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Lecture 8

Conflict & Negotiation

Dr. Bahareh Assadi

organizational

factors or

conditions that can

lead to conflict

between

employees?

What types of

workplace conflicts

have you

experienced? Did

you resolve it?

Unifor & GM

The future of two Oshawa plants was in question.

One plant only had work scheduled in it until 2017, while the other had

no work scheduled beyond 2019.

GM Canada insisted that a labour agreement had to be reached before it

made a decision about investing in the plant, while Unifor said a decision

on the plant had to be made before an agreement could be reached.

Jerry Dias, national president of

Unifor, underscored the

position of the union:

“I’m convinced that they have

no interest in investing,

therefore, to sign an agreement

without forcing it would be

irresponsible. I’m convinced that

if we do not secure Oshawa in

this set of negotiations, we’re

going to have a closure.”

• (^) Jerry Dias, the president of

Unifor, meanwhile, announced

his happiness with the

agreement.

“Ultimately, we were not walking

away from the table until we had a

solution... we all knew we were

going to be successful right from

the beginning because we were

determined.”

• (^) The union had managed to get

guarantees for one of the

Oshawa plants to stay open with

increased wages and no layoffs.

• (^) Conflict - A process that begins when one party

perceives that another party has negatively affected or

is about to negatively affect something that the first

party cares about.

• Conflict describes the point when an interaction

becomes a disagreement - incompatibility over an

issue.

• People experience a wide range of conflicts in groups

and organizations

• incompatibility of goals
• (^) differences over interpretations of facts
• disagreements based on behaviour
• (^) disagreement on how things should be done
• competition over resources
• (^) Competition over promotions
• unions

Organizational Challenge

Research shows that 60-80% of all difficulties in organizations stem

from strained relationships between employees, not from deficits in

an individual employee's skill or motivation (Poole, & Stutman, 2018).

A typical manager spends between 18-20% of their time addressing

workplace conflicts (Poole, & Stutman, 2018).

That equates to one to two days every week spent dealing with some

level of conflict involving individual staff, teams, consumers, or

management.

• (^) Functional conflict - Conflict that supports the goals of the group and improves its performance.
  • (^) For example, a debate among members of a work team about the most efficient way to improve

production can be functional if unique points of view are discussed and compared openly.

• (^) Dysfunctional conflict - Conflict that hinders group performance.
  • A highly personal struggle for control in a team that distracts from the task at hand is dysfunctional.

How to divide up resources, differences of opinion on procedures and

policies, managing expectations at work, and judgments and interpretation of facts.

For example, coworkers who are arguing about which one of them should go to an out-

of-town conference may have a deeper conflict based on a sense of rivalry.

Task conflict - Conflict over content and goals of the work.

Most dysfunctional type of conflict.

It appears that the friction and interpersonal hostilities inherent in relationship conflicts

increase personality clashes and decrease mutual understanding, which hinders the

completion of organizational tasks.

Of the three types, relationship conflicts also appear to be the most psychologically

exhausting to individuals.

In organizations, people who would not ordinarily meet in real life are often thrown

together and must try to get along.

Relationship conflict - Conflict based on interpersonal

relationships.

Loci of Conflict

• (^) Dyadic conflict - Conflict that occurs between

two people.

• (^) Intragroup conflict - Conflict that occurs within

a group or team.

• (^) Intergroup conflict - Conflict between different

groups or teams.

• (^) Understanding functional and dysfunctional

conflict requires not only that we identify the

type of conflict; we also need to know where it

occurs.

Sources of Conflict

Communication

• (^) A review of the research suggests that differing word connotations, jargon,

insufficient exchange of information, and noise in the communication channel

are all barriers to communication.

• (^) The potential for conflict increases when either too little or too much

communication takes place.

Structure

• Size, specialization, and composition of the group act as forces to stimulate

conflict.

• (^) The larger the group and the more specialized its activities, the greater the

likelihood of conflict.

• (^) Leadership style can create conflict if managers tightly control and oversee the

work of employees, allowing employees little discretion in how they carry out

tasks

• (^) The diversity of goals among groups is a major source of conflict.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPrsDWYtrPM

Avoidance Style – Low in assertiveness and low in

cooperation.

 Also known as “flight”

 Goal is to Delay

 Passivity

 Low concern for self and others

Compromising Style – Intermediateness in both

assertiveness and cooperation.

 Also known as “sharing”

 Goal is to find middle Ground

 High concern for both self and others

Competing Style - High in assertiveness and low in

cooperation.

 Also known as “dominating or Forcing”

 Goal is to Win

 High concern for self, low concern for

others

Accommodating Style – Low in assertiveness and

high in cooperation.

 Also known as “appeasing or

smoothing”

 Goal is to Yield

 Low concern for self, high concern for

others

Cooperating/Collaborating Style – Goal is to have all members participate

 Also known as “win / win”

 The goal is member participation