1. Dr. Paul W. Mulvey Alumni Distinguished Professor
Conflict Management
Dr. Paul W. Mulvey
Alumni Distinguished Professor

2. Conflict Management Conflict Defined Sources of Conflict
Personality, Culture, & Conflict
Strategies for Managing Conflict
Framing
National Conflict: ACA Obamacare, Immigration
International Conflict 2

3. Quick Assignment Review
Assignments:
1. Complete and Score the “Strategies for Managing Conflict”
2.Have a co-worker complete the survey for you (they answer the questions about you, not themselves), compare primary and secondary strategies they noted versus yours.

4. Quick Assignment Review
STUDY QUESTIONS
What are your primary and secondary conflict management strategies?
Have a co-worker complete the survey…are your perceptions consistent with their perception?
Think of a specific conflict with an employee, manager, or co-worker. What do you think was the source of the conflict?

5. Conflict Management What is conflict? What conflict do you experience?
Why manage conflict?
Intra-team
Task or relationship oriented
Intra-Organizational
What are the symptoms of conflict? 5

6. Emerging View: Task V. Relationship Conflict
Task conflict
Focuses on the issue (task), not other’s competence
Debate clarifies/tests logic
Relationship conflict
Tries to undermine opponent’s worth/competence
Relies on status, assertive behavior
Threatens self-concept, reduces trust

7. Separating Task from Relationship Conflict
Problem: Relationship conflict often develops during task conflict.
Minimize relationship conflict through:
Emotional intelligence and emotional stability
Cohesive team
Supportive team norms

8. Is Conflict Good or Bad? Negative Outcomes Positive Outcomes
Lower performance
Higher stress, dissatisfaction, and turnover
Less information sharing and coordination
Increased organizational politics
Wasted resources
Weakened team cohesion
Better decision making by testing logic of arguments, questioning assumptions
More responsive to the changing environment
Stronger team cohesion (conflict between the team and outside opponents)

9. The Conflict Process

10. Organizational Outcomes
Conflict and Outcomes
High
Low
Organizational Outcomes
Jehn (1995) Results show that whether conflict was beneficial depended on the type of conflict and the structure of the group in terms of task type, task interdependence, and group norms. Relationship and task conflicts were negatively associated with individuals' satisfaction, liking of other group members, and intent to remain in the group. In groups performing very routine tasks, disagreements about the task were detrimental to group functioning. In
contrast, in groups performing non-routine tasks, disagreements about the tasks did not have a detrimental effect, and in some cases, such disagreements were actually beneficial. Contrary to expectations, norms encouraging open discussion of conflict were not always advantageous. The results suggest that while such norms were associated with an increase in the number and intensity of relationship conflicts, they did not increase members' ability to deal
with the conflicts constructively.
Low High
Level of Task Conflict 10

11. Conflict: Source & Focus
Source of Conflict
Focus
Issues
People
Personal Differences
Informational Deficiency
Role Incompatibility
Environmental Stress
Culture
Relationship Conflict and Task conflict
Relationship
How much friction is there among members in your work unit?
How much are personality conflicts evident in your work unit?
How much tension is there among members in your work unit?
How much emotional conflict is there among members in your work unit?
Task
How often do people in your work unit disagree about opinions regarding the work being done?
How frequently are there conflicts about ideas in your work unit?
How much conflict about the work you do is there in your work unit?
To what extent are there differences of opinion in your work unit?
Focus
Perceptions and Expectations (e.g., “I thought you said you were an expert on…)
Misinformation and Misrepresentation (e.g., “I didn’t get that that you ‘say’ you sent to me”)
Goals and Responsibilities (e.g., “I can’t write a good summary report without good research”)
Resource Scarcity and Uncertainty (e.g., “We don’t have enough time left to design and make a great figure for the report”)
Cultural Differences
(e.g., “They don’t get to the point and they want to revisit issues already covered”)

12. Does culture affect conflict?
Hofstede’s Cultural Differences
Power Distance
Individualism v. Collectivism
Masculinity v. Femininity
Uncertainty Avoidance
Long Term Orientation
Indulgence v. Restraint
What dimensions are most problematic for conflict?
Pass out Hofestede dimensions

13. Conflict Management Strategies
High Yielding, Obliging Problem
or Accommodating Solving,
Integrating or
Collaborating
Compromising
Dominating
Low Avoiding Forcing or
Competing
Agreeableness or Cooperation
Low High
Assertiveness 13

14. Conflict: Rules of Engagement
Work with more rather than less information
Focus on facts
Develop multiple alternatives to enrich level of debate
Share commonly agreed-upon goals
Inject humor in the decision process
Maintain a balanced power structure
Resolve issues without forcing consensus.
Eisenhardt, et al. (1997). How management teams can have a good fight.
Harvard Business Review (July-August), 77-85

15. When Should You Use Each Conflict Management Strategy?
Dominating, Forcing, or Competing. 
Compromising
Yielding, Obliging or Accommodating
Problem Solving, Integrating or Collaborating
Avoiding
In a small group list situations that would benefit from each approach
Hand out Conflict management strategies

16. Conflict Management / Negotiation Guidelines1
Separating People From Issues
Three problems
Different Perceptions
Emotions – Amygdilia “Hijack”
Communication
Active listening
Focus on interests, not positions
Generate options
Use objective criteria
1Fisher, Ury, and Patton (2011). Getting to Yes.

17. If we have time and interest…
Framing

18. Nortel Corporate Presentation
Framing
The manner in which we process new information is related to our deeply held worldviews and assumptions
© 2004 Nortel

19. Nortel Corporate Presentation
Framing
Is how we process information
People are not blank slates
We use mental shortcuts to make sense of the world
Incoming information provides cues that connect to the picture/stories in our heads
Once these pictures/stories are evoked, we stop processing
© 2004 Nortel

20. Nortel Corporate Presentation
Inquiry vs. Advocacy
View conflict management & decision making as a process, not an event. Balance the inquiry method with the advocacy method
Garvin & Roberto (2001). What you don’t know about making decisions. Harvard Business Review.
© 2004 Nortel

21. Nortel Corporate Presentation
What is the difference between advocacy and inquiry?
Advocates:
View it as a contest
Lobby
Strive to persuade others
Defend their position
Selectively share only advantageous info
Downplay their own weaknesses
Inquirers:
Ask questions
Present balanced arguments
Remain open to alternatives, thus have more options
Concede weaknesses
Accept constructive criticism
© 2004 Nortel

22. Empirical Study Losada, M., & Heaphy, E. (2004).
Nortel Corporate Presentation
Empirical Study Losada, M., & Heaphy, E. (2004).
Observed 60 business teams
High Performance (n = 15)
Medium Performance (n = 26)
Low Performance (n = 19)
Coded all speech acts
Positive-Negative
Inquiry-Advocacy
Self-Other
Created a nonlinear dynamics model of observed interactions + ?
© 2004 Nortel

23. Nortel Corporate Presentation
Dynamics of Business Teams
Emotional
Space
Losada, M., & Heaphy, E. (2004). The role of positivity and connectivity
in the performance of business teams: A nonlinear dynamics model.
American Behavioral Scientist, 47(6), 740–765.
Inquiry / Advocacy
© 2004 Nortel

24. Questions?

25. Further Reading
Eisenhardt, et al. (1997). How management teams can have a good fight. Harvard Business Review (July-August),
Fisher, Ury, and Patton (2011). Getting to Yes.
Gallo, A. (2017). How people with different conflict management styles can work together, Harvard Business Review, July, online.
Lewicki, R.J., Saunders, B. and Minton, D.M. (2016). Essentials of Negotiation