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Organizational Behavior Presentation Conflict Management

By: Dharmender

MBA

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Conflict Management

• Introduction • Causes• Advantages of Conflicts• Disadvantages Of Conflicts• Types of Conflict• Conflict Process• Level Of Conflicts• Steps to Manage Conflicts

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Conflict Management

• Conflicts: there are at least two independent groups, the groups perceive some incompatibility between themselves, and the groups interact with each other in some way. Two example definitions are, "process in which one party perceives that its interests are being opposed or negatively affected by another party"

• Conflict management is defined as “the opportunity to improve situations and strengthen relationships”

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Conflict Management

• Conflict management is the process of limiting the negative aspects of conflict while increasing the positive aspects of conflict. The aim of conflict management is to enhance learning and group outcomes, including effectiveness or performance in organizational setting

• Workplace impact

Supervisors spend more than 25% of their time on conflict management, and managers spend more than 18% of their time on relational employee conflicts. This has doubled since the 1980s. Reasons for this are "the growing complexity of organizations, use of teams and group decision making, and globalization."

Conflict significantly affects employee morale, turnover, and litigation, which affects the prosperity of a company, either constructively or destructively.

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Causes of Conflict in Organizations

• Misunderstanding• Personality clashes• Competition for resources• Authority issues• Lack of cooperation• Differences over methods or style• Low performance• Value or goal differences

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Advantages Of Conflicts

 • Accommodation: Accommodation allows one party to do what another party

wants when a conflict arises. The advantage to accommodation is that conflict can be quickly resolved, which helps with short-term goals. The accommodating party may also feel like they have contributed goodwill toward the goal.

• Compromise: the outcome can generally be seen as "fair" to both parties because each gets something in return. This can also solve a short-term conflict while laying the foundation to resolving a long-term problem.

• Competition: Competition conflict resolution works if authority must be established among parties to complete the short- or long-term goals. This also fosters confidence for the winning party in competitive environments. Short-term goals where there is little room or time for discussion can be met quickly

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Disadvantages of Conflicts

• Avoidance: not addressing conflicts, long-term goals may not be met. Avoiding conflicts may also cause a festering of tension, which can result in a goal-stopping event, such as a blow-out argument.

• Accommodation: Accommodation can also lead to lack of self-esteem within the accommodating party. The winning party may also begin to take advantage. Another disadvantage is that the accommodating party may end up sacrificing a principle that hampers meeting the long-term goal

• Compromise: neither party leaves the negotiating table completely happy. Since compromises are short-term, they usually indicate that another conflict will occur in the future.

• Competition: The losing party may bear a grudge leading to another conflict. The personal stake in the competitive nature can negatively effect relationships.

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CONFLICT: CONSTRUCTIVE VS DESTRUCTIVE

Conflict is destructive when it:• Diverts energy from more important issues and tasks.• Deepens differences in values.• Polarizes groups so that cooperation is reduced.• Destroys the morale of people or reinforces poor self-concepts.

Conflict is constructive when it:• Opens up issues of importance, resulting in issue clarification.• Helps build cohesiveness as people learn more about each other.• Causes reassessment by allowing for examination of procedures or actions.• Increases individual involvement.

Types of Conflict

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Conflicts: Desirability and Undesirability

Desirability of Conflicts• Conflict can be desirable.• Conflict helps eliminate or reduce the likelihood of group think.• A moderate level of conflict across tasks within a group resulted in increased group

performance while conflict among personalities resulted in lower group performance

Undesirability of Conflicts• Conflicts can be hard to control once they have begun.

– The trend is toward escalation( inc in force) and polarization (division).– When conflict escalates to the point of being out of control, it almost always

yields negative results.

Types of Conflict

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Types Of Conflict• CONFLICTS: FUNCTIONAL VS DYSFUNCTIONALConflicts are dysfunctional: Hinder group performance• High Employee Turnover: In case of intra individual and inter individual some

dynamic people may leave the organization, if they fail to resolve the conflict in their favor.

• Tensions: some times conflicts increase the tension and it become difficult for management to resolve conflicts which lead to frustration among members.

