Business Communication II

Group assignment on:

Conflict resolution and communication

Submitted on:
22nd Oct 2010

By students of:

PGDM B

109 – Rohan Desai

111 – Abhishek Dwivedi
131 – Sonali Pimple
143 – Shivi Shrivastava
150 – Sreejith S.
155 – Joy Deep Tiwary
Executive summary

This report looks into various aspects of conflicts and how to resolve conflicts. There is no guide
book to conflict resolution so our group has tried to present our own views through case study and
live examples on how the conflicts should be resolved in the real world. Communication plays a big
role in conflict resolution so we have also looked into how conflict resolution and communication go
hand in hand. We have also tried to explore the various aspects on how we can communicate better
and avoid or reduce conflicts.
Index

Causes of conflict in an organization……………………………………………………………………………………………….4

Forms of Conflict…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….7

Globalization and conflict……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….10

Conflict Management……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..11

Conflict Resolution………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….13

Effective mechanisms to resolve conflict…………………………………………………………………………………………14

Case Study……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...15

Live Example - Naxalism………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….18

References……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..19
When jobs are highly specialized, employees become experts at certain tasks. For example , one
software company has one specialist for databases , one for statistical packages and another for
expert systems. Highly specialized jobs can lead to conflict, because people often have little
awareness of the tasks other people perform.

CAUSES OF CONFLICT IN ORGANIZATION

Conflict is pervasive in organization. To manage it effectively; one should understand that what the
reasons of conflicts are.

They can be broadly classified into two categories:

 Structural Factors
 Personal Factors

STRUCTURAL FACTORS
The causes of conflict related to the organizations structure include specializations,
interdependence, common resources, goal differences, authority relationships, status
inconsistencies and jurisdictional ambiguities.

SPECIALIZATION

When we compare sales representatives and engineers. Engineers are technical specialists
responsible for product design and quality. Salespeople are marketing experts and liaisons with
customers. Salespeople are often accused of making delivery promises to customers that engineers
cannot keep because the sales force lacks the technical knowledge necessary to develop realistic
delivery deadlines.

INTERDEPENDENCE

Work that is interdependent requires groups or individuals to depend on one another to accomplish
goals. Depending on other people to get work done is fine when the process works smoothly. When
there is a problem, however it becomes very easy to blame the other party , and conflict escalates.
In a garment manufacturing plant, for example when the fabric cutters get behind in their work, the
workers who sew the garments are delayed as well. This results in a conflict between the workers
which hinders the work in progress.

COMMON RESOURCES

Any time multiple parties must share resource, there is a chance for conflict. This potential is
enhanced when the shared resources become scarce. For example managers often share secretarial
support. Not uncommonly, one secretary supports ten or more managers each of who believes that
his/her work is most important. This puts pressure on the secretary and leads to potential conflicts
in scheduling work.
GOAL DIFFRENCES

When work groups have different goals, these goals may be incompatible. For example, in one cable
television company, the salesperson’s goal was to sell as many new installations as possible. This
created problem for the service department, because the goal was timely installed. With increasing
sales, the service department’s workload backed up , and orders delayed. Often these types of
conflicts occur because individuals do not have knowledge of another department’s objectives.

AUTHORITY RELATIONSHIPS

A traditional boss employee relationship is hierarchical in nature with a boss who is superior to the
employee. For many employees, such a relationship is not a comfortable one, because another
individual has the right to tell them what to do. Some people resent authority more than others, and
obviously this creates conflicts. In addition, some bosses are more autocratic than others; this
compounds the potential for conflict in the relationship. As organizations move towards the team
approach and empowerment, there should be less potential for conflict from authority relationships.

STATUS INCONSISTENCIES

Some organizations have a strong status difference between management and non management
workers. Managers may enjoy privileges such as flexible schedules, reserved parking spaces and
longer lunch hours that are not available to non management employees. This may result in
resentment and conflict.

JURISDICTIONAL AMBIGUITIES

This stand for the role ambiguity that is unclear lines of responsibility within an organization. For
example when you call a customer care service with a problem they transfer your calls to different
personnel this is because of the job ambiguity also known as jurisdictional ambiguity. This type of
situation gives rise to conflict in an organization. Another common example of this is the ambiguity
between the software and hardware dilemma. You call the company that made your computer and
they inform you that the problem is caused because of the software. If you call the software division
they say that the problem is because of the hardware. Such type of situations gives rise to conflicts .

PERSONAL FACTORS

The causes of conflict that arise from individual differences include skills and abilities, personalities,
perceptions, values & ethics, emotions, communication barriers, and cultural differences.

