Chapter 7: Conflict Management

A General Overview of Conflict in Organizations

Definition of Conflict

When we review the extant literature about conflict, a general consensus about the definition of the term that it is a long term process which contains frustrated or unpleasant conditions characterized by unmet goals or interests (Pondy, 1967; Thomas, 1992). One person or party perceives the other person or party has caused to miss the goals or interest. Deutsch (1973, 1980) defined conflict as incompatible behaviors where one person or one group is interfering or obstructing, or making the behaviors of another less effective. Putnam and Poole (1987, p.552) defined conflict as “the interaction of interdependent people who perceive opposition of goals, aims, and values, and who see the other party as potentially interfering with the realization of these goals”. McShane and Von Glinow (1997, p.402) states that conflict is the process in which one party percevies that its interests are being opposed or negatively affected by another party. Incompatibility is the main feature of conflict which interdependent parties express struggle over incompatible goals, needs, desires or values (Putnam, 2006, p.5-6). In this essence, we have to mention that defining conflict in terms of opposing goals or interests causes to ignore document the positive role of conflict.

To conceptualize one situation as conflict, the group of the conflict must perceive the other group as opposite (Wall and Callister, 1995, p.517). The other group is at the opposite side of the social interaction. In any case, as Thomas (1992) has mentioned conflict is the transformed state of social interaction. If one group does not perceive the opposition, then it can not be defined as conflict (Robbins, 2007).

Disciplines Related with Conflict

Three main fields, namely sociology, social psychology and cognitive science, are examined in order to provide an insight about the nature of conflict. The discipline of sociology concentrates on how social order is maintained or damaged.

The discipline of social psychology is concerned with small group behavior, and the discipline of organizatioal psychology partly studies team-work within organizations.

Cognitive science is concerned with developing computational models of the processes, systems and principles that make behavior possible. Knowledge and intelligence can be the source of conflict resolution.

Perspectives about Conflict in Organizations

Three main perspectives, namely traditionalist, behavioralist and interactionist, affect the perception of conflict and how to manage it in organizations.

During the nineteenth century, the early management theories indicated that conflict was harmful for organizations and managers had the main responsibility to solve conflict in organizations. If there is conflict in organizations, this signs weak leadership and weak organizational culture. Between the early 1940s and the late 1950s, behavioralist perspective dominated the perception about conflict. This perspective confirmed that conflict is inevitable and has to be resolved in organizations. The interactionist perspective indicates that we have to analyze three important question to perceive conflict as dysfunctional or functional: 1. What type of conflict is it? 2. How long does it exist? 3. What is the intensity of the conflict?

Although conflict can often be seen in a negative light, we can not assume each conflict is harmful. Analyzing the attributions of conflict is beneficial deciding how to manage or resolve conflict in organizations. It is difficult to identify if the conflict is functional or dysfunctional. Enhancing functional outcomes and minimizing dysfunctional outcomes are the primary responsibility of managers in organizations. (Organizations with no or too little level of conflict can face with barriers in organizational development and may suffer from stagnation.)

Functional Outcomes of Conflict

• Improve the quality of decisions.
• Support creative thinking
• Help to recognize dysfunctional processes or functions.
• Eliminate group-thinking and predispose alternative ways/solutions.

Dysfunctional Outcomes of Conflict

• Slow down the pace of decision making.
• Damage social relations and organizational trust.
• Decrease organizational commitment.
• Impair individual/group performance.

Classification of Conflict in Organizations

Organizational conflict can be classified as intraorganizational (conflict within an organization) and interorganizational conflict (conflict between two or more organizations). Intraorganizational conflict, which is the main concern of this chapter, has four sub-levels: Intrapersonal, Interpersonal, intragroup and intergroup conflict.

Intrapersonal conflict can be occured when employees are frustrated by personal or organizational dynamics. High work pressure, dense level of competition among coworkers, perception of injustice politics, perception of being inadequate to performn the job, and goal conflict can create intrapersonal level of conflict. Three distinct types of goal conflict are generally identified as;

1. Approach-approach conflict, where the individual is motivated to approach two or more positive but mutually exclusive goals.
2. Approach-avoidance conflict, where the individual is motivated to approach a goal and at the same time is motivated to avoid it. The single goal contains both positive and negative characteristics for the individual.
3. Avoidance-avoidance conflict, where the individual is motivated to avoid two or more negative but mutually exclusive goals (Luthans, 2010, p.290).

Process of Conflict

Pondy (1967) states that conflict is an episode and a dynamic process. According to Pondy’s (1967) model, the process of conflict can be portrayed in five stages; latent conflict, perceived conflict, felt conflict, manifest conflict, and conflict aftermath.

Latent Conflict: The first stage called as “latent conflict” means potential sources of conflict such as different values, needs, resource scarcity or goal incompatibility exist. Although the sources are rooted in organization for a long time of period, the partners does not perceive the tension.

