Chapter 5

Conflict Management Design

Defining Conflict Management:-

Conflict management does not necessarily imply avoidance, reduction, or termination of conflict. It involves designing effective strategies to minimize the dysfunctions of conflict and enhancing the constructive functions of conflict in order to enhance learning and effectiveness of an organization.

Impact of Affective and Substantive Conflicts

Affective Conflict:-• It impedes individual and group performance.•Caused by the negative reactions of

organizational members.•Such conflicts causes members to be negative,

irritable, suspicious, and resentful.• It diminishes group loyalty, work group

commitment, intent to stay in the present organization, and satisfaction.

Substantive Conflict:-

• It has positive effects on the individual and group performance.

•These conflicts relate to disagreements about tasks, policies, and other business issues.

•Groups can make better decisions.•Substantive conflict can also diminish group loyalty,

work group commitment, intent to stay in the present organization, and satisfaction.

•The remedy is that substantive conflict should not lead to affective conflict.

Inverted-U Function

•A moderate amount of substantive conflict is necessary for attaining an optimum level of job performance in non-routine tasks.

•Therefore, it appears that the relationship between the amount of substantive conflict and job performance forms an inverted-U function.

Relationship Between Substantive Conflict and Job Performance

Illustration:-

•The given figure shows that a low level of job performance (OY1) will be attained when the amount of substantive conflict is low (O) or high (OX).

•At a moderate amount of substantive conflict (OX1) an optimum level of job performance (OY) can be attained.

Relationship between Substantive and Affective Conflict

•Past studies have reported significant positive correlations between these conflicts.

•This indicates that in the process of enhancing substantive conflicts, affective conflict may also be increased.

Conflict Management Styles

Some behavioral scientists suggest that integrating or problem-solving style is most appropriate for managing conflict, but, it has been indicated by others that, for conflicts to be managed functionally, one style may be more appropriate than another depending on the situation.

Matching Styles with Situations

•Functional or effective management of conflict involves matching styles with situations.

•The purpose is to clarify the concept that a single conflict management style is not applicable in every situation.

Integrating Style

Situations where Appropriate Situations where Inappropriate

•Useful for dealing with complex problems.

•When one party alone can’t solve the problem.

•Requires much time.•Requires commitment for successful

implementation.

• Task or problem is simple.• Immediate decision is

required.• When the other parties are

unconcerned about outcomes.• When the other parties do

not have problem-solving skills.

Obliging Style

Situations where Appropriate Situations where Inappropriate

• Issue is more important to the other party.

•You believe you may be wrong.

•Dealing from a position of weakness.

•Preserving a relationship is important.

• Issue is important to you.•You believe that you are

right.•The other party is wrong

or unethical.

Dominating Style

Situations where Appropriate Situations where Inappropriate

• Issue is important to you.• Speedy decision is

needed.•Necessary to overcome

aggressive subordinates.• Subordinates lack

expertise to make technical decisions.

• Issue is not important to you.

•Decision doesn’t have to be made quickly.

• Issue is complex.•Subordinates possess a

high degree of competence.

Avoiding Style

Situations where Appropriate Situations where Inappropriate

• Issue is minor.•Confronting the other

party outweighs the benefits.

•Cooling-off period is needed

• Issue is important to you.•Responsibility of the party

to make decisions.•The parties are unwilling

to wait, or when prompt action is required.

Compromising Style

Situations where Appropriate Situations where Inappropriate

•Goals of parties are mutually exclusive.

•Parties are equally powerful.

•Consensus cannot be reached.

• Integrating or dominating style is not successful.

•Problem is complex, needs problem solving.

•One party is more powerful.

Criteria for Conflict Management

In order for conflict management strategies to be effective, they should satisfy the following criteria.

1. Organizational Learning and Effectiveness2. Needs of Stakeholders3. Ethics

1. Organizational Learning and Effectiveness

•Conflict management strategies should be designed to enhance organizational learning and long-term effectiveness.

