Conflict Resolution in Organizations

Conflict Resolution

• Conflict resolution is a crucial business skill.
• Organizational conflict arises from various sources.

Sources of Organizational Conflict

• Differentiation: Different departments or functions may have differing views on achieving organizational performance.This can lead to conflict if they prioritize their own tasks or goals over the organization's overall objectives. Departments might try to achieve their own goals at the expense of the organization.
• Task relationships: Overlapping authority, task interdependence, and incompatible evaluations systems may stimulate conflict, especially in rapidly growing organizations when top managers lack time to clarify task relationships and responsibilities. The workflow may depend on a particular function relaying on others, conflicts might arise if some functions are rewarded but others are not. Conflicts arise around capital allocation.
• Scarcity of resources: Conflict over limited resources like capital is common between divisions and between divisions and corporate headquarters (employees vs. shareholders).

Assessing the Conflict Situation

• Long-term importance of the relationship: Understanding the lasting impact of the relationship.
• Importance of the issue (individual and group): Assess the significance from both perspectives.
• Level of two-way trust: Trust and transparency are essential to fostering effective collaboration.
• Communication and listening skills of both parties: Effective communication minimizes misunderstandings and fosters strong relationships.
• Level of stress around the issue(stakes or risks): Identifying the stress levels related to the issue's influence can help determine if the conflict could escalate.
• Complexity of the issue: Assess the difficulty level of the issue, can determine required conflict strategies.
• Time pressures: Time limitations can influence the best path to resolving conflict.

Strategizing the Conflict Situation

• Transactions: If the relationship is short-term or the issue is less significant (e.g., major purchases, mergers). Strategies might include competing, compromising, and collaborating.
• Implicit coordination: If the relationship is important but the issue is less significant (e.g., a grocery line) strategies might include accommodating and compromising.
• Balanced concerns: If both the relationship and the issue are important (e.g., business partners, Mergers). Strategies might encompass collaboration and compromise.
• Relationship: (e.g., work teams, long-time friendships) Collaboration, accommodation, and compromise may be necessary.

Collaboration = Better Decisions

• Successful collaboration results in higher satisfaction, superior decisions, learning, and innovation, and trust-building.
• Regardless of preferred conflict style, collaborating on important and complex issues is usually beneficial.

Decision Making

• Making decisions is a core function for leaders and managers.
• Involving others can be important for gaining approval and implementation. Not all decisions call for a high degree of participation.

Types of Decisions

• Non-programmed decisions: These are for unique or new situations. Extra research or information gathering is required.
• Programmed decisions: These are for repeated, recurring circumstances. Procedures or programs are used when issues or problems are routine. Organizations often have performance programs that guide decisions.

Decision Making Process: Classical Model

• List all possible courses of action representing different approaches to the problem.
• Identify the possible consequences of your choices.
• Rank the alternatives based on your personal preferences or priorities for the consequences.
• Select the alternative that leads to the most desirable outcome.

Critics of Classical Decision Making Model

• People might not have all necessary information
• Consequences are often unpredictable or unknown
• Decision-makers may not have clear preferences or values

March and Herbert Simon's Administrative Decision-Making Model

• Offers a more realistic view of decision making based on limited information and cognitive constraints.
• Acknowledges that decision-makers aim for satisfactory solutions rather than optimal ones because of their limited cognitive abilities.
• Addresses cognitive limitations and incomplete information affecting decision-making.
• Decisions are often satisfactory, but not necessarily optimal.

Participative Leadership

• Key to effective decision-making: Decisions often require multiple parties in complex organizations.
• Participative leadership employs decision procedures allowing contributions from others. Various terms describe aspects of this approach, including consultation, joint decision-making, empowerment, and democratic management.

Types of Decision Procedures

• Autocratic: The leader makes the decision alone.
• Consultation: The leader seeks input but makes the final decision alone
• Joint Decision: The decision is made collaboratively by all involved parties.
• Delegation: Authority is given to others to make a decision.

