1. Managing Conflict and Negotiations
Chapter 11
Managing Conflict and Negotiations

2. Learning Objectives
Explain the contemporary perspective on conflict
Distinguish between functional and dysfunctional conflict
Understand why intergroup conflict occurs
Identify several consequences of dysfunctional intergroup conflict

3. Learning Objectives
Describe five approaches for managing conflict through resolution
Discuss how increased globalization has changed negotiating tactics
Distinguish between win-win and win-lose negotiation
Identify major types of third-party negotiations

4. Introduction
To perform, interdependent individuals and groups must establish working relationships
Across organizational boundaries
Between individuals
Among groups
Such interdependence may foster either cooperation or conflict

5. Intergroup Conflict
Conflict is inevitable, but neither inherently good nor bad
Too much or too little conflict can have negative consequences
Some conflict situations produce nothing positive
Others improve decision quality and employee relations
The critical issue is not whether conflict exists, but how it is managed

6. Functional Conflict
A confrontation between groups that enhances and benefits the organization’s performance
Without it, there would be little commitment to change, and most groups would become stagnant
Functional conflict can…
Lead to increased awareness of problems
Result in broader, more productive searches for solutions
Facilitate positive change, adaptation, and innovation

7. Dysfunctional Conflict
Confrontation or interaction between groups that harms the organization or hinders the achievement of organizational goals
Such conflict should be eliminated
The same level of conflict that creates a healthy, positive movement toward goals in one group may be disruptive and dysfunctional in another
A group’s tolerance for stress and conflict can depend on the type of organization it serves

8. Conflict and Organizational Performance
Every organization has an optimal level of conflict that generates positive performance
When the conflict level is too low…
Performance can suffer
Innovation is less likely to happen
The organization may have difficulty adapting to its changing environment
The survival of the organization can be threatened
When the conflict level is too high, the resulting chaos can also threaten the organization’s survival

9. Intergroup conflicts develop over time
Stages of Conflict
Perceived Conflict
Felt Conflict
Manifest Conflict
Intergroup conflicts develop over time

10. Causes of Intergroup Conflict: Interdependence

11. Causes of Intergroup Conflict: Goal Differences
Conflict can arise between groups
Mutually exclusive goals
Limited resources that must be allocated between groups
Different time horizons needed by groups to achieve their goals

12. Causes of Intergroup Conflict: Perception
Factors that can cause groups to form differing perceptions
Status incongruence: conflicts concerning the relative status of different groups
Inaccurate perceptions: often cause one group to develop stereotypes about other groups
Different perspectives

13. Minimizing Perceptual Bases for Conflict
To reduce the chance of conflict…
Communicate effectively!
Help develop a group’s social sensitivity
Emphasize behavioral flexibility

14. Consequences of Dysfunctional Intergroup Conflict
Groups placed in a conflict situation tend to react in fairly predictable ways
Changes occur both within and between groups

15. Consequences of Dysfunctional Intergroup Conflict
Changes Within Groups
Increased group cohesiveness
Emphasis on loyalty
Rise in autocratic leadership
Focus on activity
Changes Between Groups
Distorted perceptions
Negative stereotyping
Decreased communications

16. Managing Conflict Through Resolution
Managers must live with intergroup conflict, so they must learn to manage it
Dominating
Accommodating
Problem solving
Avoiding
Compromising

17. Conflict-Resolution Grid

18. Accommodating approach
Which Approach to Use?
Dominating approach
Use on important issues where you are certain you are right, and where the benefit of a resolution outweighs the possible negative feelings by the dominated group
Accommodating approach
Use in disputes that are of greater importance to the other group than they are to yours

19. Which Approach to Use?
Problem-Solving
Use when groups are willing to invest time and effort to reach a resolution that maximizes everyone’s outcome
Avoiding
Good backup approach; use to buy more time
Compromising
Good backup approach when other approaches fail to resolve the issue

20. Stimulating Constructive Intergroup Conflict
Lack of any disagreement can lead to sub-optimum performance and inferior decision making
Lack of conflict may prove beneficial in the short run, but can lead to situations where one group holds tremendous influence over another
Increasing conflict can be an effective antidote for groupthink

21. Stimulating Constructive Intergroup Conflict
Strategies for increasing conflict
Bringing outsiders into the group
Altering the organization’s structure
Stimulating competition
Using programmed conflict (devil’s advocacy)

22. Negotiations
Two or more parties attempt to reach acceptable agreement in a situation characterized by some level of disagreement

23. Negotiations may take place…
Between two people
Within a group
Between groups
Over the Internet

24. Negotiations The situation is conductive to opportunistic interaction
Some disagreement or conflict exists
The situation is conductive to opportunistic interaction
Negotiations have at least four elements
There is some degree of interdependence between the parties
There exists some possibility of agreement

25. Win-Lose Negotiating
The classical view suggests negotiations are a form of zero-sum game
There is an assumption of limited resources
Also known as distributive negotiating
The process of “distributing” scarce resources

26. A positive-sum approach
Win-Win Negotiating
A positive-sum approach
Each party gains without a corresponding loss for the other party
Doesn’t mean everyone gets all they wanted
An agreement has been achieved which leaves all parties better off than they were prior to the agreement

27. Negotiation Tactics Good-guy / Bad-guy Team The Nibble
Joint Problem-Solving
Power of Competition
Splitting the Difference

28. Variables that Affect Negotiations
The context or environment
Nature of the issues being negotiated
The outcomes desired

29. Outcomes have to do with how the specific issue is settled
Negotiation Outcomes
Substantive
Relationship
Outcomes have to do with how the specific issue is settled
Negotiating in a manner designed to maintain good relations between the parties, regardless of the substantive result

30. Increasing Negotiating Effectiveness
Willem Mastenbroek proposed four activities
Obtaining substantial results
Influencing the balance of power
Promoting a constructive climate
Obtaining procedural flexibility

31. Using Third-Party Negotiations
1. Mediation
2. Arbitration
3. Conciliation
4. Consultation

32. A type of planned intervention
Team Building
A type of planned intervention
Builds self-awareness
Builds camaraderie
Teambuilding activities
High ropes course
River rafting
Overnight camping trips

33. Increasing Team Building Effectiveness
Consider whether the employees want to function as a team
Link the team-building activity to business results
Follow up after the team-building event

34. Negotiating Globally
Negotiating with individuals from different countries and cultures poses issues
People from other cultures negotiate differently
The Japanese emphasize a win-win approach
Americans are very candid and specific
Also playing a role
Political systems
Legal policies
Ideology
Traditions

35. Improving Negotiations
Wall and Blum offer these suggestions…
Begin the bargaining with a positive overture or small concession
Concentrate on the negotiation issues and situational factors, not the opponent or his/her characteristics
Look below the surface of your opponent’s bargaining and try to determine his/her strategy

36. Improving Negotiations
Don’t allow accountability to or surveillance by others to spawn competitive bargaining
If you have power in a negotiation, use it to guide the opponent toward an agreement
Be open to third-party assistance
Attend to the environment and be aware that the opponent’s behavior and power are altered by it