John Akers' attempt to shake the IBM company is a clear example of the great conflicts that tend to get little attention.
The positive or functional aspect
This chapter will explain the functional and dysfunctional side of conflicts and demonstrate that they affect employee behavior and organizational performance. Two topics related to conflicts will also be discussed:
- Negotiation. Intergroup relations.
Part of my coaching job is to prevent five guys who hate me from facing five undecided guys. Casey Stengel (Baseball manager)
Akers believes that in IBM the conflicts are almost non-existent «The degree of tension in the company is not strong enough, everyone is too comfortable in a time of crisis…. I am sick of visiting plants and hearing wonders of quality and times of the cycles and then visit clients who only talk about problems ».
Conflict
There are many definitions of conflict, however despite the different meanings that the term implies, most of the definitions include several themes in common. The parties must perceive the conflict as such, the fact that the conflict exists or not is a matter of of perception. If nobody is aware that there is a conflict then it does not exist. Other common points in the definitions are.
- The opposition, the incompatibility, the interaction.
Conflict is a process that begins when one party perceives that another has affected it negatively or is about to do so to one of its interests.
Transitions in thinking about conflict
1. Traditional current
He claims that conflicts should be avoided since they indicate that something is wrong.
Conflict is a dysfunctional result of poor communication, lack of openness and trust of people and
inability of managers to meet employee needs.
2. Current of human relations
Conflict is a natural and inevitable result of any group and is not always bad, but can be transformed into a positive force that determines the performance of the group.
The conflict cannot be eliminated and is even beneficial for the group's performance.
3. Interactive stream
It is the most recent and proposes that conflicts can be a positive force in a group. A certain degree of conflict is essential for a group to perform effectively.
Functional Conflict Vs. Dysfunctional Conflict
- Functional conflict: It is the one that reinforces the group's goals and improves their performance. Dysfunctional conflict: It is the one that hinders the group's performance.
The criterion that distinguishes the two conflicts is the performance of the group, as groups exist to achieve one or more goals or objectives, the consequences that the conflict has on the group and not on an individual member are what determine its functionality, this is rare While they are exclusive, therefore, the ways in which individuals perceive conflict can have an important influence on its repercussions. however, for our analysis, this act would be functional if it increases the group's objective.
Conflict process
This process consists of five stages:
1. Possible opposition or incompatibility
For a conflict to exist, there must be the presence of conditions that favor it, such as communication, structure and personal variables.
- Communication: The communication source represents the opposing forces that arise from semantic problems, misunderstandings and the noise of communication channels. One of the great myths is that poor communication causes conflict, if we could communicate better our conflicts would end, however poor communication is not the source of all conflicts, although the problems of the communication process delay collaboration and stimulate bad The structure: Includes variables such as sizes, degrees of specialization, clarity of jurisdiction, compatibility of goals of the members, leadership styles, reward system and the degree of dependency between the groups. Size and specialization act as forces and stimulate conflict.The larger the group and the more specialized its activities, the greater the probability of conflict. Personal variables: Personal factors include each person's individual value systems as well as personality characteristics. The evidence indicates that certain personality types lead to a possible conflict and this could be the least studied variable when considering social conflicts. There are different value systems, for example value differences are the best explanation for aspects such as prejudice, disagreements regarding personal contribution to the group.Personal factors include each person's individual value systems as well as personality characteristics. The evidence indicates that certain personality types lead to a possible conflict and this could be the least studied variable when considering social conflicts. There are different value systems, for example value differences are the best explanation for aspects such as prejudice, disagreements regarding personal contribution to the group.Personal factors include each person's individual value systems as well as personality characteristics. The evidence indicates that certain personality types lead to a possible conflict and this could be the least studied variable when considering social conflicts. There are different value systems, for example value differences are the best explanation for aspects such as prejudice, disagreements regarding personal contribution to the group.disagreements regarding personal contribution to the group.disagreements regarding personal contribution to the group.
2. Knowledge and customization
The conditions of stage one negatively affect something that interests one of the parties, so the possible opposition or incompatibility is updated in the second stage. The preceding conditions can only lead to conflict when one or more parties are affected by the conflict or are aware of it.
Just because a conflict is perceived does not mean it has been personalized.
