Managing Conflicts

Organizational Conflict

Conflict exists in situations where goals,

interests or values of people are incompatible
and they block other’s efforts to achieve their
goals.
Some level of conflict is inevitable given the
wide range of goals in a firm.
– Some conflict is good for organizational
performance.
– Too much causes managers to spend much time
responding to conflict.
 Conflict and Organizational Performance
Figure 16.1

High
B
Level of Organizational
Performance

Low A C

Low Level of Conflict High

 Types of Conflict

Conflict

Inter-
Interpersonal Intragroup Intergroup
organizational
 Types of Conflict
 Interpersonal Conflict: between individuals based on
differing goals or values.
 Intragroup Conflict: occurs within a group or team.
 Intergroup Conflict: occurs between 2 or more teams
or groups.
– Managers play a key role in resolution of this conflict
 Interorganizational Conflict: occurs across
organizations.
– Managers in one firm may feel another is not behaving
ethically.
• Destructive conflicts are also known as dysfunctional conflicts, because
such conflicts prevent a group from attaining its goals. Conflict is destructive
when it takes attention away from other important activities, undermines
morale or self-concept, polarises people and groups, reduces cooperation,
increases or sharpens difference, and leads to irresponsible and harmful
behaviour, such as fighting, name-calling.
• Constructive conflicts are also known as functional conflicts, because they
support the group goals and help in improving performance. Conflict is
constructive when it results in clarification of important problems and
issues, results in solutions to problems, involves people in resolving issues
important to them, causes authentic communication, helps release emotion,
anxiety, and stress, builds cooperation among people through learning more
about each other; joining in resolving the conflict, and helps individuals
develop understanding and skills.
 Sources of Conflict
Figure 16.3
Different goals
& time horizons
Status Overlapping
inconsistency Authority

Conflict

Scarce Task
Resources Incompatible Interdependency
evaluation &
Reward
 Sources of Conflict
– Different goals and time horizons: different
groups have differing goals.
• Production focuses on efficiency; Marketing on sales.
– Overlapping authority: two or more managers
claim authority for the same activities.
• Leads to conflict between the managers and workers.
– Task Interdependencies: one member of a
group fails to finish a task that another depends
on.
• This makes the worker that is waiting fall behind.
 Sources of Conflict
– Incompatible Evaluation or reward system: workers
are evaluated for one thing, but are told to do
something different.
• Groups rewarded for low cost but firm needs higher service.
– Scarce Resources: managers can conflict over
allocation of resources.
• When all resources are scarce, managers can fight over
allocations.
– Status inconsistencies: some groups have higher
status than others.
• Leads to managers feeling others are favored.
 Definition of Conflict Management

• Conflict management is the practice of being able

to identify and handle problems sensibly, fairly, and
efficiently. Since conflicts in a business are a natural
part of the workplace, it is important that there are
people who understand conflicts and know how to
resolve them. This is important in today's market
more than ever. Everyone is striving to show how
valuable they are to the company they work for and
at times, this can lead to disputes with other
members of the team.
 Conflict Management Styles

• Conflicts happen. How an employee responds and

resolves conflict will limit or enable that employee's
success. Here are five conflict styles that a manager will
follow according to Kenneth W. Thomas and Ralph H.
Kilmann:
• Collaborating − win/win
• Compromising − win some/lose some
• Accommodating − lose/win
• Competing − win/lose
• Avoiding − no winners/no losers
• Collaborating A combination of being assertive and cooperative, those who collaborate attempt to
work with others to identify a solution that fully satisfies everyone’s concerns. In this style, which is the
opposite of avoiding, both sides can get what they want and negative feelings are minimized.
“Collaborating works best when the long-term relationship and outcome are important—for example,
planning for integrating two departments into one, where you want the best of both in the newly
formed department
• Competing: Those who compete are assertive and uncooperative and willing to pursue one’s own
concerns at another person’s expense. Dr. Benoliel explains using this style works when you don’t care
about the relationship but the outcome is important, such as when competing with another company
for a new client. But, she cautions, “Don’t use competing inside your organization; it doesn’t build
relationships.”
• Compromising: This style aims to find an expedient, mutually acceptable solution that partially satisfies
both parties in the conflict while maintaining some assertiveness and cooperativeness. “This style is
best to use when the outcome is not crucial and you are losing time; for example, when you want to
just make a decision and move on to more important things and are willing to give a little to get the
decision made,” Dr. Benoliel says. “However,” she adds, “be aware that no one is really satisfied.”
• Accommodating The opposite of competing, there is an element of self-
sacrifice when accommodating to satisfy the other person. While it may
seem generous, it could take advantage of the weak and cause resentment.
“You can use accommodating when you really don’t care a lot about the
outcome but do want to preserve or build the relationship,” Dr. Benoliel
says, “such as going out for lunch with the boss and agreeing, ‘If you want
to go for Thai food for lunch, that’s OK with me.’”
• Avoiding Those who avoid conflict tend to be unassertive and
uncooperative while diplomatically sidestepping an issue or simply
withdrawing from a threatening situation. “Use this when it is safer to
postpone dealing with the situation or you don’t have as great a concern
about the outcome, such as if you have a conflict with a co-worker about
their ethics of using FaceTime on the job.”
 Resolving Conflicts
– Functional Conflict Resolution: handle conflict by
compromise or collaboration between parties.
• Compromise: each party concerned about their goal
accomplishment and is willing to engage in give and take
to reach a reasonable solution.
• Collaboration: parties try to handle conflict without
making concessions by coming up with a new way to
resolve differences.
– Managers also need to address individual sources
of conflict.
 Managing Individual Conflict
– Increase awareness of the source of conflict
• Can conflict source can be found and corrected?
– Increase diversity awareness and skills
• Older workers may resent younger workers, or
experience cultural differences.
– Practice Job Rotation & Temporary
assignments
• Provides a good view of what others face.
– Use permanent transfers & dismissal if needed
• Avoids problem interaction.
– Change organization’s structure
• Conflict can signal the need to adjust the structure.