Perceived Conflict: The second stage refers to partners’ becoming fully aware that they are in conflict. This is the stage when one party perceives the other to be likely to thwart or frustrate his/her goals.

Felt Conflict: The third stage points emotional involvement in conflict. The partners are not only aware of the conflict, but also feel negative emotions like tension, and anxiety. Felt emotions help individuals to perceive that they are in conflict.

Manifest Conflict: The fourth stage is the stage where the conflict becomes visible. Partners show a clear conflictful behavior, such as open aggression. Which behavior accepted as conflictful depends on the culture of organization and the perception of the conflict partners.

• Violence
• Infighting
• Sabotage
• Physical Intimidation
• Lack of communication
• Open agression

Are some forms of manifest conflict

Conflict Aftermath: The satisfaction of the conflict parties should be maintained in the process of conflict resolution. If the conflict is not resolved or managed in a proper way, it will be experienced in a more serious form.

Causes of Organizational Conflict

The causes or sources of conflict in organizations are antecedent conditions that can be ranged from personal attributions to organizational factors. Conflict may occur when:

1. A party is required to engage in an activity that is incongruent with his or her needs or interests.
2. A party holds behavioral preferences, the satisfaction of which is incompatible with another person’s implementation of his or her preferences.
3. A party wants some mutually desirable resource that is in short supply, such that the wants of everyone may not be satisfied fully.
4. A party possesses attitudes, values, skills, and goals that are salient in directing his or her behavior but are perceived to be exclusive of the attitudes, values, skills, and goals held by the other(s).
5. Two parties have partially exclusive behavioral preferences regarding their joint actions.
6. Two parties are interdependent in the performance of functions or activities (Rahim, 2002, p.207).

Misalignment of goals, misunderstandings, lack of communication or trust are the common sources of organizational conflict. To manage conflict effectively requires to know its antecedents. Therefore, it is a must to explicate the conditions under which conflict occurs.

Personal Factors

Narcissism: Narcissim is a personal trait that contains selflove, inflated self-view, ruthlessness, devaluation of others and manipulation of others. Narcissistic individuals who are concerned with obtaining admiration of other people aim to promote positive self-image by pursuing selfimage goals which can create conflict in their relationships.

Self-Monitoring: Individuals differ with respect to do extent to which “strategically cultivate public appearance”. In a social situation, high self-monitors ask the following: “Who does this situation want me to be and how can I be that person?”. By contrast, low self-monitors ask: “Who am I and how can I be me in this situation?

Type A: Type A behavior pattern is mostly and strongly related with stress management. Being competitive, impatient, aggressive, time urgent, drive, perfectionist and workaholic are some prominent traits of Type A personality. Patience, relaxation, ability to balance work and non-work life are the main characteristics of Type B personality.

Negative Affectivity: As one of the priori dispositional factor underlying intra-conflict and interpersonal conflict, negative affectivity infers aversive moods, distress and negative emotions (Watson et al., 1988). Positive affectivity is an interdependent component of negative affectivity, and it reflects a pleasurable engagement with environment such as happiness, joy, excitement, enthusiasm and contentment (Pressman and Cohen, 2005). Positive affect cues and facilitates creative problem solving (Isen et al., 1987).

Emotional Intelligence: Emotional intelligence (EQ) is the ability to perceive emotions and regulate emotions both self and the others. More specifically, Mayer and Salovey (1997) defined EQ as ‘the ability to perceive accurately, appraise, and express emotion; the ability to access and/ or generate feelings when they facilitate thought; the ability to understand emotion and emotional knowledge; and the ability to regulate emotions to promote emotional and intellectual growth’.

Organizational Factors

The basic organizational factors which have the potential to evoke conflict in organizations are;

• Size of the Organization: Large organizations involve a large number of people and a wide range of tasks.
• Communication Problems: Ineffective communications occur due to several individual and organizational reasons.
• Power Base: C.Wright Mills, the founder of modern conflict theory, posits that conflict is influenced by unequal distribution of power and resources.
• Role Conflict and Role Ambiguity: Role conflict arises when individuals face with inconsistent or incompatible demands, whereas role ambiguity refers to uncertainty about which tasks and responsibilities are part of the role. Types of role conflict can be differentiated as role overload and role underload.
• Specialization: Employees specializing in certain tasks focus on a specific area of expertise.
• Resource Scarcity: Operating funds, manpower, physcial space, time and equipments are critical, but also are limited assets in organizations.
• Performance Criteria and Rewards: Like resources, rewards are usually critical, and one unit is rewarded at the expense of another.
• Diversity of Goals (Goal Incompatibility): Each department or work group has its own mission and function to perform.
• Personality and Value Clashes: Personality clashes are mostly common in organizations.
• Task Interdependence: Some tasks or goals are in need of the other one to fulfill its mission.