Skills and Abilities

The workforce is composed of individuals with varying levels of skills and ability. Diversity is skills and
abilities may be positive for the organization, but it also holds potential for conflict, especially when
jobs are interdependent. Experienced, competent workers may find it difficult to work alongside
new and inexperienced recruits. Workers can become resentful when their new boss, fresh from
college, knows a lot about managing people, but is unfamiliar with the technology with which they
are working.
Personalities
Individuals do not leave their personalities at the doorstep when they enter the workforce.
Personality conflicts are realities in organization. To expect that you will like all of your coworkers, or
vice versa, may be naïve.
One personality trait that many people find difficult to deal with is abrasiveness. An abrasive person
ignores the interpersonal aspects of work and the feelings of colleagues. Abrasive individuals are
often achievement oriented and hardworking, but their perfectionist, critical style often leaves
others felling unimportant. This style creates stress and strain for those around the abrasive person.

Perceptions
Differences in perception can also lead to conflict. For example, managers and workers may not have
a shared perception of what motivates people. In this case, the reward system can create conflicts if
managers provide what they think employees want rather than what employees really want.

Values and Ethics

Differences in values and ethics can be sources of disagreement. Older workers, for example value
company loyalty and probable would not take a risk when they are not really ill. Younger workers,
valuing mobility, like the concept of “mental health days,” or calling in sick to get away from work.
This may not be true for all workers, it illustrates the differences in values can lead to conflict.
Most people have their own set of values and ethics. They extent to which they apply these ethics in
the workplace varies. Some people have a strong desire for approval from others and will work to
meet others’ ethical standards. Some people are relatively unconcerned about approval from others
and strongly apply their own ethical standards. Some others operate seemingly without regard to
ethics or values. When conflicts about ethics or values do arise, heated argument is common
because of the personal nature of the differences.

Emotions
The emotions of others can be a source of conflict in the workplace. Problems at home often spill
over into the work arena, and the related moods can be hard for others to deal with.
Conflicts by its nature is an emotional interaction, and the emotions of the parties involved in the
conflict play a pivotal role in how they perceive the negotiation and respond to one another. In fact,
emotions are now considered critical elements of any negotiation that must be included in any
examination of the process and how it unfolds.
One important research finding has been that emotions can play a problematic role in the
negotiations. In particular, when negotiations begin to act based on emotions rather than on
cognitions, they are much more likely to reach an impasse.

Communication Barriers
Communication barriers such as physical separation and language can create distortions in messages
and these can lead to conflicts. Another communication barrier is value judgment, in which a listener
assigns a worth to a message before it is received. For example, suppose a team member is a chronic
complainer. When this individual enters the manager’s office, the managers is likely to devalue the
message before even it is delivered. Conflict can then emerge.

Cultural differences
Although cultural differences are assets in organizations, sometimes they can be seen as sources of
conflict. Often, these conflicts stem from a lack of understanding of another culture. In one MBA
class, for example, Indian students were horrified when American students challenged the professor.
Meanwhile, the American students thought the Indian students were too passive. Subsequent
discussion revealed that professors in India expected to be treated differentially and with great
respect. While students might challenge an idea vigorously, they would rarely challenge the
professor. Diversity training that emphasizes education on cultural differences can make great
strides in preventing misunderstanding.

Forms of Conflict

A conceptual conflict can escalate into a verbal exchange and/or result in fighting. Conflict can exist
at a variety of levels of analysis. It can be broadly divided into following hierarchical structure.

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These broad categories will be discussed in detailed in corresponding section below.

Organizational conflict 

Organizational conflict is a state of dissonance caused by the actual or perceived opposition

of needs, values and interests between people working together.

 There is the inevitable clash between formal authority and power and those individuals and
groups affected.
 There are disputes over how revenues should be divided, how the work should be done and
how long and hard people should work.
 There are jurisdictional disagreements among individuals, departments, and
between unions and management.
 There are other forms of conflict involving rivalries, jealousies, personality clashes, role
definitions, and struggles for power and favour.
 There is also conflict within individuals — between competing needs and demands — to
which individuals respond in different ways.

Very evident example of organisational conflict which surfaced in recent times was a power
tussle between Ambani brothers after the sad demise of his father late Dhirubhai Ambani.
Both wanted to take the control of the Reliance group and keep the most profitable
 portfolios with them. This conflict resulted in splitting the Reliance group in to two. This also
resulted in bad publicity. It communicated all the wrong things. Finally both of them were
brought to the negotiation table and only by communicating among each other this issue
was resolved.

Personal conflict

Conflict between people can arise from many individual differences, including personalities,
attitudes, values, perception. We can classify the personal conflict on the various situations like
during ethical dilemmas, in time of responsibility, while making decisions or a group activity.

Ethical Dilemmas
A personal conflict is an ethical decision that one has to make. For instance, Will you ask for a
printed bill from the shop, where you know that if you don’t ask for it you will get discount for the
service tax. Where you also know it’s wrong to avoid tax like that.

