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Organisational Behaviour Managing Groups Conflict

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction 2. The Potential for Conflict 3. Your Leadership Style and Conflict Resolution 4. The Attribution Process 5. Attribution Process and Conflict Transformation 6. Game Theory 7. Cross-Cultural Conflicts 8. Reflection 9. Self-Assessment 10. Summary

1. Introduction
What Is Conflict and Why Learn About It? Conflict in organisations can be seen in many forms, such as bitter words between two colleagues, or two sections not cooperating with each other. What kinds of conflicts have you had to deal with in your managerial roles? How did you handle them? As defined in the textbook, "Conflict is doubt or questioning, opposition, incompatible behaviors, controversy or antagonistic interaction". Conflict arises when two parties work together closely and have different abilities, wants, needs and perspectives. (Refer to chapter "Conflict in Organizations" of the textbook Champoux, J. Organizational Behavior: Integrating Individuals, Groups and Organizations. 3rd ed. Cincinnati, Ohio: South-Western College Publishing, 2006.) Although avoiding conflict altogether may seem like the best solution to any problem, properly managed conflict can allow a team to grow and achieve goals. Reading: Conflict For more information about functional versus dysfunctional conflict, read the following topic from the textbook: Champoux, J. Organizational Behavior: Integrating Individuals, Groups and Organizations. 3rd ed. Cincinnati, Ohio: South-Western College Publishing, 2006. Topic "Functional and Dysfunctional Conflict" in chapter "Conflict in Organizations" While it is not the objective to eliminate all conflict in organisations, often the level of conflict needs to be reduced. Therefore managers must be sensitive to conflict and adept at addressing it. Managers with different leadership styles tend to have different approaches to trying to manage conflict so you need to be aware of how your leadership style may be affecting your approach to conflict management. This topic begins by considering leadership style, followed by how conflict may arise and conflict management approaches.

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Objectives: Conflict Upon completion of this topic, you should be able to describe the impact of leadership styles on conflict resolution describe the process of attribution and how it can lead to conflict explain the concept of conflict transformation and how to manage it

2. The Potential for Conflict

The potential for interpersonal conflict exists the moment people interact with one another. People interpret words, voice tone and body language based on their own experiences. As a result, a listener often misinterprets or misunderstands a speaker's intended message. For example, someone may ask, "Do you think it's possible to make the Thursday deadline?" If the listener has been reprimanded for missing deadlines in the past, he or she might interpret the question as such: "You're not going to miss another deadline this Thursday, are you?" As a manager, you must be aware that people have different frames of reference and will therefore perceive actions and words differently. In other words, latent potential for conflict is always present. Managers should also be able to differentiate between personalised and substantive conflicts. Disagreements about facts (substantive conflicts) can come to be "taken personally" and can be seen as attacking the individual's self-worth (personalised conflicts), possibly leading to negative attitudes and uncooperative behaviours. This process involves making attributions about the behaviour of other people to arrive at "the facts" about them, which are really our views of them. These views then lead us to make judgements that impact upon their self-worth and so can cause conflict.

3. Your Leadership Style and Conflict Resolution

The way you react to conflict depends a great deal on your leadership style. Examine the graph below to see the conflict-management style associated with your leadership style.

Lets take a look at how each leadership style can best deal with conflict. Click on each tab below to view the details.

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Leadership Styles abd Conflict Resolution Authoritarian When confronting interpersonal conflict, authoritarians prefer to engage in competitive tactics. You probably view conflict as an attempt by others to redistribute resources in a manner that favours some at the expense of others. When dealing with conflict caused by inequitable assumptions, authoritarian is the most effective of all the leadership styles available. The drawback is that authoritarians view almost all conflict as a winlose situation, making compromise or cooperation unlikely. Team leader As a team leader, you prefer to cooperate when confronting interpersonal conflict. You probably view conflict as a chance to create a mutually satisfactory resolution. However, compromising tactics are only effective when both parties stand to gain and lose something. Reticent The reticent leadership style has a preference for conflict avoidance. Reticents do not view conflict as a positive solution under most circumstances. When dealing with conflict that lacks merit or substance, however, this is the most effective of all the leadership styles. The drawback is that some conflicts if left unresolved or unacknowledged have dangerous outcomes. Socializer When confronting interpersonal conflict, socializers prefer to engage in accommodation tactics. You are probably concerned with the needs of others and prefer conflict resolution. When dealing with conflict that has the potential for employee layoffs, socializer is the most effective of all the leadership styles available. The disadvantage of this style is that some issues are non-negotiable and accommodation is not possible.

