What is the nature of conflict in

organizations?
How can conflict be managed?
What is the nature of negotiation in
organizations?
What are alternative strategies for
negotiation?
Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 10-2
Conflicts are disagreements that occur in
social situations.

 Substantive
 A disagreement over goals, and the means for
their accomplishment.
 Emotional
 Interpersonal difficulties that arise over feelings
of anger, mistrust, dislike, fear, and resentment.

Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 10-3

"If I had a formula for bypassing trouble, I would not pass
it round. Trouble creates a capacity to handle it.
I don't embrace trouble; that's as bad as treating it as an
enemy.
…But I do say meet it as a friend, for you'll see a lot of it and
had better be on speaking terms with it."
—Oliver Wendell Holmes

Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 10-4

 Levels of Conflict in Organizations

Interpersonal Intrapersonal Intergroup Inter-

organizational
Can be Pressure from Causes are
caused by incompatible substantive Competition
rivalries; (internal) (competition for market
personality goals or for resources) share
differences expectations or emotional

Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 10-5

Functional conflict
 Results in constructive, positive benefits to
individuals, the group, or the organization.

Dysfunctional conflict
 Destructive to an individual or team.

Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 10-6

Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 10-7
Potential benefits of functional conflict
 Surfaces important problems so they can be
addressed.

 Causes careful consideration of decisions.

 Increases information available for decision

making.

 Provides opportunities for creativity.

Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 10-8

Potential outcomes of dysfunctional conflict
 Diverts energies.

 Hurts group cohesion; erodes trust.

 Creates overall negative environment.

 Can decrease work productivity and job

satisfaction.
 Can contribute to absenteeism and job
turnover.

Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 10-9

Culture and conflict
 Culture and cultural differences must be
considered for their conflict potential.

 Cross-cultural sensitivity and respect for

differences helps defuse dysfunctional
conflict.

Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 10-10

Conflict resolution
 Situation in which the underlying reasons for
a given destructive conflict are eliminated.

Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 10-11

Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 10-12
Conflict antecedents
 Underlying reasons or conditions from which
conflicts are likely to develop.

Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 10-13

Perceived conflict
 When the antecedents become the basis for
substantive or emotional differences between
people or groups.

Felt conflict
 Conflict experienced as tension that motivates
the person to take action to reduce feelings of
discomfort.

Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 10-14

Manifest conflict
 Conflict can be manifested in actual
behaviors that attempt to remove or correct
conflict antecedents.

 Failure to resolve antecedents results in

suppression of the conflict - only to re-
emerge at a later time, or in another form.

Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 10-15

Causes of conflict
 Vertical conflict
 Occurs between hierarchical levels.

 Horizontal conflict
 Occurs between persons or groups at the same
hierarchical level.

 Line-staff conflict
 Involves disagreements over who has authority and
control over specific matters.

Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 10-16

Role ambiguity conflicts
 Occur when the communication of task expectations
proves inadequate or upsetting.

Workflow interdependencies
 Occur when people or units are required to cooperate
to meet challenging goals.

Domain ambiguities
 Occur as misunderstandings over such things as
customer jurisdiction or scope of authority.

Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 10-17

Resource scarcity
 When resources are scarce, working
relationships are likely to suffer.

Power or value asymmetries

 Occur when interdependent people or
groups differ substantially from one another
in status and influence or in values

Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 10-18

Indirect strategies:
Reduced interdependence
 Adjusting the level of interdependency
among units or individuals when
workflow conflicts exist
 Decoupling, buffering, and linking

pin strategies address specific

organizational situations.

Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 10-19

Appeal to common goals
 Focusing the attention of potentially
conflicting parties on one mutually desirable
conclusion.

Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 10-20

Hierarchical referral
 Problems are referred up the hierarchy for
more senior managers to reconcile.

Altering scripts and myths

 Superficial management of conflict by using
behavioral routines that become part of the
organization’s culture.

Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 10-21

Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 10-22
 Cooperative

Accommodating Collaborating

Unassertive Assertive
Compromise

Avoiding Competing

Uncooperative
Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 10-23
Lose-lose conflict
 Nobody gets what he or she wants;
underlying reasons remain unresolved.
Strategies include:
 Avoidance.