Responsibility
Taking responsibility for mistakes is a source of personal conflict. A person has to decide whether or
not the consequences of accepting the blame are worth it. Suppose you missed out on putting some
important things in the email, notifying about the downtime of the server on weekends, which
resulted into the company service going down during weekend which resulted in the financial losses
as well as company image getting damaged, now once all this is done will be willing to come ahead
and take the blame on you. Or will there be a conflict in you as to whether I should go or not go?
This will affect my image. Will this result into me leaving the job?

Big Decisions
Making big decisions that will alter a person's life creates personal conflict. A lot many factors are
affected due to our decisions, you choosing for night shift in office or workplace not only alters your
lifestyle but of the people leaving with you. These and other decisions act as a source for the
conflict.

Group Activity
Choosing not to participate in a group activity perceived as immoral causes personal conflict. If your
group is doing something which you don’t like saying going out in the night for road race on a
relatively empty road, and driving fast breaking all the rules, having competition and putting money
in terms of bets on it. Now this won’t fit your moral sense but you also have to be in your group else
you will be outcaste. Now you find yourself in conflict.

Taking Revenge
Personal conflict rises from not choosing revenge. A slighted person may struggle to decide whether
or not to get back at the person who wronged her.

Personal conflict can be subdivided into interpersonal conflict and intrapersonal conflicts.
Interpersonal Conflict
Conflict between two or more people is interpersonal conflict. Conflict between people can arise
from any individual differences, including personalities, attitudes, values, perception.
Day in day out we interact with people, for work or for any other work. People are integral part of
any business now days. We need to be aware of the fact that we need to treat everyone with
respect and we should be willing to listen to his/hers ideas. There are easy and simple ways of
avoiding the interpersonal conflicts but still they are the one in large numbers.
Intrapersonal Conflict
When conflict occurs within an individual, it is called intrapersonal conflict. There are several types
of intrapersonal conflict, including inter-role, intra-role, and person-role conflicts. A role is a set of
expectations placed on an individual by others. The person occupying the focal role is the role
incumbent and the individuals who place expectations on the person are role senders.
Inter-role conflict occurs when a person experiences conflicts among the multiple roles in his or her
life. One inter-role conflict that many employees experience is work/home conflict, in which their
role as worker clashes with their role as spouse or parent.
Intra-role Conflict is conflict within a single role. It often arises when a person receives conflicting
messages from role senders about how to perform a certain role. Suppose a manager receives
counsel from her department head that she need to socialize less with the non management
employees. She also is told by her project manager that she needs to be better team members. This
situation is one of intra-role conflict.
Group conflicts

Social behaviour causes groups of individuals to conflict with each other. It can also refer to a conflict
within these groups. This conflict is often caused by differences in social norms, values, and religion.
Both constructive and destructive conflict occurs in most small groups. It is very important to
emphasize the constructive conflict and minimize the destructive conflict. Conflict is bound to
happen, but if we use it constructively then it need not be a bad thing.
When destructive conflict is used in small groups, it is counterproductive to the long term goal. In
the case of small group communication, destructive conflict creates hostility between the members.
This poisons group synergy and the results, the golden eggs if you will, either cease being produced
or are at least inferior in quality.
Using constructive conflict within small groups has the opposite effect. It is much like nourishing the
goose so that it continues to produce the golden eggs, golden eggs which may be even better than
what the unnourished goose could have produced. In this sense, bringing up problems and
alternative solutions while still valuing others in small groups allows the group to work forward.
We can categorize group conflicts in two main segments as in Intra-group conflict and intergroup
conflict.
Intra-group Conflict
Conflict that occurs within group or team is called intra-group conflict. Some conflicts within a group
are functional. It can help the group avoid groupthink. Even the newest teams, virtual teams are not
immune to conflict. The nuances and subtleties of face-to-face communication are often lacking in
these team and misunderstandings can result.
To avoid dysfunctional conflicts, virtual team should make sure that their task fit their methods of
interacting. Complex strategic decision may require face-to-face meeting rather than e-mail or
threaded discussions. Face-to-face and telephonic interactions early on can eliminate later conflicts
and allow virtual teams to move on to use electronic communications because trust has been
developed.
Intergroup Conflict
When conflict occurs between groups or teams, it is known as intergroup conflict. Conflict between
groups can have positive effects within each group, such as increased group cohesiveness, increased
focus on tasks and increased loyalty to the group. There are however negative consequences as well.
Groups in conflict tend to develop an “un against them “ mentality whereby each sees the other
team as the enemy , becomes more hostile and decreases its communication with the other group.
Groups are even more competitive and less competitive than individuals. The inevitable outcome is
that one group gains and the other group looses.

