Ch.

17 Managing Conflict, Politics,

and Negotiation
Ch.18 Using Advanced
Information
Technology to Increase
Performance
Facilitator: Naya Hapsari, M.Sc.

1
 “As conflict — difference — is here in this world, as we
cannot avoid it, we should, I think, use it to work for us.”
- Mary Parker Follett, 1925
 Organizational Conflict (1 of 2)

• Organizational conflict
– The discord that arises when the goals, interests,
or values of different individuals or groups are
incompatible and those
individuals or groups
block or thwart one
another’s attempts
to achieve their
objectives

Copyright Chris Ryan/age footstock RF

 Organizational Conflict (2 of 2)

• Conflict is an inevitable part of organizational life

because the goals of different stakeholders such
as managers and workers are often incompatible.
• Organizational conflict also can exist between
departments and divisions that compete for
resources or even between managers who may
be competing for promotion to the next level in
the organizational hierarchy.
Figure 17.1 The Effect of Conflict on
Organizational Performance

Jump to Appendix 1 for

description.
Types of Conflict (1 of 3)
 Types of Conflict (2 of 3)

• Interpersonal conflict
– Conflict between individuals due to differences in
their goals or values
• Intragroup conflict
– Conflict within a group, team or department
 Types of Conflict (3 of 3)

• Intergroup conflict
– Conflict between two or more teams, groups or
departments
– Managers play a key role in resolution of this
conflict
• Interorganizational conflict
– Conflict that arises across organizations
Sources of Conflict (1 of 5)

Jump to Appendix 2 for

description.
 Sources of Conflict (2 of 5)

• Different goals and time horizons

– Different groups have differing goals and time
horizons
• Overlapping authority
– Two or more managers claim authority for the
same activities which leads to conflict
 Sources of Conflict (3 of 5)

• Task interdependencies
– One member of a group or a group fails to finish a
task that another member or group depends on,
causing the waiting worker or group to fall behind.
 Sources of Conflict (4 of 5)

• Different evaluation or reward systems

– A group is rewarded for achieving a goal, but
another interdependent group is rewarded for
achieving a goal that conflicts with the first group.
 Sources of Conflict (5 of 5)

• Scarce resources
– Managers can come into conflict over the
allocation of scare resources.
• Status inconsistencies
– Some individuals and groups have a higher
organizational status than others, leading to
conflict with lower-status groups.
 Conflict Management Strategies (1 of 6)

• Functional conflict resolution

– Handling conflict by compromise or collaboration
between parties
 Conflict Management Strategies (2 of 6)

• Compromise
– Each party is concerned about not only their goal
accomplishment but also the goal
accomplishment of the other party and is willing
to engage in a give-and-take exchange to reach a
reasonable solution.
 Conflict Management Strategies (3 of 6)

• Collaboration
– Both parties try to satisfy their goals by coming up
with an approach that leaves them both better off
and does not require concessions on issues that
are important to either party.
 Conflict Management Strategies (4 of 6)

• Accommodation
– An ineffective conflict-handling approach in which
one party, typically with weaker power, gives in to
the demands of the other, typically more
powerful, party
 Conflict Management Strategies (5 of 6)

• Avoidance
– An ineffective conflict-handling approach in which
the parties try to ignore the problem and do
nothing to resolve their differences
 Conflict Management Strategies (6 of 6)

• Competition
– An ineffective conflict-handling approach in which
each party tries to maximize its own gain and has
little interest in understanding the other party’s
position and arriving at a solution that will allow
both parties to achieve their goals
 Strategies Focused on Individuals

Increasing awareness of the sources of conflict

Increasing diversity awareness and skills

Practicing job rotation or temporary

assignments
Using permanent transfers or dismissals when
necessary
 Strategies Focused on the
Whole Organization
• Changing an
organization’s
structure or culture

• Altering the source of

conflict

Copyright moodboard/SuperStock RF
 Negotiation (1 of 2)

• Negotiation
– Method of conflict resolution in which the parties
consider various alternative ways to allocate
resources to come up with a solution acceptable
to all of them
 Negotiation (2 of 2)

• Third-party negotiator
– An impartial individual with expertise in handling
conflicts and negotiations who helps parties in
conflict reach an acceptable solution
 Third-Party Negotiators

• Mediators
– Facilitates negotiations but has no authority to
impose a solution
• Arbitrator
– Can impose what he thinks is a fair solution to a
conflict that both parties are obligated to pursue
 Distributive Negotiation (1 of 2)

• Distributive negotiation
– Adversarial negotiation in which the parties in
conflict compete to win the most resources while
conceding as little as possible
 Distributive Negotiation (2 of 2)

