3. Slide 3
Conflict Management
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Conflicts: there are at least two independent
groups, the groups perceive some
incompatibility between themselves, and the
groups interact with each other in some way.
Two example definitions are, "process in
which one party perceives that its interests are
being opposed or negatively affected by
another party"
Conflict management is defined as “the
opportunity to improve situations and
strengthen relationships”
4. Slide 4
Conflict Management
Conflict management is the process of limiting the negative aspects of
conflict while increasing the positive aspects of conflict. The aim of
conflict management is to enhance learning and group outcomes,
including effectiveness or performance in organizational setting
Workplace impact
Supervisors spend more than 25% of their time on conflict management,
and managers spend more than 18% of their time on relational employee
conflicts. This has doubled since the 1980s. Reasons for this are "the
growing complexity of organizations, use of teams and group decision
making, and globalization."
Conflict significantly affects employee morale, turnover, and litigation,
which affects the prosperity of a company, either constructively or
destructively.
6. Slide 6
Causes of Conflict in Organizations
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Misunderstanding
Personality clashes
Competition for resources
Authority issues
Lack of cooperation
Differences over methods or style
Low performance
Value or goal differences
7. Slide 7
Advantages Of Conflicts
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Accommodation: Accommodation allows one party to do what another
party wants when a conflict arises. The advantage to accommodation is
that conflict can be quickly resolved, which helps with short-term
goals. The accommodating party may also feel like they have
contributed goodwill toward the goal.
• Compromise: the outcome can generally be seen as "fair" to both
parties because each gets something in return. This can also solve a
short-term conflict while laying the foundation to resolving a long-
term problem.
Competition: Competition conflict resolution works if authority must
be established among parties to complete the short- or long-term
goals. This also fosters confidence for the winning party in
competitive environments. Short- term goals where there is little room
or time for discussion can be met quickly
8. Slide 8
Disadvantages of Conflicts
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Avoidance: not addressing conflicts, long-term goals may not be
met. Avoiding conflicts may also cause a festering of tension, which
can result in a goal-stopping event, such as a blow-out argument.
Accommodation: Accommodation can also lead to lack of self-
esteem within the accommodating party. The winning party may
also begin to take advantage. Another disadvantage is that the
accommodating party may end up sacrificing a principle that
hampers meeting the long-term goal
Compromise: neither party leaves the negotiating table completely
happy. Since compromises are short-term, they usually indicate that
another conflict will occur in the future.
Competition: The losing party may bear a grudge leading to
another conflict. The personal stake in the competitive nature
can negatively effect relationships.
9. Slide 9
CONFLICT: CONSTRUCTIVE VS DESTRUCTIVE
Conflict is destructive when it:
• Diverts energy from more important issues and tasks.
• Deepens differences in values.
• Polarizes groups so that cooperation is reduced.
• Destroys the morale of people or reinforces poor self-concepts.
Conflict is constructive when it:
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Opens up issues of importance, resulting in issue clarification.
Helps build cohesiveness as people learn more about each other.
Causes reassessment by allowing for examination of procedures or actions.
Increases individual involvement.
Types of Conflict
10. Slide 10
Conflicts: Desirability and Undesirability
Desirability of Conflicts
• Conflict can be desirable.
• Conflict helps eliminate or reduce the likelihood of group think.
• A moderate level of conflict across tasks within a group resulted in increased group
performance while conflict among personalities resulted in lower group performance
Undesirability of Conflicts
• Conflicts can be hard to control once they have begun.
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The trend is toward escalation( inc in force) and polarization (division).
When conflict escalates to the point of being out of control, it almost always
yields negative results.
Types of Conflict
11. Slide 11
Types Of Conflict
• CONFLICTS: FUNCTIONAL VS DYSFUNCTIONAL
Conflicts are dysfunctional: Hinder group performance
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High Employee Turnover: In case of intra individual and inter individual some
dynamic people may leave the organization, if they fail to resolve the conflict in their
favor.
Tensions: some times conflicts increase the tension and it become difficult for
management to resolve conflicts which lead to frustration among members.