Globalization and Conflict

Globalization has impacted both organizations and individuals. Both are going to new places,
meeting new people and getting to know new cultures. A large chunk of these global companies do
belong to USA. So let’s take the example of American companies and people and try to understand
conflicts due to globalization. Whenever they do trade with any other country there is bound be
conflicts at some level due to various differences. Americans are individualistic in nature which is not
the case in lot of other countries that USA has trade relations with. Also a large number of American
companies do tend to have a diverse workforce. Beside Americans are hired all over the world to
work for various local firms. So conflicts would arise if an American has a boss who believes in
collectivism like Japanese. Similarly there is a concept called power distance. Low power distance
mean that an individual would not automatically respect those in position of authority. For this
situation a conflict would arise if an American is having a Brazilian boss. Brazilians have high power
distance and would expect automatic respect due to his higher position but as his subordinate an
American would be reluctant to give. Uncertainty is another factor that can lead to conflicts.
Americans can manage change and uncertainty. Whereas the people of Israel would very
uncomfortable when it comes to change and managing change. Americans and Russians think short
term whereas Chinese and Japanese have a long term vision. Indians do believe in saving for the
future but Americans live to today and their lives usually run on credit card. An American society is
generally considered to be a masculine society where as Swedish society is a feminine. Any of the
above factors can lead to conflicts between individuals within a company or between companies to.
A lot of companies prefer merger and acquisition of other companies to expand their operations and
reach a bigger market. This might mean respecting and following the local customs. When a big
Indian firm requests an American firm to sign a contract at a particular hour during the day as it is
auspicious this is usually accepted. These are some of the ways to avoid conflict. Whenever we
interact with different people around the world we need to open to their cultures and believes. Even
within India there are various cultures and believes. Whenever an acquisition happen the acquiring
company always send its own manager within the acquired company so that they are aware of each
other cultures and avoid conflicts. While looking for a prospective buy companies always look for
other companies which have a similar work culture and would be easy to absorb. IT companies like
TCS which have braches all over the country even have different leave patterns within our own
country. Like in south there is holiday for Pongal which might not be there in north. If just to avoid
conflict companies go a long way in changing leave policies within our country then how much effort
would they be putting to come at par with the culture prevalent in that country. An organization
whose work force consists of multiple ethnicity and cultures holds potential for many type of
conflicts because of the sheer volume of the individual differences among workers. The key to
managing conflict in a multicultural workforce is - understanding cultural differences and
appreciating their values.

Companies have been targeted around the globe as they belong to a certain country. Especially
American companies have been targeted in Latin America and Gulf countries due to various reasons
ranging from being too capitalistic and greedy to military invasions.

More and more companies encourage diversity in their employees. During the application process
they require ethnic background of the candidate so that they can choose more wisely on how to
increase the diversity in their group. Even Indian companies working in the IT sector are going
abroad and setting up shop all over the world. They are competing against each other not only in
India but also in a lot of other countries. Their conflict is a continuous one and with the increase in
globalization this conflict is bound to grow. TCS and Infosys have been at it for so long and there
seems to be no sign of any party letting their guard down.

Conflict Management
As a manager it is important to know about the conflict resolving techniques to let the work go on at
the steady pace. Conflict brings turbulence within the organization and disturbs the cognitive climate
established within the organization. Hence a good manager always tries to avert conflicts. Conflicts
are sometimes required when it helps to raise and address problems like energizing work to be on
the most appropriate issues, motivating them to participate or help people to learn about how to
recognize and benefit from their differences. Conflict is a problem in the case when it hampers
productivity, lowers morale, causes more and continued conflicts or causes inappropriate
behaviours

There are different ways in order to prevent conflict. One way is to deliberately decide not to take
any action on a conflict or to stay out of a conflict situation. This may be termed as Avoidance.
Airbus faced massive intra-organizational conflict streaming from major expansions in French,
German & British subsidiaries with the parent company. Airbus adopted the avoidance strategy in
effort to let this conflict subside. Struggle for power amongst the executives due to major
organizational structure changes was believed to be amongst the major factor for the conflict. Airbus
on this issue thought to give time for the conflict to cool down for which it adopted the avoidance
strategy which worked for them. . Some relationship conflicts, such as those involving political norms
and personal tastes, may distract team members from their tasks and avoiding may be an
appropriate strategy. There is a potential danger in using an avoiding style too often. Research
shows that overuse of this style results in negative evaluations from others in the workplace.

