This file includes a book review of Capitalizing on Conflict written by Kirk Blackard. Mostly, it includes the chapter wise summaries.

1. CAPITALIZING ON CONFLICT
BOOK REVIEW
JULY 29, 2020
SUBMITTED BY: IRFAN UR REHMAN
FA17-BBA-069

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Contents
Introduction..............................................................................................................................2
Ch – 01: Perspectives...............................................................................................................3
Ch – 02: Management’s role ...................................................................................................4
Ch – 03: Maintaining a Trusting Environment ....................................................................6
Ch – 04: Avoiding Policy Driven Conflict..............................................................................8
Ch – 05: Managing Change Effectively ...............................................................................10
Ch – 06: Hiring and Maintaining the right Workforce ......................................................12
Ch – 07: Fostering Appropriate Supervisor Behavior .......................................................14
Ch – 08: Surfacing Conflict...................................................................................................16
Ch – 09: Engaging Conflict ...................................................................................................18
Ch – 10: Resolving Disagreements .......................................................................................20
Ch – 11: Resolving Disputes..................................................................................................22
Ch – 12: Learning from Conflict ..........................................................................................24

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Capitalizing on Conflict
Introduction
This book by Kirk Blackard and James W. Gibson mainly focuses on managing and controlling
different types of conflict within an organizational environment. It encompasses major topics
related to conflict management that helps the organizations in resolving their major problems
that often act as hurdle in their operational activities.
The basic principle of the book illustrates that a conflict an organization face has broad,
systematic effects that go well beyond what one can see on the surface, and that effectively
managing conflict requires much more than simply resolving disputes. In other words, this
book not only presents the one side of conflict; it focuses on both perspectives (Positive and
Negative) and gives parameter to manage it in ways. This shows that management should focus
on eliminating the conflict that is negative. Negative conflict is the root cause of major
problems in an organization so it should be avoided. However, on the other hand organizations
should take advantage from conflict that is positive. Positive conflict enables the organizations
to encounter different types of scenarios and opportunities that improves their organization’s
performance through the way they manage and control the conflict.
This book basically presents a guideline for the organizations to help them to take advantages
of positive conflict and how they can manage it to improve their employee’s and staff’s learning
and performance. By following those guidelines, an effectively managed conflict can enhance
creativity, improve decision making and foster learning through mutual problem solving. On
the other side, it also shows guidelines to manage counterproductive conflict which prevents
the employees to work properly and obtaining quality results.
To best understand the concepts of chapters, the next headings comprises of chapter-wise
summaries.

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Chapter-wise Summaries
Ch – 01:Perspectives
The first chapter basically presents the basic introduction related to conflict. It is the starting
point to understand an effective workplace conflict management. Moreover, it gives a
conceptual framework or guideline to managers that how to think about factors causing conflict
and what decisions are important in resolving them.
The chapter starts with defining conflict that elaborates what is the exact meaning of conflict.
According to that definition, it says: Conflict is a dynamic process that is inherently neither
good nor bad. It can be sometimes positive and counterproductive. Then, this chapter describes
what parties in an organization are typically involved in facing conflict. Two or more
individuals or group of employees that have incompatible interests and interdependent
relationships are typically involved in facing or creating conflict in an organization. Then, there
is a discussion of various types of workplace conflict situations in an organization. The two
main types are stated as: Substantive Conflict and Personal Conflict. Substantive Conflict is
related to the conflict that occurs in ideas and opinion related to the work done. Whereas,
personal conflict is characterized by social issues, personality clashes, norms and values among
employees in an organization.
An important section of this chapter is the cause of conflict occurrence or cause of
counterproductive conflict. Conflict among individuals in an organization have an immediate
cause, a root cause, and some certain contributing causes. The next section of chapter discusses
different theories regarding causing factors of conflict. The main theories that discusses those
factors are: Psychic Energy which drives human behavior and provides the basis of conflict.
Win-Lose Climate theory suggests that human behavior is determined by how individuals see
the world. Social Exchange theory is an important one which suggests that conflicts involve
calculation of rewards and costs by people who are interdependent and able to influence each
other’s behavior.
In the last section, it tells some more factors that can be the cause of creating workplace
conflict. These include: Ineffective Human Relations, Seeing things differently (Difference in
opinions), Social Confrontation, Reciprocity, and Intergroup Differences. The understanding
causes of a conflict is essential to dealing it with effectively.

