Conflict management. (Session 9.16)

1.

16-1
16
Organizational
Conflict, Politics,
and Change
Irwin/McGraw-Hill
©The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2000

2. Organizational Conflict

16-2
Organizational Conflict
Conflict exists in situations where goals,
interests or values of people are
incompatible and they block other’s efforts
to achieve their goals.
Some level of conflict is inevitable given the
wide range of goals in a firm.
Some conflict is good for organizational performance.
Too much causes managers to spend much time
responding to conflict.
Irwin/McGraw-Hill
©The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2000

3. Conflict and Organizational Performance

16-3
Conflict and Organizational Performance
Figure 16.1
High
Level of Organizational
Performance
B
Low
Low
Irwin/McGraw-Hill
C
A
Level of Conflict
High
©The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2000

4. Types of Conflict

16-4
Types of Conflict
Interpersonal Conflict: between individuals based on
differing goals or values.
Intragroup Conflict: occurs within a group or team.
Intergroup Conflict: occurs between 2 or more teams
or groups.
Managers play a key role in resolution of this conflict
Interorganizational Conflict: occurs across
organizations.
Managers in one firm may feel another is not
behaving ethically.
Irwin/McGraw-Hill
©The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2000

5. Types of Conflict

16-5
Types of Conflict
Figure 16.2
Conflict
Conflict
Interpersonal
Interpersonal
Irwin/McGraw-Hill
Intragroup
Intragroup
Intergroup
Intergroup
InterInterorganizational
organizational
©The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2000

6. Sources of Conflict

16-6
Sources of Conflict
Different goals and time horizons: different groups
have differing goals.
Production focuses on efficiency; Marketing on
sales.
Overlapping authority: two or more managers
claim authority for the same activities.
Leads to conflict between the managers and
workers.
Task Interdependencies: one member of a group
fails to finish a task that another depends on.
This makes the worker that is waiting fall behind.
Irwin/McGraw-Hill
©The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2000

7. Sources of Conflict

16-7
Sources of Conflict
Incompatible Evaluation or reward system: workers are
evaluated for one thing, but are told to do something
different.
Groups rewarded for low cost but firm needs higher service.
Scarce Resources: managers can conflict over allocation of
resources.
When all resources are scarce, managers can fight over
allocations.
Status inconsistencies: some groups have higher status than
others.
Leads to managers feeling others are favored.
Irwin/McGraw-Hill
©The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2000

8. Sources of Conflict

16-8
Figure 16.3
Sources of Conflict
Different
Differentgoals
goals
&
&time
timehorizons
horizons
Overlapping
Overlapping
Authority
Authority
Status
Status
inconsistency
inconsistency
Conflict
Conflict
Scarce
Scarce
Resources
Resources
Irwin/McGraw-Hill
Incompatible
Incompatible
evaluation
evaluation&
&
Reward
Reward
Task
Task
Interdependency
Interdependency
©The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2000

9. Resolving Conflicts

16-9
Resolving Conflicts
Functional Conflict Resolution: handle conflict by
compromise or collaboration between parties.
Compromise:
each party concerned about their goal
accomplishment and is willing to engage in give and
take to reach a reasonable solution.
Collaboration:
parties try to handle conflict without
making concessions by coming up with a new way to
resolve differences.
Managers also need to address individual sources of
conflict.
Irwin/McGraw-Hill
©The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2000

10. Managing Individual Conflict

16-10
Managing Individual Conflict
Increase awareness of the source of conflict
Can conflict source can be found and corrected?
Increase diversity awareness and skills
Older workers may resent younger workers, or
experience cultural differences.
Practice Job Rotation & Temporary assignments
Provides a good view of what others face.
Use permanent transfers & dismissal if needed
Avoids problem interaction.
Change organization’s structure
Conflict can signal the need to adjust the structure.
Irwin/McGraw-Hill
©The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2000

11. Conflict Solutions

16-11
Conflict Solutions
Alter the source of conflict:
If due to overlapping authority, managers fix the
problem to change the source.
Negotiation: use when parties have equal power.
Parties try and find a common ground by
considering various alternatives.
Distributive negotiation: parties see there is a fixed
resource base.
For them to gain, the other must lose.
Integrative
negotiation: parties can increase total
resources by coming up with a new solution.
Irwin/McGraw-Hill
Information sharing, trust are common here.
©The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2000

12. Negotiation Strategies for Interactive Bargaining

16-12
Negotiation Strategies for Interactive
Bargaining
Emphasize
Superordinate Goals: these are
goals both parties agree on.
Keeps the big picture in focus.
Focus
on the problem, NOT the people: don’t
make it personal.
It is easy to dwell on people’s shortcomings rather than
problems.
Once this occurs, people resist negotiation.
Irwin/McGraw-Hill
©The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2000

