Conflict and Negotiation in

the Workplace
Managing Conflict

Conflict arises in any situation

where your concerns or
desires differ from another
person’s.
Conflict can...
 Be constructive or destructive

 Be stimulating or unnerving

 Produce higher quality results or stifle a

project

 Lead to original thinking or cause destructive

power struggles
Constructive Conflict
 Taps creativity and problem solving

 Generates new solutions

 Increases involvement

 Improves communication

 Releases pent-up emotion

 Builds cohesiveness

 Helps individuals and teams grow

 Positive View (cont.)
 “Two heads are better than one”
 If the differences are seen as enriching, rather than
as in opposition to each other, the “two heads” will
indeed be likely to come up with a better solution
than either one alone
 Represents a richer set of experiences and because
they can bring to bear on the problem a greater
variety of insights
 Many problems can be seen clearly, wholly, and in
perspective only if the individuals who see different
aspect can come together and pool their information
Deconstructive Conflict
 Reduces productivity

 Diverts energy

 Destroys morale

 Polarizes groups

 Deepens differences

 Spawns additional conflict

 Produces regrettable behavior (acting-out)

Views of Conflict (cont.)
 Balanced View
 Conflict may sometimes be desirable and
other times destructive
 Some conflicts can be avoided and reduced,
others have to be resolved and properly
managed
 Sensitive to both negative outcomes (loss of
skilled employees, stress, and even
violence) to positive outcome (creative
alternatives, increased motivation and
commitment, high quality of work, and
personal satisfaction)
 Conflict and Performance
Pos.
Organizational
Outcomes

Neg.
Low High
Level of Conflict
Conflict and Unit Performance (cont’d)
Task vs. Socioemotional
Conflict
Task-related conflict

 Conflict is aimed at issue, not parties
 Helps recognize problems, identify
solutions, and understand the issues
better
 Potentially healthy and valuable

Socioemotional conflict

 Conflict viewed as a personal attack
 Introduces perceptual biases
 Distorts information processing
Toward Effective
Management of
Differences
 Because the presence of differences can
complicate the manager’s job, it is of
utmost importance that he understand
them fully and that he learn to handle
them effectively
 Manager’s ability to deal effectively with
differences depend on:
 His ability to diagnose and to understand
differences
 His awareness of, and ability to select
appropriately form, a variety of behaviors
Sources of Conflict

Incompatible • One party’s goals perceived to

Goals interfere with other’s goals

• Different values/beliefs
Differentiation • Explains cross-cultural and
generational conflict

• Conflict increases with

Task interdependence
Interdependence • Higher risk that parties interfere with
each other
more
Sources of Conflict (con’t)

Scarce • Motivates competition for the resource

Resources

• Creates uncertainty, threatens goals

Ambiguous Rules • Without rules, people rely on politics

• Increases stereotyping
Communication • Reduces motivation to communicate
Problems • Escalates conflict when arrogant
Interpersonal Conflict Management:

 Win-Win Orientation – A person’s

belief that the parties will find a
mutually beneficial solution to their
conflict
 Win-lose Orientation- a person’s
belief that the conflicting parties
are drawing from a fixed pie, so his
or her gain is the other person’s
loss
Interpersonal Approaches of
approaching the other party in
conflict situation

 Each approach can be placed in a

two dimensional grid

Cooperativeness:
• Attempting to satisfy the other party’s
concerns.
Assertiveness:
• Attempting to satisfy one’s own concerns.
Assertive

Two basic aspects of all

conflict handling modes

Unassertive

Uncooperative Cooperative
Assertive Competing Collaborating

Compromising

Unassertive Avoiding Accommodating

Uncooperative Cooperative
Choosing the Best Conflict
Management Style
 Most people have a preferred
conflict management style, but use
different styles under different
conditions
 Skill of conflict management –
apply the right style for the
situation
Interpersonal Conflict
Management Styles (cont.)
 Avoiding –Withdraw from or suppress a conflict
 “Hiding the head in the sand” response
 Reflects an aversion to tension and frustration
and may involve a decision to let a conflict
work itself out
 Illustrated by the following statements
 I usually don’t take positions that will create

controversy
 I shy away from topics that are sources of

disputes with my friends

 That’s okay. It wasn’t important anyway.

