Conflict and Negotiation

What is Conflict?

Conflict is a situation in which two or

more people disagree over issues of
organizational substance and /or
experience some emotional antagonism
with one another
Types of conflicts

Substantive conflict--conflict that occurs in the form of

fundamental disagreement over ends or goals to be
pursued and the means for their accomplishment e.g. a
disagreement with ones boss over a plan of actions to
be followed.

Emotional conflict -- conflict that involves

interpersonal difficulties that arise over feelings of anger,
mistrust, dislike, fear, resentment.
Level of conflict

Interpersonal, or conflict within the individual,

due to actual or perceived pressures from
incompatible goals or expectation

Interpersonal, or individual-to-individual conflict

Intergroup conflict

Interorganizational conflict
Constructive and Destructive Conflict

Constructive Conflict
It offers the people involved a chance to
identify otherwise neglected problems and
opportunities, creativity and performance as
a results

Destructive Conflict
decrease work productivity and job
satisfaction and contribute to absenteeism
and job turnover
Conflict Situations
Vertical Conflict: commonly involves supervisor-
subordinate disagreements over resources, goals, deadlines
or performance results

Horizontal Conflict: commonly involves goal

incompatibilities, resources scarcities, or purely
interpersonal factors

Line-Staff Conflict: commonly involves disagreements

over who has authority and control over certain matter

Role Conflict: commonly involves uncertainties of

expectations, overloads or underloads in expectations, or
incompatibilities among expectation
Stage of Conflict

Antecedent
Condition

Perceived
Felt Conflict
Conflict

Manifest Conflict

Conflict resolution

Conflict aftermath
Conflict Management Approach

Indirect Conflict Management Techniques

appeals to common goals
hierarchical referral
organizational redesign
use of mythology and scripts

Direct Conflict Management technique

lose-lose conflict -- result from conflict management by avoidance,
smoothing and or compromise
win-lose conflict -- result from conflict management by competition
and or authoritative command
win-win conflict -- is achieved by collaboration and the use of
problem solving
When to use conflict management style

Collaboration and Problem Solving -- to gain true conflict

resolution, time and other circumstances permitting

Avoidance -- when an issue is trivial or more important issue

are pressing or to let people cool down and regain perspective

Authoritative command -- when quick and decisive action is

vital or when unpopular actions must be taken

Accommodation -- when conflict issues are more important

to others than to oneself or when a person wants to build
credits for use in later issues

Compromising -- for temporary settlement to complex issues

Negotiation

is the process of making joint decisions when

parties involved have different preferences.

There are two goals would be achieved through

negotiation:
substance goals -- concerned with outcomes relative
to the content issues at hand
relationships goals -- concerned with outcomes
relating to how well people involved in the
negotiation are able to work with one another once
the process is concluded.
Effective Negotiation

Many negotiations result in a sacrifice of relationship become

preoccupied with substance goals and self-interests.

Effective negotiation occurs when substance issues are resolved and

working relationship are maintain.

Three criteria for effective negotiation:

quality -- the result of negotiation are wise and truly satisfactory to all sides

efficiency -- no more time consuming or costly than absolutely necessary

harmony -- the negotiation is harmonious and fosters rather than inhibits

good interpersonal relations.
Ethical Aspects of Negotiations

since any negotiation involves people with different

preferences, ethical behavior is often an issue

the motivation to behave unethically is often a function of:

profit motive -- the desire of each party to get more than the
other
sense of competition -- the belief that there are insufficient
resources to satisfy everyones needs
concern for justice -- the search by each party for outcomes
defined as fair only from the narrow perspective of ones self-
interest
Gaining Integrative Agreements

three main areas to gain integrative agreements: attitudes, behaviors

and information

Attitudes:
each party must trust the other party
each party must be willing to share information
each party must be willing to ask concrete questions of the other
party

behaviors
the ability to separate the people from the problem
the ability to focus on interests rather than positions
the ability to avoid making premature judgment
the ability to judge possible agreements on an objective criteria
Common Pitfalls in Negotiation

Falling prey to the myth of the fixed pie (in fact,

the pie can be expanded)
Non-rational escalation of conflict
Overconfidence an ignoring others needs