Conflict Management Styles: Problem Solving & Forcing

• The lesson explains different approaches to managing conflict.
• The objectives are to discuss negotiation behavior and compare third-party dispute resolution types.
• Thomas Crum: "When conflict becomes a win-lose contest in our minds, we immediately try to win."

Conflict Handling Styles

• Mary Parker Follett suggested different styles for handling conflict.
• Experts identify variations of a five-category model as the most common.

Problem Solving

• Aims to find a mutually beneficial solution.
• Known as the win-win orientation because resources are believed to be expandable if parties collaborate.
• Important feature: sharing information to identify common ground and solutions.
• Preferred when interests are not perfectly opposing and when parties have trust and time to share information.
• Best applied when the issue is complex.
• A problem: sharing can be used by the other party to one's disadvantage.

Forcing

• Tries to win the conflict at the other's expense.
• Associated with a win-lose orientation, believing resources are fixed.
• Relies on "hard" influence tactics, especially assertiveness.
• Best when one has a deep conviction about their position or when a quick solution is needed.
• Another justification is when other party may take advantage of cooperative strategies
• May increase frustration and damage long-term relations.

Avoiding

• Seeks to smooth over or avoid conflict situations to suppress conflict thinking.
• Best when conflict has become too emotionally charged.
• A problem: it doesn't usually resolve the conflict.

Yielding

• Involves giving in completely to the other side's wishes, or at least cooperating, with little or no attention to one's own interests.
• Actions include making unilateral concessions, unconditional promises, and offering help with no expectation of reciprocation.
• Best used when the other party has substantially more power or the issue is much less important to you than to the other party.
• Best used when the value and logic of your position aren't as clear
• Yielding can increases the other party's expectations in future conflict episodes.

Compromising

• Looking for a position involving mutual concessions involving matching, conditional promises or threats, and actively searching for a middle ground.
• Best when parties have equal power and time pressure exists or parties lack trust/openness for problem-solving.
• Can result in suboptimal solutions when mutual gains are possible.

Resolving Conflict Through Negotiation

• Negotiation: Conflicting parties try to resolve divergent goals by redefining their interdependence through being influenced by factors like location, time, and audience.
• Useful if there are multiple parties, a conflict of interest, a willingness to negotiate, and a preference for cooperation.

Distributive Bargaining

• An approach where the parties' goals are in conflict
• Each party seeks to maximize share of resources.

Integrative Negotiation

• Parties' goals are not mutually exclusive
• Emphasis on enabling both sides to achieve their objectives.

Important Negotiating Behaviors

• Preparation
• Goal setting
• Gathering information
• Communicating effectively
• Making concessions

Ethical Guidelines for Negotiations

• Avoid misrepresentation
• Avoid false promises
• Avoid attacking an opponent's network
• Avoid inappropriate information gathering
• Avoid strategic misrepresentation of positive or negative emotions.

Negotiation Process

• Preparation and planning: Determine the nature of conflict, history, parties involved, wants of each party, important intangible interests, and adaptable negotiation strategy.
• Definition of ground rules: Clearing concerns such as who will negotiate, where, time constraints, limits to negotiation, and specific procedures in a dead-end.
• Clarification and justification: Parties may need to explain original demands.
• Bargaining and problem-solving: Parties try to reach an agreement.
• Closure and implementation: Formalizing the agreement and developing procedures for implementation and monitoring.

Third-Party Conflict Resolution

• Third-party conflict resolution: Attempt by a neutral person to help conflicting parties resolve their differences.

Types of Third-Party Dispute Resolution

• Arbitration: Arbitrators have high control over the final decision but low control over the process, following agreed-on rules of due process.
• Inquisition: Inquisitors control discussion/ form of resolution, process and determining what information to consider and how.
• Mediation: Mediators manage the process and interaction, but the parties make the final decision.