CHAPTER FIVE

Management of
organizational
conflict
 Definition of Conflict
•Conflict:
– is a process that begins when one party perceives that another
party has negatively affected, or is about to negatively affect,
something that the first party cares about.

» Is that point in an ongoing activity when an interaction

“crosses over” to become an interparty conflict.

– People experience a wide range of conflicts in organizations

» incompatibility of goals,
» differences in interpretations of facts,
» disagreements over behavioral expectations, and the like.
 Transitions in Conflict Thought

• Traditional View of Conflict

– The belief that all conflict is harmful and must be avoided.
– Prevalent view in the 1930s-1940s.

• Conflict resulted from:

– Poor communication
– Lack of openness
– Failure to respond to employee needs
 Transitions in Conflict Thought
• Interactionist View of Conflict
• Human Relations View of
Conflict – The belief that conflict is not

– The belief that conflict is a only a positive force in a

natural and inevitable group but that it is absolutely

outcome in any group. necessary for a group to

– Prevalent from the late perform effectively.

1940s through mid-1970s. – Current view

 Causes of Conflict
• According to both Daft and Terry, several factors may create
organizational conflict. They are as follows:
– Scarce Resources-
• Resources may include money, supplies, people, or
information.
• Often, organizational units are in competition for scarce or
declining resources.
– Jurisdictional Ambiguities-
• Conflicts may also surface when job boundaries and task
responsibilities are unclear.
• Individuals may disagree about who has the responsibility
for tasks and resources.
 Causes of Conflict
• Personality Clashes -
– A personality conflict emerges when two people simply do not
get along or do not view things similarly.
– Personality tensions are caused by differences in personality,
attitudes, values, and beliefs.
• Power and Status Differences-
– Power and status conflict may occur when one individual has
questionable influence over another.
– People might engage in conflict to increase their power or
status in an organization.
 Causes of Conflict
• Goal Differences
– Conflict may occur because people are pursuing different
goals.
– Goal conflicts in individual work units are a natural part of
any organization.

• Communication Breakdown-
– barriers may be derived from differences in speaking styles,
writing styles, and nonverbal communication styles.
 Functional versus Dysfunctional Conflict

• Contemporary perspectives differentiate types of conflict based on

their effects.
– Functional conflict
• Conflict that supports the goals of the group and improves
its performance.
– Dysfunctional Conflict
• Conflict that hinders group performance
 Types of Conflict
• Task Conflict
– Conflicts over content and goals of the work.
• Relationship Conflict
– Conflict based on interpersonal relationships.
• Process Conflict
– Conflict over how work gets done.
The Conflict Process
 Stage I: Potential Opposition or Incompatibility

• Communication
– Semantic difficulties, misunderstandings,
and “noise”
• Structure
– Size and specialization of jobs
– Jurisdictional clarity/ambiguity
– Member/goal incompatibility
– Leadership styles (close or participative)
– Reward systems (win-lose)
– Dependence/interdependence of groups
• Personal Variables
– Differing individual value systems
– Personality types
 Stage II: Cognition and Personalization

• Potential for conflict is actualized

• Parties “make sense” of conflict by defining it and its
potential solutions.
• Emotions play a major role in shaping perceptions.

 Perceived conflict – Awareness by one or more parties of the

existence of conditions that create opportunities for conflict to
arise
 Felt conflict - Emotional involvement in a conflict creating
anxiety, tenseness, frustration, or hostility.
 Stage III: Intentions
• Intentions: the decision to act in a given way inferred (often
erroneous) intentions may cause greater conflict.
• Conflict-handling intentions as falling along two dimensions.
These two dimensions are assertiveness and cooperativeness.
• Assertiveness:- the degree to which one party attempts to satisfy
his or her own concerns.
• Cooperativeness:- the degree to which one party attempts to
satisfy the other party’s concerns.
• These can help us identify five conflict-handling intentions.
 Conflict-handling intentions
• Competing

– A desire to satisfy one’s interests, regardless of the impact on

the other party to the conflict.

• Collaborating

– A situation in which the parties to a conflict each desire to

satisfy fully the concerns of all parties.

• Avoiding

– The desire to withdraw from or suppress a conflict.

 Conflict-handling intentions
• Accommodating

– The willingness of one party in a conflict to place the

opponent’s interests above his or her own.

• Compromising

– A situation in which each party to a conflict is willing to

give up something.
Conflict-handling intentions
 Stage IV: Behavior

• When most people think of conflict, they tend to focus on Stage

IV because this is where conflicts become visible.

• The behavior stage includes statements, actions, and reactions

made by conflicting parties, usually as overt attempts to

implement their own intentions.

• May become an inadvertent stimulus due to miscalculations or

unskilled enactments
 Conflict-Intensity Continuum

 Functional conflicts: confined to lower range of continuum –

subtle, indirect, and highly controlled
 Dysfunctional conflicts: upper range – highly destructive
activities such as strikes and riots.
 Stage V: Outcomes
• Functional:
 Improves decision quality
 Stimulates creativity and innovation
 Encourages interest and curiosity
 Problems are aired
 Accepts change and self-evaluation
• Dysfunctional:
 Group is less effective
 Cohesiveness and communications are reduced
 Leads to the destruction of the group
 Conflict Resolution Techniques

• Problem solving: Face-to-face meeting of the conflicting parties

for the purpose of identifying the problem and resolving it through
open discussion.
• Super ordinate goals: Creating a shared goal that cannot be
attained without the cooperation of each of the conflicting parties.
• Expansion of resources: When a conflict is caused by the scarcity
of a resource say, money, promotion opportunities, office space
expansion of the resource can create a win-win solution.
• Avoidance: Withdrawal from, or suppression of, the conflict.
 Cont…
• Compromise: Each party to the conflict gives up something of
value.
• Authoritative command: Management uses its formal authority to
resolve the conflict and then communicates its desires to the parties
involved.
• Altering the human variable: Using behavioral change techniques
such as human relations training to alter attitudes and behaviors
that cause conflict.
• Altering the structural variables: Changing the formal
organization structure and the interaction patterns of conflicting
parties through job redesign, transfers, creation of coordinating
positions, and the like.
The End of Chapter Five
Thank You!