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CONFLICT MANAGEMENT

Conflict is a social phenomenon that occurs across species, time periods, and cultures

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Introduction / Definition of Conflict? Why so much conflict? Sources of Conflict Conflict cost Conflict Management

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Introduction

Conflict is inevitable among humans. When two or more social entities (i.e., individuals, groups, organizations, and nations) come in contact with one another in attaining their objectives, their relationships may become incompatible or inconsistent. Relationships among such entities may become inconsistent when two or more of them desire a similar resource that is in short supply; when they have partially exclusive behavioral preferences regarding their joint action; or when they have different attitudes, values, beliefs, and skills

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Introduction

“Conflict is the perception of differences of interests among people” (Thompson, 1998).

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What is conflict

conflict as a process that begins when an individual or group perceives differences and opposition between itself and another individual or group about interests and resources, beliefs, values, or practices that matter to them

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Why conflict? This close connection between conflict and collaborative

work has become even stronger due to a variety of changes in the world of work and organizations.

First, conflicts are more likely to emerge because of the increasing pressures to change, adapt, and innovate with concomitant increases in workload, job insecurity, role conflict, misunderstandings, and related grievances

Second, due to globalization of economies and immigration at an increasingly larger scale, organizations face an exceedingly diverse workforce. Diversity may manifest itself in many different forms, some being more readily visible than others, and some being tied to task-relevant issues more than others. One way or the other, however, diversity is associated with conflict

Third, the growing use of Internet and no collocated interactions in which employees no longer work and communicate face-to-face puts increasing demands on communication processes and easily evokes misunderstanding and irritation

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organizational Sources of conflict

Conflict

Limited resources

Task Interdependence

Organizational structure

Goal Incompatibility

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Interpersonal Sources of conflict

Conflict

Communication Problems

CompetitiveRewardSystems

Personality differences

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Impact of conflict

Although people often view conflict as negative but its inevitable and healthy sign.

While resolving conflicts members can learn from others perspective

Costs & Benefits of Conflict

Costs of Conflict Negative emotions and stress Diversion from goals Stereotyping Destroy team cohesion Faulty decision making

Benefits of Conflict Discussion of problems Basis for change New approaches Motivate people to understand

issues better Increase in motivation and

loyalty

Conflict resolution Conflict resolution to teams vary, approaches may

depend upon their personalities, social relations Five approaches to conflict resolution

1. Avoidance; Ignore the issue that there is a problem, members hope it will settle it self

2. Accommodation; Some team members may give up their positions, but it costs team value of their opinions and ideas

3. Confrontation; Acting aggressively and try to win 4. Compromise; Balance the goal of each

participant every one has to “give in’’ a little

5. Collaboration; when both sides have important concerns, they have to search solution satisfy everyone

Conflict resolution

Managing Conflict Teams can prepare for conflicts by

creating an environment that allows for dealing with conflicts, mediators facilitators can help to resolve conflicts.

Teams often ignore or avoid to solve conflict that allows it to grow, teams should take proactive approach to conflict management by preparing for conflicts

The most important aspect of preparation for conflict is to provide a safe environment to communicate

Managing Conflict Facilitating conflicts, successful conflict

management requires developing trust among participants, believe every one want a fair solution; this requires a sense of trust that conflict management rule will not damage their relationship with team

Psychological safety encourage them to address the issue rather than to avoid it, mediator and facilitator can be helpful to resolve the solution and can control the communication, especially in highly charged situation direct contact can lead to threats.

Managing Conflict Negotiating conflicts; negotiation or

bargaining is the process by which two sides enggaged in conflict exchange offers and counter offers

The goal of managing team conflicts is to develop integrative , a ‘’win win’’ agreement

Team have to focus on areas of common interset

Structure for negotiation1. Separate people from the problem

Deal with both but separately Diagnose cause of conflict Encourage both sides to understand their

emotions

Managing Conflict2. Focus on shared interest of all parties

Focus issue not position Identify multiple interest of both sides How parties rank its goal

3. Develop many option that can be used to solve the problem

Look for areas of shared interest Practice reviewing the problem Bridging Enlarging the pie

Managing Conflict4. Evaluate options using objective

criteria Basis for decision Talk through Focus on solution

5. Try again Establish monitoring criteria agreements

are kept Teams should try to manage conflicts in

future on same criteria

Managing Conflict