Organizational Behavior

Module 7: Conflict and Stress Management

Vinay Kumar, Ph.D

Vidisha Garg, MBA

ICBM-SBE, 2014

Conflict

Vinay Kumar; Vidisha Garg 2

Who finds it first? Where does it start?

Who cares to resolve it? How does it end?

Different ways of looking at conflict

• Traditional View

– Conflict is bad. It arises from

• poor communication

• lack of trust

• failure to respond

• Interactionist view

– Conflict helps to be creative.

– Types of conflict:

• Functional conflict

• Dysfunctional conflict

• Task conflict

• Relationship conflict

• Process conflict

Vinay Kumar; Vidisha Garg 3

Key question: Are you working towards resolving the conflict?

The conflict process

Vinay Kumar; Vidisha Garg 4

Source: Robbins, S. P., & Judge, T. A. (2013). Organizational Behavior,15th Edition. Pearson: New Jersey.

How you handle conflict can determine what you become?

Handling!?

Vinay Kumar; Vidisha Garg 5

Ask yourself: How intense is the conflict? Have you explored cooperation as an option? Are you co-working towards a solution or are you prescribing a solution? Are you becoming a lapdog?

Managing conflicts

Vinay Kumar; Vidisha Garg 6

Performance!?

Vinay Kumar; Vidisha Garg 7

Source: Robbins, S. P., & Judge, T. A. (2013). Organizational Behavior,15th Edition. Pearson: New Jersey.

Stress

• Stress is

– unpleasant psychological process that occurs in

response to environmental pressures

– more likely to occur when individuals encounter

a situation whose outcome is important but

uncertain

– not always negatively related to performance

(Recall Yerkes-Dodson Rule)

Vinay Kumar; Vidisha Garg 8

Manifestations of stress

• In a process, stress may be due to uncertainty in

– Ways to reach a goal (hindrance stressors)

– Goal itself (challenge stressors)

• In a situation, stress may be due to constraining

– Resources (insufficient or inappropriate)

– Demands (extracting or fatiguing)

Vinay Kumar; Vidisha Garg 9

Model of stress

Vinay Kumar; Vidisha Garg 10

Source: Robbins, S. P., & Judge, T. A. (2013). Organizational Behavior,15th Edition. Pearson: New Jersey.

Managing stress

• Individual level

– Conscientiousness (Read)

• Group level

– Tolerance for ambiguity (Read)

• Organizational level

– Work redesign (Read)

Vinay Kumar; Vidisha Garg 11

Source: Robbins, S. P., & Judge, T. A. (2013). Organizational Behavior,15th Edition. Pearson: New Jersey.

For discussion

• How often have you felt uncomfortable? Have you shied away from

opportunities to feel so?

• How often have you found yourself on the wrong side of a conflict? If it was

not many times, was it because you habitually found faults with others?

• How often have you tried to understand how others define you?

• How often have you made convenient independent decisions as opposed to

working with the group to arrive at decisions?

Vinay Kumar; Vidisha Garg 12

End of module 7.

Please post your feedback for this session to vinay@icbm.ac.in / vidisha@icbm.ac.in

Do not forget to mention the ‘session date/section’ details

Upcoming

Module 8: Organizational Structures