A Presentation Report

On

CONFLICT MANAGEMENT:

Submitted to:

DR. ARUN KUMAR PANDEY

Amity University Uttar Pradesh

Subject: ORGANIZATION BEHAVIOUR

Submitted by:
AKSHAY KAPOOR
(16)
MALVIKA GUPTA
(24)
HARSHITA SINGH
(20)
VIVEKA BATRA (39)
SOUMARGHA SEN
(14)

CONFLICT MANAGEMENT
Conflict may be defined as a struggle or contest between people with opposing
needs, ideas, beliefs, values, or goals. Conflict on teams is inevitable; however, the
results of conflict are not predetermined. Conflict might escalate and lead to nonproductive results, or conflict can be beneficially resolved and lead to quality final
products. Therefore, learning to manage conflict is integral to a high-performance
team. Although very few people go looking for conflict, more often than not,
conflict results because of miscommunication between people with regard to their
needs, ideas, beliefs, goals, or values. Conflict management is the principle that all
conflicts cannot necessarily be resolved, but learning how to manage conflicts can
decrease the odds of non productive escalation. Conflict management involves
acquiring skills related to conflict resolution, self-awareness about conflict modes,
conflict communication skills, and establishing a structure for management of
conflict in your environment. Conflict management is the practice of being able to
identify and handle conflicts sensibly, fairly, and efficiently. Since conflicts in a
business are a natural part of the workplace, it is important that there are people
who understand conflicts and know how to resolve them. This is important in
today's market more than ever. Everyone is striving to show how valuable they are
to the company they work for and, at times, this can lead to disputes with other
members of the team.

TYPES OF CONFLICT
1. Conflict within the individual:
The conflict within the individual is usually value related, where role playing
expected of the individual does not conform with the values and beliefs held by the
individual. For example, a secretary may have to lie on instructions that her boss is
not in the office to avoid an unwanted visitor or an unwanted telephone call.
This may cause a conflict within the mind of the secretary who may have
developed an ethic of telling the truth. Similarly, many Indians who are vegetarians

and come to America and find it very hard to remain vegetarians may question the
necessity of the vegetarian philosophy thus causing a conflict in their minds.
Conflict within an individual can also arise when a person has to choose between
two equally desirable alternatives or between two equally undesirable goals.

2. Interpersonal Conflict:
Interpersonal conflict involves conflict between two or more individuals and is
probably the most common and most recognized conflict. This may involve
conflict between two managers who are competing for limited capital and
manpower resources.
This conflict can become further acute when the scarce resources cannot be shared
and must be obtained. Similarly, if there are two equally deserving professors and
they are both up for promotion, but only one of them can be promoted because of
budget and positional constraints, then this could result in interpersonal conflict
between the two professors.
Another type of interpersonal conflict can relate to disagreements over goals and
objectives of the organization. For example, some members of a board of directors
of a school may want to offer courses in sex education while others may find this
proposal morally offensive thus causing interpersonal conflict among the members
of the board. These interpersonal conflicts are often the results of personality
clashes. People with widely different characteristics and attitudes are bound to
have views and aims that are inconsistent with the views and aims of others.

3. Conflict between the individual and the group:

All formal groups and informal groups have established certain norms of behaviour
and operational standards which all members are expected to adhere to. An
individual member may want to remain within the group for social needs but may
disagree with the group goals and the methods to achieve such goals.
For example, if a group is going on strike for some reasons, some members of the
group may not agree with these reasons or simply may not be economically able to
afford to go on strike, thus causing conflict with the group.
Mutiny on the Bounty is a classic example of rebellion of the crew of the ship
against their leader, based upon the treatment that the crew received at the hands of
their leader.

4. Intergroup conflict:
An organization is an interlocking network of groups, departments, sections or
work teams. The intergroup conflicts are not so much personal in nature as they are
due to factors inherent in the organizational structure. For example, there is active
and continuous conflict between the union and the management.
One of the most common conflict is between the line and the staff members of the
organization. The line managers may resent their dependence on staff for
information and recommendations. The staff may resent their inability to
implement directly their own decisions and recommendations. This
interdependence causes intergroup conflict.
These inter-unit conflicts can also be caused by inconsistent rewards and differing
performance criteria for different units and groups. For example, sales people who
depend upon their commission as a reward for their efforts may promise their
customers certain quantity of the product and delivery times which the production
department may find impossible to meet thus causing conflict between the two
units.
Different functional groups within the organization may come into conflict with
each other because of their different specific objectives. There are some
fundamental differences among different units of the organization both in the
structure as well as operations and processes and thus each unit develops its own
organizational sub-structure. These sub-structures according to Lawrence and
Lorsch, differ in terms of:
(a) Goal orientation which can be highly specific for production but highly fluid
for research and development,
(b) Time orientation which is short run for sales and long run for research,
(c) Formality of structure which is highly informal for research and highly formal
in production and
(d) Supervisory style which may be more democratic in one area as compared to
another area.

Intergroup conflict may arise between day shift workers and night shift workers
who might blame each other for anything that goes wrong from missing tools to
maintenance problems.

