Conflict Management &

Power&Politics
• Explain the concept of conflict
• Describe the sources of conflict
• Discuss the positive and negative aspects of conflict
• Explain functional and dysfunctional conflict
• Describe the types of conflict
• Discuss conflict resolution and management
• Explain the role of functional conflict in increasing organisational effectiveness
CONFLICT
 UNDERSTANDING CONFLICTS
• According to Chung and Meggison,
“Conflict is the struggle between
incompatible or opposing needs, wishes,
ideas, interests, or people.” According to
them conflict arises when individuals or
groups encounter goals that both parties
cannot attain satisfactorily.
• According to Pondy, conflict has been
defined as “the condition of objective
incompatibility between values and goals; as
the behaviour of deliberately interfering with
another’s goal achievement; and as
emotionally in terms of hostility.”
 SOURCES OF CONFLICTS

Communication

Personal Variables

Unrealistic Expectations

Change

Goal

Difference in Values

Behaviour
 SOURCES OF CONFLICT: COMMUNICATION

Poor communication:

Lack of communication leads to

misunderstanding between
employees.
 SOURCES OF CONFLICT: PERSONAL VARIABLE

Personal Variables:

Personality and value system of

different employees are diverse
 SOURCES OF CONFLICT: UNREALISTIC EXPECTATIONS

Mistry falls victim to unrealistic

expectations

It would not be a misstatement to say that

Mistry fell victim to new thinking and to
unrealistic expectations.

Since no reason has been given for the

sack, there is intense speculation over
specifically what went wrong. Analysts say
in the eyes of the board, Cyrus Mistry had
failed to lift the large and diverse
conglomerate’s financial performance
 SOURCES OF CONFLICT: CHANGE

Change:

It is a tendency of individuals to resist

change which often leads to conflict
 SOURCES OF CONFLICT: GOALS

Goal:
Goals of two or more individuals or
departments may collide and lead to
conflicts.
 SOURCES OF CONFLICT: DIFFERENCE IN VALUES

Difference in values:

An organisation consists of different people

with varied values. In such a situation, the
values of one individual may interfere with
the values of another, and this may lead to
conflicts.
 SOURCES OF CONFLICT: BEHAVIOUR

Behaviour:

This indicates that an extreme

action of an individual, whether
defensive or offensive, can be a
reason for conflict
 UNDERSTANDING CONFLICTS

Performance Low Employee

Degradation Retention

Negative
Aspects of
Conflicts
 UNDERSTANDING CONFLICTS

Competition

Change in
Organisational Creativity
Culture

Positive
Aspects of
Conflicts
 FUNCTIONAL CONFLICTS

• Functional conflicts refer to constructive conflicts that support the goals of the organisations and improve its performance.
• Functional conflicts involve people genuinely interested in solving problems and listening to one another.
• Following are the two methods of stimulating functional conflicts:
• Devil’s Advocacy: It involves assigning a team member the role of a critic. This person will always criticise an idea that
the team may have. This helps in creating an environment of critical thinking. However, the role of the critic should be
revolved in the team, so that no particular individual develops the reputation of being negative.
• Dialectic Method: It involves conducting a debate of opposite views before taking any decision. After hearing the pros and
cons of different ideas, the team has greater success in making sound decisions.
 DYSFUNCTIONAL CONFLICTS

• A dysfunctional conflict consists of various disputes and disagreements that hinder the performance of the company.