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Ch – 02:Management’s role
This chapter investigates the basics of an effective conflict management and what
management’s role should be in dealing with primary conflict. Moreover, it explains some
conflict management paradoxes. It provides a framework for management in resolving conflict
and outlines some important ethical considerations to guide those management’s actions.
The first thing that this chapter describes are the conflict management paradoxes. The basic
principle of these paradoxes’ states that: Conflict management in the workplace is frequently
paradoxical and things do not always work as it seems they should. In order to deal with these
contradictions, managers should view old problems form new perspectives and address newly
defined problems. The paradoxes that help to see those perspectives include:
(1) Management must often create conflict; means that conflict which can be positive or
productive for employees and become source of attaining synergy of diverse ideas.
(2) Management resolving conflict does more harm than good; such as any aggressive
managers may find it difficult or is not able to solve the conflict effectively.
(3) The best way to resolve conflict is to go slow; To resolve conflict completely
management should adopt and follow strategies calmly.
(4) Resolving Conflict Causes New Conflict; Sometimes employer actions during
resolving any conflict may cause more conflict among them.
(5) Management can best manage conflict in others by managing itself; Managing
conflict requires managers to manage it themselves.
The second topic discussed in this chapter includes some fundamental management actions in
resolving workplace conflict. Those actions are stated as following: -
 Minimizing the overall level of counterproductive conflict.
 Causing suppressed conflict to be surfaced.
 Ensuring effective resolution of counterproductive conflict.
 Learning from resolution process and applying that learning to further minimize
conflict.

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Management should follow these actions to actively manage conflict that improves employee
productivity and well-being. Moreover, along with these actions there are some ways suggested
to minimize counterproductive conflict. Some of those ways include: Surfacing suppressed
conflict, Providing Dispute resolution processes, Fostering Individual and Organizational
learning.
The concluding topic in the chapter includes: Conflict Management cycle. This cycle relates
the four actions that were stated in resolving the workplace conflict. So, this cycle suggests that
management should minimize potential or actual conflict cause conflict that nonetheless exists
to be surfaced, ensure that it is effectively resolved, and learn from the process to improve the
organization’s ability to further minimize the level and impact of conflict in the future. There
are also some ethics that should be followed by managers in conflict resolution. Management’s
responsibility to take the initiative in conflict resolution raises several important ethical
considerations. Management should always make decisions that are productive for
organization’s and employee’s well-being.

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Ch – 03:Maintaining a Trusting Environment
This chapter is considered as a second part of book and related to a topic mentioned in previous
chapter named as: Minimizing workplace counterproductive conflict. This chapter provides
guidelines with respect to conflict resolution to obtain a develop of trust between employees in
an organization.
In the first section of this chapter, it describes that what basically the word Trust means, what
is the importance of developing trust between employees and why it is essential for better
organizational environment. Basically, trust is based largely on perception, belief and feelings
which is depicted through parties’ behavior towards each other. When there is lack of trust
among parties, then the member of those parties (employees) and management show some
actions in response. Such as an employee may refuse to collaborate with management or other
employees. On, the other hand there can be some actions shown by management as well e.g.
setting extensive policies and rules. These behaviors by employees and management can lead
to a situation of counterproductive conflict in an organization. Moreover, it shows a cycle of
trust that helps to explain how the spiral of trust and distrust works and how management can
build a trusting environment through its behavior and actions. It is composed of feedback loops
reflecting reciprocal flows of influence that are both cause and effect including employee
reciprocity and management reciprocity.
The next topic discussed in the chapter includes that how management can build
trustworthiness among employees of an organization. So, Management should apply and
follow these actions to gain or develop trust: -
 Basing its action on core values: This means for trust to exist more over time,
management must be guided by some core values that provides enduring guidelines
for the behavior of all people in an organization. When there is a need to resolve
immediate conflict of employees, it bring pressure to compromise on organizational
values.
 Being truthful in a way that communicates a common way of reality: This means
that Truth should always be adopted by management whatever the situation either there
is a need to convey any information or news. With respect to this, management should

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not withhold any information, should not predict the future aspects, and should
communicate consistently.
 Using its power and resources fairly among employees: There should be a fair use
of power by managers on employees of organization to build trustworthiness. There
are total three types of powers that affect the employment relationship. These include:
Coercive power: Try to force employees to do what management wants, Utility Power:
Buys what one wants and collaborative power: All parties to accomplish common
objectives. Employees have relatively little coercive and utility power in the
workplace’ however they do have significant collaborative power.
 Maintaining effective dispute resolution processes in the organization: There
should be adaptation of a formal process to put in a place to resolve different workplace
conflict situations and helps to build trust. These dispute resolution processes should
ensure two main things: Employees can effectively and safely challenge conflict; it
should contribute to personal growth.
The last topic discussed in this chapter includes that how trustworthiness can be built in
employees and what should be the role of management in it. In order to develop trust in
employees, they must act with honesty, integrity, fundamental fairness and must fulfil his job
responsibilities. Without these, there can be a chance of workplace conflict.
So, Management can help cause employees to be more trustworthy by following actions: -
 Changing its own behavior.
 Improving its Management processes.
 Establishing clear Standards.
 Offering training and help.

