Week 5: Communication, Conflict and Negotiation in Organisations

Question 1

Organisational Communication

Effective communication

Efficient communication

Answer 1

• Organisational communication: the process by which entities exchange information and establish a common understanding
• Effective Communication: successfully transmitting the sender’s intended meaning
• Efficient Communication: minimum cost in terms resources expended

Question 2

4 important functions of communication:

Answer 2

1. Achieving coordinated action
2. Developing information
3. Expressing feelings and emotions
4. Communicating roles

Question 3

Interpersonal Communication

Question 4

Information source

Encoding

Transmission

Channel

Reciever

Decoding

Feedback

Noise

Answer 4

• Information source: is a person or group of persons with a reason to communicate with some other person, the receiver
• Encoding: the process of translating an idea or though into meaningful symbols
• Transmission: is the actual communication of a message from one person to another through a chosen channel
• Channel: are the media through which the message may be delivered
• Receiver: individual or group that hear or read or see the message
• Decoding: the interpretation of symbols sent from the sender to the receiver
• Feedback: the process of telling someone else how you feel about something the person did or said, or about the situation in general
• Noise: anything that interfered with the effectiveness of the communication attempt

Question 5

Communication Channels and Barriers

Answer 5

• Formal communication channels: are communication channels that follow the chain of command established by the organisation’s hierarchy
  
  • Written communication in the form of letters, memos, policy statements and other announcements typically adhere to these channels
• Informal communication channels: communication channels that don’t adhere to the organisation’s hierarchy
  
  • Emerge from day-to-day activities
• Quasi-formal communication channels: Planned communication connections between holders of various organisational positions within the organisation
  
  • Part of the overall management information system (aided by computers etc)
• Barriers (noise)
  
  • Physical distractions; cultural differences; technical issues; perceptual errors; filtering

Question 6

The habits of good communicators:

Answer 6

• Speak clearly
• Write clearly
• Be aware of cultural differences
• Listen attentively
• Question precisely
• Answer honestly
• Pause for feedback signals

Question 7

Conflict

Answer 7

• Conflict occurs when two or more people disagree about issues of organisational substance and/or experience emotional antagonism
  
  • Can facilitate learning, creativity, change
  • Can reduce effectiveness of managers and workers

Question 8

Common reasons for conflict:

Answer 8

• Differences in personal styles, values and job perspectives
• Differing needs for personal success
• Variations in skill level

Question 9

Substantive and Emotional Conflicts

Answer 9

• Substantive conflict: Conflict that occurs in the form of fundamental disagreement over ends or goals and the means for their accomplishment
• Emotional conflict: conflict that involves interpersonal difficulties that arise over feelings of anger, mistrust, dislike, fear, or resentment and the like (often known as the ‘clash of personalities’)

Question 10

Communication that can lead to conflict:

Answer 10

• Negative communication
• Blaming communication
• Superior communication
• Dishonest communication
• Selective communication

Question 11

Levels of Conflict

Intrapersonal conflict (approach, avoidance and approach-avoidance conflict)

Interpersinal conflict

Intergroup conflict

Inter-organisational conflict

Answer 11

• Intrapersonal conflict (conflict within the individual)
  
  • Occurs within individual as a result of actual or perceived pressures from goals/expectations of following types:
    
    • Approach conflict: when a person needs to choose between two positive and equally attractive alternatives
    • Avoidance conflict: person must chose between two negative and equally unattractive alternatives
    • Approach-avoidance conflict: when a person must decide to do something that has both positive and negative consequences
• Interpersonal conflict
  
  • Occurs between two or more individuals
• Intergroup conflict
  
  • Occurs between groups
• Inter-organisational conflict
  
  • Occurs between organisations

Question 12

Constructive and Destructive Conflict

Answer 12

• Constructive conflict: is conflict that results in positive benefits to the group
• Destructive conflict: is conflict that works to the group’s or organization’s disadvantage

Conflict presents an opportunity for managers to become aware of substantive issues and to think of ways in which to resolve them

Question 13

Conflict Situations Faced by Managers

Vertical

Horizontal

Line-staff

Role

Manifest

Answer 13

Managers need recognise and deal with distinct conflict situations:

