Conflict and Negotiation

SESSION 12-14 – ORGANIZATIONAL PROCESSES

Conflict
A process that begins when one party perceives that another party has negatively affected or is
about to negatively affect something that the first party cares about.
◦ Differences in goals, interpretation of facts, behavioural expectations
◦ This definition includes - overt, covert, and subtle forms

Is conflict good or bad?

◦ Functional – conflict that supports the goals of the group and improves its performance.
◦ Dysfunctional – conflict that hinders group performance.

Types
◦ Task conflict – related to the content and goals of work
◦ Relationship conflict – interpersonal relationship
◦ You are a mean person versus you did a bad job.
◦ Process conflict – how the work gets done
Conflict
• If task and relationship conflict occurred at the same time, task conflict will be
negative. If the task conflict occurred itself it may be positive for the
performance.
•How conflict varies with personality and organizational level
• People with high openness to experience and emotional stability – High or Low?
• Organizational level - task conflict effective at higher level for performance; not effective at
lower level

Process conflict – mainly about delegation and roles.

◦ Process conflicts can also become relationship conflicts.
◦ Delegation ---> shirking of work, then members may feel dejected.
Loci of Conflict
Dyadic conflict – between two people

Intragroup conflict – within a group or team

Intergroup conflict – between groups or teams

The Conflict Process
This process has five stages – incompatibility, cognition and
personalization, intentions, behaviour, and outcomes.
◦ 1. Potential opposition or incompatibility
◦ Communication – communication barriers or misunderstanding.
◦ Assignment 2
◦ Structure

◦ Personal variables
◦ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tyuQrWu1F0
Stage 2 – Cognition and Personalization
Perceived conflict – awareness by one or more parties of the existence of the condition that
create opportunities for conflict to arise.
You called and informed your mother/father around 6 pm that you will be late. You reach back
home around 2:30 am in the morning. Next day your mother/father is not talking to you in
usual manner. You go to the college and return back in evening around 4 pm. Now also your
mother/father is not talking in regular manner.
Communication?
What could be the perceived conflict?
You start thinking about what could have made your mother/father angry due to which
he/she is not talking properly. Deep down you are not feeling good and could not sleep that
night.
Felt conflict – you are emotionally involved in the conflict which creates anxiety and frustration.
Conflict Process – Role Play
• Two volunteers
• Role of father/mother and son/daughter
• Enact the scenario and try to find the solution
Stage 3 – Intentions
Intentions intervene between people’s perceptions and emotions
and explicit behaviour. They are the decisions to act in a given way.
◦ Think about the intention in the previous role play scenario.
When do conflicts escalate?
◦ Misinterpretation of intentions
◦ How do we infer about intentions?
◦ Behaviour
◦ Misalignment between intention and behaviour
◦ Two dimensions
◦ Assertiveness - degree to which one party sticks to their point or concerns
◦ Cooperativeness - degree to which one party attempts to satisfy other party’s concerns
Intentions
Assertive and uncooperative – Competing
◦ Desire to satisfy one’s interest regardless of the impact on other party of the conflict.
◦ Father/Mother – I don’t know what you understand by coming late; no matter what you should be here at 11
in worst case, or find someplace else to sleep.
◦ Son – I told you that I will be late. It is my life. Stop interfering with it.
Assertive and Cooperative - Collaborating
◦ Situation in which the parties to a conflict desire to satisfy fully the concerns of all parties.
◦ Father/Mother – I understand you want to enjoy your college life. You should try to come back by 12 or give
me a call if it is going to be late than that. I will come and pick you.
◦ Son – I understand you are worried about me. I will try to come back by 11 or if I get late than that, I will call
you….you can come to pick me.
Unassertive and Uncooperative - Avoiding
◦ Desire to withdraw from or suppress a conflict.
◦ Walking away from the conversation without any agreement. Continuing the silent treatment for more days.
You don’t ask your mother/father again if she/he is angry.
Intentions
Unassertive and Cooperative - Accommodating
◦ Willingness of one party in a conflict to place the opponent’s interest above his or her own.
◦ Father/Mother – Okay. I understand you want to enjoy time with your friends/enjoy your college life, don’t
worry about me. I will learn to live with this fact.
◦ Son – Okay. I understand that you are worried about me. I will not opt for any late night parties and be home
by 8 pm.
Midrange on both assertiveness and cooperativeness – Compromising
◦ Situation in which each party to a conflict is willing to give up something to resolve the conflict.
To understand this better – let me add more information. The conflict is due to the late coming +
frequent late comings. The son/daughter is coming late every other day.
◦ Father/Mother – This is getting repeated very frequently. Let us agree to 1 late coming in a week and not
beyond that.
◦ Son/Daughter – I will try to reduce the number of late comings to 2 in a week and not beyond that.
Distinguishing characteristic of compromising is that both parties are ready to give up something on
their end.
Stage 4 - Behaviour
Intentions are eventually translated into behaviour.
Try to identify the behaviour in each of the five scenarios which we just discussed.
What is behaviour?
◦ Observable actions – statements, actions, and reactions which are seen as attempts to implement
intentions.
◦ Competing – individual effort is to achieve ends without working together
◦ Collaborating – creating multiple solutions and find win-win situation
◦ Avoidance – refusal to discuss issues
◦ Accommodate – deferring to others’ opinions
◦ Compromise – both expect and do sacrifice part of interests
Stage 5: Outcomes
Action reaction interplay between the parties can have certain consequences.
◦ Functional outcomes - low or moderate level of conflict can improve the group effectiveness.
◦ Functional when it stimulates creativity and innovation, encourages interest among members, provides medium for problem
sharing.
◦ Dysfunctional outcomes – destructive consequences results from uncontrolled opposition.
◦ Certain other outcomes that results from conflicts – poor communication, reduced cohesiveness, and infighting among members.

