Conflict and Negotiation

What is conflict?
A process that begins when one party perceives
that another party has negatively affected, or
is about to negatively affect, something that
the first party cares about.
 What is the traditional view of conflict?

The belief that all conflict is harmful and must

be avoided.
What is the interactionist view of conflict?

The belief that conflict is not only a positive

force in a group but also an absolute necessity
for a group to perform effectively.
 What is functional conflict?
Conflict that supports the goals of the group and
improves its performance.
 What is dysfunctional conflict?
Conflict that hinders group performance.
 What are the types of conflict?
• Task conflict - Conflict over content and goals
of the work.
• Relationship conflict - Conflict based on
interpersonal relationships.
• Process conflict - Conflict over how work gets
done.
 What are the five stages of the Conflict
Process?
• Potential opposition or incompatibility
• Cognition and personalization
• Intentions
• Behavior
• Outcomes.
 Stage I: Potential Opposition or
Incompatibility
The first step in the conflict process is the
appearance of conditions that create
opportunities for conflict to arise. These
conditions need not lead directly to conflict, but
one of them is necessary if conflict is to surface.
For simplicity’s sake, we group the conditions
(which we can also look at as causes or sources of
conflict) into three general categories:
communication, structure, and personal
variables.
Stage II: Cognition and Personalization
• Perceived conflict - Awareness by one or more
parties of the existence of conditions that
create opportunities for conflict to arise.
• Felt conflict - Emotional involvement in a
conflict that creates anxiety, tenseness,
frustration, or hostility.
 Stage III: Intentions
Intentions - Decisions to act in a given way.
 What are the five conflict-handling
intentions?
• Competing - A desire to satisfy one’s interests, regardless
of the impact on the other party to the conflict.
• Collaborating - A situation in which the parties to a conflict
each desire to satisfy fully the concerns of all parties.
• Avoiding - The desire to withdraw from or suppress a
conflict.
• Accommodating - The willingness of one party in a conflict
to place the opponent’s interests above his or her own.
• Compromising - A situation in which each party to a
conflict is willing to give up something.
 Stage IV: Behavior
When most people think of conflict situations,
they tend to focus on Stage IV because this is
where conflicts become visible. The behavior
stage includes the statements, actions, and
reactions made by the conflicting parties, usually
as overt attempts to implement their own
intentions. As a result of miscalculations or
unskilled enactments, overt behaviors sometimes
deviate from these original intentions.
 What is conflict management?
The use of resolution and stimulation techniques
to achieve the desired level of conflict.
 Conflict Management Techniques
Conflict-Resolution Techniques
• Problem solving - Face-to-face meeting of the conflicting parties for the purpose of
identifying the problem and resolving it through open discussion.
• Superordinate goals - Creating a shared goal that cannot be attained without the cooperation
of each of the conflicting parties.
• Expansion of resources - When a conflict is caused by the scarcity of a resource (for example,
money, promotion, opportunities, office space), expansion of the resource can create a win-
win solution.
• Avoidance - Withdrawal from or suppression of the conflict.
• Smoothing - Playing down differences while emphasizing common interests between the
conflicting parties.
• Compromise - Each party to the conflict gives up something of value.
• Authoritative command - Management uses its formal authority to resolve the conflict and
then communicates its desires to the parties involved.
• Altering the human variable - Using behavioral change techniques such as human relations
training to alter attitudes and behaviors that cause conflict.
• Altering the structural variables - Changing the formal organization structure and the
interaction patterns of conflicting parties through job redesign, transfers, creation of
coordinating positions, and the like.
Conflict-Stimulation Techniques
• Communication - Using ambiguous or threatening messages to
increase conflict levels.
• Bringing in outsiders - Adding employees to a group whose
backgrounds, values, attitudes, or managerial styles differ from
those of present members.
• Restructuring the organization - Realigning work groups,
altering rules and regulations, increasing interdependence, and
making similar structural changes to disrupt the status quo.
• Appointing a devil’s advocate - Designating a critic to
purposely argue against the majority positions held by the
group.
 Stage V: Outcomes
• Functional Outcomes
• Dysfunctional Outcomes
• Managing Functional Conflict
 What is Negotiation?
A process in which two or more parties
exchange goods or services and attempt to
agree on the exchange rate for them.
 What is distributive bargaining?
Negotiation that seeks to divide up a fixed
amount of resources; a win–lose situation.

