Conflict Handling

Case Study
The conflict management arises from the management styles of two managers, Isha and
Susmita, who head two different departments in the same organization. Isha’s problem with
Susmita is that she is taking employees from her department without approval. Susmita feels
she is doing the right thing as she is taking employees from Isha’s over staffed department. On
the other hand, Isha feels her department is not over staffed and the numbers are required to
get the work done efficiently. Isha feels Susmita is interfering with her duties while Susmita
feels Isha will be able to work better with lesser staff. They confront each other in front of their
Director Mr. Syed regarding the situation. Apart from Isha’s and Susmita’s point of view he also
had to consider Muskan’s point of view. Muskan was recently replaced by Isha and had faced
similar issue’s with Susmita but he was able to take care of them problem without directly
confronting Susmita.

Analysis of Conflict Management Style

From the case above it is clear that Isha and Susmita have both personal and professional
differences which are adversely affecting their productivity at work. Isha is the new head of
technology development department while Susmita is the head of product engineering
department. The conflict took place since Isha did not want to let go of her employees even
though some had no substantial work in her department while Susmita needed the manpower
to get the work done since, her department was understaffed. Hence, Susmita without
approval started taking employees from Isha’s department. Susmita is a very confident
manager who is vocal about her needs and wants while she sees Isha as being incompetent she
is not able to effectively handle her duties. Isha ignored Susmita for a very long time which is
called as the avoiding style. Isha did not want to have any conflicts with Susmita while Susmita
seemed aggressive in her approach and started taking employees to her department without
permission. Isha was believed to be a weak manager from the employees and Susmita’s point
of view hence, instead of avoiding the situation both resorted to confront each other. Both
managers believed they were right in their actions. Syed, the Director, could forcefully end the
conflict but it would not be an effective way as both parties were not reaching their objectives.

Solution
Hence, the best solution was to opt for collaborating style which is a “win-win” situation for
both parties. Both managers decided to have a long conversation about how many employees
they could transfer to Susmita’s department with the right channel while also maintaining a
manageable personal size in Isha’s department. Since, Susmita was unable to source the talent
required to carry out her duties effectively, this way both parties were given a workable
solution and a sizeable taskforce to carry out duties effectively.
Defining Conflict
Conflict can be understood as disagreement between different parties of individuals. This is
when parties involved perceive the situation as a threat to their needs, interests or concerns in
general. These conflicts may arise due to various reasons like workplace disagreement,
misunderstandings, lack or communication, personality differences, ego, etc.

Stages of Conflict
The 4 basic stages of conflict are as follows:
• Intrapersonal: conflict within the individual or within self where the person is unable
to make a decision.
• Interpersonal: conflict among two or more individuals like a workplace disagreement
with a colleague/manager/senior.
• Intragroup: conflict within a group for example internal conflict between marketing
department members over media budget or a product launch marketing budget which
members are not clearly able to substantiate.
• Intergroup: conflict between two or more groups for example conflict between
finance department and marketing department over the required budget request versus
the assigned budget to the department.
Individuals may experience more than one conflict at a time as these categories are not
exclusive but more overlapping in nature.
Why Conflict Management is Important?
Conflict management is based on different personalities and value systems of people it can
never fully eradicate the problem, but it will be a guideline used to minimize such situations in
the workplace. Conflict management can be used to achieve consensus among individuals and
groups effectively.
Conflict Management Styles, features, consequences, and examples:
Each style is a way to meet one’s needs in a dispute but may impact other people in different
ways hence, the strategy to be selected should be based on the situation at hand:

Conflict Style Features, Benefits, Consequences &

Examples
Competing Features:
 “I win you lose” situation
  One’s own needs are advocated over
others
 Aggressive style of communication
 Low regard for future relationships
 Exercise coercive power
 Tend to seek control over a discussion
 Fear and increase the level of threat
about losing their needs
Benefits:
 Strong principals
 Disputes solved quicky
 No space for disagreement or
discussion
Consequences:
 Style may be seen as unreasonable
and authoritarian
 Lack of job satisfaction
 Not lead to creative or best solutions
 Unilateral decision making may lead
employees to feel resentful
Example:

Situation 1: Susmita is the Marketing head

and interdepartmental conflict about when
to hold the team-building activity should be
conducted is the topic of discussion hence,
Susmita steps in and decides that it would
happen in the month of November after
Diwali vacations. In this situation Susmita
made a quick decision to avoid small conflicts
for the employees to focus on other
important tasks. This is an appropriate use of
this style.

