INTRODUCTION

Conflict is a form of interaction among parties that differ in interests, perceptions, and
preferences. Conflict begins when one party perceives that the other has negatively
affected, or is about to negatively affect, something that he or she cares about .
According to Gray and Starke - "Conflict is behaviour by a person or group that is purposely
designed to inhibit the attainment of goals by another person or group. This ‘purposeful
inhibition’ may be active or passive."

THE CONFLICT MANAGEMENT PROCESS

The process of conflict encompasses the following steps which are discussed in detail below.
Stage I: Potential Opposition or Incompatibility

 Communication
 Structure
 Personal variables

Stage II: Cognition and Personalization

Stage III: Intentions

 Dimensions of Conflict - Handling Intentions; assertiveness and cooperativeness.

Stage IV: Behaviour (a dynamic process of interaction)

 Conflict Intensity Continuum

 Conflict Management Techniques
 Stimulation
Stage V: Outcomes

Stage I: Potential Opposition or Incompatibility This occurs due to Communication gaps

between the parties, groups’ individuals or the organization and its members.

Stage II: Cognition and Personalization Cognition and Personalization is how a person
feels and thinks about the conflict. It manifests itself in affective conflict emotional conflict
and Perceived Conflict
Affective Conflict: It occurs when competing emotions accompanying the incompatible goals and
results in increased stress, decreased productivity or decreased satisfaction for the individual.
Emotional Conflict: Emotional conflict is the presence in the subconscious of different and opposing
emotions relating to a situation that has recently taken place or is in the process of being unfolded,
accompanied at times by a physical discomfort and in particular by tension headaches
Perceived Conflict: This is a situation where it becomes aware that one is In conflict with
another party. It can block out some conflict.
Stage III: Dimensions of Conflict - Handling Intentions Responding to conflict involves
making a series of choices with solving the problem as the goal. Therefore, it becomes
necessary to use a combination of assertive and non-aggressive tools to be successful.
Assertiveness - the degree to which the individual want to satisfy his or her own concerns
Cooperativeness - the degree to which the individual wants to satisfy the concerns of the
other party. Functional vs. Dysfunctional

Stage IV: Behavior (a dynamic process of interaction)

Depending upon the Conflict Intensity Continuum of assertiveness and cooperativeness,
various Conflict resolution strategies are adopted depending upon the individual of course.
That is whether he is interested in competing, compromising, avoiding, and collaborating or
accommodating.

Stage V: OUTCOMES OF CONFLICT Any conflict that is functional or constructive adds to

the efficiency and outcome is called functional conflict. On the other hand if the conflict is
destructive and leads to the disruption in the smooth functioning of the organization is
called Dysfunctional Conflict.

CONFLICT MANAGEMENT
The Management within an organization should function in such a way so as to maximize
the coordination of human resources and work system and to minimize conflict.
There may be two approaches for managing organizational conflict:
(1) Preventive Measures
(2) Curative Measures.
In the preventive measures, management tries to create an environment where
dysfunctional conflicts do not take place at all.
The curative measures include the resolution of conflicts whey they take place and become
dysfunctional in the organization.

CREATING A POSTIVE ORGANISATION

Such preventive and· curative attempts may be made in the following ways.
By establishing common goals:
By Changing Structural Arrangement:
By Reduction in Interdependence:

Conflict can be prevented by emphasizing on the organizational goals, structuring the tasks,
Promoting communication, avoiding win lose situations separating conflicting groups,
Applying rules and regulations, limiting the group interaction, establishing integration roles.
INTRODUCTION
Power refers to the potential or actual ability to influence others in a desired direction. As
an exchange relationship, power occurs in transactions between an agent and a target. The
agent is the person using the power, and the target is the recipient of the attempt to use
power
Salancik and Pfeiffer have defined power as the ability of those who possess power bring
about the outcomes they desire.
In simple terms, we may define power as the ability of a person (or group A) to induce
another person (or group B) to behave in a way that the former desires.

Two faces of power Most of us think and perceive power to be negative in nature , even
though we are well aware that whatever happens in the world is a game of power and
people exert power over others who have lesser bargaining power usually. Nevertheless
there are two faces of power, one negative and the other positive.
The negative face of power is characterized by a primitive, unsocial zed need to have
dominance over submissive people
The positive face of power is characterized by a socialized need to initiate , influence and
lead others in a well desired and aspired direction.