• Vertical conflict: occurs between hierarchical levels and often involves supervisor-employee disagreements over resources, goals, deadlines or performance results
• Horizontal conflict: between people or groups of the same hierarchical level, commonly involves goal incompatibilities, resource scarcities or interpersonal factors
• Line-staff conflict: occurs between line staff and representatives, commonly involves disagreements over who has authority and control over certain matters, such as personnel selection and termination factors
• Role conflict: when communication of task expectation proves inadequate or upsetting, commonly involves uncertainties of expectations, overloads or under loads in expectations and/or incompatibilities among expectations
• Manifest conflict: occurs when conflict is openly expressed in behaviour

Question 14

Conflict Predispositions

Answer 14

• Workflow interdependence
  
  • Person or group is dependent on another person/group to complete their goals
• Power and/or value asymmetry
  
  • Interdependent people/groups differ in status, influence or values
• Role ambiguity or domain ambiguity
  
  • People/groups operate with lack of task direction or goals
• Resource scarcity (actual or perceived)

Question 15

Stages of Conflict

Answer 15

Question 16

Conflict resolution and styles

Answer 16

• Conflict resolution: occurs when the reasons for a conflict are eliminated
• Conflict Resolution Styles (see pic)
  
  • accommodation or smoothing (playing down conflict and seeking harmony among parties)
  • collaboration or problem solving (searching for a solution that meets each other’s needs)
  • avoidance (denying the existence of conflict and hiding one’s true feelings)
  • competition or authoritative command (forcing a solution to impone one’s will on the other party)

Question 17

Ways of dealing with conflict

Heirarchical referral

Decoupling

Buffering

Linking pins

Liason groups

Answer 17

• Hierarchical referral: uses the chain of command for conflict resolution; problems are referred up the hierarchy for more senior managers to reconcile
• Decoupling: involves separating or reducing the contact between two conflicting groups
• Buffering: is a conflict management approach that sets up inventories to reduce conflicts when the inputs of one group are the outputs of another group (increases inventory costs)
• Linking pins: are people who are assigned to manage conflict between groups that are prone to conflict
• Liaison groups: are groups that coordinate the activities of certain units to prevent destructive conflicts between them

Question 18

Negotiation

Types of negotiation situations(4)

Answer 18

• Negotiation: the process of making joint decisions when the parties involved have different perspectives
• Types of negotiation situations:
  
  • Two party negotiation: the manager negotiates directly with one other person
  • Group negotiation: the manager is part of a team or group whose members are negotiating to arrive at a common decision
  • Intergroup negotiation: the manager is part of a group that is negotiating with another group to arrive at a decision regarding a problem or situation affecting both
  • Constituency negotiation: the manager is involved in negotiation with other people and each individual party represents a broad constituency

Question 19

Negotiation goals and outcomes:

Answer 19

• Substance goals: are concerned with outcomes tied to the ‘content’ issues at hand in negotiation (for example, money)
• Relationship goals: are concerned with how well people involved in negotiation, and their constituencies, are able to work with one another once the process is concluded
• Effective negotiation: occurs when issues of substance are resolved without any harm to the working relationships among the parties involved

Question 20

Different Approaches to Negotiation

Distributive negotiation

Integrative negotiation

Answer 20

• Distributive negotiation: is negotiation in which the focus is on ‘positions’ staked out or declared by the parties involved, who are each trying to claim certain portions of the available ‘pie’
  
  • Focus on ‘positions’ and distributing available benefits to each party
• Integrative negotiation: is negotiation in which the focus is on the merits of the issues and the parties involved try to enlarge the available ‘pie’ rather than stake claims to certain portions of it
  
  • Focus on merits of issue and increasing benefits to both parties

Question 21

Managerial Issues in Negotiation

Attitudinal foundations

Information foundations

Behavioural foundations

Answer 21

• Attitudinal foundations:
  
  • Trust; sharing information; asking concrete questions
• Information foundations:
  
  • Best Alternative To Negotiated Agreement (BATNA)
  • This is what each party must do if they cannot reach an agreement
• Behavioural foundations:
  
  1. Separate the people from the problem;
  2. Focus on interests;
  3. Avoid premature judgements;
  4. Judge agreements objectively

Question 22

Classic two-party negotiation:

Answer 22

• Bargaining Zone: the zone between one party’s minimum reservation point and other party’s maximum reservation point
• Arbitration: neutral 3rd party acts as judge and issues binding decision when parties are at impasse

Question 23

Question from quiz

Answer 23

Which one of the following is not a trend in workplace diversity? There is a smaller pool of younger workers