Let’s leave well enough alone

Assertive Useful for:
•Issues of low importance
•Reducing tensions
•Buying time
•Low power

“I’ll think about it tomorrow”

Unassertive Avoiding
Uncooperative Cooperative
Interpersonal Conflict
Management Styles (cont.)
 Competing –Satisfy one’s interest
regardless of the impact on the other
party
 Strongest win-lose orientation
 Suggested by the following statements
 I insist that my position be accepted during
a disagreement
 I usually hold on to my solution to a problem
after the controversy starts
 Competin
Assertive
g
“My way or the highway”

Useful for:
•Quick action
•Unpopular decisions
•Vital issues
•Protection
•when fostering intimate or supportive
relationships is not critical
Unassertive

Uncooperative Cooperative
Interpersonal Conflict
Management Styles (cont.)
 Accommodation – Involves giving in
completely to the other side’s wishes, or
at least cooperating with little or no
attention to your own interests
 Usually are favorably evaluated by
others, but perceived as weak and
submissive
 Illustrated by the following statements
 If it makes other people happy, I am all for it
 I like to smooth over disagreements by
making them appear less important
 Useful for:
•Creating good will
Assertive •Keeping the peace
•when maintaining the relationship
outweighs other considerations

“It would be my pleasure”

Unassertive Accommodating
Uncooperative Cooperative
 Advantage: Accommodating
maintains relationships
 Disadvantage: Giving in may not
be productive, your may be taken
advantage of
Interpersonal Conflict
Management Styles (cont.)
 Compromising – Trying to reach a middle
ground with the other party
 Based on give and take, involves a series of
concessions
 You attempt to satisfice rather than maximize
your outcomes and hopes that the same
occurs for the other party
 Does not always result in the most creative
response to conflict
 Not as useful for resolving conflicts that stem
from power asymmetry, because the weaker
party may have little to offer the stronger
party
 Illustrated by the following
statements
 After failing in getting my way, I
usually find it necessary to seek a fair
combination of gains and losses for
both of us
 I give in to others if they are willing to
meet me halfway
 “Let’s make a deal”

Compromising
Assertive

Useful for:
•Moderate importance
•Time constraints
•Temporary solutions
•Equal power & strong
commitment
Unassertive

Uncooperative Cooperative
Interpersonal Conflict
Management Styles (cont.)
 Collaborating – Collaboration is trying to
find a mutually beneficial solution for
both parties through problem solving
 An individual who use this style tends to
 See conflict as natural, helpful, and even
leading to more creative solution if handled
properly
 Recognize that when conflict is resolved to
the satisfaction of all, commitment to
solution is likely
Interpersonal Conflict
Management Styles (cont.)
Collaboration (cont.)
 Statements consistent with this
style include
 I tell the other person my ideas,
actively seek out the other person’s
ideas, and search for mutually
beneficial solution
 I try to dig into an issue to find a
solution good for all of us
 Collaborating
“Two heads are better than one”
Assertive Useful for:
when peer conflict is involved
when trying to gain commitment
through consensus building
•Integrating solutions
•Learning
•Merging perspectives