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Ch – 04:Avoiding Policy Driven Conflict
This chapter is continuation to the second part i.e. minimizing the conflict. This chapter mainly
discusses the methods and techniques for avoiding workplace conflict that mainly arises based
on policy making of organizations. It also presents an idea to manage the policies that helps to
accomplish organizational goals with a minimum of resulting conflict.
At the Introduction part of chapter, it focuses on explaining policy making of organization and
tells that what type of policies are often made to improve their efficiency. These policies cover
a wide range of issues that affect employee-management relationship. Effective policy making
act as a backbone for organization’s functioning and it also provides necessary and positive
guides for management and employee action. However, inspite of its positive aspects, Policies
intended to ensure workplace effectiveness, justice, fairness, and peace often instead causes
significant counterproductive conflict that can affect organizational productivity. But it
suggests that instead of encountering or preventing conflict, the policies should be restructured
to avoid such workplace conflict.
The next topic of chapter discusses some perspectives related to policy-based conflict. It
includes the Types of policies and causes of policy conflict. Policies fall generally into three
broad categories based on their purpose.
 Allocation policies: These guide the distribution of scarce resources and rewards and
advise employees what they can except from the organization.
 Behavior Policies: They establish the organization’s expectations and standards of
personal conduct and typically outline the results of failing to comply with standards.
 Mixed Policies: These policies intend to indirectly induce desired behavior through the
allocation of resources.
The different policies have unintended consequences that can create workplace conflict which
detracts employees and reduces organizational effectiveness. The conflict resulting from
policies can be direct (between employee and organization) and can be secondary (conflict
among employees). The policy issues that causes conflict include loss of control, Unreasonable
requirements, Cliff Standards, Punitive provisions, Unhealthy competition, Poor
communication and inflexible or discriminatory application.

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The concluding topic of this chapter discusses how to reduce policy-based conflict in an
organization. It states that management cannot prevent all policy-based conflict. It can however
perform several things to reduce the amount of workplace conflict. These include the following
actions: -
 Do not implement unneeded policies.
 Derive policies from core values.
 Consider the systems implications of policy.
 Involve employees in policy implementation process.
 Communicate policies effectively.
 Provide Fair Administration.
 Build dispute resolution processes into policies.
 Update policies to keep up with the changing times.

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Ch – 05:Managing Change Effectively
This chapter is related to managing the change process in an organization to minimize
workplace conflict. It focuses on how changes occur in organizational environment, why
employees resist change and how this resistance become cause of that conflict. This chapter
addresses management-initiated change as it has a major effect on employees, and it is the
change that most often causes conflict.
The chapter starts with understanding of managing organizational change through the help of
“Change Theory”. This theory is reflected in the concept that change happens when people in
various roles engage in a process that converts the status to something different. In other words,
it can be moving from status quo (roles), through a transition (process) to another status quo
(i.e. the change). Most of the conflict occurs at the process stage which frequently is filled with
uncertainty, instability and stress which results in a resistance to change.
The next section of chapter discusses the resistance to change process; why it occurs, what are
the types and what are the main reasons and causes behind it. Resistance in a workplace can be
passive and as well as active. The passive resistance is not expressed in the form of actions
over the dispute that results in reduced productivity, Low morale and foot dragging etc.
Whereas the active resistance is expressed in the form of: File grievance, File lawsuit and
strikes etc. To best deal with the resistance, the management should best bet for dealing with
the resistance and must understand its causes. So, the primary reasons that employee resist
management-initiated change are as follows: -
 Substantive Disagreement: Occurs when employees believe that their work life is
negatively affected by change e.g. concern about wages, hours and working conditions.
 Misunderstanding the facts: Arises when employee have incorrect perceptions about
whether a change is good or bad for them.
 Different perspectives: It occurs due to seeing the management’s changes through the
lens of their own needs and interests.
 Inertia: Values, beliefs, biases, and other deep-rooted influences create the culture that
causes us to value the status quo.
 Loss of control: Arises when management sponsored change represents a loss of
control which remind that someone else govern their lives.

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These causes of resistance are an extension of the causes of conflict that have their biases in
the same fundamental human issues and play out as a complex combination of concerns
working together.
The last topic of this chapter is about how to minimize the resistance causing workplace
conflict. It states that all resistances to change cannot and should not be avoided. Sometimes,
that resistance can be positive for organization that increases their employee’s performance and
gives them exposure to new opportunities. However, management should minimize (rather than
try to overcome) resistance through following actions: -
 Do not surprise employees on workplace changes.
 Give employees a voice in terms of involving them in policy and decision making.
 Communicate changes effectively that is easily understandable for them.
 Ensure effective supervisor-subordinate relationship.
 Provide an outlet for the conflict that does develop.
 Deal effectively with conflict that is surfaced.
Management can address resistance to change process by planning how it goes forward and
avoid as many causes of resistance by applying the above actions. Hence, it will minimize the
likelihood and intensity of consequent conflict.

