 Define conflict and conflict behavior in

organizations
 Distinguish between functional and

dysfunctional conflict
 Understand different levels and types of

conflict in organizations
 Analyze conflict episodes and the linkages

among them
 Understand the role of latent conflict in an
episode and its sources in an organization
 Describe a conflict management model
 Use various techniques to reduce and

increase conflict
 Appreciate some international and ethical

issues in conflict management

 Introduction
 Functional and Dysfunctional Conflict
 Levels and Types of Conflict in Organizations
 Conflict Episodes
 Conflict Frames and Orientations
 Latent Conflict: The Sources of Conflict in
Organizations
 Conflict Management
 Reducing Conflict
 Increasing Conflict
 International Aspects of Conflict in

Organizations
 Ethical Issues in Conflict in Organizations
 Conflict: What does the word mean to you?

Conflict Conflicto

Conflit Conflito
 Definition
◦ Opposition
◦ Incompatible behavior
◦ Antagonistic interaction
◦ Block another party from reaching her or his
goals

Range of conflict behavior

Doubt or questioning Annihilation of opponent

 Key elements
◦ Interdependence with another party
◦ Perception of incompatible goals
 Conflict events
◦ Disagreements
◦ Debates
◦ Disputes
◦ Preventing someone from reaching valued goals
 Conflict is not always bad for an organization
 Do not need to reduce all conflict
 Conflict episodes: ebb and flow of conflict
 An inevitable part of organization life
 Needed for growth and survival
 Conflict management includes increasing and
decreasing conflict
 Major management responsibility
 Brazilian Saying
(Ditado popular, Portuguese)

Toda unanimidade é burra.

(“It’s dumb if we all agree.”)

Special thanks to Gustavo Sette Rabello,

Graduate Student, The Robert O. Anderson Graduate School of Management, 1996
 Functional conflict: works toward the goals
of an organization or group
 Dysfunctional conflict: blocks an organi-
zation or group from reaching its goals
◦ Dysfunctionally high conflict: what you typically
think about conflict
◦ Dysfunctionally low conflict: an atypical view
◦ Levels vary among groups
 Functional conflict
◦ “Constructive Conflict”--Mary Parker Follett (1925)
◦ Increases information and ideas
◦ Encourages innovative thinking
◦ Unshackles different points of view
◦ Reduces stagnation
 Dysfunctionally high conflict
◦ Tension, anxiety, stress
◦ Drives out low conflict tolerant people
◦ Reduced trust
◦ Poor decisions because of withheld or distorted
information
◦ Excessive management focus on the conflict
 Dysfunctionally low conflict
◦ Few new ideas
◦ Poor decisions from lack of innovation and
information
◦ Stagnation
◦ Business as usual
Level of conflict Type of conflict

Organization Within and between organizations

Group Within and between groups

Individual Within and between individuals

 Intraorganization conflict
◦ Conflict that occurs within an organization
◦ At interfaces of organization functions
◦ Can occur along the vertical and horizontal
dimensions of the organization
 Vertical conflict: between managers and subordinates
 Horizontal conflict: between departments and work
groups
 Intragroup conflict
◦ Conflict among members of a group
◦ Early stages of group development
◦ Ways of doing tasks or reaching group's goals
 Intergroup conflict: between two or more
groups
 Interpersonal conflict
◦ Between two or more people
◦ Differences in views about what should be done
◦ Efforts to get more resources
◦ Differences in orientation to work and time in
different parts of an organization
 Intrapersonal conflict
◦ Occurs within an individual
 Threat to a person’s values
 Feeling of unfair treatment
 Multiple and contradictory sources of socialization
 Related to the Theory of Cognitive Dissonance (Chapter
5) and negative inequity (Chapter 8)
 Interorganization conflict
◦ Between two or more organizations
◦ Not competition
◦ Examples: suppliers and distributors, especially
with the close links now possible
Simple conflict episode

Latent conflict

Manifest conflict

Conflict aftermath
 Latent conflict: antecedents of conflict
behavior that can start conflict episode
 Manifest conflict: observable conflict
behavior
 Conflict aftermath
◦ End of a conflict episode
◦ Often the starting point of a related episode
◦ Becomes the latent conflict for another episode
 Conflict reduction: lower the conflict level
 Latent conflict