13. Negotiation Strategies

16-13
Negotiation Strategies
Focus
on interests, not demands: demands
are what you want, interests are why you
want them.
Demands are confrontational and slow negotiations.
Create
new options for joint gain: focusing on
interests allows for new ideas to come forth.
Perhaps there is a new solution that can solve the issue.
Focus
on what is fair: emphasizing fairness
allows both parties to give a bit and agree.
Irwin/McGraw-Hill
©The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2000

14. Organizational Politics

16-14
Organizational Politics
Organizational
politics are the activities
managers engage in to increase their power
and use it to achieve their goals.
Political strategies: specific tactics used to increase
power and use it effectively.
Politics can be negative, but also is a positive force
allowing needed change.
Everyone throughout the firm engages in politics
Political activity allows a manager to gain support for an
idea.
Irwin/McGraw-Hill
©The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2000

15. Political Strategies for Increasing Power

16-15
Political Strategies for Increasing Power
Figure 16.4
Control
Control
Uncertainty
Uncertainty
Be
Be
Irreplaceable
Irreplaceable
Be
Bein
inaacentral
central
position
position
Generate
Generate
Resources
Resources
Increase
Increaseaa
manager’s
manager’s
power
powerin
in
the
the
organization
organization
Build
Build
Alliances
Alliances
Irwin/McGraw-Hill
©The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2000

16. Strategies for Increasing Power

16-16
Strategies for Increasing Power
Control Uncertainty: managers who can reduce uncertainty for
the firm increase power.
Be Irreplaceable: develop valuable special knowledge or skills.
Be in a Central Position: managers have crucial control over
the firm’s activities. They increase their power and can
influence others.
Generate Resources: managers who can hire skilled people or
find financing.
Build Alliances: develop mutually beneficial relations with
others inside and outside the organization.
Irwin/McGraw-Hill
©The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2000

17. Strategies for Exercising Power

16-17
Strategies for Exercising Power
Figure 16.5
Objective
Objective
Information
Information
Outside
Outside
Experts
Experts
Control
Controlthe
the
Agenda
Agenda
Help
Help
Managers
Managers
Use
UseTheir
Their
Power
Power
Effectively
Effectively
Everyone
Everyoneisis
aaWinner
Winner
Irwin/McGraw-Hill
©The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2000

18. Strategies for Exercising Power

16-18
Strategies for Exercising Power
Rely on Objective Information: impartial information
causes others to feel the manager’s course of action is
correct.
Bring in an Outside Expert: lends credibility to
manager’s proposal (when the expert agrees).
Control the Agenda: influence those issues included
(and those dropped) from the decision process.
Make Everyone a Winner: everyone whose support is
needed benefits personally from providing that support.
Irwin/McGraw-Hill
©The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2000

19. Relationship Between Conflict, Politics and Change

16-19
Relationship Between Conflict, Politics
and Change
Figure 16.6
Signal
Signalmanagers
managers
change
changeisis
needed
needed
Organizational
Organizational
conflict
conflict&
&politics
politics
Organizational
Organizational
change
change
Change
Changealters
alters
goals
goalsof
ofdifferent
different
groups
groupscausing
causing
conflict
conflict&
&politics
politics
Irwin/McGraw-Hill
©The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2000

20. Managing Organizational Change

16-20
Managing Organizational Change
Assess
need for change: recognize a problem exists and find its
source.
Look inside and outside the firm for sources.
Decide
on the change to make: determine the ideal future state.
Decide exactly what the future company will look like.
What obstacles need to be changed to get there.
Implement
the change: a top-down change is quickest, bottomup is more gradual.
Bottom-up is more effective at eliminating obstacles.
Evaluate
Change: was it successful? Benchmark (compare)
your change to others.
Irwin/McGraw-Hill
©The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2000

21. Steps in the Organizational Change Process

16-21
Steps in the Organizational Change
Process
Figure 16.7
Assess
Assessneed
needfor
for
change
change
Find
Findsource
sourceofofproblem
problem
Decide
Decideon
onthe
the
change
change
Identify
Identifyobstacles
obstacles
Implement
ImplementChange
Change
Top-down
Top-downor
or
Bottom-up
Bottom-up
Evaluate
EvaluateChange
Change
IsIsititsuccessful?
successful?
Benchmark
Benchmarktotoothers
others
Irwin/McGraw-Hill
©The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2000