Another style of managing conflict is Accommodation in which one is more concerned about goals of
others to be met but relatively unconcerned about getting one’s own way out. It is cooperative but
unassertive. Appropriate situations for accommodating include times when you find you are wrong,
when you want to let the other party have his or her way so that individual will owe you similar
treatment later, or when the relationship is important. Overreliance on accommodating has its
dangers. One who constantly defer to others may find that others lose respect for them. This over
cooperation may also lead to increase in conflict as one may lose self esteem. Best example for this
would be 1962 India-China War where in order to increase the relationship with China and promote
the slogan “Hindi Chini Bhai Bhai”, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru the then Prime Minister of India decided
to withdraw battalions of Indian Army from many regions of North & North-East India. The result
was China took this as an opportunity and attacked India. Thousands of soldiers were killed in the
battle. India lost large amount of its land Kashmir and Tibet. The conflict over the India China borders
still continues to be prevalent. Hence it is not always wise to take steps that avoid conflict and
increase the mutual relationship.

Competing is another way of dealing with conflict where quick, decisive actions are vital. But this
technique focuses more on satisfying one’s own interest at the expense of other party’s interest. In
an emergency or in situations where you know you are right, it may be appropriate to put your foot
down. Relying solely on competing strategies is dangerous as one becomes reluctant to admit when
they are wrong and may find themselves surrounded by people who are afraid to disagree with
them. In team settings, it has been noted earlier that task conflict and relationship conflict could
occur together although task conflict is seen as functional , whereas relationship conflict is seen as
dysfunctional for the team. The best example of competing strategy would be of United States of
America. As a response to the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Centre, it attacked Afghanistan in
order to capture Osama Bin Laden. But it couldn’t get him in Afghanistan. Then it attacked Iraq in the
name of War on Terror. It made sure that Saddam Hussain was captured and executed even though
United Nations tried to stop it. It has spent millions of dollars to bring in peace in Iraq but has failed
in all the attempts. Everyday bombs are blasted in the lanes of Iraq. There is an environment of
terror and insecurity everywhere in Iraq. USA has failed in all its commitments to bring in peace in
Iraq. Today Barack Obama the President of USA is thinking about getting its forces out of Iraq.
Thousands of US soldiers & innocent citizens of Iraq have lost their lives.

Compromise is also one of the ways to deal with conflicts in which each party must give up
something to reach a solution to the conflict. Compromises are often made in final hours of union
management negotiations, when time is of essence. Compromise may be an effective backup style
when efforts toward collaboration are not optimal solutions. Compromise means partially
surrendering one’s position for the sake of coming to terms. Often, when people compromise they
inflate their demand to begin with. The solutions reached may only be temporary, and often
compromises do nothing to improve relationships between the parties in the conflict.

Collaborating is one of the best ways to deal with conflicts. Collaborating is a win-win situation that
is high on both assertiveness and cooperativeness. Working towards collaborating involves an open
and through discussion of the conflict and arriving at a solution that is satisfactory to both parties.
Situations where collaboration may be effective include times when both parties need to be
committed to a final solution or when a combination of different perspectives can be formed into a
solution. Collaborating requires open, trusting behaviour and sharing information for the benefit of
both parties. Long term, it leads to improved relationships ad effective performance.

Cultural differences also influence the use of different styles of conflict management. For example
one study compared Turkish and Jordanian managers with US managers. All three groups preferred
the collaborating style. Turkish managers reported frequent use of the competing style, whereas
Jordanian and US managers reported that it was one of their least used styles.
China is one of the biggest marketplaces in the world, and negotiating with the Chinese is very
frustrating for Americans due to a lack of understanding of Chinese conflict management styles. One
study indicated that compromising and avoiding are the most preferred conflict handling styles
among the Chinese. The Chinese reported the most satisfaction with a business negotiation when
accommodating and competing approached were used by both parties. It is important to remember
that preventing and resolving dysfunctional conflict is only half the task of effective conflict
management. Stimulating functional conflict is the other half.

There have been many such examples of conflicts in the human history: The Israel-Palestine conflict,
German-Jew conflict, Conflict between LTTE-Sri Lankan government, Hindu-Muslim conflict, etc. All
this conflicts have led to murder of large number of people. Hence conflicts must be avoided
between people so as to continue to move in the direction of peace amongst humanity.

CONFLICT RESOLUTION
There are many conflict management strategies that are devised and we use the best one depending
upon the situation. The overall approach which we use determines whether the outcome of the
situation turns out to be positive or negative.
We can broadly define the overall strategies into two viz co operative and competitive. The
competitive strategy emphases on win-lose situations and usually are a result of mistrust, dishonest
communication and a rigid position. While in the cooperative approach we can see that both the
parties are having high level of trust along with honest communication and potential for win-win
outcomes.
Now for specific techniques:-
They are again basically divided into two parts the effective ones and the non effective ones.
Non effective techniques are those that are practiced in the industry but they never tend to solve
the issue nor ameliorate them. They are a result of lack of interest or incapable leadership or even
short sighted vision on the part of team members or leaders.

