Seminar 7

Chapter 13: Managing Conflict and Negotiating

Seminar 7* Conflict- One party perceives its interests being opposed or set back by another party-Natural occurrence in an organization whenever an action by one party is perceived as preventing or interfering with the goals, needs, or actions of another party. - Conflict can be positive when it focuses on solving problems constructively and results in increasing organizational productivity.- Conflict as war: Try to win at all cost defensive and combative(Donald trump)+ Defensiveness will prevent you from communicating openly with your opponents or practice active listen. Victories won in anger lead to long term defeat(Kenneth Cloke and Joan Goldsmith)- Conflict as opportunity & Journey: More positive, open minded and constructive+ Perceiving conflict as an opportunity helps to deepen your capacity for empathy and intimacy and by resurrecting the human side of theirs and your personality, it will lead to growth, increased awareness and self improvement. Can be a way of learning what is not working and discovering how to fix it (Cloke & Goldsmith)- Conflict intensity & outcome (Brown, 1983)

- Functional Conflict+ Commonly referred to as constructive or cooperative conflict that aim to serve the organization’s interest (SP Robbins, California Management Review 1978)+ Apply a win-win attitude to solve problems and find common ground issue-focused stimulate creativity+ be assertive but no aggressive --> marshal useful facts rather than impression, offer alternatives along with objections, limit comment to deed, not doer. (Kerry Sulkowicz, Business Week, 2008)+ Eg Lots of Friendly Fighting at Google- Dysfunctional Conflict+ Conflict that threaten organization’s interests as it is typically person focused and hence breed hostility and stifles communication between both party, thus leading to lower efficiency across the organization.+ Usually associated with negative outcome

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Chapter 13: Managing Conflict and Negotiating

- Conflict Model

- Types of Conflicta) Personality Conflict+ Defined as + Personality is one’s stable package of traits and characteristics that is unique+ Interpersonal opposition based on personal dislike, disagreement, or different styles. (EMC Tucci’s relationship based vs Ruetthgers’ cold stance, 2002)+ Cause of personality conflict is workplace incivility, termed as employee’s lack of regard for one another erode org balues and deplete org resources job satisfaction and org loyalty also diminished turnover (Pearson & Porath, 2005)+ Can be mitigated by workplace etiquette training and day of contemplation+ How to deal with Personality Conflict?Tips for Employees Tips for 3rd Party Observer Tips for Managers-All employees need to be familiar with and follow company policies for diversity, anti-discrimination, and sexual harassment-Communicate directly with the other person to resolve the perceived conflict-Avoid dragging co-workers into the conflict If dysfunctional conflict persists, seek help from direct supervisors or human resource specialists

-All employees need to be familiar with and follow company policies for diversity, anti-discrimination, and sexual harassment-Do not take sides in someone else’s personality conflict-Suggest the parties work things out themselves in a constructive and positive way-If dysfunctional conflict persists, refer the problem to parties’ direct supervisors

-All employees need to be familiar with and follow company policies for diversity, anti-discrimination, and sexual harassment-Investigate and document conflict-If appropriate, take corrective action-If necessary, attempt informal dispute resolution-Refer difficult conflict to human resource specialists or hired counsellors for formal resolution attempts and other intervention

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Chapter 13: Managing Conflict and Negotiating

b) Intergroup Conflict+ Conflict among work groups, teams, and departments threat to org competitiveness + E.g. How Michael Volkema, CEO of Herman Miller curb intergroup conflict thru collaboration and redirecting employee’s focus to external treats and customers+ Cause of intergroup conflict is due to a excessive sense of cohesiveness within the team that result in groupthink as they i) see themselves as unique and stereotypes others as identical ii) See themselves as moral and others as immoral iii) views outsiders as a threat iv) exaggerate differences between their groups and other groups (e.g. sports fans who dislike other clubs)+ How to handle intergroup conflict?

c) Cross- Cultural Conflict+ Conflicts resulting from differing assumptions about how to think and act among people with different cultural background.+E.g. Mexican want to downplay conflict vs US direct dealings with conflict (Harvard Management Communication Letter, 1999)+ E.g. Canon employing internal consultant from Glocom, which is based in Dubai to see fit of Dubai and Dutch Culture+ How to prevent cross-cultural conflict? Cultivate Cross Cultural Relationship

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Chapter 13: Managing Conflict and Negotiating

- Desired Conflict Outcome when resolving conflict1) Agreement: strive for equitable and fair agreements that last conflicts

typically come back as problems in future. Therefore, it is best to handle conflicts positively so that a mutually acceptable agreement can be made.

