organizational behavior: an introduction to your life in organizations

©2007 Prentice Hall

Organizational Behavior:An Introduction to

Your Life in Organizations

Chapter 14

Conflicts Good and Bad


Preview

• What is conflict and why is it a major factor in organizational life?

• In general, how do managers deal with conflict?• How should you approach interpersonal conflicts?• What should you do when your team members have a

conflict?• How should you intervene when teams are in conflict

with each other?• What happens when employees have a conflict with their

organization?• What are some cross-cultural differences in approaches

to conflict, and why do they matter?


What is conflict and why is it a major factor in organizational life?

• Conflict is the awareness on the part of two or more parties that they have incompatible goals, and that one party has, or will, negatively influence the other’s pursuit of those goals

• Manifest conflict has been observed

• Latent conflict remains hidden


Types of conflict

• Relationship conflict: an awareness of interpersonal incompatibilities that leads to tension and friction

• Task conflict: an awareness of differences of opinions and viewpoints while doing a task

• Process conflict: an awareness of differences of opinion about how a task should be accomplished


Is conflict constructive or destructive?

• Constructive conflict: stimulates the search for new facts, methods or solutions increases the cohesiveness and performance within each group reduce perceived power differences and therefore improve

problem-solving reduces the probability of a more serious conflict

• Destructive conflict can result in: Conscious efforts by one party to block the goal achievement of

another party. Groups that are so intent on competing with each other that they

lose their focus on organizational goals. Emotions and attitudes that interfere with problem solving and

implementation


Recognize the myths about conflict

• There is always an answer or solution to a conflict

• Managing conflict is primarily about doing things differently

• Peace is the absence of conflict

• More communication always creates more clarity


If the conflict is destructive, reduce it

• Use behavioral interventions to help individuals and groups learn strategies for managing conflict

• Use structural interventions to redesign how parties in conflict interact


If the conflict is constructive, stimulate it

• Shake things up and energize the organization: bring in employees with new views and styles alter key organizational structures to foster

more interdependence designate devil’s advocates to critique

majority opinions issue threatening or ambiguous messages


Recognize the sources of interpersonal conflict

• Misunderstandings

• Resentments and differences

• The belief that goals are competitive

• Destructive criticism


Misunderstandings

• Reasons they occur: naïve realism: the belief that their own views

are objective and fact-based, while those of others are not

incompatibility error: the belief that the other party’s interests are, inevitably, completely opposed to one’s own

transparency overestimation: the belief that what we are saying is perfectly obvious to the other party


Resentments and differences

• Resentments arise when people perceive they are being treated unfairly

• Income inequality is a source of difference that causes resentment and conflict


Destructive criticism

• Destructive criticism tears individuals down and demeans them

• Destructive criticism globalizes the problem or blames the whole person

• When individuals receive destructive criticism they are likely to become angry and tense


Should you help your subordinates work through a conflict?

• Dialogue is the process in which two conflicting parties “directly engage each other and focus on the conflict between them”

• Factors arguing against using dialogue: only useful when co-workers believe their interaction

is more likely to be useful than stressful people avoid dialogue cognitive factors may impede a person’s ability to truly

understand what is going on


What happens when conflict occurs between a boss and a subordinate?

• Conflicts that should be understood and resolved are likely to turn into latent and unresolved conflicts that affect productivity

• Bosses may abuse their power (bullying)


How can you deal with your anger?

• Recognize that you are angry• Decide how to express your anger: where, how,

and why• Recognize that the target of your anger will be

stressed by it• Learn to express anger effectively:

Describe your feelings and their causes. Be specific about what behaviors have angered you

Do not judge the other person. Be consistent in your presentation: Avoid smiling while expressing anger

• Go out of your way to form strong relationships that will allow direct discussions


How does task conflict affect team performance?

• When conflict grows in intensity, it eventually gets to a level that does reduce performance

• Task conflict is more useful in teams performing complex tasks like project work and less useful, and even counterproductive, in teams performing routine tasks like production

• Teams that bring information diversity to the table are likely to conflict and, because of this conflict, improve their performance


How does relationship conflict affect team performance?

• Relationship conflict occurs when people in the team confront each other about things not related to their work

• Relationship conflict within a group results in friction, frustration and personality clashes

• Relationship conflict strongly and negatively affects team performance and team member satisfaction


When is conflict useful to teams?

• Effective patterns of conflict: generally low levels of relationship conflict,

with a rise in relationship conflict near project deadlines

moderate levels of task conflict at the midpoint in the group’s interactions

low but increasing levels of process conflict as a project continues


How should you manage the conflicts within your team?

• Discuss issues with others as you would like them to discuss issues with you.

• Bring in a variety of relevant sources who are likely to disagree with the group.

• Assign subgroups or individuals to play the role of dissenter

• Respect others by criticizing their ideas rather than their motives, personality, intelligence, or integrity.

