W&O Ch.11 - Conflict and Negotiation Flashcards
What is Conflict?
The process in which one party perceives that it’s interests/goals are being opposed or negatively affected by another party.
- Doesn’t demand that both parties realize the threat; as long as one party perceives this threat, without the other one doing so, there’s a conflict
What are the negative outcomes of conflict?
- Threatens needs and self-concept. This results in:
– Reduces job satisfaction
– increases stress and turnover - Reduces job performance by:
– consuming productive time
– distracting employees
– sucking energy out of employees - undermines info sharing
- waste resources
- damages team cohesion and performance
What are the positive outcomes of conflict?
- Better decision making by:
– testing logic of arguments
– questioning assumptions
– Generating creative thinking - responsive to changing environment
- stronger team cohesion (when faced with an external threat)
What are the two types of Conflict?
- Task Conflict
- Relationship Conflict
Task Conflict
People focus their discussion around the issue, showing respect for people involved in that discussion
- avoids attributing traits to people
- most beneficial outcome
Relationship Conflict
Focuses on the qualities of the people in dispute, rather than the qualities of the ideas presented
- attack others’ wisdom, personality, trustworthiness etc.
- dysfunctional
What are the dysfunctional outcomes of Relationship Conflict?
- attack others’ self-esteem
- triggers defense mechanisms
- creates competition
- less motivation to communicate and share info
What are the 3 forms of Relationship Conflict?
1/. An idea should be dismissed because those presenting it don’t have enough credentials/abilities
2/. Someone relies on status to support/defend an idea
- indirect way of attacking others; indirect way of inferring that they’re inferior to you
3/. Use of assertive influence to demonstrate superiority of your position in a disagreement
Out of the two Conflict types, which one is preferred?
Task Conflict (although both types tend to occur)
How can we minimize Relationship Conflict?
- Emotional Intelligence
– understand/regulate your emotions
– others’ emotions are valuable info - Team Development: better understanding of each other, less misinterpretation, reduced risk for conflict
- Norms for psychological safety. Psychological safety is the shared belief that it’s safe to engage in interpersonal risk-taking
What is the model of Conflict Process?
Sources of Conflict lead to conflict perception and emotions (negative or positive emotions). This in turn leads to manifest conflict (party’s decision and behavior towards the other party, which in turn leads to conflict outcomes (negatives and positives of conflict, flashcards 2,3,)
What are the Sources of Conflict?
- Incompatible Goals
- Differentiation
- Interdependence
- Scarce Resources
- Ambiguous Rules
- Communication Problems
Incompatible Goals
Goal of one person/department seems to interfere with another person’s/department’s goals
Differentiation
Differences in beliefs, values, experiences, preferences etc.
Why does differentiation occur?
Differences in gender, ethnicity, culture, childhood, personality etc.
When does conflict happen due to differentiation?
- When two companies/groups merge
- When there’s generational diversity
– Economic, Technological, and other social changes
– Different needs throughout career and life
Interdependence
When employees must share resources to coordinate work to perform their jobs. As level of interdependence increases, so does probability and intensity of conflict
In which three levels of interdependence does probability and intensity of conflict increase?
- Shared resource pool: low prob., inten. of conflict
- Sequential interdependence: higher prob. inten. of conflict
- Reciprocal interdependence: highest prob., inten. of conflcit
Scarce Resources
Person who needs a resource interferes with others who also need the same resource to achieve their goal
Ambiguous Rules
ambiguous, not enforced rules, or missing rules
- increases risk that one party will interfere with another’s goals
- Free-for-all battle to achieve goals
Communication Problems
Use emotion-heavy and aggressive nonverbal behavior. Is both a source of conflict, and also amplifies already existing conflict
What are Conflict Handling Styles?
Different strategies that dictate how we approach a party in an already existing conflict situation
What five components consist of Interpersonal Handling Conflict Style
- Problem-Solving: Win-win, beneficial for everybody (High Cooperativeness, high Achievement
- Forcing: Win-lose, beneficial only for you (Low C., High A.)
- Avoiding: evade conflict situations (avoid co-workers for example) (Low A., Low. C.)
- Yielding: Give into other’s wishes (Low. A, High C.)
- Compromising: middle solution for everyone
What are the positives and negatives of Problem-Solving?
+ long-term relationships, reduced stress, minimize emotional defensiveness
- waste time, frustration, risk that others will take advantage of info you share
What are the positives and negatives of Forcing?
Inappropriate, generates or increases relationship conflict
What are the positives and negatives of Avoiding?
Ineffective in general
- uncertainty, frustration
+ best short-term solution for conflicts that are heavy/emotional
+ preferred in cultures where harmony is valued more above everything else
What are the positives and negatives of Yielding?
+ Better when others have more power than us
+ Better when we’re not sure about our own arguments/position on the matter
- Makes more powerful party seek us out again in the future (may produce in the long run more conflict)
What are the positives and negatives of Compromising?
+ Necessary when parties lack time, trust and openness to applying problem-solving (occurs when both parties have equal power)
- negative emotions
What are the male-female differences in choosing one of the 5 interpersonal conflict handling Strategies?
- Males: Use more forcing
- Females: Use more of everything else (give more value to relationships between parties)
What are structural approaches to conflict management?
Ways to alter the underlying structural causes of potential conflict, in order to prevent it from happening
What are the 6 structural approaches to Conflict Management?