Savvy Negotiators - Negotiators who reveal

deadlines speed concessions from their
negotiating counterparts, making them
reconsider their position.
 What is fixed pie?
The belief that there is only a set amount of
goods or services to be divvied up between
the parties.
 What is integrative bargaining?
Negotiation that seeks one or more settlements
that can create a win–win solution.
 What are the five steps of Negotiation
Process?
(1) preparation and planning
(2) Definition of ground rules
(3) clarification and justification
(4) bargaining and problem solving
(5) closure and implementation.
 Individual Differences in Negotiation
Effectiveness
• Personality Traits in Negotiation
• Moods/Emotions in Negotiation
• Culture in Negotiations
• Gender Differences in Negotiations
 Third-Party Negotiations
There are three basic third-party roles: mediator,
arbitrator, and conciliator.
 Who is a Mediator?
A neutral third party who facilitates a negotiated
solution by using reasoning, persuasion, and
suggestions for alternatives.
 Who is an arbitrator?
A third party to a negotiation who has the
authority to dictate an agreement.
 Who is a conciliator?
A trusted third party who provides an informal
communication link between the negotiator
and the opponent.
 Summary
While many people assume conflict lowers group
and organizational performance, this assumption is
frequently incorrect. Conflict can be either
constructive or destructive to the functioning of a
group or unit. Either extreme hinders performance.
An optimal level is one that prevents stagnation,
stimulates creativity, allows tensions to be released,
and initiates the seeds of change without being
disruptive or preventing coordination of activities.
What advice can we give managers faced with excessive conflict and the need
to reduce it? Don’t assume one conflict-handling strategy will always be best!
Select a strategy appropriate for the situation. Here are some guidelines:
• Use competition when quick decisive action is needed (in emergencies),
when issues are important, when unpopular actions need to be
implemented (in cost cutting, enforcement of unpopular rules, discipline),
when the issue is vital to the organization’s welfare and you know you’re
right, and when others are taking advantage of noncompetitive behavior.
• Use collaboration to find an integrative solution when both sets of
concerns are too important to be compromised, when your objective is to
learn, when you want to merge insights from people with different
perspectives or gain commitment by incorporating concerns into a
consensus, and when you need to work through feelings that have
interfered with a relationship.
• Use avoidance when an issue is trivial or symptomatic of other issues,
when more important issues are pressing, when you perceive no chance
of satisfying your concerns, when potential disruption outweighs the
benefits of resolution, when people need to cool down and regain
perspective, when gathering information supersedes immediate decision,
and when others can resolve the conflict more effectively.
• Use accommodation when you find you’re wrong, when you need to learn
or show reasonableness, when you should allow a better position to be
heard, when issues are more important to others than to yourself, when
you want to satisfy others and maintain cooperation, when you can build
social credits for later issues, when you are outmatched and losing (to
minimize loss), when harmony and stability are especially important, and
when employees can develop by learning from mistakes.
• Use compromise when goals are important but not worth the effort of
potential disruption of more assertive approaches, when opponents with
equal power are committed to mutually exclusive goals, when you seek
temporary settlements to complex issues, when you need expedient
solutions under time pressure, and as a backup when collaboration or
competition is unsuccessful.
• Distributive bargaining can resolve disputes, but it often reduces the
satisfaction of one or more negotiators because it is confrontational and
focused on the short term. Integrative bargaining, in contrast, tends to
provide outcomes that satisfy all parties and build lasting relationships.
• Make sure you set aggressive negotiating goals and try to find creative ways
to achieve the objectives of both parties, especially when you value the
long-term relationship with the other party. That doesn’t mean sacrificing
your self-interest; rather, it means trying to find creative solutions that give
both parties what they really want.