Manifest conflict

Conflict reduction

Conflict aftermath
 Latent conflict
The antecedents
of conflict
Manifest conflict

Example: scarce
resources
Conflict aftermath
 Some latent conflict in the lives of college
students
◦ Parking spaces
◦ Library copying machines
◦ Computer laboratory
◦ Books in the bookstore
◦ School and other parts of your life
◦ University policies
 Observable
Latent conflict
conflict behavior

Example:
Manifest conflict
disagreement,
discussion
Conflict aftermath
 Latent conflict Residue of a
conflict episode

Manifest conflict Example:

compromise in
allocating scarce
resources leaves both
Conflict aftermath parties with less than
they wanted
 Latent conflict

Perceived conflict Felt conflict

Manifest conflict

Text book Figure 11.1 Conflict reduction

Conflict aftermath
 Perceived conflict
◦ Become aware that one is in conflict with another
party
◦ Can block out some conflict
◦ Can perceive conflict when no latent conditions
exist
◦ Example: misunderstanding another person’s
position on an issue
 Felt conflict
◦ Emotional part of conflict
◦ Personalizing the conflict
◦ Oral and physical hostility
◦ Hard to manage episodes with high felt conflict
◦ What people likely recall about conflict
 Episodes link through the connection of
conflict aftermath to latent conflict
 Effective conflict management: break the

connection
 Discover the latent conflicts and remove them
 Conflict reduction

Latent conflict Manifest conflict Conflict aftermath

Latent conflict Manifest conflict Conflict aftermath

Latent conflict Manifest conflict Conflict aftermath

 Conflict frames
◦ Perceptual sets that people bring to conflict
episodes
◦ Perceptual filters
 Remove some information from an episode
 Emphasize other information in an episode
 Conflict
Relationship-Task Cooperate-Win
frame

Emotional-Intellectual
 Conflict frame dimensions
◦ Relationship-Task
 Relationship: focuses on interpersonal relationships
 Task: focuses on material aspects of an episode
◦ Emotional-Intellectual
 Emotional: focuses on feelings in the conflict episode
(felt conflict)
 Intellectual: focuses on observed behavior (manifest
conflict)
 Conflict frame dimensions (cont.)
◦ Cooperate-Win
 Cooperate: emphasizes the role of all parties to the
conflict
 Win: wants to maximize personal gain
 Conflict frames
◦ Limited research results
 End an episode with a relationship or intellectual
frame: feel good about relationship with other party
 Cooperation-focused people end with more positive
results than those focused on winning
 Conflict orientations
◦ Dominance: wants to win; conflict is a battle
◦ Collaborative: wants to find a solution that satisfies
everyone
◦ Compromise: splits the differences
◦ Avoidance: backs away
◦ Accommodative: focuses on desires of other party
 Can change during conflict episode
◦ How firmly the person holds orientation
◦ Importance of the issues to the person
◦ Perception of opponent's power
 Collaborative orientation: more positive
long-term benefits than the others
 Conflict orientation and the conflict aftermath
Avoidance
Collaborative Compromise Accommodative
Dominance

No residue High residue

Conflict aftermath
 Combinations of conflict orientations in a
group
◦ Dominance, avoidance
◦ Dominance, dominance
◦ Avoidance, avoidance
◦ Dominance, collaborative, compromise
◦ Collaborative, compromise, avoidance
◦ Collaborative, compromise, avoidance, dominance,
accommodative
 Antecedents to conflict episodes
 Many natural conditions of organizations act

as latent conflicts
 Lurk in the background; trigger conflict when

right conditions occur

 Does not always lead to manifest conflict
 Give us clues about how to reduce

dysfunctionally high conflict

 Some representative latent conflict
◦ Scarce resources: money, equipment, facilities
◦ Organizational differentiation: different
orientations in different parts of organization
◦ Rules, procedures, policies: behavioral guides
that can cause clashes
◦ Cohesive groups: value and orientation
differences among groups
 Some representative latent conflict (cont.)
◦ Interdependence: forces interaction
◦ Communication barriers: shift work and jargon
◦ Ambiguous jurisdictions: areas of authority not
clearly defined
◦ Reward systems: reward different behavior in
different parts of the organization