Your leadership style has merit and is effective only if you are dealing with a substantive conflict, ie, a conflict over a fact or observable behaviour. If you are dealing with a personalised conflict, ie, a conflict about another person's values, selfworth, esteem or integrity, typical problem-solving tactics usually do not work. Personalised conflicts must be transformed to substantive conflicts to be resolved. To do this, you must understand attribution and conflict transformation.

4. The Attribution Process

People make attributions every day, "I am a successful artist because of my parent's support and love", or "He missed the deadline because he's indifferent and lazy". In other words, they assign reasons for their own and others' behaviour. People analyse others' behaviours using three types of information: consensus information, distinctiveness information and consistency information. Questions you should ask yourself to gather this information include: 1. Consensus question. Do other people in the same or a similar situation act the same way? 2. Distinctiveness question. Does this person act this way in other situations, or is the behaviour unique to this situation? 3. Consistency question. How often has this person acted this way in the past? The attribution process is helpful in analysing causes for outcomes. However, it is often unreliable. People who rely on the attribution process may
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make an internal attribution about others which may be wrong prone to make basic attribution errors that can lead to personalised conflict

Click the link below to learn how the attribution questions can be put into practice and learn how attribution errors may occur. Attribution Process

Attribution Process Put the 3 attribution questions into practice by imagining that your subordinate, Juergen, is late to your regularly scheduled Monday morning meeting. To what do you attribute his tardiness? To assign reasons for his tardiness, you might ask yourself the attribution questions as they relate to Juergen showing up late to this morning's meeting. 1. Consensus. Did other people also come in late to the meeting today, or was Juergen the only one who showed up late? 2. Distinctiveness. Does Juergen show up late to other meetings and other company events, or does he just come late to this particular meeting? 3. Consistency. Does Juergen consistently show up late to these morning meetings or is he usually on time? After asking yourself these questions about Juergen's behaviour, you can start to attribute reasons for his tardiness. 1. If you answered "yes" to the consensus question (indicating that others came late today), you might decide that something happened to multiple colleagues, not just Juergen. Thus, you would likely attribute his tardiness to external factors, eg, highway traffic. If you answered no, you might attribute his lateness to an internal factor, eg, lack of commitment. 2. If you answered "yes" to the distinctiveness question (suggesting this is usual behaviour for him), you would likely attribute Juergen's tardiness to internal factors, eg, laziness. If you answered no, you might attribute his tardiness to an external factor, eg, a late train. 3. If you answered "yes" to the consistency question (suggesting that he is frequently late to Monday morning meetings), you would likely make an internal attribution for his behaviour, eg, lack of enthusiasm or commitment). If you answered no, you would likely make an external attribution, eg, bad weather. Although this process is helpful in analysing causes for outcomes, it can be flawed. For example, let's say that Juergen is usually late to these Monday morning meetings (high consistency), no other employees were late to this Monday morning meeting (low consensus) and he is sometimes late to other company meetings (lower distinctiveness). The process would likely have you make an internal attribution about Juergen's behaviour, such as, "He's not committed to his job or the department". However, that attribution could be wrong. Perhaps Juergen is very committed to the company and his job, but must take his children to school on Monday mornings, and thus is late to Monday morning meetings. Because both he and his wife work and must coordinate their childcare responsibilities, he is sometimes late to other company events. It is not his lack of commitment to the company or job, but his commitment to his family that causes Juergen to show up late at times. As his
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supervisor, it would be very important to speak with Juergen and properly assess the real causes for his behaviour rather than use the more automatic, but often unreliable, attribution process to determine causes. When people rely on the attribution process to assign causes, they are prone to make basic attribution errors that can lead to personalised conflict. For example, if your analysis of Juergen's behaviour leads you to an internal attribution of Juergen, eg, he's not committed to his work, you may begin treating him as though he's not committed. And this behaviour may leave him unmotivated and unwilling to work with you. As this dynamic continues, your relationship with Juergen, and his work performance, deteriorate. This personalised conflict escalates, which leads to Juergen either transferring out of your department or leaving the company. This escalation of personalised conflict could have been avoided had the real causes for his tardiness been explored in the first place.