• Distributive negotiation
– Parties perceive that they have a “fixed pie” of
resources that they need to divide.
– They take a competitive adversarial stance.
– They see no need to interact in the future.
– They do not care if their interpersonal relationship
is damaged by their competitive negotiation.
 Integrative Bargaining (1 of 2)

• Integrative bargaining
– Cooperative negotiation in which the parties in
conflict work together to achieve a resolution that
is good for them both
 Integrative Bargaining (2 of 2)

• Integrative bargaining
– Parties perceive that they might be able to
increase the resource pie by trying to come up
with a creative solution to the conflict.
– Parties view the conflict as a win-win situation in
which both parties can gain.
– Bargaining is handled through collaboration or
compromise.
 Negotiation Strategies for
Integrative Bargaining
Table 17.1 Negotiation Strategies for Integrative Bargaining

• Emphasize superordinate goals

• Focus on the problem, not the people
• Focus on interests, not demands
• Create new options for joint gain
• Focus on what is fair
 Strategies to Encourage
Integrative Bargaining
• Superordinate goals
– Goals that both parties agree to regardless of the
source of their conflict
 Organizational Politics (1 of 2)

• Organizational politics
– The activities managers engage in to increase their
power and to use power effectively to achieve
their goals or overcome resistance or opposition
 Organizational Politics (2 of 2)

• Political strategies
– Tactics that managers use to increase their power
and to use power effectively to influence and gain
the support of other people while overcoming
resistance or opposition
 The Importance of
Organizational Politics
• Politics
– Can be viewed negatively when managers act in
self-interested ways for their own benefit
– Also a positive force that can bring about needed
change when political activity allows a manager to
gain support for needed changes that will advance
the organization
Political Strategies for
Increasing Power

Jump to Appendix 3 for

description.
 Political Strategies for Gaining and
Maintaining Power
Strategies
Controlling Reduce uncertainty for others in the firm
Uncertainty
Making Oneself Develop valuable special knowledge or
Irreplaceable expertise
Being in a Central Have decision-making control over the
Position firm’s crucial activities and resources
Generating Hire skilled people or find financing when
Resources it is needed
Building Alliances Develop mutually beneficial relations with
others inside and outside the organization
Political Strategies for
Exercising Power

Jump to Appendix 4 for

description.
 Strategies for Exercising Power

Strategies
Relying on Providing objective information to make
Objective others feel the manager’s course of action is
Information correct
Bringing in an Using an expert’s opinion to lend credibility to
Outside Expert manager’s proposal
Controlling the Influencing which alternatives are considered
Agenda or even whether a decision is made
Making Making sure that everyone whose support is
Everyone a needed benefits personally from providing
Winner that support
 Using Advanced Information
Technology to Increase Performance
 Information and the Manager’s Job

• Data
– Raw, unsummarized, and unanalyzed facts
• Information
– Data that are organized in a meaningful fashion
Figure 18.1 Factors Affecting the
Usefulness of Information
 Attributes of Useful Information

Attributes
Quality The accuracy and reliability of available information
affects the quality of decisions that managers make
using the information.
Timeliness The availability of real-time information that
reflects current conditions is needed for decision
making.
Completeness Complete information allows managers to exercise
control, achieve coordination, or make an effective
decision.
Relevance Having information that suites a manager’s
particular needs and circumstances assists
managers in making better decisions.
 What Is Information Technology? (1 of 3)

• Information technology
– Set of methods or techniques for acquiring,
organizing, storing,
manipulating, and
transmitting
information

Copyright Sam Edwards/age footstock RF

 What Is Information Technology? (2 of 3)

• Management information system

– Specific form of IT that managers utilize to
generate the specific, detailed information they
need to perform their roles effectively
 What Is Information Technology? (3 of 3)

Managers need information for three reasons

1. To make effective decisions
2. To control the activities of the organization
3. To coordinate the activities of the
organization
 Information and Control

Managers achieve control by

1. Establishing measurable goals
2. Measuring actual performance
3. Comparing actual performance with goals
4. Evaluating results and taking any corrective
action
 The Effects of Advancing IT

• IT helps create new product opportunities

that managers and their organizations can
take advantage of.
• IT creates new and improved products that
reduce or destroy demand for older,
established products.
 IT and the Product Life Cycle

• Product life cycle

– The way in which the demand for a product
changes in a predictable way over time
A Product Life Cycle (1 of 3)

Jump to Appendix 1 for

description.
 A Product Life Cycle (2 of 3)