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Ch – 06: Hiring and Maintaining the right Workforce
This chapter discusses the minimizing of workplace conflict with respect to hiring and
maintenance of the right workforce in an organization. The main purpose of this chapter is to
address the regarding issues by suggesting some important principles that serve as a guide to
minimize the organizational conflict being caused in hiring of workforce.
In the introduction of this chapter, it explains that what kind of employees are needed for
organizational effectiveness and what results then appear due to this. When the appropriate
complement exists, employees are right for the organization, the organization is right for them
and hence conflict is minimized. Some of the employees are wrong for the organization when
they are unable or unwilling to perform as expected despite management’s best efforts to help
or provide them an incentive to do so. Such individuals should be minimized or changed by
the management because they cause conflict if hired for organization. But, on the other hand
sometimes a situation arises in which it is feasible to remove the conflict not the individual.
The next topic discussed in this chapter tells the employment processes that are effective to be
applied during hiring of the workforce. It states that management need to hire the right number
and right type of employees to get an employee complement that minimizes conflict. Along
with employment processes, there is stated employment strategy that accurately describes the
number and type of employees needed by the organization and it identifies tactics that enable
managers to find and attract individual employees. An effective employment strategy
establishes hiring criteria based on the work that needs to be done and what is going on in an
organization. This effective strategy must addresses following three considerations: -
1. Maintaining Staffing Flexibility: The staffing requires carefully managing both the
employee complement and the work to be done by the organization’s employees.
Staffing needs of most organization change continually such as first hiring of temporary
employees for work and then doing proper outsourcing.
2. Maintaining right number of Employees: To increase the efficiency of organization,
management should hire the right number of employees according to their needs. If
there is hiring of too many or too few employees, it results in stressed-out employees,
excessive over-time rates, high absenteeism, rapid turnover, quality breakdown and
other conflicts etc.

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3. Establishing the right Hiring Criteria: An effective hiring process starts with a
description to establish a hiring criteria that guide recruitment and employment
decisions, provide candidates a clear idea of what to expect and help establish pay
ranges for individuals who are hired. A right hiring criterion attracts well-rounded
candidates and hence it results in minimizing the workplace conflict.
After adopting or choosing of employment strategy, here comes the employment tactics that
is based upon finding, recruiting, and hiring individuals who meet the criteria. If the right
employment tactics are not followed, it results in hiring of wrong individuals that causes
conflict in future. To manage the workplace conflict, there are some guiding principles for a
hiring process that are as follows: -
 Consider the Whole Person: In hiring of individuals for organization, management
should observe or check the broad qualifications which means considering the whole
person. These include individual’s credentials (educational accomplishments), Skills
(Competencies for job) and Traits (Personal characteristics).
 Go Slow: This guideline to hiring states that management should go calm and slow in
employment process so that it can be succeeded in meeting the requirement and right
person for the job. In haste to fill job, management often accept individuals that do not
meet the hiring criteria and sometimes they can be overqualified.
 Inform Potential employees: A good employment process should facilitate a path in
which both parties are satisfied. Such as management should know best about the
potential candidate and in turn management should inform the employee as well mainly
about: Job Requirements, Pay and Benefits and Organizational culture.
 Follow the Law: The following of law during employment process results in a more
diverse workforce. This diversity also reduces counterproductive conflict. These laws
exclude discrimination based on gender, race, national origin, ethnicity, religion etc.
An effective employment process does not always prevent problems and sometimes employees
must be dismissed When this happens, management should avoid dismissals, make disciplined
balanced charged decisions, and handle dismissals to minimize conflict.

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Ch – 07:Fostering Appropriate Supervisor Behavior
This chapter revolves all around focusing on the personal behavior of individual supervisor. It
mainly discusses the supervisor role in an organization and how it can become the cause of
workplace conflict between employees and management or among employees. This chapter
provides a perspective on supervisors as a potential cause of conflict and discusses how they
can personally behave to minimize counterproductive conflict.
The chapter starts with discussing the role of supervisor in an organization. Supervisors are
those individuals that have more influence, power, and responsibility than any other member
of the organization. They are mainly responsible for administering the organization’s policies
and dealing directly with the subordinates. They operate in a chaotic organizational
environment in which their personal behavior affect employees. Supervisor’s personal
behavior can also cause workplace conflict. To minimize that conflict, they must pay attention
to their own personal style and appropriately represent the organization’s decisions, policies,
and processes.
The next topic of this chapter is Minimizing conflict through supervisor behavior. It includes
some guidelines that indicate how supervisors can reduce their respective behavior driven
conflict. These guidelines are stated as follows: -
 Foster a Mutual-gain climate: To minimize workplace conflict, supervisors should
promote an environment in broad organizational context determined by their certain
actions such as Attitudes, Temperament and providing a common enduring experience
for all employees. Supervisor must acknowledge and respect employee potential to
foster a mutual gain environment.
Some of the ways and actions through which supervisors can foster that mutual-gain
climate includes: Empathy by understanding their work and non-work environments,
Colleagueship that leads to supervisor and subordinate positive relationship and Safety
that enable the employees to feel themselves safe psychologically.
 Maintain a Collaborative Management Style: One of the main steps in reducing
supervisor behavior driven conflict is to ensure a management style with collaboration
form both sides. This is because collaboration is much more than a way of resolving
conflicts. It can be used to attain goals, solve problems, create new opportunities, and