Non action
This is one of the widely used techniques. When a problem arises the person in charge tries to ignore
it in the hope that people will resolve it themselves or they would learn to live with it. But this is the
most ineffective techniques of all as this gives the people an impression of ineffectiveness of the
leader and hence his incapability. The current Maoist problem can be considered as an example of
Non action from the part of the government. In spite of poor condition of the people governments
failed to step in and help to change the situation. As a result of which people got frustrated and
revolted against the government.

Secrecy
In this technique the person tries to keep the conflict that has happened away from view of other
employees. This would lead to suspicion where by people would find pride in uncovering the truth
and bargaining based on that. The common case is that of salary. In some organizations they don’t
encourage people to reveal or discuss their salary as it might result in a point of conflict. This is a
form of secrecy should be avoided at all cost.
Administrative Orbiting
Here the employee is made to wait for more and more time under the pretext of an enquiry or
processing of the complaint. The main idea is that by delaying the issue might get resolved or the
employee might get tired and will start to live with it. This would result in resentment leading to a
complete dissatisfaction on part of the employees

Due Process Non action

Here the administrative setup and the procedure to address the complaint is so complex and costly
that people shy away from lodging a complaint. A typical example would be that of the legal system
of our country. The procedure is so long and time consuming that people would think a lot of times
before going to the court of law. As a result minor deviations from ideal behaviour that are not
costly for one another shall be accepted as the norm. Again this can also result in people getting
frustrated and resorting to their own methods for justice.

Character assassination
This can be characterized as an attempt to label or discredit an opponent. This can backfire and
make the individual who uses it appear dishonest and cruel. It often leads to name calling and
accusations by both the parties, both ending up losers in the eyes of those who witness the conflict.

Effective mechanisms to resolve conflict

These are some of the mechanisms which seem to be effective in resolving issues. The use of these
mechanisms mainly revolves around the issue and the constraints which we have. These
mechanisms seem to be providing better results than with those of the ineffective mechanisms.

Super ordinate Goals

Super ordinate goal refer to any goal that is important to both the parties and it is of more
importance than the issue they are concerned with. This could be that of the organization as a whole
or the loss that each of them would incur. The effective technique here is to appeal for the larger
issue on which they both agree on.

Expanding resources
This is another simple was of conflict resolution technique when the conflict is for a scarce resource.
Increasing the quantity of the scarce resource would be the solution but it might lead to extra
expenses which is not the best solution.

Changing personal
In many long running issues we can see that certain people are misfits in the position they currently
occupy. They might not be having the required amount of emotional intelligence required for the
organization behaviour or might even lack other skills. The ideal solution in such kind of a situation is
to go for a change in the personal. This was exhibited in the case of HP when Carly Fiorina was
replaced for a new CEO. A lot of the measures which she undertook as a CEO were unpopular with
the employees and eventually the board was forced to fire her.
Changing structure
Changing the structure of the organization might also result in resolution of the conflict. One way is
to create an integrator role. An integrator is a liaison between the groups with very different
interest. This could be a third party who is perceived to be neutral in stance. One of the recent
examples we can quote here is that of Norway standing as an integrator between the Srilankan
Government and the LTTE. They were involved in ensuring that the peace process moves forward
and a resolution is reached.

Confronting and Negotiating

Some conflicts require confrontation and negotiation between both the parties. Negotiation can be
considered as a joint process of finding a mutually acceptable solution to a complex conflict.
To negotiate it is required that both the parties:-
 Are not accepting what the other party is asking for
 Are of the belief that they can get a better deal rather than just cave in to others demands
 Are of the view that working together rather than fighting openly would help them to gain
more.
There are mainly two approaches for negotiations which can be classified as bargaining and
integrative negotiations.
Distributive bargaining approach would be used when goals of one party is in direct conflict with the
goals of the other party. The resources to share are limited and each party wants to increase its
share of resource. In contrast the integrative negotiations can be used in a scenario in which the
goals are not mutually exclusive and focus is to make both sides achieve their objectives.

Live Examples and Case Study

Case Study: A Workplace Case Study

In a large publishing company in Mumbai, a young woman, XYZ, was hired as a copy editor for one of
the many journals produced by the company. Seven other employees worked on this team editing
this Journal, including a senior editor named ABC. XYZ had worked there for about a month when
she and her fellow co-workers went for happy-hour after work. When everybody was leaving the bar
to head home, ABC, who had been secretly attracted to XYZ since she started work at the journal,
hailed a cab and offered to share the ride with XYZ. XYZ accepted the offer. Once she was inside the
cab, ABC then suddenly made an aggressive sexual advance toward her. Horrified, XYZ pushed him
away and told him to get out of the cab. Mortified, ABC slinked out of the cab.

