establishes
  consultants reputation as facilitative toward
  system goals.
• Use strategic interpersonal communication
  skills to structure the process assertions and
  questions should offer support, extend
  discussion, initiate topics, etc.
• It is up to the consultant to develop
  facilitative, respectful partnerships with
  consultees, who must feel it is safe to discuss
  problems arising in their professional roles.

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Use Consultees Frame of Reference

• Individuals unique frames of reference affect
  their receptivity to change and sets parameters
  on their willingness to tolerate change
• If change message falls within an individuals
  tolerance level, change is possible -- if change
  is beyond the persons tolerance level, it is
  unlikely to be considered
• Determine the others tolerance range and propose
  only ideas that fall within it
• Examples Relate the change to others knowledge
  and experience propose changes that are within
  the others value system use consultees language

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Social and Interpersonal Influence Strategies

• Chin and Bennes (1969) perspective on change in
  human systems
• French and Ravens (1959) bases of social
  influence and social power
• Sequential-request strategies (Martens et al.,
  1996)

Youve gotta try this!!
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Chin and Bennes Empirical-Rational Approach

• Asserts that people are basically rational and
  will change their behavior when the change is
  justifiable to them on an intellectual level
• If a person thinks it is logical and important to
  change, he/she will do so if given the proper
  information
• Consultation technique using this approach is to
  disseminate information to the consultee
  (Knowledge is power)

Sole reliance on empirical-rational approach in
consultation may be shortsighted and naive!
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Chin and Bennes Normative-Reeducative Approach

• Assumes that people are active and depend on new
  knowledge as well as non-cognitive, sociocultural
  factors to decide whether or not to change
• Consultation strategies using this approach try
  to change consultees attitudes, values and
  feelings at a personal level, and norms and
  significant relationships at a social level
• e.g., make consultee aware of values and norms of
  the organization to change behavior
• Knowledge and people are power

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Chin and Bennes Power-Coercive Approach

• Assumes the consultee will change when presented
  with sanctions that are political or economic in
  nature, or when made to feel guilty or shameful
  for not changing
• Used when it is apparent that consultee believes
  it is not in his/her best interest to change
• Consultation strategy may involve informing the
  consultee that consultant is authorized to be
  present, with implication that consultee should
  follow consultants guidance

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French Ravens Bases of Social Influence and
Social Power

• Definitions
• Social Influence A change in the belief,
  attitude, or behavior of a target of influence,
  which results from the action or presence of an
  influencing agent
• Social Power The potential for this influence
  to occur

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Six Bases of Social Power

• Coercive Power Based on the consultees
  perception that the consultant can punish the
  consultee if he/she does not comply
• Reward Power Based on the consultees
  perception that the consultant can reward the
  consultee if he/she complies
• Legitimate Power Based on the consultees
  obligation to accept the consultants influence
  attempt because the consultee believes that the
  consultant has a legitimate right to influence
  the consultee, perhaps because of their
  professional roles or positions

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Six Bases of Social Power

• Expert Power Based on the consultees
  perception that the consultant possesses
  knowledge or expertise in a specific area of
  interest to the consultee
• Referent Power The consultants potential to
  influence the consultee based on the consultees
  identification with the consultant and/or desire
  for such identification
• Informational Power The consultants potential
  to influence the consultee because of the judged
  relevance of the information contained in the
  consultants message

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French Ravens Theory as Applied to Consultation

• Changed behaviors stemming from informational
  power can be maintained without continuing social
  dependence on the consultant
• the consultee has essentially internalized the
  new behavior and will continue in that manner
  even if the consultee forgets that the impetus
  for change came from the consultant
• For the other bases of power, changed behavior is
  socially dependent on the consultant (i.e., I am
  doing it this way because the consultant told me
  to do it this way...)

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French Ravens Theory as Applied to Consultation

• I am doing it this way because the consultant
  told me to do it this way, and...
• ... I feel obligated to do as the consultant
  requests (legitimate power)
• ... the consultant knows what is best (expert
  power)
• ... the consultant has experience similar to
  mine, so we should see eye-to-eye (referent
  power)
• ... the consultant will punish me if I dont do
  it this way (coercive power)
• ... the consultant will do something nice for me
  if I do as he/she asks (reward power)

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French Ravens Theory as Applied to Consultation

• Expert power tends to be highly restricted in
  range -- only a small number of areas of
  expertise are usually attributed to any one
  person
• Referent power has a wide range -- one who has
  accrued referent power can potentially influence
  the beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors of another
  across many aspects of daily life
• The effectiveness of an influence attempt stems
  from the power base employed and how the
  consultant delivers it (i.e., choice of words,
  body language, facial expression)
• Use of humor, nonthreatening forms of request,
  and a polite manner, have been shown to enhance
  successful influence

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Sequential-Request Strategies

• Compliance gaining strategies wherein making an
  initial request is expected to increase the
  chances that a person will comply with a second
  request
• Foot in the Door (FITD) strategy The initial
  request is small or trivial, and individual
  agrees to its performance
• When asked to comply with a second , larger
  request, individual is more likely to agree,
  presumably to maintain consistency in
  self-perceptions
• Door in the Face (DITF) strategy The initial
  request is large, and individual does not agree
  to its performance
• When asked to comply to a second, smaller
  request, person agrees, presumably because a
  concession has been made and they feel compelled
  to make a concession also

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Sequential-Request Strategies

• Martens et al. (1996) study
• Consultees exposed to one of three experimental
  conditions in which they complied to a small
  initial request (FITD), failed to comply to a
  large initial request (DITF), or received no
  initial request
• Acceptability of an intervention was assessed
  (i.e., consultees were asked to implement a
  treatment for one hour on each of two consecutive
  days)
• Mean acceptability for consultees in DITF
  condition was significantly lower than controls
  fewer consultees in DITF condition implemented
  the strategy
• Concluded that consultants should be cautious
  when using DITF strategy because any favorable
  perceptions that are produced by conceding ones
  position must overshadow the negative perceptions
  created from making what may have been an
  unreasonable request in the first place

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Other Ideas for Overcoming Barriers
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Consultee/Staff Training

• Topics
• Consultation as a service delivery model
• Goals and expectations of consultation
• Potential interventions and outcomes
• Formal
• Workshops
• Inservices
• Informal
• Setting the stage
• Verbalizations within interviews
• Observations throughout plan implementation

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Improving Problem Identification

• Define problems to increase solutions
  observable and concrete!
• Identify specific rather than global problems.
• Consider the use of reframing
• Emphasizes the positive, adaptive functions of a
  behavior
• Define problem in environmental terms, rather
  than internal client characteristics

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Incentives and Reinforcement

• Administrative support
• Release time
• Career ladder in schools
• Individual recognition
• Moral support and praise throughout process
• Frequent, sincere reinforcement
• Inform supervisor if appropriate