Sales on commission; manufacturing rewarded

for meeting schedules. Communication differences.
 Maintain conflict at functional levels
◦ Not complete elimination
◦ Reducing to functional levels
◦ Increasing dysfunctionally low conflict
◦ Choose desired level of conflict based on perceived
conflict requirements
◦ Varies in different parts of an organization
◦ Manager’s tolerance for conflict plays a role
Organizational Product or Fast-changing
culture service environment

Perceived conflict requirements

Desired conflict level

Dysfunctionally Normal Dysfunctionally
low conflict high conflict

Increase Decrease
conflict conflict

Text book Figure 11.2

 Symptoms of dysfunctionally high conflict
◦ Low trust
◦ Information distortion
◦ Tension/antagonism
◦ Stress
◦ Sabotage of organization’s product or service
 Symptoms of dysfunctionally low conflict
◦ Deny differences
◦ Repress controversial information
◦ Prohibit disagreements
◦ Avoid interactions
◦ Walk away from conflict episode
 Overview
◦ Lose-lose methods: parties to the conflict episode
do not get what they want
◦ Win-lose methods: one party a clear winner; other
party a clear loser
◦ Win-win methods: each party to the conflict
episode gets what he or she wants
 Lose-lose methods
◦ Avoidance
 Withdraw, stay away
 Does not permanently reduce conflict
◦ Compromise
 Bargain, negotiate
 Each loses something valued
◦ Smoothing: find similarities
 Win-lose methods
◦ Dominance
 Overwhelm other party
 Overwhelms an avoidance orientation
◦ Authoritative command: decision by person in
authority
◦ Majority rule: voting
 Win-win methods
◦ Problem solving: find root causes
◦ Integration: meet interests and desires of all
parties
◦ Superordinate goal: desired by all but not
reachable alone
 Summary
◦ Lose-lose methods: compromise
◦ Win-lose methods: dominance
◦ Win-win methods: problem solving
 Increase conflict when it is dysfunctionally
low
◦ Heterogeneous groups: members have different
backgrounds
◦ Devil’s advocate: offers alternative views
◦ Organizational culture: values and norms that
embrace conflict and debate
 Possible positive effects of conflict
 Latent conflict
 Conflict aftermath
 Conflict episodes
 Links between episodes
 Latent conflict and methods of reduction
 Cultures that emphasize individualism and
competition
◦ Positively value conflict
◦ English-speaking countries, the Netherlands, Italy,
Belgium
 Cultures that emphasize collaboration,
cooperation, conformity
◦ Negatively value conflict
◦ Many Asian and Latin American countries; Portugal,
Greece, Turkey
 No direct research evidence
 Cultural differences imply different functional

conflict levels
 Cross-cultural research has dealt with
intergroup processes
 Collaborative and cooperative cultures expect
little conflict during intergroup interactions
 Favor suppression of conflict with little
discussion about people's feelings
 Felt conflict likely part of some conflict
episodes but hidden from public view
 Managers from an individualistic country
operating in a less individualistic country
◦ Acceptable to express feelings during a conflict
episode
◦ Suppression of feelings could baffle them
◦ Increasing conflict can confuse local people
◦ Almost immediate dysfunctional results
 Tolerance for conflict
◦ Manager with a high tolerance for conflict; keeps
conflict levels too high for subordinates
◦ Should such managers reveal their intentions about
desired conflict levels?
◦ Full disclosure: subordinates could leave the group
if conflict levels became dysfunctionally stressful
◦ Ethical question applies equally to newly hired
employees
 Deliberately increasing conflict is an effort to
guide behavior in a desired direction
◦ Subtle methods of increasing conflict (forming
heterogeneous groups) connote manipulation
◦ Full disclosure: manager states his intention to use
conflict to generate ideas and innovation
◦ If people are free to join a group or not, the ethical
issue likely subsides
 Experiencing intrapersonal conflict
◦ Requests to act against one's moral values
◦ Observing behavior that one considers unethical
 Reduce intrapersonal conflict
◦ Report unethical acts
◦ Transfer to another part of the organization
◦ Quit
 Different cultures place different values on
conflict
◦ Optimal conflict levels vary among countries
◦ Lower levels conflict in collectivistic countries than
individualistic countries

Should managers honor such values even if their home

country values support higher levels of conflict?