Example
"A" is aware of a difference of opinion with "B", but "A" does not feel tension about it and has no consequence in the way that "A" affects "B". It is at the level of feelings when people become emotionally involved that the parties experience anxiety and tension.
Stage two is important because it is the point where conflict issues are usually decided.
- Perceived conflict: When one or more parties recognize that there are conditions that favor the occasion for a conflict to arise. Felt conflict: Emotional involvement in a conflict that creates anxiety, frustration, tension.
3. The intentions
They intervene between people's perceptions and emotions and their frank behavior. These intentions represent the decision to act in a given way in the face of a conflict. Many conflicts increase only because one party is attributing other intentions to the other, and there is usually a lot of variation between intentions and behavior.
Behavior does not always accurately reflect a person's intentions, there are five intentions for managing conflict:
- Competitor: when a person tries to satisfy his interests regardless of the impact that it produces in the other parts of the conflict, the person will be a competitor. Elusive: The desire to withdraw from a conflict or end it. Accommodation: The willingness of one of the parties to place the interests of the other above their own. Conciliator: Situation where the two parties to the conflict are willing to compromise. Collaborator: Situation where the parties to the conflict wish to fully satisfy the interests of all parties.
4. The conduct
When most of the people in conflictive situations usually refer to stage four because that is when the conflict becomes visible, this stage includes statements, acts, and reactions of the parties in conflict.
These conflict behaviors are often frank attempts to put into practice the intentions of the parties. These behaviors are independent of intentions. Frank behaviors resulting from a calculation error may deviate from the original intention.
Conflict management: When resolution and stimulation techniques are used to achieve the desired degree of conflict.
5. The results
The game between the action and the reaction of the parties in conflict produce consequences that can be functional in the sense that the conflict produces an improvement in the group performance or dysfunctional if they hinder the performance of the group.
- The functional results: Conflict is constructive when it improves the quality of decisions, stimulates creativity and innovation, fosters the interest and creativity of group members, is a means of venting problems and releasing tension. The dysfunctional results: The uncontrolled opposition encourages discontent, which causes the common ties to dissolve and eventually lead to the destruction of the group: consequences: -delay in communication.
- decreased group cohesion, subordination of group goals to the priority of members' internal struggles.
Conflict can cause group functioning to stop and is a threat to group survival.
Negotiation
We will define the term negotiation as the process in which two or more parties exchange goods or services and agree an exchange rate for it.
Trading strategy:
The negotiations are based on two general approaches:
1) Distributive negotiation
It is the negotiation that tries to divide a fixed amount of resources, a winner-loser situation. Its main characteristic is the condition of addition to zero. That is to say, everything that one obtains is at the expense of the other. The best known example is negotiation of salary.
2) Integrative negotiation
Negotiation that seeks one or more arrangements to find a win-win solution. This negotiation is preferable to the distributive one, because it produces long-term negotiations, integrates the negotiators and allows both to go out of business feeling that they have achieved something. distributive for its part causes one of the parties to lose.
Recommendations for negotiation
1) Demands and concessions
If one party demands a lot and makes few concessions, the other will do the same. If negotiators adopt a rigid position, opponents will do the same. There is a general rule that the opponent equals the negotiator regarding concession frequencies
2. Background
Few organizational negotiations are conducted without a past, a history of the company is always brought to the negotiating table.
3) The experience
As negotiators do more business, they gain more experience. These are better for understanding a concrete negotiation process and for reaching an inclusive agreement. They are less defensive and have learned not to use some words that can irritate the opponent.
Third party negotiations
Sometimes representatives of the group reach a tie and cannot resolve their differences through direct negotiations, in this case they can use third parties to help them find a solution.
There are 4 basic roles:
- Mediator: It is a neutral third party that facilitates the solution in a negotiation resorting to reasoning suggesting alternatives and others. They are highly employed in employee-employer negotiations. Referee: Third in a negotiation, with authority to dictate an agreement. Conciliator: Trusted third party that offers an informal communication link between the negotiator and the opponent. Robert Duval made this role famous in the movie The Godfather. 1.As Don Corleone's adoptive son and lawyer by profession, Duval was an intermediary for Don Corleone and other gangster families. Consultant: An impartial third party skilled in conflict management that attempts to facilitate creative problem solving through communication and analysis, its role is not to resolve conflicts, but to improve relationships between the conflicting parties so that they can reach a solution by themselves.