5. Attribution Process and Conflict Transformation

How do substantive conflicts (those based on facts) turn into personalised conflicts (those based on personal and non-factual perceptions)? Click the link below to view an animation that illustrates how transformation of conflict can occur in a particular scenario.

Attribution Story

Attribution Story Maise, the senior director of a testing firm, has noticed that during her recent conversations with Roger, her senior analyst, he has been averting his eyes and responding in one-word sentences. This indicates high consistency. Roger, however, continues to be talkative with the rest of the staff. This indicates high distinctiveness. Maise is concerned because she has always respected Roger's skills and, until recently, has enjoyed her camaraderie with him. More disconcerting to her is the fact that Roger is the only member of the staff responding to her this way. This indicates low consensus. She concludes that Roger's behaviour is unique to their relationship . . .

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This is an external attribution. . . . but, due to the consistency of his behaviour, she thinks that Roger has probably made a negative character judgment about her. This is an internal attribution. Maise thinks over the situation to determine when Roger's behaviour toward her changed. She realises that Roger's behaviour changed the day after his performance evaluation. Although the overall evaluation was positive, she recalls that she suggested that Roger pay more attention to details and rated him quite low on this one dimension of his performance. This is a substantive issue. Roger probably personalised this particular item and is now reacting to her differently than he did before his performance evaluation. This has become a personalised issue. Click the link below to read an example of another scenario on how a substantive conflict can transform into a personalised conflict. Conflict scenario

Conflict scenario Imagine that you reject a proposal from a typically pleasant employee because his proposal was over budget. After you reject his proposal, this employee becomes unfriendly to you. When you confront him about his behaviour, he tells you, "I don't appreciate you rejecting my hard work. No amount of effort seems to please you". In other words, this employee has taken a substantive conflict, ie, the rejection of the proposal, and turned it into a personalised conflict, ie, the way that you under-value him. So how do you turn a personalised conflict back into a substantive conflict? The most important thing you must do is to reinforce the facts of the conflict and refrain from making any negative comments or judgements about that person. In the case of your employee, you might respond, "I really appreciate the fine work that you do, and I recognise that you work hard. I rejected the proposal because it was over budget and not because of any other reason."

Conflict Transformation Conflict transformation is a way to recognise a personalised conflict and transform it to a substantive conflict. Once you recognise that a conflict has become personalised, you need to plan your response. To form a plan, you might want to construct an attribution table and determine the point at which the substantive conflict transformed into a personal issue.
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The transformation process usually requires three steps to turn the conflict back into a substantive conflict. 1. Define the conflict. Acknowledge responsibility for allowing the conflict to become personalised. 2. Examine possible solutions. Isolate the substantive problem while recognising good results elsewhere. 3. Implement the solution. Amend the record to reflect your revised understanding. Click the link below to view an animation that demonstrates how this three-step model could be used to transform the personalised conflict in the previous animation.

