Conflict Management
What word comes to mind when you
hear the word “conflict?
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Word Association
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Destruction
Anger
Disagreement
Hostility
War
Anxiety
Tension
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Exciting
Strengthening
Helpful
Stimulating
Creative
Intimate
Clarifying
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Definition
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An expressed struggle between at least 2
interdependent parties, who perceive
incompatible goals, scarce rewards, and
interference from the other party in
achieving their goals. They are in a
position of opposition in conjunction with
cooperation.
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Conflict Management Styles
Two Dimensional Matrix
 Concern for Self
 Concern for Others
Implications
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Effectively Managing Conflict
Recognize role of
perceptions
 Nature of context
 Past experiences
 Attitudes & feelings
 Perceptual sets
 Need States
 Expectations
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Watch your language
 Abstraction levels
 Stereotypes
 False polarization
 Inferences/observatio
ns
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Principles continued
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Focus first on
understanding and
then work on
agreement
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Coordinate individual
and group goals.
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Meeting mgt. Rules
Flip charts
Listening
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Develop the right strategy &
tactics
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Definitions
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Strategy
Tactics
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Goals
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Prospective
Transactive
Relational
Collaborative
Value of Goals
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Attainment
Change
Yardstick
Planning Strategy
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Goals for You
Goals for Others
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Develop the right strategy &
tactics (cont)
Strategic Directions
 Avoid
 Escalate
 Maintenance
 Reduction
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Avoidance Tactics
 Postponement
 Control Process
 Resort to formal rules
 Equivocate
 Precuing
 Gunny sacking
 Not recognizing conflict
 Fogging
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Tactics (cont.
Escalation
 Labeling
 Issue Expansion
 Coalition Formation
 Threats
 Constricting Others
Maintenance
 Quid Pro Quo
 Agreement on Relational
rules
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Reduction Tactics
 Fractionalization
 Inquiry
 Position Papers
 Metacommunication
 Compromise
 Strategic Ambiguity
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