Conflict and conflict

management
 What Is Conflict?

Conflict is opposition arising from

disagreements due to incompatible
objectives thoughts or emotions
within or among individuals, teams,
departments, or organizations that are
with one another
 Causes of Conflict

•Perceived inequitable allocation of

resources
•Interpersonal friction.
•Differences in status, prestige, power.
•Clashing objectives.
•Differing sets of values, beliefs.
•Functional authority being exercised
incorrectly
 The Consequences of Conflict

positive consequences
( When we think of conflict in terms of
argument, debate, competition between
individuals and/or groups:
•Different ideas, suggestions, strategies, plans
of action can be highlighted and compared.
2. With open discussion and debate on these
differences, there is a good chance they can be
resolved, and a consensus set of strategies and
plans can be agreed
 Negative outcomes:

•The misuse of resources, time, energy

and creativity.
•An increase in hostility.
•A decrease in trust and openness.
•A decrease in the ability of groups and
the organizations as a whole to achieve
the objectives
 Managing Conflict

1. Avoidance
•Bottle up your feelings, turn the other cheek,
swallow your pride
•Slip away or just ‘not notice it’.
•Pretend to yourself-and others-the situation
doesn’t exist.
Not to face the difficulties.
It may result guilty feeling caused by inaction
Leaving it may indeed make it worse in the
future.
•Not Recommended
2. Diffusion

Means- smoothing things over.

Trying to calm every one involved down
you may buy some time.
At a later period small issue may well go
away or be resolved.
Problem: the problem may tick away like
a time bomb, then suddenly reappear-much
more urgent next time.
Again not recommended
3. Confrontation

•Conflicting issues being faced and brought

out into the open.
•Members of the conflict are involved and
confront it.
Problem: high-risk of emotionally in the
discussion
There are tow versions of confrontation:
I. The use of power.
II. The negotiation approach
 I. use of power

a.If the ‘conflict manager’ (e.g. Head of a

Division) has adequate real power in his
armory.
b.The tendency to use power to
dominate another person and require
the other person to agree with your
position.
c. It produces outcomes that are
satisfactory to only one of the parities
 II. Negotiation

• Negotiation includes ascertaining all

the facts (diagnosing the situation),
arranging the negotiations (initiating the
process), listening, and assisting in the
problem-solving process. It could result
in compromise
 •Compromise style

It reflects the tendency of individuals to

sacrifice some of their interests by
making concessions to reach an
agreement.
It might be expressed as follows: "It let
other people win something if they let
me win something" or "I try to hit on a
fair combination of gains and losses for
both of us.
Compromise appropriate when:
•Agreement enables each party to be
better off, or at least not worse off, than if
no agreement had been reached.
•It simply isn't possible to achieve a total
win-win agreement
•Collaborative style
Identifying the underlying causes of
conflict, to share information openly, and to
search for mutually beneficial solutions.
Appropriate when:
•The parties involved have one or
more common objectives and disagree
mainly over the best means to achieve
•A consensus should lead to the best
overall solution to the conflict.
•There is a need to make high-quality
decisions on the basis of expert
judgments and the best information
available