Interpersonal Conflict Resolution

Interpersonal Conflict Resolution Maise: Roger, I would like to revisit the discussion we had at your last performance evaluation. Let me start by reiterating how much I value your overall performance and skills. After taking another look at my comments, I realised that parts of the evaluation were too general and didn't take into account that you've only had limited opportunities to demonstrate certain skills. Step 1: Define the conflict Specifically, I think I was too harsh in my judgment of your ability to pay attention to details. Looking back, that commentary probably seemed hurtful, even though that was not what I intended. I apologise. Roger (surprised, pleased and thoughtful): Well, thanks. Hmmmm. I guess what you said did hurt. I've tried to perform all my work duties effectively, and I thought I'd succeeded until I suddenly received the negative evaluation. It seemed unfair, especially since I can think of other, more important projects that reflected my attention to detail. One that comes to mind is that project for the accounting division. I thought I handled that well. Didn't you? Step 2: Examine possible solutions Maise: That's a good point. You definitely made solid contributions to that project, as well as projects in other important areas. I think I focused on one incident in particular where I noticed that you had made errors in comparing data. I just gave that incident too much weight Step 3: Implement the solution I'll amend your evaluation in that regard to reflect this conversation. Roger: Maise, thanks a lot. I feel much better now and I'll keep up the good work.

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And you have a good point, too: there are times when I should pay closer attention to details. Thanks again. Reading: Attribution Process and Conflict Transformation To learn more about conflict management, you may read the following two articles. Weiss, J. and J. Hughes, "Want Collaboration?" Harvard Business Review 83 no.3 (March 2005): 93-102 Obuchowski, J., "Your Meeting: Who's in charge?" Harvard Management Communication Letter 2 no.2 (Spring 2005): 3-5 Click the link below to complete an exercise that allows you to assume the role of a director who has a conflict with an administrative assistant. Exercise: Attribution theory and conflict transformation

Exercise: Attribution Theory and Conflict Transformation In this exercise, you are to read a scenario and answer a series of questions on transformation conflict. Through the exercise, you will learn ways of transforming substantive conflict into personalised ones. The protagonist in the exercise, Po Sin, is a competent worker whose work performance is excellent. However, an issue that did not appear to be important to you, as the new director, is affecting Po Sin. Given that he continues to work well with other departments yet his relationship with the manager has clearly deteriorated, the issue is possibly a non task-related one. Disagreements about facts (substantive conflicts) can become "personal", thereby possibly leading to negative attitudes and uncooperative behaviour (personalised conflicts). Therefore, when the manager notices that Po Sin's work performance has declined, coupled with a souring of the relationship between them, it is a sign that they need to have a talk to understand the reasons for such personalised conflicts. By referring to the issue at hand and reassuring Po Sin that his work is given due credit, such personalised conflicts can then be resolved.

6. Game Theory
Game theory focuses on the strategies people use when every Act they choose depends on another's action. As a result, game theory is often used as a means for demonstrating the interdependent nature of groups, individual actions and group outcomes. To view game theory in action, visit the Serendip website and play the game. While reading and playing, think about the following questions: How are actions interrelated in the group process? How are actions directly related to the emergence of group conflict? How does game theory help frame the notion of conflict? Reading: Managing Team Conflict For a discussion of conflict and how to manage it within a team, you may read the following article.
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Wagner-Johnson, D., "Managing Work Team Conflict: assessment and preventative strategies", (1999) (http://www.workteams.unt.edu/old/reports/wagner.html)

7. Cross-Cultural Conflicts
Conflict is likely to arise in multicultural corporations because people have different values, norms of behaviour and come from different cultures. Click the link below to view an animation that illustrates how conflict can be caused by cultural misunderstanding. The animation also illustrates how conflict reduces quality of work and productivity.

Cultural Story

Cultural Story Requests for grants were presented by US and foreign teams to a pharmaceutical company in the US. A team of female Pacific Rim managers from a fledgling research institute entered the room confidently to make their presentation. If they obtained the grant, their institute could advance to the forefront of research. They had practised their presentation until it was perfect. When they attempted to initiate what was, to them, a customary period of casual conversation, the women immediately sensed the committee's impatience with them. The American committee wanted to get right down to business and ignored their attempts at establishing a relationship and, instead, began firing questions at them. The women's confidence collapsed, and they struggled with the remainder of the proposal. They were not surprised to learn later that the committee refused their grant. The research and conceptual models on conflict presented in this online reading and in your textbook originated in North America. As your textbook states, cultures that value individualism will most likely value conflict more than cultures that value collaboration, co-operation and conformity. Reading: Cross-Cultural Conflicts The following article is a study of student teams in Beijing, China, which shows that co-operative goals are superior to competitive and individual goals because cooperative goals lead to constructive controversy that can stimulate innovation and loyalty.