Climate of distrust: Conflicts create distrust among members of the group as well as
organization. The concerned people will have negative feeling towards each other.
Dissatisfaction: less concentration on job as result productivity will suffer.
Personal vs organizational goals: Conflicts may distract the attention of the
members of the organization form the organizational goals. They may waste time in
finding tactics and ways to come out as a winner in conflicts. Personal victory become
more important than organizational goals.
12. Slide 12
• Conflicts as a cost: Conflicts is not necessarily a cost for the individuals but the
conflicts may weaken the organization as a whole if management is not able to
handle them properly. It is the cost to the organization because resigning of the
personal weaken the organization ad feeling of distrust will have negative impact
result in affecting the productivity.
13. Slide 13
Types of Conflicts
Conflicts are functional
Supports the goals of the group and increase its performance
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All Conflicts are not unproductive and serves the following functions:
Release of Tension: when member expresses themselves they get some physiological
satisfaction. This lead to reduction of stress among the members.
Analytical Thinking: when conflicts occurs the members displays analytical thinking
in identifying various alternatives.
Group Cohesiveness: It brings closeness and solidarity among the group members
which can be utilized by the management to achieve organizational goals in effective
manner, differences are forgotten here.
Competition: Conflicts promote competition and hence result in increased efforts.
Some people are motivated by conflict and serve competition and lead to high level of
effort and output.
Challenge: Conflicts test the abilities and capabilities of the individuals and group. It
creates challenges for them for which they have to be dynamic and creative.
14. Slide 14
Stimulation for change: Conflicts stimulates change among
Individual. When they are faced with conflict they might change
their attitude and be ready to change themselves to meet the
requirement of the situation.
Identification of the weaknesses: identify the weaknesses and
remove them.
Awareness: conflicts creates awareness what problem exists, who
is involved and how to solve the problem and allow as
management to take necessary action.
High Quality Decisions: People share their information and
check each other reasoning to develop new decision.
15. Slide 15
Individual and Group Level Conflicts
Conflicts may arise between individuals because:
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of a clash of personalities, difference of opinion, bullying or harassment
of an aggressive or weak management style
some employees may feel others are treated more favorably
Conflict may arise between groups because of:
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team rivalry, disagreements or resentment
a 'them and us' mentality between large groups of employees and their managers
resentment of senior management, poor morale, low motivation, disagreement over
pay, health and safety, redundancies and lack of proper consultation
Groups of people in a team tend to display a certain pattern of behavior. Four distinct
phases of a group or team's development are:
forming - the team is new, uncertain of how to behave and reserved
storming - the team argues about who should do what and how, and therefore conflict
may occur
norming - the team agree its core tasks and responsibility is assigned
performing - the team operates according to agreed norms and can progress
17. Slide 17
Conflict Process
• Five stages in Conflicts Process:
1. Stage 1: Potential opposition or incompatibility: The first step in the
conflict process is the presence of conditions that create opportunities for conflict to
rise. These cause or create opportunities for conflict to rise. These causes or sources of
conflict have been condenses into three general categories –
(1)Communications
(2) Structure
(3) Personal Variables.
Communications: Different words connotations, jargon, insufficient exchange of
information and noise in communication channel are all antecedent conditions to conflict.
Too much communication as well as too little communication can rely foundation for
conflict.
18. Slide 18
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Structure: The term structure is used, in this context to include variables such as size,
degree of specialization in the tasks assigned to group members, jurisdictional clarity,
members/ goal compatibility, leadership styles, reward systems and the degree of
dependence between groups.
The size and specialization act as forces to stimulate conflict. The larger the group and
the more specialized its activities, the greater the likelihood of conflict. Tenure and
conflict have been found to be inversely related,. The potential for conflicts tends to be
greatest when group members are younger and when turnover is high. The greater the
ambiguity in defining where responsibility for action lies, the greater the potential for
conflict to emerge. Such Jurisdictional ambiguity increases inter group fighting for
control or resources and territory.
Personal Variables: Certain personality types- for example individuals who are highly
authoritarian and dogmatic- lead to potential conflict. Another reason for conflict is
difference in value systems. Value differences are the best explanations of diverse
issues such as prejudice disagreements over one’s contribution to the group and
rewards one deserves.
