Conflict and Negotiation

Question 1

Conflict (substantive/emotional)

Answer 1

Incompatible preferences
Substantive conflict:
- Evaluative (about values and goals)
- judgmental (about means and methods)
- resource allocation related
Emotional conflict (deeper)

Question 2

Types of conflict

Answer 2

• Manifest conflict
• Latent conflict: Conflict is likely, but not (yet) manifest
• Structural conflict: Structural aspects of the situation make latent conflict likely
• Misdirected conflict:
• Reason for conflict and manifest object of conflict are not identical
• Conflict is directed against a party which is not responsible for conflict

Question 3

Levels of conflict

Answer 3

• Intrapersonal conflict
• Interpersonal conflict
• Intergroup conflict
• interorganizational conflict

Question 4

Work situations prone to conflict

Answer 4

• Work-flow interdependence
• Power and/or value asymmetry (can lead to or avoid conflict, e.g. you don’t want to challenge your boss/
  once someone becomes boss they have the power to start conflicts)
• Role ambiguity or domain ambiguity (If I don’t know what is expected from me -> Conflict)
• Resource scarcity

Question 5

Management related conflict situations

Answer 5

• Vertical conflict (rare; normally lower level employees do not dare to challenge higher levels)
• Horizontal conflict (among colleagues )
• Line-staff conflict
• Role conflict

Question 6

Prisoners Dilemma

Answer 6

Best strategy: repeat what your opponent did in the last round
Tit-for-Tat: Anatol Rapoport (Game Theory) :
- Start cooperative
- The strategy is predictable (after few iterations) and
fair
- not exploitable

Question 7

Prisoners Dilemma

Answer 7

Best strategy: repeat what your opponent did in the last round
Tit-for-Tat: Anatol Rapoport (Game Theory) :
- Start cooperative
- The strategy is predictable (after few iterations) and
fair
- not exploitable

Question 8

Managing conflict

Answer 8

• Conflict in organizations is inevitable.
• A “conflict-free” organization signals that its
  members are either inhibited or uncreative
• Essential to organizational success: Avoiding destructive conflict dynamics spirals and achieving constructive results rather than avoiding conflicts altogether.

Question 9

Two faces of conflict

Answer 9

Slide 293
Too little / too much conflict is destructive -> moderate levels of conflict are constructive

Question 10

Constructive and destructive conflicts

Answer 10

• Constructive: Results in positive benefits to the group.
• Destructive: Works to the group’s or organization’s disadvantage
  —> Outcomes of conflicts depend on competitive or cooperative processes within the conflicting parties

Question 11

Preventing destructive conflict

Answer 11

: * Monitor employees’ work
* Encourage employees to approach you
* Clear the air with regular meetings
* Provide a suggestion box
* Offer information about decisions
* Use employee surveys

Question 12

Improving conflict resolution

Answer 12

• Discover the reasons for and meaning of conflict
• Listen actively
• Communicate emotions
• Search for hidden fears
• Do not seek to establish who is right and who is wrong

Question 13

Indirect conflict management approaches

Answer 13

• Appeal to common goals
• Hierarchical referral
• Organizational redesign:
• Decoupling (put people apart if they cannot work together)
• Buffering (workflow interdependence, costly)
• Linking pins (exchange individuals from one conflicting team to another : enhances trust)
• Liaison groups (meet regularly to find a solution instead of fighting each other),

Question 14

Personal conflict styles

Answer 14

Slide 296

Question 15

Personal Political Styles

Answer 15

The purist
The team player
The street fighter
The manoeuvrer

Question 16

The purist

Answer 16

prefers open behavior, relationship building and trusts to the system to deliver correct decisions and to recognise merit.

Question 17

The team player

Answer 17

engages in “positive politics” for the good of the whole. Powerbase built through dependence on others.

Question 18

The street fighter

Answer 18

overt and aggressive, sees the organization as competitive, which legitimises survivalist individualism

Question 19

The manoeuvrer

Answer 19

prefers covert behaviour, working through agenda management rather than direct advocacy of a particular position

Question 20

Negotiation

Answer 20

The process of making joint decisions when parties involved have different preferences

Question 21

Negotiation Goals

Answer 21

Substance related
- values and goals
- means and methods
Relationship-related

Question 22

Approaches to negotiation

Answer 22

Distributive negotiation
integrative negotiation (precondition: find common grounds)

Question 23

Classic two party negotiation

Answer 23

The bargaining zone
Discover the bargaining zone (Between Graduate’s
minimum reservation point and Employer’s maximum reservation point) - Find an agreement within this
bargaining zone - Is this agreement Pareto optimal?

Question 24

Common pitfalls in negotiation

Answer 24

• falling prey to the myth of the “fixed pie”
• non-rational escalation of conflict
• overconfidence and ignoring others’ needs
• pareto-suboptimal solutions

Question 25

Pareto Optimality

Answer 25

A change that can make at least one individual better off, without making any other individual worse off, is called a Pareto improvement.
An allocation of resources is Pareto optimal when no further Pareto improvements can be
made.
Pareto optimality is an important criterion for evaluating economic systems and political
policies.

Question 26

Gaining integrative agreement

Answer 26

Attitudinal foundations
- Trust
- Share information
- Ask concrete questions
Information foundations
- Understand one’s own and possibly the others BATNA (best alternative to a negotiated agreement)
Behavioral foundations
- Separate people from problems
- Focus on interests rather than positions
- Avoid making premature judgments
- Evaluate agreements objectively