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Chen, G.Q. and D. Tjosvold, "Cooperative Goals and Constructive Controversy for Promoting Innovation in Student Groups in China", Journal of Education for Business 78 no.1 (Sept-Oct 2002): 46-50

8. Reflection
Reflection: Conflict Think about the following questions. 1. Keeping your cultural values and norms in mind, which two of the conflict concepts you have learned about do you think are most useful to you? 2. How would you apply what you have learned about these two concepts to create a more harmonious, productive work environment?

9. Self-Assessment
Now, try the self-assessment questions to test your understanding of the topic. Click the following link to open the Self-Assessment in a new window. Self-Assessment Q1. It would be good for the workplace if there were no conflict at all. Is this statement true or false? 1. True 2. False Q2. Which of the following correctly describes latent conflict? 1. Factors in the person, group or organisation that might potentially lead to conflict 2. The actual conflict behaviour between the parties to the conflict episode 3. Conflict that occurs within an individual 4. Conflict between two or more organisations which are either dependent on one another or are competing with one another Q3. Which of the following conflict-management style would a socializer prefer? 1. Accommodation of other 2. Collaborating with other 3. Avoidance of issue 4. Competing with other Q4. Which of the following is NOT part of the three types of information that people use in making attributions? 1. Consensus information 2. Ascription information 3. Distinctiveness information 4. Consistency information Q5. Which of the following correctly describes substantive conflict? 1. Conflict based on non-factual information 2. Conflict based on personal differences 3. Conflict based on facts 4. Conflict based on emotions

10. Summary
This topic covered the following main points:

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Conflict occurs when there are different needs, wants, views and behaviours as parties work closely with one another. Conflicts can be classified into personalised and substantive conflicts. One's reaction towards conflict may be influenced by one's leadership style. Socializers tend to adopt an accommodating style towards conflict, team leaders a collaborating style, authoritarians a competing style and reticents an avoidance style. Attribution errors may lead to personalised conflicts and managers should avoid such errors by refraining from making non-factual judgements of individuals. Conflict can be transformed from a personalised conflict to a substantive one. A manager needs to be sensitive to different cultural norms and values in order to avoid unnecessary misunderstanding thereby leading to conflict.

References Bacal, R. "Conflict and Cooperation at Work? To Deal with Conflict More Effectively." (August 23, 2000). http://www.themestream.com/articles/150734.html (accessed 22 December 2000). Daley, D. "Attribution Theory and the Glass Ceiling. Career Development among Federal Employees." Public Administration and Management: An Interactive Journal1, no. 1 (1996). http://www.pamij.com/glass1sp.html (accessed 27 January 2003). Jones, E.E. and V.A. Harris. "The Attribution of Attitudes." Journal of Experimental Social Psychology3 (1967): 1-24. Hersey, P. and K.H. Blanchard. "Life Cycle Theory of Leadership. "Training and Leadership Journal33, no. 6 (June 1979). Leary, T.Interpersonal Diagnosis of Personality: A Functional Theory and Methodology for Personality Researchers.New York, NY: The Ronald Press Co., 1957. Serendip. "You Have Found The Prisoners' Dilemma."http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/playground/pd.html(accessed 27 January 2003). Wagner-Johnson, D." Managing Work Team Conflict: Assessment and Preventative Strategies."(1999)http://www.workteams.unt.edu/reports/wagner.html (accessed 27 January 2003). Weingart, L. and K.A. Jehn. "Manage Intra-Team Conflict Through Collaboration. "InThe Blackwell Handbook of Organizational Behavior, edited by Edwin A. Locke, 227-38. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers Ltd, 2000.

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