5. Inter-organizational conflict:
Conflict also occurs between organizations which are dependent upon each other in
some way. This conflict may be between buyer organizations and supplier
organizations about quantity, quality and delivery times of raw materials and other
policy issues.
Such conflict could also be between unions and organizations employing their
members, between government agencies that regulate certain organizations and the
organizations that are affected by them.

Five stages of conflict:

Latent Stage: Participants not yet aware of conflict
Perceived Stage: Participants aware a conflict exists
Felt Stage: Stress and anxiety
Manifest Stage: Conflict is open and can be observed
Aftermath Stage: Outcome of conflict, resolution or dissolution

In the Latent Stage, of conflict, people may be in conflict without being aware
that they are in conflict. An example of this could be that a server at a restaurant
may have inputted an order incorrectly and the food being made for a table is the
wrong food. The manager and table do not know this yet and conflict has not
arisen yet.
The Perceived Stage is when the people involved in a conflict become fully
aware that there is a conflict, so the table has now been made aware and

complained to management. Management will now go over to speak with the

employee about it.
During the Felt Stage stress and anxiety are felt by one or more of the
participants due to the conflict, the manager does not enjoy causing conflict and
the employee does not enjoy being under scrutiny.

This will undoubtedly lead to the Manifest Stage, during which the conflict can
be observed. The Manifest Stage can take a number of shapes including: e-mails,
phone calls, phone messages, face-to-face meetings, or any situation in which the
conflict could be observed. When the manager pulls the employee aside to speak
with him or her, others perceive the conflict and it has manifested.

The final stage is the Aftermath Stage, which takes place when there is some
outcome of the conflict, such as a resolution to, or dissolution of, the problem.
When the manager corrects the mistake with the customer and takes appropriate
steps to ensure the server is more careful in the future.

Conflict Management Styles

Conflict happens and how an employee responds and resolves conflict will limit or
enable that employee's success. Here are five conflict styles that a manager will
follow according to Kenneth W. Thomas and Ralph H. Kilmann:

Accommodating: An accommodating manager is one who cooperates to a

high degree. This may be at the manager's own expense and actually work against
that manager's own goals, objectives, and desired outcomes. This approach is
effective when the other person is the expert or has a better solution.

Avoiding: Avoiding an issue is one way a manager might attempt to resolve

conflict. This type of conflict style does not help the other staff members reach
their goals, and does not help the manager who is avoiding the issue assertively

pursue his or her own goals. However, this works well when the issue is trivial or
when the manager has no chance of winning.

Collaborating: Managers become partners or pair up with the each other to

achieve both of their goals in this style. This is how managers break free of the
'win-lose' paradigm and seek the 'win-win.' This can be effective for complex
scenarios where managers need to find a novel solution.

Competing: This is the 'win-lose' approach. A manager is acting in a very

assertive way to achieve his or her goals, without seeking to cooperate with other
employees, and it may be at the expense of those other employees. This approach
may be appropriate for emergencies when time is of the essence.

Compromising: This is the 'lose-lose' scenario where neither person or

manager really achieves what they want. This requires a moderate level of
assertiveness and cooperation. It may be appropriate for scenarios where you need
a temporary solution, or where both sides have equally important goals.

Outcomes of conflict

Win-win outcomes occur when each side of a dispute feels they have won. Since
both sides benefit from such a scenario, any resolutions to the conflict are likely to
be accepted voluntarily. The process of win win outcomes aims to achieve,
through cooperation, win-win outcomes.
Win-lose situations result when only one side perceives the outcome as positive.
Thus, win-lose outcomes are less likely to be accepted voluntarily.
Lose-lose means that all parties end up being worse off.

What factors can affect our conflict modes?

Some factors that can impact how we respond to conflict are listed below with
explanations of how these factors might affect us.
Gender
Some of us were socialized to use particular conflict modes because of our gender.
For example, some males, because they are male, were taught always stand up to
someone, and, if you have to fight, then fight. If one was socialized this way he
will be more likely to use assertive conflict modes versus using cooperative modes.
Self-concept
How we think and feel about ourselves affect how we approach conflict. Do we
think our thoughts, feelings, and opinions are worth being heard by the person with
whom we are in conflict.
Expectations
Do we believe the other person or our team wants to resolve the conflict.
Situation
Where is the conflict occurring, do we know the person we are in conflict with,
and is the conflict personal or professional.
Position (Power)
What is our power status relationship,(that is, equal, more, or less) with the person
with whom we are in conflict.
Practice
Practice involves being able to use all five conflict modes effectively, being able
to determine what conflict mode would be most effective to resolve the conflict,
and the ability to change modes as necessary while engaged in conflict.

 Determining the best mode

Through knowledge about conflict and through practice we develop a conflict
management understanding and can, with ease and limited energy, determine what
conflict mode to use with the particular person with whom we are in conflict.
Communication skills
The essence of conflict resolution and conflict management is the ability to
communicate effectively. People who have and use effective communication will
resolve their conflicts with greater ease and success.
Life experiences
As mentioned earlier, we often practice the conflict modes we saw our primary
caretaker(s) use unless we have made a conscious choice as adults to change or
adapt our conflict styles. Some of us had great role models teach us to manage our
conflicts and others of us had less-than-great role models. Our life experiences,
both personal and professional, have taught us to frame conflict as either
something positive that can be worked through or something negative to be
avoided and ignored at all costs.