Practical guidelines to manage conflict effectively in organizations

◦ Acknowledge disagreements. Minimize it by eliminating different terminology for the same problem.
E.g. character analysis, assignment 2, video analysis, etc. for the second assignment.
◦ Focusing on main priority.
◦ Discuss differences in opinions openly.
◦ Emphasize on shared interests in resolving conflicts. This may be needed repetitively as members
become too entrenched in the conflict with their solution/suggestion and may forget the overall
objective of the task and take conflicts personally.
Negotiation
A process that occurs when two or more parties decide how to allocate scarce resources.
A process in which two or more parties exchange goods or services and attempt to agree on the
exchange rates for them.
Poll question 1– What is important in negotiation?
◦ Our maximum benefit
◦ Our social relationship
◦ Our ethical stand

Various scenarios of negotiation – leaves, deadline, project, roles, etc.

Poll question 2 – On a scale of 1 to 5 (1 – no negotiation; 5 – hard negotiation), how hard will
you negotiate if the second party is _____?
Types of Bargaining Strategies
Distributive Bargaining
◦ Negotiation that seeks to divide up a fixed amount of resources. My gain is your loss i.e. zero sum
condition.

Short activity
◦ Two volunteers
◦ First party wants to sell the phone and second party wants to buy the phone. First volunteer – identify
only seller and declare the device that should be sold
◦ Second volunteer – who wants to buy this device
◦ Seller - Take a moment and prepare a sales pitch for the device you want to sell. Private message me the
best price and worst price at which you would like to sell.
◦ Buyer – take a moment about the price which you would like to buy. Private message me the highest
and lowest price at which you would like to buy.
◦ Make offers and counter offers if you would like to go ahead in the transaction.
◦ There can be all types of possibilities – the deal goes through; buyer/seller walks out with a deal
Staking out the bargaining zone

Assumption- A is the seller and B is the buyer

Target point for A – Seller’s highest price at which he/she would like to sell
Resistance point for A – Seller’s lowest price at which he/she would like to sell

