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