Obliging

Integrating Dominating

Dealing with
Dysfunctional
Conflicts
 INTEGRATING

Integrating: This method is also known

as the problem-solving method. It
involves encouraging opposing parties
to face the issue collectively, generate a
solution, and select the most
appropriate action
 OBLIGING

Obliging: In this approach, a party

neglects their own concern to satisfy
the concern of the opposing party.
 DOMINATING

Dominating: People with an I-win-you-lose

mentality follow this approach.
 TYPES OF CONFLICTS

Inter-personal Conflicts
• Individual-level conflict indicates that human
behaviour is directed by needs, which guide the
activities of an individual.
• Before joining an organisation, individuals try to
match their needs with the organisation’s offerings in
terms of salary packages or other benefits. However,
if they observe any inequity with their colleagues in
the organisation, it may result in a conflict at the
individual level.
• Such a conflict may lead to tension, frustration, and
unpleasant behaviour in individuals. For example, an
employee who believes he/she is paid less than
 TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS

Complementary transactions occur when both

people are at the same level (Parent talking to
Parent, etc.). Here, both are often thinking in the
same way and communication is easier. Problems
usually occur in Crossed transactions, where each
is talking to a different level.
P-Parent
A-Adult
C-Child
 TYPES OF CONFLICTS

Inter-personal Conflicts
The Johari window is a four quadrant grid shown as follows:
 JOHARI WINDOW

• 1. Quadrant 1: Open Area

• Quadrant 1 represents the information that we know about ourselves and others know about us.
Therefore, this quadrant includes behaviour, knowledge, skills, attitudes, and "public" history.
• 2. Quadrant 2: Blind Area
• This quadrant includes information that we are not aware of ourselves but others know about us.
This can involve simple issues that are unknown to us and complex issues (for example, feelings of
inadequacy, incompetence, unworthiness, or rejection), which are often difficult for individuals to
face directly but can be seen by others.
• 3. Quadrant 3: Hidden Area
• This quadrant represents information that we know about ourselves, but others do not know
about us.
• 4. Quadrant 4: Unknown Area
• This last quadrant represents information that is unknown by us and others.
 INTRA-PERSONAL CONFLICT

• Intrapersonal conflict occurs within an individual. The

experience takes place in the person's mind. Hence, it
is a type of conflict that is psychological involving the
individual's thoughts, values, principles and emotions
 TYPES OF CONFLICTS
Intra-individual Conflict ; Intra-individual
Conflict
• This type of conflict is also known as
intrapsychic conflict

Goal Conflict

Frustration Role Conflict

Intra-
individual
Conflict
FRUSTATION
GOAL CONFLICT
ROLE CONFLICT
 TYPES OF CONFLICTS

Inter-group Conflicts
• Conflicts that occur between two or more
groups are called inter-group conflicts.
• There are a number of techniques to
resolve inter-group conflicts. Some of
these techniques are:
1. Avoidance where possible
2. Problem solving
3. Changing certain variables
4. Constituting a dispute resolution
system
 CONFLICT RESOLUTION AND MANAGEMENT

Avoidance

Super-ordinate Authoritative
Goals Command

Conflict Altering the

Problem
Resolution Human
Solving
Techniques Variable
 Quiz!!!!

1. ___________________It occurs when goal-directed behaviour is blocked

2. _____________________involves assigning a team member the role of a critic. This person will always criticise an idea that the team may have.

3.______________________________occurs within an individual when an individual argues with himself/herself about an issue
 Answers!!!

1. Frustration occurs when goal-directed behaviour is blocked

2. Devil’s advocacy involves assigning a team member the role of a critic. This person will always criticise an idea that the team may have.

3. Intra- Individual conflict occurs within an individual when an individual argues with himself/herself about an issue
Power and Politics in
Organisations
 UNDERSTANDING POWER

• Power is the potential ability to influence the behaviour

of others.
• Power within organisations affects decision making for
resource allocation, goals and objectives setting, hiring
of individuals, structural and employment decisions, etc.
• The idea of power symbolises interactions among
individuals, where one individual influences and the
other is influenced.
• Power is dynamic and changes as situations and
individuals change.
• Leaders also influence and inspire other individuals.
However, power and leadership differ from each other
in more than one way.
 UNDERSTANDING POWER