 Accommodation- playing down differences.

 Compromise- giving up something valued.

Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 10-24

Win-Lose conflict
 One party achieves its desires at the
expense and to the exclusion of the other
party’s desires.
 Competition - force, skill, or domination

 Authoritative command – quick and decisive

Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 10-25

Win-Win conflict
 Achieved by a blend of both high
cooperativeness and high assertiveness.
 Collaboration or problem solving

o Stresses gathering and evaluating information in

solving disputes and making choices.

Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 10-26

Think of a conflict you had with a co-
worker…
 Was it handled directly or indirectly?

 How was it resolved? Think about the

technique that was used.

 Has the conflict re-appeared?

Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 10-27

Negotiation
 The process of making joint
decisions when the parties
involved have different
preferences and goal
expectations.

Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 10-28

Substance goals
 Outcomes that relate to content issues.

Relationship goals
 Outcomes that relate to how well people
involved in the negotiations are able to work
with one another once the process is
concluded.

Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 10-29

Effective negotiation factors:
 Quality– all sides are satisfied.

 Harmony– good interpersonal relations.

 Efficiency-optimal use of time and resources.

Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 10-30

Negotiation and ethics
Negotiation is all about meeting one's interests –
this often sets up a dilemma: my interests vs.
his interests.
 To maintain good working relationships, all
participants should strive for high ethical
standards.
 Focus more on finding common ground, and less
on self interest.

Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 10-31

Lying is an overt form of unethical behavior in
organizations and in negotiations. But there are
many more subtle forms.

For example: illegal or unethical veiled threats, any sort

of bribes, kickbacks, corruption, preventing others
from participating, or making public negative
statement about them, belittling their effectiveness,
threats or negative future actions, ruining someone's
reputation without cause, etc.

Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 10-32

 Two-party • Manager negotiates directly
negotiation with one other person.

Group • Manager is part of a group

whose members are
negotiation negotiating.

Intergroup • Manager is part of a group that

is negotiating with another
negotiation group.

Constituency •Manager negotiates with other

persons, and each represents a
negotiation larger group.

Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 10-33

 Distributive  Integrative

negotiation negotiation
› Focuses on positions › Sometimes called
staked out or principled
declared by the negotiation
conflicting parties › Focuses on the
merits of the issues

Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 10-34

Distributive negotiation
 “Who is going to get this resource?”

 “Hard” distributive negotiation (win/lose)

 Each party holds out to get its own way.

 “Soft” distributive negotiation (lose/lose)

 One party is willing to make concessions.

Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 10-35

Bargaining zone
 Range between one party’s minimum
reservation point and the other party’s
maximum reservation point.

Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 10-36

Integrative negotiation
 “How can the resource best be used?”

 Less confrontational than distributive

negotiation.

 Allows a broader range of alternative

solutions to be considered.

 A win-win solution is possible.

Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 10-37

Foundations of Integrative negotiation
1. Attitudes

 Willingness to trust, share information, and ask

concrete questions.

Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 10-38

2. Behaviors

 Separate the people from the problem.

 Keep emotions in check.

 Focus on common interests to find solutions.

 Avoid premature judgments.

 Compare solution to your baseline criteria.

Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 10-39

3. Information

 Each party must know what he or she will do

if an agreement can’t be reached.

 Each party must determine what is personally

important in the situation.

 Each party must try to understand the other’s

interests.

Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 10-40

 •The pie can be expanded
“Fixed Pie” is a myth • Consider that it may not be a pie,
more like a Bundt cake.

•Taking a stand forces sticking to it.

Escalating
•Avoid fall into this trap by being a
Commitment good self-monitor.

•Always try to understand the

Overconfidence merits of the other party’s position
as well.

Too much telling and •Seek to be understood, but also,

not enough active to understand.
listening

Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 10-41

Third party negotiations
A neutral third party works with persons
involved in a negotiation to help them
resolve impasses and settle disputes.
 Arbitration
 A third party acts as a “judge” and has the power
to issue a decision that is binding on all disputing
parties

Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 10-42

Mediation
 A neutral third party tries to engage
disputing parties in a negotiated solution
through persuasion and rational argument

Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 10-43