Group Decision Making Techniques

• Brainstorming: Spontaneous, participative process to generate a wide range of alternatives.
• Nominal group technique: Members develop ideas independently, then discuss and rank ideas to identify the preferred choice.
• Delphi technique: Experts complete questionnaires separately, and summaries, along with additional questions, are shared. The process is repeated until a consensus is reached.
• Group members tend to be inhibited, or blocked, from sharing all their ideas in a brainstorming session potentially reducing overall productivity.

Stress At Work

• Stress is a common experience involving opportunities or threats perceived as significant
• Potential stressors stem from personal situations, personal life balance conflicts, group dynamics, and job requirements and demands.

Personality and Stress

• Specific personality traits are correlated with varied levels of stress tolerance and susceptibility to workplace pressures.
• People with high neuroticism tend to perceive more threats and stressors, and may be less equipped to manage them.

Consequences of Stress

• Stress has both physiological (physical) and psychological (emotional) and behavioral (actions) effects.
• Physiological effects can include sleeping disorders, sweaty palms, high blood pressure and more; Psychological effects can include bad moods, feelings of anxiety, anger, or bitterness, or burnout; Behavioral effects can include changes in work performance, relations with coworkers or family, and more.

Stress and Performance: The Inverted U

• Moderate levels of stress enhance performance. Very low and very high levels lead to lower performance.

Potential Sources of Stress

• Personal stressors: Stressors stemming from personal life issues.
• Work-life balance: Conflicts between work and personal life.
• Group and organization stressors: Conflicts between members or entire departments, and/or conflicts with external groups or organizations.
• Job-related stressors: Pressure exerted by job demands and/or responsibilities (promotion, conflict, job overload or underload).

Coping with Stress

• Problem-focused coping: Strategies designed to address the source of stress directly (Time management, mentoring, role negotiation).
• Emotion-focused coping: Strategies geared toward managing the emotional response associated with stress (exercise, meditation, social support, and counseling).

Motivation

• Work motivation is the psychological driving force behind a person's behaviors, effort, and perseverance in pursuing organizational goals.
• Work performance often depends on the motivational forces within an individual.
• These forces can be positive, enhancing overall effectiveness, or negative, hindering outcomes.

Theories of Work Motivation

• Need theory: Focuses on the fulfillment of employee needs. These needs impact motivation and performance.
• Expectancy theory: Motivation is a function of valence, instrumentality, and expectancy.
• Equity theory: Focuses on fairness perceptions and potentially motivating tensions within a given situation.
• Organizational justice theory: Focuses on overall judgments on fairness through distributive, procedural, interpersonal, and informational dimensions.

Work Groups & Teams: Social Loafing & Sucker Effect

• Social Loafing: The tendency for people to exert less effort when working in a group compared to when working alone.
• Sucker Effect: Group members become less motivated when they observe others social loafing. Their fear of being taken advantage of makes them reduce effort also.

Dynamics of Effective Work Groups: Cohesiveness

• Group size: Small or medium groups generally achieve greater cohesiveness.
• Similarity/Diversity: Homogeneity can increase cohesiveness but diversity allows broader resources.
• Success: Successful completion of goals often promotes cohesiveness.
• Competition: External competition to other work groups can promote internal cohesiveness within groups to achieve success.
• Exclusiveness: Groups with difficult membership requirements often have stronger cohesiveness and status, which may affect other groups.

Effective Work Groups: Control

• Establishing Roles: Individuals have particular tasks, responsibilities, and potential privileges within a team structure.
• Setting up norms and rules: Rules set guidelines for actions and acceptable conduct to ensure smooth operations and performance; norms are established behaviors that promote a sense of order and fairness.

Explore the vital concepts of conflict resolution within organizations. This quiz covers sources of organizational conflict, including differentiation, task relationships, and scarcity of resources. Strengthen your understanding of how to address and manage conflicts effectively in a business environment.