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accomplish other things that best meet the needs of all concerned. When these needs
are met, the likelihood of conflict is diminished. If the collaboration that minimizes
counterproductive conflict is not natural for supervisors, then there is a need to adopt a
style that requires special perspectives and actions that are stated as: Seeing Complexity
by the supervisor in the environment in order to foster collaboration with and among
subordinates i.e. through working and melding different and innovative ideas, Seeing
Abundance mentality e.g. expanding the resources to maintain collaboration and reduce
conflict, A supervisor should be Realistic about Self, Articulate shared goals that
enables the supervisors and subordinates to share common goal to increase
collaboration and last supervisors must actively lead collaborative efforts.
 Handle Rewards Appropriately: An important guide to compensate supervisor’s
behavior driven conflict is handling of rewards to subordinates through fair means i.e.
on merit and good performance. If a supervisor inappropriately or unfairly handles
rewards to subordinates or himself, conflict is likely to result. However, individual
supervisors may have a limited role in distributing formal incentives, but they have a
broad opportunity to reward themselves i.e. called as informal rewards. More actions
of supervisor in fair rewarding include: Being Sincere and not discriminating among
subordinates.
 Communicate Effectively: The supervisor way or means of communicating to his/her
subordinates also become cause of creating and increasing counterproductive conflict.
These issues causing conflict include: Supervisor’s word and actions that reflect an
appropriate attitude and engagement of supervisor through proper balance between
listening and telling. Some behaviors and actions that can help the supervisor to
communicate effectively include: Supervisor’s Attitude and Supervisor’s effective
engagement with subordinates etc.
 Understand the effect of Reciprocity: The last method in reducing of supervisor’s
behavior driven conflict is to understand the effect of reciprocity. Systems thinking help
explain reciprocity and how supervisors can use it to minimize conflict. Negative
reciprocity can lead to a downward spiral in relationships between supervisor and
subordinate. While positive reciprocity can lead to improved relationships and
minimum conflict. Supervisors may find it necessary to take actions that lead to
disagreement, altercation, and possible conflict. They must establish expectations,

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provide appropriate policies and rules, and make the difficult decisions that from time
to time negatively affect the short-term interests of employees.
Ch – 08:Surfacing Conflict
This chapter represents the third part of book i.e. named as dealing with conflict. It shows the
basics that how management can handle the counterproductive conflict, when encountered in
an organization. The main aspect of this chapter being discussed is about Suppressed Conflict.
The main purpose of this chapter is to foster a better understanding of what suppressed conflict
is, why employees suppress it and what management can do to surface it.
In the first topic, there is explanation about what is Suppressed conflict and what is it is meaning
in context of organizational culture. It is basically a pattern of private conflict that can be costly
to any organization. Suppressed conflict exists when two or more parties, one of which may be
management, have a grievance between them but fail to express it or acknowledge the problem.
Suppressed conflict among the employees often filter below the surface and may result in the
form of bitching, failing to communicate, ignoring requests, veiled insults, unfriendly glances,
passive resistance, or any other form of negative behavior. The conflict raised due to
suppressed conflict enables the supervisors to develop their own methods of dealing with it
such as: Avoidance, Toleration, Self-help, Surveillance, Silent Bargaining, Passive Resistance
etc.
The next topic discusses the question that why employees suppress conflict It says that most of
the employees don’t enjoy suppressed conflict as it creates fear, anxiety and uncertainty hence
as a result it impairs both individual and organization’s performance. So, the actual reasons
that vary from case to case that why employees suppress conflict are stated as following: -
 Fear of appearing Ignorant or Incompetent.
 Fear of escalating the conflict.
 Belief that nothing will change.
 Desire to protect the other party.
 Resentment of Supervisor Conduct.