Conflict Management Styles

1. Integrating Style: High concern for meeting his/ her own interests and high concern for meeting other’s interests are called win-win strategy. The style represents to reach a mutually satisfactory solution under the circumstances of complex problems. This style can be utilized provided enough time and interpersonal trust in conflict situation.
2. Obliging Style: Low concern for self and high concern for the other are called lose-win strategy. This style refers to ignore your own needs or goals, and try to satisfy the other conflict party’s interests. This type is appropriate when you perceive that you are weaker than the other party, and to maintain your social relationship is more beneficial for you.
3. Dominating Style: High concern for self and low concern for the other are called win-lose strategy. Forcing, manipulating, threatening the other party are the common and rationalized ways to give in conflict situation. This style elaborates on the idea that being competitive and winning is the sine qua non part of life.
4. Avoiding Style: Low concern for self and the others are likely to yield lose-lose outcome which allows the conflict take its own action. This style is most often used by people who have difficulty facing conflict, and by people who are unwilling to involve or participate in negative and stressful events.
5. Compromising Style: Intermediate concern for self and the others involves a give-andtake approach which results in mutual satisfaction. This style is appropriate when the two parties of conflict have equal powers and a consensus is a keen need.

Situational Conditions and Conflict Management Styles

Conflict management needs to follow a contingency paradigm which implies to analyze the level, amount and type of conflict. Individuals are inclined to choose a conflict-handling style not just based on their primary orientation, but also based on the social cues or the contextual factors embedded in conflicting situations.

Dispositional Factors and Conflict Management Styles

Not only are situational characteristics influential in the selection of a conflict management style; dispositional factors also play an important role in style choice. Besides personality, another dispositional factor which is related with conflict management styles is fogiveness. Individuals with a disposition to forgive are more active conflictrelated problem solvers and they likely to see others’ perspectives and accommodate others’ interests, while also finding ways to meet their own interests.

Cultural Differences and Conflict Management Styles

Perception of conflict and how to handle it depend partially on cultural backgrounds of people. Culture includes values, norms, and assumptions, considered to be the corresponding way of thinking about and acting on conflicting situations.

In low-context cultures, individuals are more efficient in separating the conflict issue from the person involved in a conflict over a task, and yet remain friends. In highcontext cultures, the instrumental issue is intertwined with the person who originated that issue.

The other national cultural dimension, named as uncertainty avoidance, affects conflict management styles. Uncertainity avoidance measures to extent in which people in a society feel threatened by ambigious situations and seek to live with strict rules, regulations and guidance.

Another cultural dimension, power distance is the degree of expecting and accepting inequalities of power and wealth distribution within the society.

Conflict Management Strategies in Organizations

Depending on the qualifications of conflict situations, managers should decide what type of strategy is proper to reach organizational aims. A large majority of Fortune 1000 companies have an integrated conflict management system, which has revealed five essential characteristics;

1. Broad Scope: The system should provide options for all hierarchical positions (including employees, supervisors and managers) in the workplace, and to have all types of problems considered.
2. A Culture of Toleration and Early Resolution: It should welcome or at least tolerate dissent and encourage early resolution of conflicts through direct negotiation.
3. Multiple Access Points: Employees should be able to identify the individual, department or entity within the organization that has authority, knowledge, and experience from which they can obtain advice about the system and how to manage the problem in question.
4. Multiple Options: The system should have rightsbased and interest-based options for employees to consider.
5. Support Structures: Strong support structures should coordinate and manage the multiple access points and multiple options. Essentially, these structures should bring conflict management “into the organization’s daily operations.” (Lipsky and Avgar, 2010, p.39).

Here are some of the important conflict management strategies:

1. Improving Transformational Leadership Style: Transformational leadership style includes empowerment which leaders encourage subordinates about creative thinking, problem solving and getting authorization.
2. Improving Emotion Management: Conflict can evoke negative emotions like sadness, anger which are potentially damaging for person’s health and for conflict resolution.
3. Supporting Risk-Taking Organizational Culture: Right type and righ amount of conflict is beneficial for organizational learning. Organizatonal learning needs each member to take risk, to have authority, and to share organizational knowledge.
4. Cultivating Workplace Trust: Building and maintaining trust needs a high attention and effort. When employees face with negative events in organizations, a sensemaking process begins and they try to evaluate if their managers are trustworthy.
5. Changing Inappropriate Design of Organization: Contingency approach in organizational design states to analyze whether firms operate in a stable or a dynamic environment. The greater the fit between the relevant environment and the design, the less the level of conflict.
6. Making Job Design: Especially, when role conflict level is high in organizations, job design techniques appear to be a useful solution. A job has a set of specific tasks performed by one person.
7. Defining a Superior Goal: Superior goal is the one that is highly desired by each party, which can not be reached alone.
8. Training about Conflict Management and Resolution: Employees and managers, regardless of their hierarchical positions, need conflict management skills to gain self-control, make proper decisions, and work effectively in the ever-increasing level of stress and role strain.
9. Changing the Composition of the Team: If the conflict is between team members, the easies solution may be to change the members of the team.