The next day, XYZ came to work with some apprehension. Although ABC did not supervise her,
would he try to get her fired? ABC immediately went to her office and apologized for his extremely
inappropriate behaviour in the cab. Relieved at his apology, XYZ decided not to pursue the matter
through any formal channels in the office. She figured that since ABC apologized, there was no need
to dwell on the incident. After all, XYZ was a new employee, still in the process of learning the office
politics and proving herself as being a competent editor. She did not want to rock the boat or bring
negative attention to herself.

Everything would have been okay if ABC had stopped at just one sincerely expressed apology.
However, whenever he found himself alone with XYZ, ABC apologized again and again. He said he
was sorry about the incident at every opportunity he had for three months. Ironically, by ABC
apologizing continuously for his unwanted attention in the cab, he was foisting another form of
unwanted attention upon XYZ. When he first started apologizing, XYZ told him that "it was okay".
After three months of many apologies, she reached a point where she asked him to stop apologizing,
to no avail. Frustrated, she confided in a few co-workers about her unusual dilemma. Consequently,
these co-workers lost respect for ABC.

Although the cab incident was not common knowledge in the office, ABC sensed that others knew
about it by the way they interacted with him. Meanwhile, XYZ was tired of hearing ABC apologize
and her feelings of discomfort increased. So when another editor position opened up in another
journal division of the company, she applied for the job and was transferred to the other journal. In
her new position, she didn't have ABC bothering her anymore. But she was unhappy with her new
job. The journal material was very boring. She didn't work as well with her co-workers as she did in
the previous journal (excepting ABC). She realized that she really enjoyed her old job. She began to
regret her decision to avoid the conflict with ABC by moving to the new job. In an effort to seek
advice as to how to solve her problem, XYZ decided to consult with the Conflict Resolution Company.

Analysis of Conflict

The initial cause of the conflict, the sexual advance in the cab, occurred in a private enclosed setting.
Sexual overtures are inherently private, but the consequences were played out in the public context
of the office. ABC's apologies became a non-rational expression conveyed privately to XYZ. In kind,
XYZ responded through informal, private means. And the private interactions had a detrimental
impact upon the office environment.

The issue of power in the case of XYZ and ABC is a large underlying factor, which has influenced the
turn of events.XYZ certainly felt powerless. XYZ was confronted with ABC's narcissistic assumption
that she would be happy to receive his attentions, along with the male ideology of claiming women
as objects of desire. This power imbalance was then carried into the sexual politics of the workplace.

XYZ was worried about maintaining a neutralized sexuality in the office environment, fearing a
reputation of being labelled sexually "easy". Such a label would effectively overshadow any power
that she could assert through knowledge or skill. Both XYZ and ABC value their reputation in the
office. Otherwise, ABC wouldn't feel compelled to apologize in an effort to "check" on XYZ's feelings
about him to gauge her inclination to blab about him in the office. If XYZ wasn't concerned about her
reputation and standing within the office, she may have told the director about the cab incident.
Both wanted others to view them with respect.

XYZ was trying to maintain the value of their reputations at work by withholding the information
about the cab incident. She was willing to let the unfortunate incident go without retaliation until
ABC's persistence became annoying. Then she confided in a couple of her friends at work. ABC
sensed his loss of credibility through these employees' reactions to him. In this respect, XYZ claimed
value by divulging ABC's sexual faux pas. She claimed the power of knowledge, but at a cost of
placing her co-workers in an awkward position.

Because the cab incident was kept hidden from public awareness and resolution, anxiety rose within
XYZ, ABC and the office.
In an attempt to relieve her anxiety caused by ABC's excessive apologies, XYZ left the anxious work
environment for another editor position within the company. But XYZ was still troubled.

The first step toward finding a resolution of the conflict is to discover what XYZ truly wants. She
could choose to pursue the matter through a rights-based mechanism to seek redress for sexual
harassment. Or she could choose to pursue the matter through an interest-based mechanism to
address her wish that ABC stop his apologizing and leave her alone. In interest-based methods,
parties identify their interests and concerns to arrive at a mutually acceptable agreement.

It is unlikely that the rights-based approach of a lawsuit would serve any useful purpose. For one
thing, ABC's sexual advance in the cab may not fit the legal description of sexual harassment. Besides
courtroom drama, a rights-based decision may not solve the problem. XYZ still may not feel good
about herself. ABC may not either. They may continue to carry around anxiety, or even experience
an increase in anxiety within themselves.

An interest-based approach is better suited to the conflict between ABC and XYZ because focusing
on interests can help them better understand each other. The Company can help bring about greater
understanding through listening, facilitation of dialogue between XYZ and ABC, problem-solving, and
mediating the conflict.