• Embryonic stage
– Product has yet to gain widespread acceptance.
– Customers are unsure what a product has to offer.
• Growth stage
– Many consumers are buying the product for the
first time.
– Demand increases rapidly.
 A Product Life Cycle (3 of 3)

• Mature stage
– Market peaks because most customers have
already bought the product.
– Demand is typically replacement demand.
• Decline stage
– Advancing IT leads to the development of a more
advanced product making the old one obsolete.
Six Computer-Based Management
Information Systems

Jump to Appendix 3 for

description.
 The Organizational Hierarchy (1 of 2)

Traditionally, managers have used the

organizational hierarchy as the main system for
gathering information necessary to make
decisions and coordinate and control activities.
 The Organizational Hierarchy (2 of 2)

Drawbacks
• Can reduce timeliness of information
• Reduces quality of information
• Tall structure can make for an expensive
information system
 Types of Information Systems (1 of 5)

• Transaction processing system

– A management information system designed to
handle large volumes of routine, recurring
transactions
Most managers in large organizations use a
transaction-processing system to handle tasks such
as payroll preparation and payment, customer
billing, and payment of suppliers.
 Types of Information Systems (2 of 5)

• Operations information systems

– A management information system that gathers,
organizes, and summarizes comprehensive data in
a form that managers can use in their nonroutine
coordinating, controlling, and decision-making
tasks
 Types of Information Systems (3 of 5)

• Decision support systems

– An interactive computer-based management
information system that managers can use to
make nonroutine decisions
• New productive capacity
• New product development
• Launch a new promotional campaign
• Enter a new market
• Expand internationally
 Types of Information Systems (4 of 5)

• Executive support system

– A sophisticated version of a decision-support
system that is designed to meet the needs of top
managers
• Group decision support system
– An executive support system that links top
managers so that they can function as a team
Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems (1 of 2)

• Artificial intelligence
– Behavior by a machine that, if performed by a
human being, would be called “intelligent”
– Already possible to write programs that can solve
problems and perform simple tasks
Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems (2 of 2)

• Expert system
– A management information system that employs
human knowledge, embedded in a computer, to
solve problems that ordinarily require human
expertise
Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (1 of 2)

• Enterprise resource planning systems

– Multimodule application software packages that
coordinate the functional activities necessary to
move products from the design stage to the final
customer stage
Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (2 of 2)

1. Help each individual function improve its

functional-level skills
2. Improve integration among all functions so
that they work together to build a
competitive advantage for the company
 Types of Information Systems (5 of 5)

• E-commerce systems
– Trade that takes place between companies, and
between companies and individual customers,
using IT and the Internet
Figure 18.5 Types of E-Commerce

Jump to Appendix 4 for

description.
 E-Commerce Systems (1 of 2)

• Business-to-business (B2B)
– Trade that takes place between companies using
IT and the Internet to link and coordinate the
value chains of different companies
• B2B marketplace
– Internet-based trading platform set up to connect
buyers and sellers in an industry
 E-Commerce Systems (2 of 2)

• Business-to-customer (B2C)
– Trade that takes place between a company and
individual customers using IT and the Internet

Copyright George Frey/Bloomberg via Getty Images

 Strategic Alliances, B2B Network
Structures, and IT (1 of 2)
• Strategic alliances
– An agreement in which managers pool or share
their organization’s resources and know-how with
a foreign company, and the two organizations
share the rewards and risks of starting a new
venture
 Strategic Alliances, B2B Network
Structures, and IT (2 of 2)
• B2B network structure
– A series of global strategic alliances that an
organization creates with suppliers,
manufacturers, and distributors to produce and
market a product
 Flatter Structures and
Horizontal Information Flows (1 of 3)
• Boundaryless organization
– An organization linked by computers, mobile
technology, and video teleconferencing and
whose employees and associates rarely, if ever,
see one another face-to-face
 Flatter Structures and
Horizontal Information Flows (2 of 3)
• Knowledge management system
– A company-specific virtual information system
that systematizes the knowledge of its employees
and facilitates the sharing and integrating of their
expertise
 Flatter Structures and
Horizontal Information Flows (3 of 3)
• Virtual organization
– One in which employees are linked to an
organization’s centralized information system and
rarely see one another face-to-face, if ever
– Employees
• Infrequently visit the physical premises of their
companies
• Receive their assignments electronically, report back to
their superiors electronically, and operate
autonomously
 Reference

Jones, R. Gareth and George, M. Jennifer. 2017.

Contemporary Management, 11th Edition.
NY: McGraw-Hill.
 Terima Kasih
Constant and frequent questioning is the first key to wisdom …
[Ibnu Sina]

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