Situation 2: Muskan has come to Susmita

several times to make a few adjustments to
the new marketing budget plan but Susmita
is unwilling to increase the Marketing budget
which may lead to the Marketing execution
plan to suffer adversely. This makes Muskan
unhappy and due to the unilateral decision
making the downfall for the entire Marketing
plan and Susmita is losing out on the
 opportunity to better the plan.

Accommodating Features:
 Also known as smoothing
 “You win I lose” situation
 Opposite of competing
 Diplomatic in nature and approach
 They tend to allow the needs of the
group to overwhelm their own
 High regard for future relationships
Benefits:
 Small disagreements can be handles
easily
 Easy going reputation
 Trust and rapport formation
Consequences
 Manager may be seen as weak and
unable to take bold decisions
Example:

The marketing team is deciding to select the

color theme for their advertainment
campaign where Isha is adamant that Red
and White are the best choice, Syed thinks
Red, and Gold would be better. But Sayed
decided to let Isha choose the colors to avoid
arguing further on this topic as both seem
appropriate for him.

Avoiding Features:
 Negative emotions and perceptions
 Feelings get pent up, views go
unexpressed, and the conflict festers
until it becomes too big to ignore
 Needs and concerns go unexpressed

 People are often confused, wondering

what went wrong in a relationship
Benefits:
 Giving each other time and space to
accept or understand the situation
 Trust employees to resolve issues
themselves
 Consequences
 Overdue avoidance makes the
working atmosphere bitter

 Managers seem incompetent to

handle disagreement

 May adversely affect the employees

job performance and productivity
Example:
Muskan and Syed were working on strategies
to minimize budget cost for the marketing
department together. The deadline was
nearing and they both could not reach on a
common decision to decide which approach
would be optimal. The deadline was
postponed by Susmita the marketing head so
that they both could take extra time to
complete the analysis and resume with a
more collaborative mindset.

Compromising Features:
 “Lose-Lose” situation
 People gain and give in a series of
tradeoffs
 Compromise is generally not
satisfying
 Lack of trust

 Avoid risk-taking involved in more

collaborative behaviors

 Helps to understand other parties’

perspective
Benefits:
 Both parties feel heard
 Tactic to facilitate agreement
 Quicky resolves problems
Consequences
 No one is completely satisfied with
the outcome
 Unwilling to compromise in the future
  Employee goodwill may reduce
towards the manager

Example:

Isha and Syed were both in charge of the

marketing budget plan for the next quarter,
but they were having a disagreement. Isha
wanted to increase the digital
advertisements on social media and Syed
wanted to hire a full-time employee to be in
charge of the social media platforms. An
agreement was reached by hiring a part-time
employee who was looking after social media
platforms and the remaining budget was
spent on digital advertisements.

Collaborating Features:
 pooling of individual or group needs
and goals toward a common goal or
purpose
 “Win-Win” Situation
 Assertive communication
 Cooperation to achieve better
creative and pragmatic solutions
 There is consensus, integration of
needs, and the potential to exceed
the “budget of possibilities”
 Importance is given to relationships
Benefits:
 Overall job satisfaction
 Creative and best long-term solutions
 Mangers are seen as skilled and
patient
Consequences
 Time consuming
 Deadlines may be delayed
 Delayed solutions may lead to huge
losses
Example:

Syed and Susmita have different features

they want to market in the upcoming social
 media campaign about their new product
hence, to reach a solution they sat together
and brainstormed which were the most
important features and common features
they wanted to incorporate, finally they
decided on mix of features and some news
ones were added which were notably
important.

Six Steps to Manage A Potential Conflict

Step 1  Understand the situation

 Understand the conflict’s content &
history
 Understand the personalities and
positions of the individuals
Step 2  Encourage dialogue between the two
parties, ask open ended questions to
start discussion, hear opinions, and
understand the information being
provided
Step 3  Collect information or data required
to substantiate the facts to resolve
conflict like historical date, records,
etc.
Step 4  Reinforce agreement with common
goals and common values
Step 5  Negotiate disagreement by
understanding facts and feelings of all
the parties involved.
 Can review previous steps and ask
everyone to list out their
disagreements in an order and work
from the smallest to the biggest
problem
Step 6  Solidify agreement after reaching a
solution
 Offer compromises for problems that
cannot be resolved
 Have clear and proper communication