Sources of Power in Organizations

The main sources of power are formal position in the organization and the personality
characteristics of the leader.
Formal position in the organization: generally it is the power attached to a position in the
organization which is more potent than the person who occupies the position. E.g. the
position of the president of America is the most prestigious formal power irrespective of the
person who mans it. the same can be understood true for all the official positions in the
organizations like that of a president, vice president, CEO etc.
Personality characteristics of the leader: this refers to the charisma or personality of an
individual which makes him powerful in his personal or professional setup, where people
tend to follow whatever he does owing to the sheer magic of his persona.

BASES OF POWER
John French and Bertram Raven identified five types of interpersonal power that managers
use. They are reward, coercive, legitimate, referent and expert power.

Reward Power When the source of power is a person's control over rewarding outcomes,
the power is called reward power. For example, managers control the rewards of salary
increases, bonuses and promotions. Reward power can lead to better performance, but only
as long as the employee sees a clear and strong link between performance and rewards.

Coercive Power A manager who exerts power by evoking fear has coercive power. To
coerce someone into doing something means to force the person to do it, often with threats
of punishment. Managers using coercive power may verbally abuse employees or withhold
support from them. Coercion can create stress and anxiety for employees. In extreme cases,
it can even lead to increased absenteeism and turnover and may encourage sabotage at the
workplace.

Legitimate Power
Legitimate power which is similar to authority, it is the power that is based on position and
mutual agreement. The agent and target agree that the agent has the right to influence the
target. For legitimate power to be effective, the employees must believe the manager has
the right to tell them what to do. Legitimate power stems from a person's occupation of a
particular position in the organization.

Referent Power
Some people influence others through the force of their attractiveness, the mysterious
personal magnetism we call 'charisma'. This influence is called referent power. The agent
has referent power over the target because the target identifies with - or wants to be like -
the agent. Charismatic individuals are often thought to have referent power.

Expert Power
Power that arises from a person's expertise, knowledge or talent is called expert power.
People with expert power are influential because others believe they can benefit from the
information experts can provide. For expert power to work, three conditions must be in
place.
First, the target must trust that the information given is accurate.
Second, the information involved must be relevant and useful to the target.
Third, the target's perception the agent as an expert is crucial.

Power tactics used in organizations

The main motive of individuals in organizations is to gain power and to gain it they use
different tactics. Through using these tactics within their groups or between the groups they
influence people and gain power. Power tactics which people use for influencing their co-
workers, employees or bosses to be more effective are as under:
1. Formal Authority: When the position has formal authority, they fix a deadline for others
in the group to comply the orders and do what is expected from them. This is called
assertiveness through which they remind others to perform and oblige as per rules.

2. Rationality: When a person using facts and information convinces others in a logical way
to comply with, it looks a rational way for compliance from others as competent man.

3. Pressure Building: Group of people like trade unions to gain power use pressure
building on people as well as organization. But this method may become
counterproductive like in the case of threat of strike; organization may go for lock out
4. Sanctions: To gain more power logically the persons in power may use organizational
rewards and punishment. When they give promotions or rise in salary for good work it
is called rewards. Similarly when someone lag behind in performance appraisal
continuously his promotion is withheld. It is called punishment. By using method of
sanction they gain more power.

5. Competition: When the organizational resources are scarce, the parties compete with
each other to have control over the criteria to be used for resource allocation to gain
more power.

6. Coalition: When two or more groups in the organization make alliance to gain more, it is
called coalition.

7. Integrative Importance: When in an organization a service provider group’s services are

required by all groups within the organization that service providers group becomes
important and sought after by all group to function effectively. That group will have
more inter group power.

8. Bargaining: It is another method to gain power. When one has already bestowed
benefits on others in the past and he reminds others for favor through a process of
negotiation to get his work done.

9. Friendliness: Through this method a person requests another to do his work through
convincing him. He convinces another either through flattery i.e. praising his
importance prior to request, or waiting through friendly or humble way till he is in
receptive mood for request.

10. Higher Authority: Some managers, to get the work done from their subordinates may
make efforts to secure support of higher authorities.

11. Cooperation: It is one of the inter-group power tactics. In this method one group gives
some of its important positions to members of other group to have a control on the
policy making committees it is called cooptation. Through this method they remove the
chances of being criticized by other group for decisions taken in the committees.