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 Fear of Punitive Management reaction.
 Ignorance.
 Fear of indicting the past.
The next sections discuss that how suppressed conflict can be surfaced to be resolved in an
effective way. Surfacing conflict means different things in different situations. When
management is not a party, and the disputants themselves are able and willing to resolve a
conflict, it is surfaced when they acknowledge that conflict to each other. On the other hand,
when management is not a party, and the disputants are unable and unwilling to resolve the
conflict without management intervention, it is surfaced when the appropriate supervisor or
another person is informed and acknowledged that the conflict exists. There is a limit to what
management can do to cause conflict to surface. It cannot force issues to surface unless it is a
party and knows about a problem with an employee. It is the responsibility of management to
create an environment that removes most of the reasons employee suppress conflict and
provides the safety and incentive that will encourage to surface their issues.
Some of the key actions that management should adopt to create that environment include the
following
 Hear What employees say: Such as it includes: An effective Listening, encouraging
one-on-one conversations, providing subordinates the safe opportunities to talk,
eliciting formal input, removing barriers to effective hearing, Reacting Appropriately
to subordinates’ actions and reactions.
 Empowering all employees: It includes: Following Organization’s Ideology (Values,
fundamental purpose, business strategy, goals etc.), Know-How about subordinates,
Giving them appropriate information, Giving Freedom (autonomy within boundaries)
and Motivating them.
 Avoid Punitive Discipline: In context to this, when there is a situation of confronting
conflict management should give coaching sessions, oral reminders, written reminders,
and positive contacts etc.
 Maintain an effective Dispute resolution system: Management should strive to
develop a dispute resolution system with such characteristics that, in which employees

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have level of confidence that causes them to surface conflict. It requires management
commitment, organizational resources, and active participation of empowered
personnel.
Ch – 09:Engaging Conflict
This chapter act as a guideline with respect to dealing with conflict and discusses different
scenarios in which individuals encounter workplace conflict. This chapter addresses issues by
discussing management’s role in two vastly different situations: (1) When the conflict exists
between two or more employees and (2) When a conflict occurs between employee and
management. The chapter also suggest basic management objectives for two phases of conflict
i.e. disagreements and disputes.
The first section of chapter discusses the scenario in which employee to employee workplace
conflict occurs. In this conflict, management is not a disputing party; the conflict arises between
employees of equal rank, employees of different rank with no supervisory relationship or
between a supervisor and subordinate as individual. This conflict can also be work-related.
As management is not a party in employee-to-employee conflict but it must intervene in such
conflict to resolve the dispute. When there is obligatory for management to get involved in
conflict, following are the situations when management should play its role: -
 When management has a legitimate interest in the substance of conflict.
 The conflict is creating negative effects on organization.
 The conflict presents a potential risk to the organization.
 When there is power disparity among the parties.
 Employees request management intervention.
However, there are some conditions when management fails to get involved where intervention
is desperately needed, and hence it results in facing of certain costs and risks.
The next question regarding management of employee-to-employee conflict is that how
management should intervene in such conflict. This objective requires managers to treat
disputing employees as competent, empowered members of the organization, and to allow them
to learn and grow because of conflict and its resolution. Following are some ways that state

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with what goals management should intervene in the conflict: Protect Organizational Interest,
Address management’s contribution to the conflict, Foster improvements in the disputants,
Provide coaching and help and providing last-resort alternatives.
The next section of chapter discusses the second scenario of engaging conflict i.e. Employee-
Management conflict. This conflict is not personal (among employees); it is between an
employee or employees and management as an institution. This conflict is substantive in nature.
Its basis is in actions and positions taken by management against employees or by employees
against management and management is a disputant.
The next topic represents that what is the role of management as a party in this conflict. The
management’s role as a party in conflict is to represent the best interests of the organization
and all its employees, regardless of whether its actions tend to minimize, perpetuate, or escalate
conflict in the short term. It must consider the costs, risks and other negatives associated with
not resolving. Management’s role on which the employees are generally bound to comply may
include: Investigator, Decision-Maker, Implementor and Advocate etc.
Each role of management in conflict requires different approaches in different situations, and
which approach is appropriate will depend on who the conflict is between. It also looks that
whether the conflict is a relatively minor disagreement or a more significant dispute. These
scenarios define a range of characteristics, which suggests that the level of severity of conflict
is a key determinant of management’s role in its resolution. These various roles can be
described as follows: -
 Coaching: The coach works with employees involved in conflict by suggesting
processes and information to help them resolve their conflict.
 Counsellor: resolves conflict by suggesting solution or processes, insisting that
conflictive behavior must be changed and helping employees to develop a solution.
 Administrator: Handles employee-management issues through communication,
discussion, and other problem-solving techniques.
 Advocate: Continues to address both employee and organization interests when
feasible but emphasizes and takes actions to protect organization’s interests.