19. Slide 19
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Stage 2: Cognition and personalization: conflict must be perceived by the parties to
it. whether or not conflict exists is a perception issue. If no one is aware of a conflict,
then it is generally agreed that no conflict exists. Because conflict is perceives does not
mean that is personalized. For e.g. ” A may be aware that B and A are in serious
disagreements but it may not make A tense or nations and it may have no effect
whatsoever on A’s affection towards B” It is the felt level , when individuals become
emotionally involved that parties experience anxiety , tension or hostility.
Stage2 is the place in the process where the parties decide what the conflict is about and
emotions plays a major role in shaping perception.
Stage 3: Intentions: Intentions are decisions to act in a given way intentions intervene
between people’s perception and emotions and their overt behavior.
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.
1) Competing: when one person seeks to satisfy his or her own interests regardless of
the impact on the other parties to the conflict, he is competing.
20. Slide 20
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2)Collaborating: A situation in which the parties to a conflict each desire to satisfy
fully the concerns of all the parties. In collaborating, the intention of the parties are to
solve the problem by clarifying differences rather than by accommodating various
points of view.
3)Avoiding: a person may recognize that a conflict exists and want to withdraw from
it or suppress it. Avoiding included trying to just ignore a conflict and avoiding others
with whom you disagree.
4)Accommodating: The willingness of one partying a conflict top lace the
opponent’s interest above his or her own.
5)Compromising: A situation in which each party to a conflict is wiling to give up
something.
Intentions provide general guidelines for parties in a conflict situation. They define each
party’s purpose. Yet people intention is not fixed. During the course of conflict, they might
change because of reconceptualization or because of an emotional reaction to the
behavior of other party.
21. Slide 21
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Stage 4: Behavior: This is a stage where conflict becomes visible. The behavior stage
includes the statements, actions and reactions made by the conflicting parties. These
conflict behaviors are usually overt attempt to implement each party’s intentions.
Stage 5 Outcomes: The action reaction interplay between the conflicting parties
result in consequences. These outcomes may be functional in that the conflict results
in an improvement in the group’s performance, or dysfunctional in that it hinders
group performance.
22. Slide 22
Levels and Types
of Conflict
Individual
Group
Organization
Type of conflict
Level of conflict
Within and between organizations
Within and between groups
Within and between individuals
23. Slide 23
Levels and Types
of Conflict
• Intra organization conflict
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Conflict that occurs within an organization
At interfaces of organization functions
Can occur along the vertical and horizontal dimensions of the
organization
Vertical conflict: between managers and subordinates
Horizontal conflict: between departments and work groups
• Intragroup conflict
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Conflict among members of a group
Early stages of group development
Ways of doing tasks or reaching group's goals
• Intergroup conflict: between two or more groups
24. Slide 24
Levels and Types
of Conflict
• Interpersonal conflict
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Between two or more people
Differences in views about what should be done
Efforts to get more resources
Differences in orientation to work and time in different parts of an
organization
• Intrapersonal conflict
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Occurs within an individual
Threat to a person’s values
Feeling of unfair treatment
Multiple and contradictory(denying) sources of socialization
25. Slide 25
Levels and Types
of Conflict
• Interorganization conflict
– Between two or more organizations
– Not competition
– Examples: suppliers and distributors
26. Slide 26
Steps to Manage Conflicts
Maccoby and Studder identify five steps to managing conflict.
1. Anticipate – Take time to obtain information that can lead to conflict.
2. Prevent – Develop strategies before the conflict occurs.
3.Identify – If it is interpersonal or procedural, move to quickly
manage it.
4. Manage – Remember that conflict is emotional
5. Resolve – React, without blame, and you will learn through dialogue.
27. Slide 27
When the following conditions are in place, the likelihood of a positive
resolution increases:
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Commitment to find a resolution that is mutually beneficial.
Trust.
Frame of mind that there is more than one way to look at the issues.
Belief that a solution exists.
Commitment to stay in the communication process.
Steps for Positive Resolution