• In order to attain this objective, conflict management strategies should be designed to enhance critical and innovative thinking.

2. Needs of Stakeholders

Conflict management strategies should be designed to satisfy the needs and expectations of the stakeholders and to attain a balance among them.

3. Ethics

•To manage conflicts ethically, organizations should institutionalize the positions of employee advocate and customer and supplier advocate.

• If these advocates are heard by decision makers in organizations there can be an improved record of ethically managed organizational conflict.

New Conflict Management Strategies

There is a need to design new conflict management strategies based on contemporary literature that are likely to satisfy the three criteria. These strategies are:1. Attain and maintain a moderate amount of substantive conflict for non-routine tasks.2. Minimize substantive conflict for routine tasks.3. Minimize affective conflicts for routine and non-routine tasks.4. Enable the organizational members to select and use the styles of handling interpersonal conflict.

Contingency Approach

•The contingency approach also called situational approach has replaced the simplistic “one best” approach.

• It is possible to develop a contingency theory of conflict management.

•For example, in a conflict situation characterized by low decision quality and acceptance, the dominating style may be justified.

• In the reverse condition (high decision quality and high decision acceptance), the integrating style is the most appropriate to use.

Conflict Management ProcessThe management of organizational conflict involves the diagnosis of, and intervention in, conflict.Diagnosis:-

• The first step in the problem-solving process is problem recognition.

• The field of management has neglected to investigate and develop the process of problem recognition.

• Problem recognition requires diagnosis of the problems.

• Very often interventions are recommended without proper understanding of the nature of the problem(s).

• Proper diagnosis of different types of conflict in an organization is important because its underlying causes and effects may not be what they appear on the surface.

•Another important thing to know is that:(1) Whether an organization has too little, moderate, or too much affective and substantive conflicts and (2) Whether the organizational members are appropriately selecting and using the five styles of handling conflict to deal with different situations.

MeasurementA comprehensive diagnosis involves these measurements:1. The amount of conflict at the intrapersonal, interpersonal, intragroup, and intergroup levels.2. The styles of handling interpersonal, intragroup, and intergroup conflicts of the organizational members.3. The sources of (1) and (2).4. Individual, group, and organizational learning and effectiveness.

Analysis

The analysis of data collected above should include:•The amount of conflict and the styles of handling

conflict classified by departments, units, divisions, and so on, and whether they are different from their corresponding national norms.

•The relationships of the amount of conflict and conflict styles to their sources.

•The relationships of the amount of conflict and conflict styles to organizational learning and effectiveness.

Intervention

A proper diagnosis should indicate whether there is any need for intervention and the type of intervention required.An intervention may be needed if:

There is too much affective conflict. Too much or too little substantive conflict.

Approaches to Intervention

There are two basic approaches to intervention in conflict:

•Process •Structural

Process•A process refers to the sequence of events or

activities that are undertaken to bring about some desired outcome.

•Certain processes in an organization, such as communication, decision making, leadership, are necessary for making the social system work.

•Process enables the organizational members to make effective use of the five styles of handling interpersonal conflict, depending on the nature of the situation.

Structural

•Structure refers to the stable arrangement of task and other factors so that organizational members can work together effectively.

•This intervention attempts to improve the organizational effectiveness by changing the organization’s structural design characteristics, which includes hierarchy, procedures, reward system etc.

Process of Managing Organizational Conflict

Major Research Challenges

•Several recent studies investigated the relationships of intragroup affective and substantive conflicts to productivity and satisfaction. We need studies to explore the relationships of :(1) Interpersonal affective and substantive conflicts to individual job performance and satisfaction(2) Intergroup affective and substantive conflicts to intergroup relationship and satisfaction.

•We need to know the effects of affective and substantive conflicts on productivity.

•More studies are needed to assess the effectiveness of each style to deal with different situations.

•More studies are needed to establish clear links between personality and styles of handling interpersonal conflict.

•We need to have more cross-cultural studies on styles and the effects of various types of conflict on job performance and satisfaction