Chapter 12 Conflict

Human Behavior in Organizations, 2 nd Edition Rodney Vandeveer and Michael Menefee © 2010 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. 2 Learning Outcomes: Conflict Define conflict. Contrast the three views of conflict. Describe the five conflict-handling strategies. Discuss the use of a third party to resolve conflict. Differentiate between conciliation, fact finding, fact finding with recommendations, mediation, and arbitration for seeking conflict resolution. Gain a greater understanding of one’s own preferred conflict-handling style through self assessment.

Human Behavior in Organizations, 2 nd Edition Rodney Vandeveer and Michael Menefee © 2010 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. 3 Conflict Conflict is something we will all face when working with others. Conflict can be defined as a process where one party perceives another party has negatively affected or is about to negatively affect something of concern to the first party.

Human Behavior in Organizations, 2 nd Edition Rodney Vandeveer and Michael Menefee © 2010 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. 4 Conflict If no one is aware of a conflict, then it is generally agreed that no conflict exists.

Human Behavior in Organizations, 2 nd Edition Rodney Vandeveer and Michael Menefee © 2010 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. 5 Views of Conflict Traditional approach: Some believe conflict should be avoided. This is also believed to probably be unrealistic. Human relations approach: Some believe conflict is a natural part of life and people need to learn how to deal with it. Interactionist approach: Some believe conflict is beneficial, even necessary, to promote progress.

Human Behavior in Organizations, 2 nd Edition Rodney Vandeveer and Michael Menefee © 2010 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. 6 Conflict Functional Conflict: When conflict outcome supports the goals of the organization, it is said to be functional. Dysfunctional Conflict: If the conflict outcome does not support the goals of the organization, or hinders its performance, it is viewed as being dysfunctional.

Human Behavior in Organizations, 2 nd Edition Rodney Vandeveer and Michael Menefee © 2010 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. 7 Conflict Handling Techniques Avoiding strategy Accommodating strategy Competing strategy Compromising strategy Collaborating strategy

Human Behavior in Organizations, 2 nd Edition Rodney Vandeveer and Michael Menefee © 2010 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. 8 Conflict Handling Techniques Competing Avoiding Compromise Accommodating Collaborating CooperativeUncooperative Unassertive Assertive Cooperativeness Assertiveness

Human Behavior in Organizations, 2 nd Edition Rodney Vandeveer and Michael Menefee © 2010 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. 9 When Conflict Cannot Be Resolved! Conciliation – Intermediary providing an informal communication link. Fact-Finding – Neutral party researches the issue, providing the facts to both parties. Fact-Finding with Recommendations – Neutral party researches the issue, providing the facts and making recommendations to both parties. Mediation – Neutral third party facilitates solution by using reasoning and persuasion. Arbitration – A third party with authority to dictate an agreement.

Human Behavior in Organizations, 2 nd Edition Rodney Vandeveer and Michael Menefee © 2010 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. 10 Summary Conflict is a process. There are three views of conflict. There are five strategies for handling conflict. Not all conflict can be resolved between two parties without a third party intervention. Five different conflict intervention techniques were discussed.