2) Stronger Relationships: build bridges of goodwill and trust for the future more likely to lead to future interaction and information sharing.

3) Learning: greater self-awareness and creative problem solvinghelps shape our behavior and helps us grow as individuals.

* Stimulating Functional Conflict (R A Cosier and C R Schwenk, 1990)+ Get contributors to either defend or criticize ideas based on relevant facts rather than on the basis of personal preference or political interest can allow emergence of programmed conflict – conflict that raises different opinions regardless of personal feelings of the manager+ Two Programmed Conflict Techniques

Good to rotate job of devil’s advocate so no one person or group develops a strictly negative reputation and as periodic devil’s advocacy role-playing provides training to develop analytical, communication skills and EQ

Drawback of dialectic method is that ‘winning the debate’ may overshadow issue at hand and also requires more training

Groups using devil advocacy produced more potential solutions and made better recommendations for case than groups using dialectic method

E.g. Toro use of contra team and due diligence group during M & A* Handling Dysfunctional Conflict

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Chapter 13: Managing Conflict and Negotiating

+ Afzalur Rahim Model of Five Different Conflict-Handling Style

- Compromising Style: characterized by using intermediate assertiveness and cooperativeness and achieving a mutually acceptable solution that partially satisfies both by splitting the difference and exchanging concessions. This style is useful because it can usually be accomplished quickly while maintaining relationships. The down side is that the results may be sub-optimal and can lead to playing games such as asking for twice as much initially so that the compromise will be closer to what they wanted to begin with. + Third Party Intervention (P Ruzich, HR magazine, 1999)

Detriangling: Less Political, Low Risk of Dysfunctional Third party channelling disputants’ energy directly and positively toward each other

1) Reroute complaints by coaching the sender to find ways to constructively bring up the matter with the receiver. Do not carry messages for the sender2) Facilitate a meeting with the sender and receiver to coach them to speak directly and constructively with each other3) Transmit verbatim messages with the sender’s name included and coach the receiver on constructive ways to discuss the message with the sender Triangling: Not recommended as more political and high risk of

dysfunctional conflict might lead to political and ethical issues4) Carry the message verbatim but protect the sender’s name 5) Soften the message to protect the sender6) Add your spin to the message to protect the sender7) Do nothing. The participants will triangle in someone else8) Do nothing and spread the gossip. You will triangle in others

+ Alternative Dispute Resolution> Constructive and cheaper approach compared to costly court battle (300k if go to jury, BusinessWeek) thru mediation and arbitration> Techniques includes: a) Facilitation: urging disputing parties to deal directly with each other) b) Conciliation: neutral third party for communication conduit* Negotiating

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Chapter 13: Managing Conflict and Negotiating

- Defined as give-and-take process between conflicting interdependent parties- Distributive Negotiation: Single issue; fixed-pie; win-lose. each party do not actively look for beneficial trade off as blindsided due to assumption that there interest directly conflict with those of other party- Integrative approach: More than one issue; “broadening the pie”; win-win characterized by people not taking stands or positions but instead focusing on their and the other party’s underlying interests. It requires that both parties keep an open mind about how to meet each other’s interests rather than assuming that in order for my interests to be met, then yours must not be.-Teams trained in integrative approach achieved better outcome for BOTH sides than did untrained teams (Lab study of joint venture by LR Weingart, 1996)

- Must be aware of ethical pitfalls in negotiation such as telling lies, hiding key facts, and engaging in other potentially unethical tactics that will erode trust and goodwill – vital ingredients in win-win negotiation.

*Conclusion- If signs of too little conflict such as apathy and lack of creativity appear need to use techniques such as devil’s advocacy and dialectic method to stimulate functional conflict.- When there is too much conflict and becomes dysfunctional, appropriate conflict-handling style needs to be used-Furthermore, when both party are reluctant to take a proactive approach to resolve conflict, third party need to be bought in and they should employ detriangling method- Lastly, the key is to get both party to abandon their fixed pie thinking and instead adopt an integrative approach to their win-lose expectations.

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