Conflict and Negotiation
Sub-topics
1. Conflict
2. Conflict – traditional, interactional, focused
on solution
3. Process of conflict
4. Negotiation
5. Integrative / distributive negotiation
6. Process of negotiation
1. Conflict
• A process in which a person is negatively
affecting a situation which is of interest to
another person either in organization and / or
social life
- Goals, personal and team / group
- Differences in the interpretation of facts (is
the glass half full or half empty!)
2. Conflict – traditional view
• Attitudes towards group / team behaviour in
the 1930s and 1940s
• Conflict has to be avoided because it is
evidence of organizational dysfunction as a
result of:
- Deficient communication
- Absence of acceptance and trust
- Weakness from the management in
responding to the needs of the employees
2. Conflict – interactional view
• A minimum level of conflict is needed to
maintain viability, self-judgment and team
creativity
• Functional or dysfunctional conflict:
- project … content and objectives
- inter-personal relations … between team
members
- process … how the team executes the
project
3. Conflict – focused on solution
• Conflict is unavoidable, therefore our attention
should be on the most productive way of solving
problems
• During the process however, people are unable to
distinguish their feelings and disagreements to
the ones which relate to the work as such and to
the ones which relate to their interpersonal
relations (the three elements that we refer to in
the interactional view)
3. Conflict process – 5 stages
•
•
•
•
•
Possible conflict / unconventionality
Insight to the problem and personification
Intentions
Behaviours
Results
3. Possible conflict / unconventionality
• Communication – noise, words, information …
functional up to a certain point
• Structure – size, responsibilities, precision,
compatibility of personal / team goals,
leadership, rewards … why is the possibility of
conflict more when younger people are involved
in the team?
• Personal variables – personality, feelings, values
… anything that we take from our personal life to
our life within the team
3. Insight to the problem and
personification
• Perceived conflict – disagreement between A and
B but without consequences to A’s positive
feelings about B
• Felt conflict – emotional conflict
• Determination of the issues that lead to conflict,
leading to possible solution scenarios … negative
feelings lead to oversimplification and positive
feelings lead to the development of possible
relations that have created the problem
3. Intentions
• Competition – personal interests irrespective of
their effect on other members
• Cooperation – total fulfilment of the issues that
affect all the members
• Avoidance – of conflict and the people we are in
disagreement with
• Adjustment – support of other’s opinion despite
personal reservations
• Compromise – partial fulfilment of each other’s
desires
3. Behaviours
• Annihilation of conflict
→ Open efforts in destroying the other party
→ Physical attack
→ Threats
→ Verbal attack
→ Openly challenging / disputing others
→ Minor disagreements
• Total absence of conflict
3. Results
• Functional
- Low levels of conflict might increase the
team’s effectiveness
• Dysfunctional
- Communication problems, decrease in the
levels of acceptance (of each other’s views),
the team goals act as a source of
disagreement between individual members
4. Negotiation
• A process during which the team decides how
to distribute important resources
- Affects the relationship between the
negotiators
- Social and ethical behaviour
- Two strategies of negotiation
5. Distributive / integrative negotiation
• Distributive
- Ground zero – any profit for A affects B’s profit
accordingly
- Fixed pie – a specific amount of goods / profit
that can be distributed
- (Diagram of defining the negotiation zone)
• Integrative
- Both sides win, leads to long term relationships
- How often do we see it happening in
organisations?
6. Negotiation process
• Preparation and planning
- The reasons for conflict
- The story
- Who is involved and their individual
perceptions
- Personal goals
→ Leads to minimum acceptable levels of
agreement / other alternatives
6. Negotiation process
• Defining basis rules
- Who is going to perform the negotiation?
- Where?
- Time limits
- Issues
- Possible dead end?
6. Negotiation process
• Clarification and justification
- How each side comes down to its demands,
information to substantiate position
• Negotiation and problem solving
- Require concessions from all sides
• Termination and implementation
- Agreement becomes official, through a
contract or even a handshake!