Conflict and Negotiation

Erwin AbadDepartment of Health

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.

Arises from disagreements over the goals to attain or methods to be used to accomplish those goals.

Conflict

Traditional – early approach that assumes all conflict is bad.

Human Relations – argues that conflict is a natural occurrence in all groups and organizations.

Interactionist – encourages conflict on the grounds that a harmonious, peaceful, tranquil and cooperative group is prone to becoming static and non-responsive to needs for change and innovation.

Views about Conflict

Task Conflict – relates to the content and goals of the work.

Relationship Conflict – focuses on interpersonal relationships.

Process Conflict – relates to how the work gets done.

Types of Conflict

Conflict Process

Stage I: Potential Opposition or Incompatibility

Presence of conditions that create opportunities for conflict to arise.

Sources of Conflict1. Structural Factors 2. Personal Factors3. Communication

Structural◦ Size and specialization of jobs◦ Jurisdictional clarity/ambiguity◦ Member/goal incompatibility◦ Leadership styles (close or participative)◦ Reward systems (win-lose)◦ Dependence/interdependence of groups

Personal Variables◦ Differing individual value systems◦ Personality types

Communication◦ Semantic difficulties, misunderstandings, and “noise”

Stage II: Cognition and Personalization

If the conditions in Stage I affect something that one party cares about, then the potential for opposition or incompatibility becomes actualized.

Perceived ConflictAwareness by one or more parties of the existence of conditions that create opportunities for conflict to arise.

Felt ConflictEmotional involvement in a conflict creating anxiety, tenseness, frustration, or hostility.

Stage III: Intentions

Intervene between people perceptions and emotions and their behavior.

5 Conflict handling Intentions1 Competing ( assertive and uncooperative)2 Collaborating ( assertive and cooperative)3 Avoiding (unassertive and uncooperative)4 Accommodating (unassertive and cooperative)5 Compromising (midrange on both assertiveness and cooperativeness)

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.

Direct conflict management approaches are based on the relative emphasis that a person places on assertiveness and cooperativeness.

Assertiveness◦ Attempting to satisfy one’s own concerns.

Cooperativeness◦ Attempting to satisfy the other party’s concern.

How can conflict be managed successfully?

The issue of “who wins?”

Lose-lose conflict◦ Occurs when nobody gets what he or she wants.◦ Avoidance, accommodation or smoothing, and

compromise are forms of lose-lose conflict.Win-lose conflict

◦ One part achieves its desires at the expense and to the exclusion of the other party’s desires.

◦ Competition and authoritative command are forms of win-lose conflict.

Win-win conflict◦ Both parties achieve their desires.◦ Collaboration or problem solving are forms of win-win

conflict.

Stage IV: Behavior

where conflicts become visible and statements, actions and reactions made by the conflicting parties.

Conflict Resolution Techniques• Problem solving• Superordinate goals• Expansion of resources• Avoidance• Smoothing• Compromise• Authoritative command• Altering the human variable• Altering the structural variables• Communication• Bringing in outsiders• Restructuring the organization• Appointing a devil’s advocate

Stage V: Outcomes

The action-reaction interplay between conflicting parties results in consequences. Outcomes may be functional in that conflict results in improvement in groups performance, or dysfunctional in that it hinders group performance.

Functional Outcomes from Conflict

◦ Increased group performance

◦ Improved quality of decisions

◦ Stimulation of creativity and innovation

◦ Encouragement of interest and curiosity

◦ Provision of a medium for problem-solving

◦ Creation of an environment for self-evaluation and change

Creating Functional Conflict

◦ Reward dissent and punish conflict avoiders.

Dysfunctional Outcomes from Conflict

◦ Development of discontent

◦ Reduced group effectiveness

◦ Retarded communication

◦ Reduced group cohesiveness

◦ Infighting among group members overcomes group goals

Process in which two or more parties exchange goods or services and attempt to agree on the exchange rate for them.

Process in which two or more parties attempt to reach an acceptable agreement in a situation characterized by some level of disagreement.

Negotiation

Distributive – negotiation that seeks to divide up a fixed amount of resource; win-lose situation.

Integrative – negotiation that seeks one or more settlements that can create a win-win solution.

2 Approaches to Negotiation

Bargaining Distributive IntegrativeCharacteristic Characteristic Characteristic

Available resources Fixed amount of Variable amount of

resources to be divided resources to be divided

Primary motivations I win, you lose I win, you win

Primary interests Opposed to each other Convergent or congruent

with each other

Focus of relationships Short term Long term

What are the different strategies involved in negotiation?

Distributive negotiation Focuses on positions staked out or declared by the

conflicting parties. Parties try to claim certain portions of the existing pie.Integrative negotiation Sometimes called principled negotiation. Focuses on the merits of the issues. Parties try to enlarge the available pie.

Negotiation Process

BATNA

The Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement; the lowest acceptable value (outcome) to an individual for a negotiated agreement.

The Role of Personality Traits in Negotiation◦ Traits do not appear to have a significantly direct

effect on the outcomes of either bargaining or negotiating processes.

Gender Differences in Negotiations◦ Women negotiate no differently from men,

although men apparently negotiate slightly better outcomes.

◦ Men and women with similar power bases use the same negotiating styles.

◦ Women’s attitudes toward negotiation and their success as negotiators are less favorable than men’s.

Mediator

A neutral third party who facilitates a negotiated solution by using reasoning, persuasion, and suggestions for alternatives.

Arbitrator

A third party to a negotiation who has the authority to dictate an agreement.

Conciliator

A trusted third party who provides an informal communication link between the negotiator and the opponent.

Consultant

An impartial third party, skilled in conflict management, who attempts to facilitate creative problem solving through communication and analysis.

Conflict and Unit

Performance

References:

- Robbins, Stephen, Organizational Behavior, 11th Edition - Medina, Robert, PhD, Human Behavior in Organization- Newstrom, John, Organizational Behavior – Human Behavior

at Work- Santos, Emmanuel, Organization and Management

Thank you!!!