Management of Conflict

An Introduction
Conflict
• arises when interest of people don’t coinside, in
human interaction it is high.
• They disagree about how things are and how
they should be.
• Simple misunderstanding lead to disputes. Yet it
may also arise when the interest of people are
similar but opposed to each other.
• At least 2 parties are involved in conflict it may
occur in individual, groups, between the
individual and the organization and between
organizations
• Organization- large numbers of people
congregate in a joint pursuit of purpose.
• Sets itself up to harness the creativity of
people for maximum effectiveness.
• But an increase in people doesn’t ensure
creativity.
• As the numbers of people increase, the
numbers of possible interaction among them
increases.
• Consequently conflict & disagreement is move
likely. In such eventuality would prevent people
from making their own contributions effectively.
• They may not cooperate or even withdrew
their cooperation entirely by resigning from the
organization.
• Eventually, if unattended can ultimately
degenerate into chaos. Yet paradoxically,
conflict can also lead to higher creativity
.Like muscle grow stronger makes
exercised against resistance.
• As the saying goes two heads are better
than one; if both aren’t empty. Could it
that two person are more creative than
one, if there is some moderate amount of,
rather than zero, conflict between them?
If so it is wiser to allow conflict up to
some degree, rather than nipping it of the
bud. So the question then is how to
manage conflicts so that it is potential in
eliciting creativity from people is made use
of correctly.
• Therefore conflict is part of organizational
life. One may choose to ignore it, but one
could hardly expect conflict to simply
disappear. It will only persist at varying
levels of intensity. Instead, manager
should recognize it, face it, stimulate it up
to the certain level and ultimately manage
it. Competence in conflict management &
resolution is a key requirement for
managerial success.
 OBJECTIVES
• To examine the range of issues
pertaining to the management of conflict
in organization.
• Know the nature of conflicts, its
benefits and cost and the causes and
consequences of intergroup conflict.
• And finally adapt the techniques for
resolving conflict and preventing it.
 Nature of Conflict

• Conflict- is relationship, disagreement remain

unsettled and relationships are strained. emotions
ran high and tension increases. Emotions can
cloud the judgments of the protagonist; a
protagonist may refuse to cooperate with each
other, otherwise serves the relationship
altogether, but it is also possible for them to
continue the relationship where the only thing
that binds them is their mutual desire to
overcome and defeat the other.
 The areas wherein conflicting
parties find themselves in
disagreement are of:
• Facts- present situation as problem
• Goals- what showed be done or accomplished
• Methods- best way to accomplished the goals
• Values- principles, qualities, concept about what
is desirable in long term influence judgments
and perception about fact, goals and methods
• Easiest to settle is disagreements on facts
while differences in values are the most
difficult to resolve, it is so since people
can be more readily objective about facts
than about values, it is after all, are
basically a matter of subjective choices.
And it impinges on the interpretation of
facts, goals and methods, sometimes it is
necessary to clarify and resolve value
differences first to make agreement in the
other area possible.
• Conflict require energy, it takes human
effort to maintain,escalate or deescalate it,
also takes emotional energy to surpress
deny, and it takes even more to confront
it. That’s why it is dealt with some indirect
fashion the requires less energy than more
direct means.
• Conflict issues tend to proliferate and
acquire a life of their own which increase
its life expectancy. It may start out on the
basis of differences on a single substantive
issue, or perhaps only a few. Overtime
however, the issues tend to multiply which
in turn, complicate and escalate it.
• In addition emotions of the protagonist
get entangled with the substantive issues.
After a time, it becomes more difficult to
unraveled the conflict as by now not only
the enlarged number of substantive issues
have to be dealt with but also the
emotional aspect as well as well as the
original conflict is to be resolved
• Management of Agreement- related to the
management of conflict. Total agreements
on everything is impossible and may even
be undesirable. If It were so a manager
would be surrounded by yes-men.
Substantial agreement is necessary to
sustain cooperation. When agreement is
effectively managed conflict will still arise
but their effects are more easily
controllable.
• For example, if the areas of agreement
are greater than the areas of
disagreement, there is more of an
incentive to sustain relationships and work
together than break effort.
 LEVELS OF CONFLICT

Neither too much nor too little

conflicts is good for the organization.
Instead moderate levels of conflict
have more potential for constructive
outcomes, in this case the contending
groups is more likely to interact in
desirable problem solving ways. As the
level of conflict rises the tendency is to
engage in destructive behavior toward
the rival group.
• Too much conflict leads much chaos and
disruption that, intern, endanger the
organization chances for survival. But too
little conflicts leads to complacency. The
organization changes to slowly to meet
the new demands being made upon it.
Thus its existence is also threatened.
Thank you!
Good day….

alfredo