• Climate of distrust: Conflicts create distrust among members of the group as well as organization. The concerned people will have negative feeling towards each other.

• Dissatisfaction: less concentration on job as result productivity will suffer.• Personal vs organizational goals: Conflicts may distract the attention of the

members of the organization form the organizational goals. They may waste time in finding tactics and ways to come out as a winner in conflicts. Personal victory become more important than organizational goals.

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• Conflicts as a cost: Conflicts is not necessarily a cost for the individuals but the conflicts may weaken the organization as a whole if management is not able to handle them properly. It is the cost to the organization because resigning of the personal weaken the organization ad feeling of distrust will have negative impact result in affecting the productivity.

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Types of Conflicts

Conflicts are functional

Supports the goals of the group and increase its performance• All Conflicts are not unproductive and serves the following functions:• Release of Tension: when member expresses themselves they get some physiological

satisfaction. This lead to reduction of stress among the members.• Analytical Thinking: when conflicts occurs the members displays analytical thinking

in identifying various alternatives.• Group Cohesiveness: It brings closeness and solidarity among the group members

which can be utilized by the management to achieve organizational goals in effective manner, differences are forgotten here.

• Competition: Conflicts promote competition and hence result in increased efforts. Some people are motivated by conflict and serve competition and lead to high level of effort and output.

• Challenge: Conflicts test the abilities and capabilities of the individuals and group. It creates challenges for them for which they have to be dynamic and creative.

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• Stimulation for change: Conflicts stimulates change among Individual. When they are faced with conflict they might change their attitude and be ready to change themselves to meet the requirement of the situation.

• Identification of the weaknesses: identify the weaknesses and remove them.• Awareness: conflicts creates awareness what problem exists, who is involved and

how to solve the problem and allow as management to take necessary action.• High Quality Decisions: People share their information and check each other

reasoning to develop new decision.

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Individual and Group Level Conflicts

Conflicts may arise between individuals because:• of a clash of personalities, difference of opinion, bullying or harassment• of an aggressive or weak management style• some employees may feel others are treated more favorably

Conflict may arise between groups because of:• team rivalry, disagreements or resentment• a 'them and us' mentality between large groups of employees and their managers• resentment of senior management, poor morale, low motivation, disagreement over

pay, health and safety, redundancies and lack of proper consultation• Groups of people in a team tend to display a certain pattern of behavior. Four distinct

phases of a group or team's development are:• forming - the team is new, uncertain of how to behave and reserved• storming - the team argues about who should do what and how, and therefore conflict

may occur• norming - the team agree its core tasks and responsibility is assigned• performing - the team operates according to agreed norms and can progress

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Conflict Process

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Conflict Process

• Five stages in Conflicts Process:

1. Stage 1: Potential opposition or incompatibility: The first step in the conflict process is the presence of conditions that create opportunities for conflict to rise. These cause or create opportunities for conflict to rise. These causes or sources of conflict have been condenses into three general categories –

(1)Communications

(2) Structure

 (3) Personal Variables.

Communications: Different words connotations, jargon, insufficient exchange of information and noise in communication channel are all antecedent conditions to conflict. Too much communication as well as too little communication can rely foundation for conflict.

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• Structure: The term structure is used, in this context to include variables such as size, degree of specialization in the tasks assigned to group members, jurisdictional clarity, members/ goal compatibility, leadership styles, reward systems and the degree of dependence between groups.

• The size and specialization act as forces to stimulate conflict. The larger the group and the more specialized its activities, the greater the likelihood of conflict. Tenure and conflict have been found to be inversely related,. The potential for conflicts tends to be greatest when group members are younger and when turnover is high. The greater the ambiguity in defining where responsibility for action lies, the greater the potential for conflict to emerge. Such Jurisdictional ambiguity increases inter group fighting for control or resources and territory.

• Personal Variables: Certain personality types- for example individuals who are highly authoritarian and dogmatic- lead to potential conflict. Another reason for conflict is difference in value systems. Value differences are the best explanations of diverse issues such as prejudice disagreements over one’s contribution to the group and rewards one deserves.