Difference Between Leadership and Power

• Leadership refers to influencing people with or without
the advantage of a formal position or role, whereas power
refers to getting people to do things owing to the formal
platform or charter an individual holds in an organisation.
• Leaders help other individuals in the group to work in
coordination with one another, establish their goals, and
accomplish them for the success of the group.
• Power enables an individual to make other individuals act
even when they resist, while leaders influence individuals
to accomplish common goals, at the same time, enabling
them to accomplish these goals.
 SOURCES OF POWER

Reward power

Coercive power

Sources of power Legitimate power

Expert power

Referent power
 REWARD POWER: SAVJIBHAI DHOLAKIA,

• Savjibhai Dholakia, who runs a diamond export firm in

Surat, gave1,260 cars, 400 flats and pieces of jewellery to
his employees in Diwali
• He said the rewards were in recognition of the outstanding
performance and dedication shown by employees in the last
five years.
• The company will be spending an estimated Rs50 crore ($7
million) under the loyalty program to reward an unknown
number of staff from a total workforce of 5,500.
 COERCIVE POWER: ADOLF HITLER

Adolf Hitler was used coercive power. He required

the population of the Third Reich to accept everything
that he said as absolute law, and was able to impose a
death sentence on anyone who failed to do so. Hitler
was obsessed with being in control, and with being
the alpha male in a rigid male dominance hierarch
 LEGITIMATE POWER: MRS. NAINA LAL KIDWAI

• Legitimate power is power you derive from your

formal position or office held in the organization's
hierarchy of authority
• Example: Mrs. Naina Lal Kidwai. Position held
:CEO and Country Head of HSBC India

• She got power based on her structural position in the

bank. It gives her authority to control and use
organisational resources.
 EXPERT POWER: SUNDAR PICHAI

• In his first job at the company he joined a small team

that worked on Google’s search toolbar, which gave
users easy access to the company’s search screen. It was
Pichai’s idea that Google build its own browser. Page
and Brin were in favor of the project but then-CEO Eric
Schmidt objected. According to BusinessWeek,
Schmidt thought the browser project would be an
expensive distraction. Of course Chrome has been a
huge success, with a reported worldwide market share
of 45%.
 REFERENT POWER: OPRAH WINFREY

• Referent power focuses on the leader and the subordinates.  If a leader is

considered to have referent power, he/she would be considered to be a
role model
• An example of a leader who has referent power is Oprah.  While she
holds no real public office, there are scores of individuals who look up
to her as a role model and her influence is very far reaching.  
 Politics within Organisations

• The political system of an organisation represents how power

is applied and distributed in the organisation.

• Negative political tactics involve filtering or distortion of

information, non-cooperation, retaliations, dishonesty,
sabotage, and coercions.
 FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO EXISTENCE OF POLITICS

Need for power

Individual factors Machiavellianism

Factors contributing to Risk-seeking tendency

organisational politics
Limited resources
Organisational factors
Performance pressure
 Let’s Sum Up

• Power is the potential ability to influence the behaviour of others. The term power may be applied to people, groups, divisions,
organisations, and nations.
• The various sources of power are reward power, coercive power, legitimate power, expert power, and referent power.
• Power tactics used by individuals can be categorised into individual and intra-group tactics and inter-group tactics.
• Organisational politics includes actions by individuals or departments in an organisation for acquiring, developing, and using
power and other resources for obtaining desirable outcomes at times of uncertainty or disagreement.
 Quiz!!!!

1. It is influencing behaviour owing to the individual’s formal position in the organisation

• Legitimate
• Expert
• Coercive
• Reward
 Answers!!

1. It is influencing behaviour owing to the individual’s formal position in the organisation

• Legitimate
• Expert
• Coercive
• Reward
 Links to watch

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5l7Igvz9Oqg (Conflict)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpW5l9lfgbs (Conflict)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBNRzAjavmM (Office Politics)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mMfaVpvUHw (Power)
• https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=chak+de+india+team+work (Team work)