Chapter 10
Conflict and Negotiation
Don’t neglect the power of
“yes”
Chapter 10 Study
Questions
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?
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What is the nature of
conflict in organizations?
Conflicts occur whenever disagreements exist in a
social setting or when emotional antagonisms
create friction between individuals or groups.
• Substantive
A fundamental disagreement over ends or goals to be
pursued, and the means for their
accomplishment.
• Emotional
Interpersonal difficulties that arise over feelings of
anger, mistrust, dislike, fear, resentment, and the like.
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What is the nature of
conflict in organizations?
"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
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What is the nature of
conflict in organizations?
Functional conflict
• Results in constructive, positive benefits
to individuals, the team, or the
organization.
Dysfunctional conflict
• Destructive to an individual or team.
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Figure 10.1 Functional and
Dysfunctional Conflict
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What is the nature of
conflict in organizations?
Potential benefits of functional conflict
• Brings important problems to the surface so
they can be addressed.
• Causes decisions to be carefully
considered.
• Increases amount of information used for
decision making.
• Provides opportunities for creativity.
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What is the nature of
conflict in organizations?
Potential outcomes of dysfunctional conflict
• Diverts energies.
• Hurts group cohesion;
• Promotes interpersonal hostilities.
• Creates a negative environment.
• Can decrease performance and job
satisfaction.
• Can contribute to absenteeism and
job turnover.
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What is the nature of
conflict in organizations?
Culture and conflict
• Culture and cultural differences must be considered for
their conflict potential.
• Sensitivity and respect when working across cultures can
often tap the performance advantages of both diversity
and constructive conflict.
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How can conflict be
managed?
Conflict resolution
• Situation in which the underlying reasons for a
given destructive conflict are eliminated.
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Stages of Conflict
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Figure 10.2 Structural differentiation as a
potential source of conflict among functional
teams
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How can conflict be
managed ?
Conflict antecedents
• Establish the conditions from which conflicts are
likely to emerge.
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How can conflict be
managed?
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.
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How can conflict be
managed?
Manifest conflict
Expressed openly in behavior.
Conflict aftermath
Removing or correcting antecedents.
Conflict suppression
No change in antecedent conditions occurs even though the
manifest conflict behaviors may be temporarily controlled.
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How can conflict be
managed?
Causes of conflict
• Vertical conflict
Occurs between levels and commonly involves
supervisor-subordinate and team-leader
disagreements over resources, goals, deadlines, or
performance results.
• Horizontal conflict
Occurs between persons or group working at the
same hierarchical level.
• Linestaff conflict
Involves disagreements between line and staff
personnel over who has authority and control over
decisions
on matters
10Copyright © 2014
John Wiley
& Sons, such as budgets, technology,
How can conflict be
managed?
Role ambiguity conflicts
• Occur when the communication of task expectations is
unclear or upsetting in some way.
Task and workflow interdependencies
• Occur when people or units are required to cooperate
to meet challenging goals.
Domain ambiguities
• Occur
when individuals or teams lack adequate
task direction or goals and misunderstand such
things as customer jurisdiction or scope authority.
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How can conflict be
managed?
Resource scarcity
• When resources are scarce, working
relationships are likely to suffer.
Power or value asymmetries
• Occur when interdependent people or teams
differ substantially from one another in status
and influence or in values.
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How can conflict be
managed?
Indirect strategies:
Managed interdependence
Decoupling, or taking action to eliminate or reduce
the required contact between conflicting parties.
• Buffering is another approach that can be used when
the inputs of one team are the outputs of another.
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How can conflict be
managed?
Appeal to common goals
• Focusing the attention of potentially conflicting
individuals and teams on one mutually
desirable conclusion.
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How can conflict be
managed?
Upward referral
• Problems are moved from the level of conflicting
individual or teams and referred up the hierarchy for
more senior managers to address.
Altering scripts and myths
• Superficial management managed by scripts, or
behavioral routines, that become part of the
organization’s culture.
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Figure 10.3 Direct conflict
management strategies.
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How can conflict be
managed?
Loselose conflict
• Nobody gets what he or she wants;
underlying reasons for remain
unresolved. Strategies include:
Avoidance.
Accommodation- playing down differences.
Compromise- giving up something valued.
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How can conflict be
managed?
WinLose conflict
• One party achieves its desires at the
expense and to the exclusion of the other
party’s desires.
Competition - achieve domination through
force, superior skill, or domination.
Authoritative command – formal authority
used to end conflict.
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