- Emphasizing Superordinate Goals
- Reduce Differentiation
- Improve Communication
- Reduce Interdependence
- Increase Resources
- Clarify Rules and Procedures
Emphasizing Superordinate Goals
Emphasize Goals that are common and bigger than an individual goals (e.g. organization objectives)
What does Reduced Differentiation lead to?
Reducing differentiation results in increased trust, willingness to cooperate, and more constructive discussions
How can we reduce Differentiation?
- Meaningful interactions with people in groups
- Rotate staff to different departments (also increases employee’s identification with the organization)
- Leaders should build a strong organizational culture
What does Improved Communication lead to?
Better awareness and respect for another’s situation and point of view.
How can we improve Communication?
- Making arrangements so that employees can have more interactions with employees across departments
- Variation of Johari Window
When should the above two methods be used?
- When the group has low differentiation
- When the group is comfortable with resolving differences with open dialogue
How can we reduce Interdependence?
- Create buffers: Mechanism that loosens up the coupling between two or more people at work (less independent one each other)
- Use integrators: Employees who coordinate activities of multiple work units towards a shared goal. Such people rarely have direct authority, so they rely on referent power and persuasion to manage conflict
- Combine Jobs
What are third party conflict resolutions?
When a relatively neutral person attempts to help the parties resolve their differences.
What are the three types of third party conflict resolutions?
- Arbitrators: High control over final decision, low control over process
- Mediators: High control over process, low control over final decision
- Inquisitions: High on both
What type of conflict resolution do managers adopt and is it effective or not?
They adopt inquisition, because they went control over the situation and tend to want to resolve disputes efficiently. Inquisition though is the least effective out of the three:
- Leaders collect limited info, so decision making leads to an ineffective solution
- Employees view procedures as unfair
When is each type of third party conflict resolution used?
- For everyday disagreements between two employees: Mediators (such method leads to the highest employee satisfaction)
- If they can’t solve the dispute, then we use Arbitration
What is Negotiation?
When interdependent parties with different beliefs or goals attempt to reach an agreement on issues that affect them both
What are the two negotiation approaches?
- Distributive: Those involved in conflict must distribute portions from the available resources
- Integrative: Win-win, exists when negotiators believe that resources are expendable rather than fixed, if parties work together to find a solution/
Which of the two approaches do negotiators normally use?
They usually start off with Integrative, but narrow it down to a distributive approach as common solutions start being excluded
How do we prepare ourselves to negotiate effectively?
- Developing Goals and Understanding Needs
- BATNA and Power
Developing Goals and Understanding needs
- We develop Goals about what we want to achieve from a cooperation
- We understand the needs we’re trying to fulfill through these goals
What are the three aspects of goal setting?
- Initial offer point: Reframes other party’s perception of what is considered a “high” or “low” standard (sets the standard)
- Target point: Realistic goal or expectation for a final agreement
- Resistance point: Point after which you’ll make no concessions and walk away from negotiations
BATNA
Best alternative to a negotiated Agreement: The best outcome you might achieve through some course of action if you abandon the current negotiation (occurs when we reach our resistance point)
- Having more than one BATNA increases our power
- We tend to overestimate our BATNA, because we believe there are plenty of other ways to achieve our objectives
What characteristics are needed in order to have more power in a negotiation?
High expertise, Low Substitutability, high visibility, high centrality
What is the relationship between power and BATNA?
As power increases, so does BATNA ( and vice versa)
What are the aspects of the Negotiation Process?
- Gathering Info
- Managing Concessions
- Managing Time
- Building Relationships
Gathering Info
Helps identify other party’s needs and negotiation goals, as well as their resistance point. Also helps transform distributive negotiations into integrative (gathering info is more important in integrative distributions so that we can maximize solutions and personalize them for everybody)
Manage Concessions
Best strategy is to be tough (chase your own goals) and give just enough concessions to communicate sincerity and motivation to resolve conflict
Managing Time
- Apply time pressure: Makes other party accept offer and not explore BATNA
- The more time someone has invested in a negotiation, the more motivated the person is to reach an agreement
What are the positive outcomes Building Relationships in the Negotiating Process?
- Build Trust
- Focus more on issues instead of personalities
- Engage in future negotiations
What aspects make up the Negotiation Setting?
- Location
- Physical Setting
- Audience
Location
Easier to negotiate in a familiar environment because we’re able to maintain comfortable routines
Physical Setting
- face-to-face: Win-lose
- Round table (everybody faces each other): Win-win
- Formality of the setting
Audience
When there’s an audience during negotiation, negotiators become more competitive, less willing to make concessions, more likely to be assertive (because they want to save their image/face)
What do Effective Negotiators do?
- (Develop Goals/understand Needs): focus on needs instead of goals: gives them flexibility in how to achieve their needs
- (Gathering Info): 1. Share info slowly and determine whether other party will reciprocate
2. Listen closely to other party and ask for details
3. Summarize other party’s info and ask for clarification - Communicate thoughts and feelings about what the other party just said
- (Building Relationships): – Discovering common backgrounds and interests with other party
– keeping promises
– having high E.I. (manage yours and others’ emotions)
(Location): Prefer media richness of face-to-face interactions
What are the male-female differences when it comes to negotiations?
Females:
- Less keen to negotiate, less mindful of situations where negotiation can and should occur
- More likely to accept offer just above resistance point
- Less likely to use alternatives to improve outcomes
All of these are due to their greater motivation for interpersonal relationships
- Females are treated much worse than males by opposing negotiators
- Females who use affective negotiating techniques are perceived as more aggressive than men using the same behavior
(with training and experience, women can be as effective as men in negotiation)
