Conflict: process that begins when one party perceives that another party

has negatively affect that something that first party cares about
Incompatibility of goals
Differences over interpretations of facts
Disagreements based on behavioral expectations
Functional: constructive forms of conflict
Cognitive Conflict: task oriented and occurs because of differences
in perspectives and judgments, identifies potential solutions to
problems
Dysfunctional: hinder group performance, unable to achieve goals
Affective Conflict: emotional and aimed at a person rather than an
issue
Conflict produces stress which may lead people to become more closed
minded and adversarial
Conflict reduces trust, respect and cohesion
Minimize negative effects of conflict by developing resolution strategies and
preparing ppl for conflicts and facilitating open discussion
Sources of conflict:
Communication- semantic difficulties, misunderstandings and noise
Conflict increases when too little or too much communication takes
place
Structure- consequences of requirement of job
Size, specialization and composition of the group stimulates
conflict, the larger the group and more specialized the activities the
greater likelihood of conflict, conflict is highest where young group
member and turnover is high
The greater the ambiguity in defining responsibility the greater the
conflict, fighting for resource and territory
Reward systems create conflict when one member gain at anothers
expense, unfair evaluation or having differing ideas of job
responsibilities
Leadership style if managers tightly control and oversee the work of
employees, allowing little direction
The diversity of goals

If one group is dependent on another, or interdependence

allows one group to gain at anothers expense
Personal variables: personality, emotions and values

Conflict resolution:
Dual concern theory- degree of cooperativeness (others concerns) and
assertiveness (own concerns) determine how a conflict is handled
Forcing- imposing ones will (win-lose)
Problem Solving- trying to reach an agreement to satisfy both ppl (win-win)
Avoiding- Ignoring or minimizing the important of the issue creating the
conflict (lose-lose)
Yielding- accepting and incorporating the will of another party (win-lose)
Compromising- Balancing concern for oneself with the concern for other party
(lose-lose)

Manage conflict:
Problem solving- request face to face meeting to identify problems and solve
them thru discussion
Developing overarching goals- Creating a share goal that requires both
parties to work together, and motivates them to do so
Smoothing- playing down differences while emphasizing common interests
Compromising- agreeing with the other party that each will give up
something
Avoidance- withdrawing from or suppressing the conflict

Work related conflict:

Expansion of resources- scarcity of resources causes conflict, win-win
Authoritative command- use formal authority to resolve conflict and
communicate desires
Altering the human variable- behavioral change techniques such as
human relations training can alter attitudes and behavior that cause
conflict
Altering the structural variable- job redesign, transfer creating
coordinating positions

Mexicans expect conflict to be kept private, while Americans expect

conflict to be dealt with directly and openly, Asians believe conflict
reduce productivity
Collectivists culture use conflict avoidance, compromising
North Americans use problem solving

Third party conflict resolution:

Mediator: neutral third party who facilitates a negotiated solution by
reasoning and persuasion, suggesting alternatives and the like, more
aggressive in proposing solutions than conciliators
Labor-management negotiation and civil court disputes, moderate level of
conflict, mediator must be perceived as neutral and non-coercive

Arbitrator: 3rd party with authority to dictate an agreement, voluntary or

compulsory
Always results in settlement
Conciliator: 3rd party that provides informal communication link b/w
negotiator and opponent
Widely used in international labor, family and community disputes, fact
finding, interpreting messages and persuading disputants to develop
agreements
Consultant: skilled and impartial 3rd party who attempts to facilitate problem
solving through communication and analysis, aided by conflict management
Works to improve relationships between conflict parties to reach settlement
themselves
Negotiation: process in which two or more parties try to agree on exchange
rate for goods or services they are trading, issues/positions/interests

Distributive bargaining: negotiating strategy that is win lose, fixed pie

Make first aggressive offer, anchoring bias- fixating on initial information,
revealing deadlines
Integrative bargaining: assumption that there are more than one
settlement that can create a win win, future oriented, teams more likely to
bargain this way

Negotiation steps:
Developing a strategy target & resistance, best alternative to a negotiated
agreement (target and resistance point), bargaining zone
Defining Ground rules- who will negotiate? Where will it take place? What
time constraints?
Clarification and Justification- explain and amplify original demands, not
confrontational
Bargaining and problem solving- give and take
Closure and implementation- formalizing the agreement and developing
procedures that are necessary for implementation and monitoring

.
Individual differences in negotiation effectiveness
Personality- weak relation, agreeable and extroverts not good at distributive
bargaining, sharing too much information. Distributive bargaining best for
disagreeable introverts

Moods- in distributive, in position of power, anger is effective. When in less

powerful, anger is less powerful. In integrative, positive moods and emotions
are better
Gender- men negotiate better, women penalized when initiating negotiations

Collectivists avoid conflicts, use third parties. US more likely to use competing
tactics, Chinese more compromising and avoiding
French likes conflict, takes long time, no worried about like or dislike
China, draw out negotiation, develop relationship
Japan, negotiate to work together, communicate indirectly. US anchoring and
japan more information sharing and better integrative outcomes
US, impatience and desire to be liked
East Asians less likely to accept offers when negotiators were angry
When faced with angry, Chinese used more distributive and US used less