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Ch – 10:Resolving Disagreements
As discussed in previous chapter that the workplace conflict can be on the form of
disagreements or disputes. So, this chapter discusses principles for resolving early stage
disagreements and addresses some unique problems associated with resolving those between
employees and management. In the introduction, it states that at the disagreement stage, issues
typically are not polarized, personal antagonisms are not likely to be a major problem, and the
door is open to informal collaborative processes that can resolve conflict in ways that are
agreeable to all parties and that minimize the likelihood of conflict in future.
The first topic of this chapter discusses the principles for resolving disagreements. It states that
to enhance the likelihood of resolving disagreements in ways that minimize future conflict,
organizations must use a collaborative, holistic process that not only resolve the problems but
also looks beyond the considerations in future. Following points are those principles that
management must use to accomplish their objectives: -
 Describe the conflict properly: To resolve the disagreements, the type or nature of
conflict should be properly defined to individuals. Different actions are required to
resolve different conflicts. Therefore, how a disagreement is defined largely determines
how it will be resolved. Properly defining a conflict requires management to consider
several issues such as: Focusing on the cause or causes, Treating each conflict as
unique, and Looking at the future aspects etc.
 Integrate the right people: Management often tries to minimize the effects of
disagreements by limiting the number of people who are aware of them or who are
involved in their resolution. Organization should maintain their right people at right
place. Involving more people brings more knowledge, opinions, and information and
thus it leads to better solutions for the conflict. Integration of all relevant people in the
process increases the likelihood that the solution will be accepted. First, it adds
important information that reduces the area of disagreement Second, involvement leads
to the understanding and empathy that foster acceptance.

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 Take a Systems View: Resolving of disagreements require a system view that
recognizes that apparent causes of conflict are often like the tip of an iceberg, with the
most significant issues submerged. Systems have multiple levels; the lower ones can
have a major effect on above level. In business organization, these levels are four that
are stated as (1) Events: actions that are the obvious manifestation of conflict. (2)
Patterns of behavior: key variables people act over time and are seen in the habits of
individuals and organization that can cause disagreements. (3) Systematic structure:
pattern of interrelationships among key parts of the system such as hierarchy, process
flows, decision making etc. (4) Mental Models: Internal images of how the world works
that provide us with ways of thinking and acting such as assumptions, stories etc.
 Disaggregate the conflict: To resolve the conflict effectively, the conflict must be
broken into manageable components, and each component must be addressed
individually. This is because, conflict is often the result of several contributing causes
and addressing only one of them will not resolve that conflict. Therefore,
disaggregating the whole conflict to isolate the various causes is particularly important
in conflict resolution. It provides a developing range of options and finding the easiest
and most feasible resolution. The method for conflict disaggregation depends on the
case and type of conflict. The two opportunities appropriate in most workplace conflicts
are stated as (1): separating the facts from the underlying systematic causes and (2):
Separating the personal concerns from business from business or organizational issues.
The last topic talks about special issues in employee-management disagreements. The
management in disagreements has multiple roles and stakeholders that often give rise to special
issues where disagreements between management and employees are concerned. These
potentially conflicting roles causes certain pitfalls and dilemmas for managers dealing with
disagreements between employee and management
Some of the examples of certain pitfalls are: Managers assume that employees see the world
as they do, Managers assume their authority will prevail, Managers are unwilling to say NO to
employees etc.

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Ch – 11:Resolving Disputes
Just as the previous chapter, it focuses on resolving of disputes among individuals or between
employee and management. This chapter outlines the potential benefits of formal dispute
resolution system and presents an approach for management to use in deciding what practices
it needs in its organization. Moreover, it also reviews various process option for resolving of
disputes.
One aspect of management’s divided conflict management role is to develop and implement a
strategy for resolving disputes that provides an alternative to having employees control the
process. It requires management’s concern about counterproductive conflict to consider its
circumstances and develop a strategy that uses one or more practices from a wide range of
alternative dispute resolution (ADR) options. These options in ADR that can be the part of
dispute resolution strategy includes: Open door policy, ADR policy, Facilitation,
Ombudsperson (neutral members of organization from outside the normal chain of command),
Mediation, Arbitration, Med/Abr. (integration of mediation and arbitration that takes various
forms), Peer review, Fact finding, Cost sharing, Education, Point person and Feedback.
All ADR options are not likely to be appropriate in any single case; rather management in
collaboration with employees must decide on an ADR strategy and select those practices that
support it. Processes appropriate for most organizations are likely to fall within this range. The
three ADR strategies that cover a range of needs are stated as follows: -
 Ad Hoc Alternative Dispute Resolution: In this ADR approach, management
encourage employees to surface conflict through an “ Open door policy “ or
management by walking around and may provide training in open communication,
active listening, or other such conflict-avoidance practices.
 Dispute Resolution Policies: These policies are implemented before the fact and give
management significant control over how disputes are resolved by spelling out
procedures for surfacing and dealing with conflict. They must be fully communicated
to all employees so that rules and expectations are clear.
 Conflict Resolution Systems: These systems provide a clearly articulated policy with
due process for all employees and a full understanding of appropriate ADR procedures.
They include several additional components that provide a systematic process for