• Create solutions by combining ideas from more than one person

• Establish norms of openness by which all group members are encouraged to express opinions, doubts, and half-formed ideas

• Protect group members’ right to dissent and free speech


How should you intervene when teams are in conflict with each

other?• Intergroup conflict is a natural outcome of

competition for scarce resources

• Mere knowledge of another group’s presence can be sufficient to trigger intergroup discrimination


Why is intergroup conflict destructive?

• As in-group members develop loyalty to one another, they stereotype and malign out-groups

• It can negatively affect some individuals in the winning group


Why is intergroup conflict constructive?

• It encourages more communication between teams and within teams, which leads the teams to increase their understanding of complex problems

• It sometimes motivates individual group members

• May positively affect loafers


How should you, as a manager, deal with intergroup conflict?

• A manager might choose to use: problem solving, which is developing a

solution that is acceptable to both parties, contention, which is imposing one group’s will

on the other, yielding, which is satisfying one group’s needs

at the expense of the other group, or avoidance, minimizing the importance of the

issues and evading participation in the conflict.


What are the most important employee dispute resolution

techniques?• Disputes are often supervised by an

ombudsperson or administrator who is outside the usual management hierarchy but who has a direct link to upper management

• Mediation: when two parties engage a neutral third party to help them negotiate an agreement

• Arbitration: when two parties submit their grievance to a third party who makes the decision for them


What is the role of labor unions?

• Labor unions are organizations of employees formed to protect and advance their members’ interests

• A union is established (certified) through an NLRB-supervised secret ballot election among qualifying employees

• It can be abolished (decertified) in a similar process

• Once a union is certified, it is empowered to engage in collective bargaining with management to establish human resources practices over the period of a contract


How do companies work with dissent and whistle-blowing?

• Dissent is the expression of conflict between employees and their organization

• Some companies try to reduce and, if possible, eliminate dissent

• Others encourage dissent with an open door policy• Whistle-blowing is the disclosure by former or current

organization members of illegal, immoral or illegitimate practices under the control of their employers, to persons or organizations that may be able to correct the wrongdoing

• It is desirable to encourage internal whistle-blowing while avoiding the need for external whistle-blowing


Cross-cultural models of conflict

• Confrontation model: which emphasizes individuality and allows for the aggressive pursuit of individual goals (U.S.)

• Harmony model: best fit for cultures that emphasize intragroup harmony, consensus, and absence of conflict (Japan, China)

• Regulative model: cultures that are highly individualistic and, at the same time, highly motivated to avoid uncertainty (Germany)


Why do cultural differences matter?

• Misunderstandings between cultures can reduce their ability to effectively negotiate together

• Managers moving between cultures must take attitudes toward conflict into account

• Conflict styles in other cultures may be changing


Apply what you have learned

• World Class Company: Southwest Airlines and Continental Airlines

• Advice from the Pro’s

• Gain Experience

• Can you solve this manager’s problem?


Summary – What is conflict and why is it a major factor in organizational

life?• Conflict is an awareness of incompatible

goals and the belief that one party will negatively influence the other party’s pursuit of their goals

• The three main spheres of conflict are relationships, tasks and processes


Summary – In general, how do managers deal with conflict?

• Managers: diagnose conflicts intervene to reduce unproductive conflicts sometimes intervene to stimulate conflict

• They also recognize common myths about conflict


Summary – How should you approach interpersonal conflicts?

• Main sources of interpersonal conflict in organizational life are: misunderstandings resentments and differences the belief that goals are competitive destructive criticism

• Dialoguing can be used to manage a conflict, but only when the conflicting parties are effective communicators and believe they can achieve their mutual goals


Summary – What should you do when your team members have a

conflict?• Some level of task conflict within a group

probably increases its performance• Too much conflict, however, reduces

performance• Managers should take immediate steps to

reduce relationship conflict, but they should evaluate a task conflict to see whether or not it might be useful to the group decision making


Summary – How should you intervene when teams are in conflict

with each other?• Groups conflict because of competition over

scarce resources, and because individuals identify themselves with their group and want to see themselves favorably in comparison with others

• Intergroup conflict can may enhance intergroup problem solving, and intragroup motivation and performance, but it can also create suspicion and stereotypes of the out-group and punish individual members who sacrifice for their group


Summary – What happens when employees have a conflict with their

organization?• Companies use a variety of dispute resolution

techniques to avoid escalated disputes. These include mediation, arbitration, and mediation-arbitration

• In addition, labor unions protect and advance their members’ interests in companies

• Whistle-blowers disclose immoral or illegitimate practices under the control of their employers to persons or organizations that may be able to correct the wrongdoing


Summary – What are some cross-cultural differences in approaches to

conflict, and why do they matter?• Some cultures favor a confrontational

model, while others prefer a harmony model or a regulative model

organizational behavior: an introduction to your life in organizations

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