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• Stage 2: Cognition and personalization: conflict must be perceived by the parties to it. whether or not conflict exists is a perception issue. If no one is aware of a conflict, then it is generally agreed that no conflict exists. Because conflict is perceives does not mean that is personalized. For e.g. ” A may be aware that B and A are in serious disagreements but it may not make A tense or nations and it may have no effect whatsoever on A’s affection towards B” It is the felt level , when individuals become emotionally involved that parties experience anxiety , tension or hostility. 

• Stage2 is the place in the process where the parties decide what the conflict is about and emotions plays a major role in shaping perception.

• Stage 3: Intentions: Intentions are decisions to act in a given way intentions intervene between people’s perception and emotions and their overt behavior. 

• Using two dimensions cooperativeness (the degree to which one party attempts to satisfy the other party’s concerns)and assertiveness (the degree to which one party attempts to satisfy his or her own concerns)- five conflict handling intentions can be identified.

• 1) Competing: when one person seeks to satisfy his or her own interests regardless of the impact on the other parties to the conflict, he is competing.

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• 2) Collaborating: A situation in which the parties to a conflict each desire to satisfy fully the concerns of all the parties. In collaborating, the intention of the parties are to solve the problem by clarifying differences rather than by accommodating various points of view.

• 3) Avoiding: a person may recognize that a conflict exists and want to withdraw from it or suppress it. Avoiding included trying to just ignore a conflict and avoiding others with whom you disagree.

• 4) Accommodating: The willingness of one partying a conflict top lace the opponent’s interest above his or her own.

• 5) Compromising: A situation in which each party to a conflict is wiling to give up something.

Intentions provide general guidelines for parties in a conflict situation. They define each party’s purpose. Yet people intention is not fixed. During the course of conflict, they might change because of reconceptualization or because of an emotional reaction to the behavior of other party.

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• Stage 4: Behavior: This is a stage where conflict becomes visible. The behavior stage includes the statements, actions and reactions made by the conflicting parties. These conflict behaviors are usually overt attempt to implement each party’s intentions.

• Stage 5 Outcomes: The action reaction interplay between the conflicting parties result in consequences. These outcomes may be functional in that the conflict results in an improvement in the group’s performance, or dysfunctional in that it hinders group performance.

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Levels and Typesof Conflict

Individual

Group

Organization

Type of conflictLevel of conflict

Within and between organizations

Within and between groups

Within and between individuals

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Levels and Typesof Conflict

• Intra organization conflict– Conflict that occurs within an organization– At interfaces of organization functions– Can occur along the vertical and horizontal dimensions of the

organization• Vertical conflict: between managers and subordinates• Horizontal conflict: between departments and work groups

• Intragroup conflict– Conflict among members of a group– Early stages of group development– Ways of doing tasks or reaching group's goals

• Intergroup conflict: between two or more groups

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Levels and Typesof Conflict

• Interpersonal conflict– Between two or more people– Differences in views about what should be done– Efforts to get more resources– Differences in orientation to work and time in different parts of an

organization• Intrapersonal conflict

– Occurs within an individual• Threat to a person’s values• Feeling of unfair treatment• Multiple and contradictory(denying) sources of socialization

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Levels and Typesof Conflict

• Interorganization conflict– Between two or more organizations– Not competition– Examples: suppliers and distributors

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Steps to Manage Conflicts

Maccoby and Studder identify five steps to managing conflict.

1. Anticipate – Take time to obtain information that can lead to conflict.

2. Prevent – Develop strategies before the conflict occurs.

3. Identify – If it is interpersonal or procedural, move to quickly manage it.

4. Manage – Remember that conflict is emotional

5. Resolve – React, without blame, and you will learn through dialogue.

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When the following conditions are in place, the likelihood of a positive resolution increases:

• Commitment to find a resolution that is mutually beneficial.• Trust.• Frame of mind that there is more than one way to look at the issues.• Belief that a solution exists.• Commitment to stay in the communication process.

Steps for Positive Resolution