Target point for B – Lowest price at which buyer would like to purchase
Resistance point for B – Highest price at which buyer would like to purchase
Distributive Bargaining
What should be done in distributive bargaining?
◦ First offer
◦ Aggressive offer
◦ First offer sets the anchor – what happened in the activity?
◦ What do you think could be an aggressive offer?
◦ As seller – ideally as close to the resistance point of buyer
◦ As buyer – ideally as close to the resistance point of seller
◦ How to do that?
◦ Get more information
◦ Similar models; specifications; compare prices from different sites; etc.
Integrative Bargaining
What was the objective of distributive bargaining?
◦ Maximize our gain which means that it will result in other party’s loss i.e. zero-sum condition
Integrative bargaining
◦ E.g. two individuals arguing for who should get orange.
◦ One wants it for pulp and second wants the peel for making a cake.
◦ What can be done?
◦ Focus is on interest and not on position.
◦ Goal is to create a win-win situation.
Challenges for Integrative Bargaining?
◦ Mutually exclusive interests
◦ Information about interest
◦ No sensitivity among parties
◦ No trust to facilitate such negotiations
The Negotiation Process
Preparation and Planning
◦ Understand the nature of conflict
◦ History of the conflict
◦ What are your goals?
◦ What is the most hopeful scenario and minimally acceptable scenario
◦ The Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement (BATNA); the least a party in a negotiation should
accept.

Definition of ground rules

◦ Who will do the negotiation?
◦ Where the negotiation will take place?
◦ Under what time constraints?
◦ What will be the alternative, if an impasse is reached?
The Negotiation Process
Clarification and justification
◦ Support your demands through reasons e.g. price justification with features, accessories, etc.
◦ Provide supportive documents if possible

Bargaining and problem solving

◦ Actual transaction with offers and counteroffers
◦ Both parties make concessions

Closure and implementation

◦ Final part of agreement where what is agreed upon in the previous stage gets implemented
◦ Formal contracts with specific clauses and contracts
Individual Differences in Negotiation
Effectiveness
Personality traits
◦ What do you think about one specific trait – agreeableness?
◦ Agreeableness has two facets – being compliant and being warm and empathetic
◦ Agreeableness and extraversion
◦ It may have positive effect on outcomes - depends on similarity between personalities of the two parties
◦ If both parties are disagreeable – better negotiation will occur compared to when one party is agreeable
◦ Self-efficacy
Moods and Emotions
◦ What if you show anger during negotiations? What does it indicate?
◦ Not much scope of negotiation
◦ Another factor that govern this relationship is power
◦ Fake anger
◦ Disappointment
◦ Anxiety
◦ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAht3YbqACA
Individual Differences in Negotiation
Effectiveness
Culture in Negotiations
◦ Do people from different cultures negotiate differently?
◦ Yes, they do.
◦ People who are from same culture negotiate more effectively than if they are from different cultures. E.g. Indian versus
Indian; Indian versus American.
◦ If there is a need for cross culture negotiation, then people high in openness should be involved.
◦ Using anger in US versus China
Gender
◦ Is there any difference between men and women for the negotiations that take place?
◦ Stereotypes
◦ Women are more cooperative and pleasant in negotiations than men
◦ Research suggests
◦ Women tend to value relationship more than men; men value economic outcomes more than women.
◦ Some evidence suggests that women are equally better and sometimes outperform men in some situations.
◦ Less clear research – “feminine charm” (frequent eye contact, smile, laugh, being playful, and frequent compliments)
◦ Factors which equalize the performance of men and women
◦ Range of negotiation is well defined – both perform equally well
◦ More experienced negotiators at the table – both perform equally well
Negotiating in Social Context
Reputation
◦ What kind of reputation should be beneficial for negotiations?
◦ Trustworthy
◦ Competence
◦ Integrity
◦ Repeated consistent behaviour
Relationships
◦ Collective benefit
◦ Integrative bargaining
Negotiating in Social Context
Third party negotiations
◦ Mediator
◦ A neutral third party who facilitates a negotiated solution by using reasoning, persuasion, and suggestions for alternatives.
◦ Conditions for effectiveness
◦ Both parties should be motivated to reach the solution
◦ Conflict should not be too high
◦ Mediator should be perceived as neutral and non-coercive
◦ Arbitrator
◦ A third party to a negotiation who has authority to dictate an agreement.
◦ Voluntary – it is requested by parties
◦ Compulsory – it is part of the contract
◦ It always results in settlement
◦ Conciliator
◦ A trusted third party who provides an informal communication link between the negotiator and the opponent. This overlaps
significantly with the role of mediator.
Thank You!