Conflict Management GIM – Module 10 Conflicts
Conflict is a disagreement between two or more parties, such as individuals, groups, departments, organisations or countries, who perceive
that they have incompatible concerns.Conflict is a natural outcome of human interaction, which begins when one individual perceives that
his or her goals , attitude, values or beliefs are incongruent with those of another individual.Conflict significantly affects employee
morale, turnover, and prosperity of a company.
Stages of Conflict
Latent Conflict
: when two or more parties depend upon each other to achieve the desired objectives, there is potential for conflict. A
change in personal goals or a change in the organisational direction can cause conflict.
Perceived Conflict : Team members become aware of the problem. Incompatibility of needs is perceived, and tension begins because the
concerned parties begin to worry about what will happen.
Felt Conflict : Parties become emotionally involved and begin to focus on differences of opinions and opposing interests, highlighting
perceived conflict.
Internal tensions and frustrations begin to crystallize around specific deferred issues and people begin to build emotional commitments to
their particular position.
Manifest Conflict : The opposing parties plan and act to achieve their own objectives and frustrate the other’s objective.
Actions range from minor disagreements, questioning, verbal attacks, to threats, ultimatums, physical attacks.
Maruti /Pricol
Outcomes of Conflict
 Win – win ;Win – Lose; Lose - win
;
Lose – lose ‘’Draw’’ or ‘’no win - no loss’
 Give – and - Take strategies work in industries.
 Discussions.
Hidden conflicts
 Inter organisational conflict : Conflicts that occur between organisations. Pepsi- cola war in the recent past is a relevant example.
 Hidden conflicts : Disagreement over certain issues like distribution of Bonus and welfare amenities but not expressed in an
organised way.
 They are covert or hidden in the organisation. They may also manifest in the form of private grievances that employees have
against their managers.
Conflict management is the practice of recognizing and dealing with disputes in a rational, balanced and effective way.
Conflict management techniques include :a) Conflict resolution
 Problem solving : Face - to - face meeting of the conflicting parties for the purpose of identifying the problem and resolving it
through open discussion.
 Super ordinate goals : Creating a shared goal that cannot be attained without the co-operation of each of the conflicting parties.
 Expansion of resources : when a conflict is caused by the scarcity of the resources like money, promotion, opportunities, perks,
office space and other facilities.
 Smoothing : Playing down differences while emphasizing common interest between the conflicting parties.
 Authoritative command : Management uses its formal authority to resolve the conflict and then communicates its desires to the
parties concerned.
 Altering the human variable : Using behavioural change techniques such as human relations training to alter attitudes and
behaviours that cause conflict. Behaviour – sensitivity
 Altering the structural variables : Changing the formal organisation structure and the interaction patterns of conflicting parties
through job redesign, job rotations, transfers.matrix- flatter-vibrant
 Encourage individualistic thinking: Instead of relying on ‘yes man’ for decision making, the group can be composed of people
who freely express different view points
 Increase individual competition: Management can launch schemes for bringing about individual excellence and reward suitably.
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b) Conflict Stimulation : is the formation and constructive use of conflict by the management.Its purpose is to create situations
where differences of opinion are brought to the surface. Debate and Dissent.
c) Circumstances leading to stimulation of conflict
 Too much emphasis is paid to harmony and peace.
 Most of the decisions are based on compromise.
 There is great resistance to change
 Very low generation of new ideas.
d) Conflict stimulation techniques
 Communication : Using ambiguous and threatening messages to increase conflict levels.
 Bringing in outsiders : Adding employees to a group whose backgrounds, values, attitudes, managerial styles differ from those of
present employees.
 Restructuring the organisation :Realigning work groups, altering rules and regulations, increasing independence and making
similar structural changes to disrupt the status quo.
 Appointing a devil’s advocate : Designating a Critic to purposefully argue against the majority positions held by the group.