Chapter 14

Question 1

What is organizational conflict?

Answer 1

The clash that occurs when the goal-directed behaviour of
one group blocks or thwarts the goals of another.

Question 2

Why does organisational conflict happen?

Answer 2

Because the goals, preferences and interests of stakeholder groups differ, conflict is inevitable in organisations.

Although conflict is often perceived negatively, research suggests that some conflict is good for an organisation and can improve organisational effectiveness.

Question 3

How can organisational conflict help?

Answer 3

Conflict can improve decision-making and allow an organisation to better change and adapt to its environment.

Question 4

Two common strategies managers use to resole conflict involve:

Answer 4

1. Changing an organisation’s structure to reduce or eliminate the cause of the conflict.
2. Trying to change the attitudes of individuals or replacing the individuals themselves.

Question 5

Acting at the level of structure

Answer 5

Because task interdependence and differences in goals are two major sources of conflict, altering the level of differentiation and integration to change task relationships is one way to resolve conflict.

Question 6

Acting at the level of attitudes and individuals

Answer 6

Differences in goals and in beliefs about the best way to achieve organisational goals are inevitable because of differences between functions and divisions.

Question 7

Conflict

Answer 7

1. Analyse the organizational structure to identify potential sources of conflict.
2. Change or redesign the organizational structure to eliminate the potential for conflict whenever possible.
3. If conflict cannot be eliminated, be prepared to intervene quickly and early in the conflict to find a solution.
4. Choose a way of managing the conflict that matches the source of the conflict.
5. Always try to achieve a good conflict aftermath so the cooperative attitudes can be maintained in the organization over time

Question 8

Organizational power

Answer 8

The ability of one person or group to overcome resistance by
others to resolve conflict and achieve a desired objective or result.

Question 9

The possession of power is an important determinant of the kind of decisions that will be selected to resolve a conflict.

Answer 9

Conflict and power are intimately related. Conflict arises because although different managers or subunits must cooperate to achieve organizational goals, at the same time they are in competition for organizational resources and have
different goals and priorities.

Question 10

Authority

Answer 10

power that is legitimized by the legal and cultural foundations on which an organization is based, is the ultimate source of power in an organization.

Question 11

Control over resources

Answer 11

managers who make decisions and perform actions that
benefit the organization, such as making changes that raise performance, can increase their power.

Question 12

Control over information

Answer 12

access to strategic information and the control of the
information flow to, from, and between subunits are sources of considerable
power in organizational decision-making

Question 13

Control over information

Answer 13

access to strategic information and the control of the
information flow to, from, and between subunits are sources of considerable power in organizational decision-making

Question 14

Non-substitutability

Answer 14

if no one else can perform the tasks that a person or subunit
performs, that person or subunit is non-substitutable.

Question 15

Centrality

Answer 15

often an organization’s strategy is a crucial determinant of which subunit is central in an organization

Question 16

Control over uncertainty

Answer 16

a subunit that can directly control and reduce the main
sources of uncertainty or contingencies facing an organization has significant power

Question 17

Unobtrusive power

Answer 17

Controlling the premises of decision-making. Anther
important source of power stems form the power of the dominant coalition, the set of managers who form a “partnership” and use their combined power secretively to influence the decision-making process in the ways that favour their interests.

Question 18

Organizational politics

Answer 18

Activities taken within organizations to acquire, develop and
use power and other resources to obtain one’s preferred outcomes in a situation in which there is uncertainty or disagreement about choices

Question 19

Tactics for playing politics

Answer 19

Becoming indispensable.
Indispensability can be achieved by an increase in non-substitutability or an
increase in centrality.
- Becoming non-substitutable.
- Becoming central.
- Associating with powerful managers.
- Building and managing coalition.
- Ability to manipulate decision-making.
- Controlling the agenda.
- Bringing in an outside expert.

Question 20

The costs and benefits of organizational politics

Answer 20

Organizational politics is an integral part of decision-making in an organization.

Question 21

Pondy’s model

Answer 21

Pondy views conflict as a process that consist of five stages

Question 22

What are Pondy’s 5 stages?

Answer 22

Latent conflict

Perceived conflict

Felt conflict

Manifest conflict

Conflict aftermath

Question 23

Latent conflict

Answer 23

At this stage, there is no direct conflict, but there is a possibility of conflict due to latent factors

Question 24

What are the latent factors?

Answer 24

Competition for scarce resources

Independence

Subunit objectives variation

Question 25

Competition for scarce resources

Answer 25

Competition among participants within an organization over available resources is the basis for conflict when their demands exceed available resources.

Question 26

Independence

Answer 26

The desire for independence and autonomy form the basis of conflict between participants when one of them tries to control the others

Question 27

Subunit objectives variation

Answer 27

When two or more parties within the organization must cooperate with each other, and they cannot achieve consensus among themselves, conflict arises as a result of the difference in set aspirations and goals, besides how to achieve them.

Question 28

PERCEIVED CONFLICT

Answer 28

This stage includes a cognitive orientation in the context of the evolution of the conflict. Here, the participants realize the conflict situation itself

Question 29

At this stage, the conflict is in one of two forms:

Answer 29

The conflict exists without the conditions of the latent conflict

The conflict is the result of a latent conflict

Question 30

The conflict exists without the conditions of the latent conflict

Answer 30

In this case, the conflict is a result of the parties’ misunderstanding of each other’s true position, which can be resolved through improving communication between them.

Question 31

The conflict is the result of an latent conflict

Answer 31

In this case, the parties are not aware of the conflict’s existence,

i.e. the latent conflict fails to reach their level of awareness.

That poses a strong threat to the organization’s activity, because it is linked to the central value of the participants’ personality.

A situation like this is managed by following the mechanism of suppression, or the mechanism of concentration of attention.

Question 32

FELT CONFLICT

Answer 32

In this stage, the parties feel the conflict, which differs from the awareness of the conflict in the previous stage.

Question 33

MANIFEST CONFLICT

Answer 33

Here the conflict takes a form of a conflictual behaviour.

It materializes through physical and verbal violence, something that is strictly prohibited by the rules within the organization.

Therefore, and in order for the participants to avoid the negative effects of such behavior on them personally, the features of the conflict appear at this stage through certain tactics such as indifference, strict adherence to the rules that govern the organization

Question 34

CONFLICT AFTERMATH

Answer 34

This stage expresses the effects that result from the conflict.

Each of the previous episodes constitutes one of the chain of conflict between the participants in the organisation.

If it is resolved early in a way that satisfies all parties, this will be a basis for cooperation relations between the participants in the future, and will allow the conflict in its latent stage to be discovered and dealt with before its development.

But if the conflict is suppressed without resolving it, this will be the basis for conflicts exploding in a more dangerous way for the organisation.