Weiss & Hughes: accept and manage conflict

Question 1

Two main areas in strategies for managing conflict

Answer 1

• Strategies for managing disagreements at the point of
  conflict
• Strategies for managing conflict upon escalation up
  the management chain

Question 2

3 Strategies for managing disagreements at the point of conflict

Answer 2

• Devise and implement a common method for
  resolving conflict
  
  • people will often avoid or work around conflict,
    causing suboptimal ‘split-the-difference’ resolutions
    or deadlock
  • offer a clear step-by-step process to follow as
    integral part of existing business activities
• Provide people with criteria for making trade-offs
  
  • in conflict people often need to make trade-offs
    between competing priorities
• Use the escalation of conflict as an opportunity for
  coaching

Question 3

3 Strategies for managing conflict upon escalation up the management chain

Answer 3

• Establish and enforce a requirement for joint
  escalation
  
  • share responsibility for escalation and present
    disagreement jointly to boss
• Ensure that managers resolve escalated conflicts
  directly with their counterparts
  
  • resolving problems early on is more efficient
• Make the process for escalated conflict resolution
  transparent
  
  • clear communication about the resolution can
    increase people’s willingness and ability to
    implement decisions

Question 4

3 Myths of collaboration

Answer 4

• Effective collaboration means “teaming”
  
  • most failures don’t occur on actual teams, but in the
    rapid and unstructured interactions between
    different groups within the organization
• An effective incentive system will ensure
  collaboration
  
  • incentives don’t encourage collaboration, it might
    even undermine it
• Organizations can be structured for collaboration
  
  • bringing people together is very different from
    getting them to collaborate

Question 5

Benefits of getting collaboration right

Answer 5

• A unified face to customers
• Faster internal decision making
• Reduced costs through shared resources
• Development of more innovative products

Question 6

Disagreements are sparked by

Answer 6

• Differences in perspective
• Differences in competencies
• Differences in access to information
• Differences in strategic focus