Chapter 11: Conflicts and Negotiations

Chapter 11: Conflicts and Negotiations in the Workplace

• Workplace conflict occurs when one party perceives that their interests are opposed or negatively affected by another party.

• Conflict can be categorized as task conflict (constructive) or relationship conflict (destructive). Task conflict focuses on the issue at hand, while relationship conflict focuses on personal characteristics.

Learning Objectives

• Defining conflict and different types of conflicts
• Examining structural sources of conflict
• Analyzing conflict handling contingencies
• Understanding structural approaches to conflict management
• Identifying various types of third-party intervention
• Mastering conflict resolution through negotiation

Conflict

• Conflict is a process where one party believes their interests are opposed by another.

Emerging Views: Task vs. Relationship Conflict

• Task Conflict (constructive): Parties concentrate on the issue, respect differing viewpoints, and attempt to understand each other's logic and assumptions.
• Relationship Conflict (destructive): Focuses on personal characteristics instead of issues, aims to undermine the worth or competence of the other party, and is accompanied by strong negative emotions.

The Conflict Process Model

• The conflict process encompasses the stages from the source of conflict to conflict outcomes, with an escalation cycle in between.
  • Sources of Conflict: Origins of the difficulties.
  • Conflict Perceptions and Emotions: How individuals perceive and feel about the conflict.
  • Manifest Conflict: The visible expressions of the conflict.
  • Conflict Outcomes: Positive or negative consequences of the conflict process.

The Relationship Between Conflict and Outcomes

• A moderate level of conflict can lead to positive organizational outcomes like more creative ideas and improved responsiveness.
• High levels of conflict often result in negative outcomes like unproductive time wasted, tension, job dissatisfaction, and turnover.

Is Conflict Good or Bad?

• Negative Outcomes:
  • Wasted time, energy, and resources
  • Less information sharing and reduced productivity
  • Increased organizational politics
  • More job dissatisfaction, turnover, and stress
  • Weakened team cohesion (especially internal conflict)
• Positive Outcomes:
  • Fuller debate of important decisions
  • More creative ideas
  • Enhanced responsiveness to the external environment
  • Strengthened team cohesion when conflict arises with other teams.

Minimizing Relationship Conflict

• Encourage task conflict and minimize relationship conflict in the workplace.
• Relationship conflict often occurs when engaging in task conflict.
• Three factors that minimize relationship conflict during constructive task conflict:
  • High emotional intelligence
  • Highly cohesive teams
  • Supportive team norms

Sources of Conflicts

• Incompatible goals: When one party's goals interfere with another's.
• Differentiation: Different values, attitudes, and beliefs (e.g., cultural differences, generational gaps).
• Interdependence: The degree of interaction between parties, often leading to conflict when increased.
• Scarce Resources: When resources (e.g., budget, time, equipment) are limited.
• Ambiguous Rules: Vague or unclear rules and procedures can lead to conflict.
• Poor Communication: Lack of clarity, trust, and active listening can lead to misunderstandings and disagreements.

Structural Sources of Conflict

• Incompatible Goals: One party's goals conflict with another party's goals and/or ways of achieving them.
• Differentiation: Differences in values, beliefs, culture, and experiences can lead to conflict.
• Interdependence: Increased interaction between individuals/departments/teams can increase the likelihood of conflict.
• Scarce Resources: Competition for scarce resources (e.g., budget, time, equipment) is a common source of conflict.
• Ambiguous Rules: Unclear rules or procedures can contribute to conflict.
• Communication Problems: Problems in communication or poor communication can result in conflict.

Five Conflict Handling Styles

• The Styles are visualised on a graph, measuring assertiveness and cooperation.
• Positions each handling style in a 2x2 matrix as follows
  • Forcing (Win-Lose): High assertiveness, Low Cooperation
  • Problem Solving (Win-Win): High assertiveness, High Cooperation
  • Compromising: Medium assertiveness, Medium Cooperation
  • Yielding (Lose-Win): Low assertiveness, High Cooperation
  • Avoiding: Low assertiveness, Low Cooperation

Conflict Handling Contingencies

• Problem Solving: Best when interests are not perfectly opposing, and parties have trust.
• Forcing: Best when a quick decision is necessary and there is a conviction about one's position.
• Avoiding: Best when conflict is emotionally charged, with potential high costs to resolving.
• Yielding: Best when the other party has significantly more power, the issue is less critical to you, or your position's value or logic is less convincing.
• Compromising: Best when parties have equal power, a solution is needed quickly.

Structural Approaches to Conflict Management

• Emphasize superordinate goals: Setting common goals that require joint efforts.
• Reduce differentiation: Reducing differences in values, attitudes, and experiences, potentially through job reassignments.
• Improve communication: Improving communication & mutual understanding, using tools like the contact hypothesis or Johari window.

Types of Third-Party Intervention

• Arbitration: A neutral third party makes a binding decision to resolve the conflict.
• Inquisition: A third party actively questions and directs the conflicting parties (high control).
• Mediation: A neutral third party helps facilitate communication, but the decision is made by the parties involved.

How to Negotiate

• Five key steps: Strategy development, establishing ground rules, clarifying positions, bargaining and problem-solving, and closure and implementation.

• Understand BATNA (best alternative to a negotiated agreement).

Preparing to Negotiate

• Developing goals and understanding needs.
• Understanding your BATNA (best alternative to a negotiated agreement).
• Identifying your power.
• Identifying the bargaining zone (the zone between the resistance points of the parties involved).

Situational Influences on Negotiations

• Location
• Physical setting
• Audience

Additional Information/Videos

• Videos on negotiation techniques/strategies might be linked and mentioned as relevant learning resources.