Unassertive

Uncooperative Cooperative
 Advantage: both sides get what
they want and negative feelings
eliminated
 Disadvantage: takes a great deal
of time and effort
 All five styles and their variations are equally available
responses to conflict
 The fact that a person prefers a given style does not
mean he or she will not use other styles
 Indeed, this model assumes that we use each style at
one point or another
 Nevertheless, our dominant style reflects our particular
beliefs about conflict, our preferences and comfort
zone
 Secondary choices constitute backups preferences
when we find it necessary to abandon our preference,
creating a response hierarchy
 It is important to emphasize that we have
the ability to change our dominant style
and our response hierarchy
 If a person genuinely desires to have a more
constructive approach to conflict
management, change is entirely possible and
it is a personal option
 To change our style, we must become aware
of the available options and then undertake a
conscious program of building skills where we
need them
Structural Approaches to
Conflict Management
 Emphasizing Superordinate Goals –
 Common objectives held by conflict parties
that are more important than their
conflicting departmental or individual goals
 Useful where conflict is caused by goal
incompatibility
 By increasing commitment to corporate
wide goals, employees feel less conflict with
co-workers regarding competing individual
or departmental level goals
Structural Approaches to
Conflict Management
(cont.)
 Reducing Differentiation
 Alter or remove conditions that create these
differences in the first place
 Differentiation is mainly based on unique
experiences and values – not just the
symbol of differences
 Japanese companies move people around to
different jobs, departments, and regions so
that they eventually develop common
experiences with other senior decision
makers in the organization
Structural Approaches to
Conflict Management
(cont.)
 Improving communication and
Understanding
 Direct communication
 Dialogue meetings – A process of
conversation among team members in
which they learn about each other’s mental
models and assumptions, and eventually
form a common model for thinking within
the team
 Intergroup mirroring – a structured conflict
management intervention in which the
parties discuss their perceptions of each
other and look for ways to improve their
relationship by correcting misperceptions
Structural Approaches to
Conflict Management
(cont.)
 Reducing task Interdependence
 If cost effective – might occur by dividing
the shared resource so that each party has
exclusive part of it
 Introduce buffers between people
 Buffers might take the form of resources
such as adding more inventory between
people who perform sequential tasks
 Human buffers in organizations – who
intervene between highly interdependent
people or work units
Structural Approaches to
Conflict Management
(cont.)
 Increasing Resources
 Clarifying Rules and Procedures
 One way to clarify rules is to establish
a schedule for sharing scare
resources
Negotiation in Conflict
Management
What is Negotiation?
“A decision-making process among
interdependent parties who do not
share identical preferences”
It is an attempt to reach a satisfactory
exchange among or between the
parties
 Bargaining
Your Positions
Zone Model
Initial Target Resistance

Area of
Potential
Agreement

Resistance Target Initial

Opponent’s Positions
Situational Influences on
Negotiation

Location


Physical Setting


Time Passage and Deadlines



Audience

Effective Negotiator
Behaviors
Preparation and Goal Setting


Gathering Information


Communicating Effectively


Making Concessions

Bargaining Strategies
Distributive versus
Integrative Bargaining
Bargaining Strategies
(cont.)
 Integrative bargaining is preferable to
distributive bargaining –builds long term
relationships and facilitates working
together in the future
 Conditions necessary for this integrative
bargaining
 Include parties open with information and
candid about their concerns
 Sensitivity to each other’s needs, ability to
trust and willingness to maintain flexibility
Third-Party Involvement
 Any attempt by a relatively neutral
person to help the parties resolve
their differences
Types of Third-Party
Intervention
 Mediation – A neutral third party who
facilities a negotiated solution by using
reasoning, persuasion, and suggestions for
alternatives
 In labor disputes, international relations,
and marital counseling
 What Do Mediators do?
 Almost anything that aids the process or
atmosphere of negotiation can be helpful
 The mediator might also intervene in the content
of the negotiation, highlighting points of
agreement, pointing new options, or encouraging
concessions
Types of Third-Party
Intervention (cont.)
Mediation (cont.)
 Best for everyday disputes between

two employees as gives employee

more responsibility for resolving their
own disputes
 Most effective under moderate level

of conflict
 The mediator must be perceived as

neutral and non-coercive

Types of Third-Party
Intervention (cont.)
 Arbitration – The process of arbitration
occurs when a third party is given the
authority to dictate the terms of
settlement of a conflict
 When employee cannot resolve their
differences
 Seems to work best because the
predetermined rules of evidence and other
process create a higher sense of procedural
fairness
Types of Third-Party
Intervention (cont.)
 Consultation – An impartial third party, skilled
in conflict management, who attempts to
facilitate creative problem solving through
communication and analysis
 Consultant’s role is not to settle the issues but,
rather, to improve relations between the conflicting
parties so that they can reach a settlement
themselves
 Instead of putting forward specific solutions, the
consultant tries to help the parties learn to
understand and work with each other
 Has a longer-term focus: to build new and positive
perceptions and attitudes between the conflicting
parties