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minimizing conflict, surfacing, and addressing that which occurs, and learning from the
process to further minimize future conflict.
The next topic discusses how to select the ADR strategies in different situation. It says that
each situation must be evaluated on its own merits, considering all the potential benefits of
ADR and the capacity and need of organization. Some of the important benefits of ADR
include: (1) Reduces Litigation costs, (2) Minimizes wasted time and effort (3) Builds trust in
management (4) Enhances Bottom-Up communication (5) Supports diversity (6) Fosters
cultural change and (7) Fosters confidentiality.
Along with these benefits, there are few downsides to a well-conceived and designed
workplace ADR system that fits the organization’s needs and is administered appropriately.
Such systems are quite flexible and enable the organizations to use the dispute resolution
method that is right and helpful for them. However, they can give rise to some concerns in
certain circumstances. These concerns are: (1) Failure to Provide External Precedent (2)
Inappropriate issues and (3) Management Abuse.
The potential benefits and concerns of ADR provide the context against which management
must consider its needs and the type of conflict resolution processes that are likely to add value.
When balancing the benefits and costs in deciding what approach to take, management should
consider: (1) Size of the organization (2) The organization’s culture and (3) The level of
workplace conflict in an organization.

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Ch – 12:Learning from Conflict
The last chapter of book is basically an overall conclusion of the book. It shows that by applying
all those concepts, principals, strategies, and theories, how organizations have learned things
and implemented in their environment. This chapter briefly reviews some important concepts
of organizational learning and discusses how managers can use conflict resolution to attain it
in certain ways.
At first, it discusses how learning occurs inside the organization from conflict; employees and
organizations must learn from everything that happens from their success, failures, and
workplace conflicts. Organizations are basically holistic entities that have many characteristics
of their members, including the ability to learn. There are three such areas that are critical for
organizational learning. They are described as follows: -
 Making Decisions: For a group of individuals to become an organization, they must
develop agreeable processes for making decisions that are attributable to the group as a
whole and delegate to individuals the authority to make those decisions. Individuals
with power, financial or otherwise, make the decisions in organization.
 Taking Actions: The organization’s individual agents take the actions, they are
attributed to organization, where they become part of a pattern of activity seen, in the
aggregate, as belonging to the organization.
 Holding Knowledge: Individuals and organizations both holds knowledge, the most
important way is in the minds of individuals employees through knowledge they bring
to their jobs and which they learn throughout their work life. Such as, organizations
hold their knowledge by maintaining files that record policies, regulations and decisions
providing the information and knowledge to employees.
In the next section, this chapter show various types of learning and how it occurs. According
to definition, learning is the process of acquiring knowledge or skill acquired by that process.
The learning can be the result of such activities; the new understandings, the accumulation of
information, or the additional skills attained through learning process. Following are various
types of learning: -
1. Individual and Organizational learning: The organization itself does not perform
acts from which it learns. Organizational learning occurs when the learning from those

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individuals’ acts is rooted in the minds of a critical mass of employees, in the
organizational policies, procedures, or practices, or in its physical objects. The learning
is productive when it leads to improvements in performance.
2. Single-Loop and Double-Loop learning: The single-loop learning deals primarily
with making the current organization more effective. It does not address its underlying
principles or values but instead addresses the strategies and actions that are derived
from those principals or values. Whereas, Double-loop learning addresses the
underlying beliefs, principles, and values of the learning parties, not necessarily those
that are adopted, but those that are held and may be inferred.
3. Synergistic Learning: This learning happens through a spiral of knowledge based on
the dynamic interaction of tacit and explicit knowledge. Tacit knowledge consists of
skills that guide employees in their day-to-day work but also may include the
perspectives, beliefs, and mental models that we all hold in our mind. On the other
hand, explicit knowledge is easily communicated such as that held in corporate policies,
production specifications or safety procedures
The next topic discusses that how individuals and organizations can learn from conflict.
Addressing conflict can provide new knowledge to them. Management must ensure that what
is learned from conflict does not cause the organization to close in, but instead causes it to
grow, improve and become more energetic. It must handle learning as a cycle within itself that
comprises of following four phases: -
 Event: A conflict event is a disagreement or dispute that negatively affects the parties
or their organization. It generates a level of dissatisfaction sufficient to cause one or
both parties to surface it and try to get it resolved.
 Analysis: In this phase, people investigate the circumstances that may have caused the
event. They discuss what happened, or is happening, interview witness, or other third
parties, and examine evidence.
 Decision: After the analysis, the parties decide what to do about a conflict. They use
the information from it to collaboratively develop a situation that meets all their needs.
With this information, management makes its own decisions and then enforces it.
 Implementation: After decisions are made, they are implemented in organization.