Managing Conflict
LDRS 306 – Leadership and Team Dynamics
Key Words
• Conflict – a fight, struggle, battle, disagreement, dispute, or
quarrel.
• Negotiation – is a process by which people with shared
and opposed interests attempt to reach an agreement
that specifies what each gives to and receives from
another.
Conflict Negative Group vs.
Conflict Positive Groups
• In a conflict-negative group, conflicts are avoided and
managed in destructive ways.
• In a conflict-positive group conflicts are encouraged and
manages constructively.
• Conflict is not always negative and destructive!
Conflict Negative Group vs.
Conflict Positive Groups
Conflict-Negative Group
Conflict Positive Group
Sees conflict as unitary (all the same)
Recognizes different types of conflicts
Sees conflict as the problem
Sees conflict as part of the solution
Avoids, suppresses, contains conflicts
Seeks out and encourages conflicts
Believes conflict is inherently destructive
Believes conflict is potentially constructive
Sees no value in conflict
Sees many values in conflict
Believes conflicts create anxiety and
defensiveness
Believes conflicts create excitement,
interest, focus
Individuals go for a “win”
Individuals try to “solve the problem”
More Key Words and Definitions
Concept
Definition
Want
Desire for something
Need
Universal necessity for survival
Goal
Desired ideal state of affairs
Interests
Potential benefits to be gained by achieving goals
Conflict of interests
Actions taken by a person A achieve goals that prevent, block, or
interfere with actions taken by person B to achieve goals
Negotiation
Process by which persons who have shared and opposed interests
want to come to an agreement to try to work out a settlement
Strategies for Managing Conflict
Relationships
•
1. The owl – confronting
•
2. The teddy bear – smoothing
•
3. The shark – forcing win-lose negotiations
High
Importance
2
1
4
5
•
4. The fox – compromising
•
5. The turtle – withdrawing
Low
Importance
3
Goals
Low
Importance
High
Importance
Negotiation
•
•
•
•
•
Negotiation – is a process by which people with shared and opposed interests
attempt to reach an agreement that specifies what each gives to and receives from
another.
There are two main types of negotiating strategies:
•
Distributive and integrative
In integrative negotiation, it is important to understand the other person’s
perspective
In distributive negotiation, the goal is maximize your outcome, while you minimize
the outcomes of others.
A mediator helps two parties in a negotiation. The mediator does not help any one
side win the negotiation
Social Identity
• Social identity theory - holding less favorable views about groups to which we
do not belong
• In social identity and social categorization theories, individuals emphasize the
similarities of their group members and the dissimilarities of the outgroup.
• Understanding the experiences of low-power groups will help awaken a sense
of injustice in majority group members.
•
•
•
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Manager-led team
•
Have authority over executing the team task
Self-governing team
•
Have authority over setting overall direction, designing the team and its organizational
context, monitoring and managing work process and progress, and executing the team
task.
Self-designing team:
•
Have authority over designing the team and its organizational context, monitoring and
managing work progress and process, and executing the team task.
Self-managing
•
Has authority over monitoring and managing work process and progress, and executing the
team task.