1. Chapter Eleven Managing Conflict McGraw-Hill/Irwin
Organizational Behavior: Key Concepts, Skills & Best Practices, 3/e
Copyright © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

2. Major Trends that Make Conflict Inevitable
Constant change
Greater employee diversity
More teams (virtual and self-managed)
Less face-to-face communication
Global economy with increased cross-cultural dealings

3. A Modern View of Conflict
Conflict - one party perceives its interests are being opposed or set back by another party

4. Perspectives on Conflict
Traditional View
All conflicts are dysfunctional
Focus is on conflict eradication or resolution
Recent View
Some degree of conflict is necessary
Both too little and too much conflict are bad for organizational health
Focus is on conflict management
Ex) mudfish and catfish

5. Functional versus Dysfunctional Conflict
Serves organization’s interests
Having an optimal level of conflict
Dysfunctional conflict
Threatens organization’s interests

6. Antecedents of Conflict
Incompatible personalities or value systems.
Overlapping or unclear job boundaries.
Competition for limited resources.
Interdepartment/intergroup competition.
Inadequate communication.
Interdependent tasks.
Organizational complexity

7. Antecedents of Conflict
Unreasonable or unclear policies, standards, or rules.
Unreasonable deadlines or extreme time pressure.
Collective decision making
Decision making by consensus.
Unmet expectations.
Unresolved or suppressed conflict.

8. Major Forms of Conflict
Personality conflict
Interpersonal opposition driven by personal dislike or disagreement
Intergroup conflict
Conflict among work groups, teams, and departments
Cross-cultural conflict
Conflict among individuals or larger social units resulting from cultural misunderstanding

9. Conflict Management When conflict is too high Reduce conflict
When conflict is too low
Stimulate conflict

10. Conflict Management : Conflict resolution
Approaches of conflict resolution
Alternative styles for handling conflict

11. Conflict Management : Conflict resolution
Integrating
Interested parties confront the issue and cooperatively identify the problem, generate and weigh alternative solutions, and select a solution
Appropriate for complex issues plagued by misunderstanding; Not appropriate for resolving conflicts rooted in opposing value systems
Strength : Longer lasting impact ( cures underlying problem not symptoms)
Weakness : Very time-consuming

12. Conflict Management : Conflict resolution
Obliging (Smoothing)
Involves playing down differences while emphasizing commonalities
Appropriate when it is possible to eventually get something in return ; Inappropriate for complex or worsening problems
Strength : Encouraging cooperation
Weakness : Temporary fix not curing underlying problems; Other party may exploit you

13. Conflict Management : Conflict resolution
Dominating (Forcing)
Relies on formal authority to force compliance
Appropriate when an unpopular solution must be implemented and when one has power ; inappropriate in an open and participative climate
Strength : Speed
Weakness : Can breeds resentment

14. Conflict Management : Conflict resolution
Avoiding
Involves either passive withdrawal from the problem or active suppression of the issue
Appropriate for trivial issues or when the costs of confrontation outweigh the benefits of resolving the conflict ; Inappropriate for difficult and worsening problems
Strength : It buys time in unfolding or ambiguous situations
Weakness : Underlying problems not addressed

15. Conflict Management : Conflict resolution
Compromising
Give-and-take approach ; Split the difference
Appropriate when parties have opposite goals or possess equal power ; Inappropriate when the situation calls for something other than middle ground
Strength : Both parties get something
Weakness : Temporary fix that can stifle creative problem solving

16. Conflict Management : Conflict resolution
Third party interventions
Alternative Dispute Resolution - avoiding costly lawsuits by resolving conflicts informally or through mediation or arbitration
Types of ADR
Facilitation (Conciliation)
Peer review
Ombudsman
Mediation
Arbitration

17. Conflict Management : Conflict resolution
Others
Set superordinate (or common) goals
Increase available resources
Introduce rules for resolving conflicts
Introduce external threats

18. Conflict Management : Conflict stimulation
Devil’s advocacy - assigning someone the role of critic.
Dialectic method - fostering a debate of opposing viewpoints to better understand an issue

19. Figure 11-2

20. Conflict Management : Conflict stimulation
Others
Bring in external talents with different values and backgrounds
Introduce competition among individuals or groups
Performance-based pay or bonus
Divide the group into smaller units and have them compete among themselves