XYZ's primary interest is to have a challenging and fulfilling job in which she is respected. She wants
to be free of that tight, panicky feeling in her gut whenever she sees ABC. XYZ wants to be seen as a
competent professional. Yet she wants to have a somewhat informal, enjoyable working relationship
with her colleagues. ABC's interests are the same as XYZ's.. He too wants a challenging and fulfilling
job in which he is respected. He too enjoys easy banter with his cohorts.

The interests of the other employees in the division are to regain the pleasant atmosphere they once
enjoyed prior to the uneasiness of the relationship between ABC and XYZ.

Toward Resolution of the Conflict

Realizing that XYZ's and ABC's interests are strikingly similar, the Company suggests to XYZ that the
three of them talk together privately about the issue. The Company would facilitate the discussion
and mediate disagreements if necessary. XYZ agreed. The Company would first talk to ABC in order
to ascertain if he was willing to talk with XYZ, as well as allay any fears he may have about her
impartiality. Finally, they would discuss ways to resolve the issue. They stressed again that anything
said during the meeting was strictly confidential and would not be placed in personnel files or
reported to anyone else in the office.

ABC said that he was simply trying to do the gentlemanly thing by apologizing. XYZ's reaction to his
first apology was ambiguous to him; she said "everything's okay" but somehow it was an unsatisfying
resolution to him. Concluding that XYZ didn't think he was sincere in his apology, ABC continued to
apologize to let her know that he truly meant what he said. He had no intention of harassing her or
causing her emotional distress.

XYZ felt that ABC violated her trust in him. She was angry that ABC seemed to think of her more as a
sexual object than a professional editor. Consequently, she began to lose confidence in herself. To
make things worse, ABC's apologies were a constant reminder of her denigrated position. XYZ felt
guilty and angry at herself for not being able to stand up for herself and not let ABC affect her.

XYZ replied by saying that she felt she had accepted his apology the morning after the incident
occurred. But after hearing ABC, she realized that her response to his apology was not as clear as
ABC needed to clear his conscious. XYZ really held no reservation in accepting his apology over the
cab incident. ABC thanked her for accepting his apology and reciprocated in part by honouring her
viewpoint about his continued apologies, but also held to his opinion that she was overreacting.

After repeating the progress made thus far, they were asked if they were to work in the same office
again, would they feel comfortable interacting with one another. ABC quickly replied that he would
have no problem with working with XYZ again. XYZ needed some time to think about her job options
before she could answer the question. After checking for any other concerns they wanted to
address, the Company thanked ABC and XYZ for coming in to talk and offered to talk further with
either one of them if they so chose.

Conclusion

Clearly, emotional expression was a crucial element of not only the conflict and its escalation, but
also its resolution. In light of conflict evaluation and resolution, the emotional patterns exhibited in
times of anxiety can serve as a warning signal that intervention is needed.

Live Example
Naxalism: West Bengal has been a constant victim of naxalism. It has been a leftist bastion and
naxals are more of an extreme kind of left centric thinking. In the current scenario West Bengal,
Jharkhand, Bihar, Chattisghar, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh have been just some of the
states fighting naxals on a daily basis. The cause for such people movement is very much within us.
Long have the Govt. and other agencies ignored the rural area and tribal community. The tribal’s
and villagers across the country have suffered hugely as they do not have any representation and
there is no one who is ready to listen to their problems. All the atrocities committed against them by
the Police and local administration goes hugely unnoticed. Economically too this segment has been
totally ignored and thus very backward. All this frustration has built up over the generations and this
has resulted in a violent conflict of the present day. The naxal conflict if one of the biggest threats
that India faces. Even the Union home minister has admitted to that. There is another school of
thought who would say that this so called modern day Robin Hoods themselves commit the same
sins that were the driving force behind their inception. So what can be done to resolve this conflict?
As per our thinking their inclusion in the economic growth is a must. We need to address the root
causes of their struggle. Basic amenities and a regular livelihood have to be provided to these
backward areas. We must bring these people in the main stream economy and politics and ensure
adequate representation from them, for them and by them. The various state as well as central
government has to build schools, hospitals, roads and provide clean drinking water and electricity
throughout their state at any cost. There is also a communication gap that exists which can only be
filled up when once these people are brought into the main stream. It’s not that the governments
don’t do anything. They do have lot of plans on the table but those plans are not executed properly,
the beneficiary of those plans never gets the goods that were supposed to be given to them. There is
always some middle man or a bureaucrat that for some personal gains do not implement these
plans. Various government agencies have to talk to each other and reach out to these backward
areas

References
Books:
Organizational Behaviour by Nelson & Quick. Published by Cengage Learning.

Websites:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conflict_management
http://managementhelp.org/intrpsnl/basics.htm
http://www.mediate.com/articles/taylor.cfm
http://www.alternativeinsight.com/Palestine_.html
http://www.jcpa.org/jl/vp486.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naxalite
www.balaghat.nic.in/History%20of%20Naxalism.pdf