SESSION 25

Managing Conflicts
Conflict - Meaning
• Any situation in which incompatible goals, attitudes , emotions,
or behaviors lead to disagreement or opposition for two or more
parties.
• Increasing
competition and globalization , magnifies differences
among people in terms of personality, values, attitudes ,
perceptions , languages, cultures and national backgrounds.
Importance of conflict management
skills for the manager
• Conflict management skills are a major predictor of managerial
success.
• Emotional Intelligence relates to the ability to manage conflict.
• It
is the power to control one’s emotions in others and perceive
emotions in others, adapt to change , and manage adversity.
• People
who lack EI are likely to be causes of conflict than
managers of conflict.
 Functional Vs Dysfunctional Conflict
• Functional Conflict
: A healthy, constructive disagreement
between two or more people.
• Dysfunctional Conflict : An unhealthy , destructive
disagreement between two or more people.
Relationship between Conflict and organizational
performance.
Consequences of Conflict
Causes of Conflict in Organization
 Forms of conflict in Organizations
• Interorganizational Conflict – Conflict that occurs between
two or more organizations.
• Intergroup Conflict – Conflict that occurs between groups or
teams in an organization.
• Intragroup Conflict – Conflict that occurs within groups or
teams.
• Interpersonal Conflict – Conflict that occurs between two or
more individuals.
• Intrapersonal Conflict – Conflict that occurs within an
individual.
 Intrapersonal Conflict
• Inter role Conflict – A person’s experience of conflict
among the multiple roles in his or her life.
• Intra role Conflict – Conflict that occurs within a single
role, such as when a person receives conflicting
messages from role senders about how to perform a
certain role.
• Person –role conflict – Conflict that occurs when an
individual is expected to perform behaviors in a certain
role that conflict with his or her personal values.
 Defense Mechanisms
• Fixation
• Displacement
• Negativism
• Compensation
• Identification
• Rationalization
• Flight/ Withdrawal
• Conversion
• Fantasy
Ineffective Techniques for managing
conflict
• Nonaction
• Secrecy
• Administration Orbiting
• Due process nonaction
• Character assassination
Effective Techniques
• Superordinate goals
• Expanding resources
• Changing personnel
• Changing structure
• Confronting and negotiating
 Distributive Bargaining

 Integrative negotiation
Conflict Management Styles