Leadership & change management, lecture 8, by rahat kazmi

LEADERSHIP AND CHANGE
MANAGEMENT
- MANAGING CONFLICT
- CAUSES OF CONFLICT
- STRATEGIES FOR MANAGING CONFLICT

CHANGE TECHNIQUES
LECTURE 8
BY
RA HAT KAZMI PREPARED BY: RAHAT KAZMI

SEPTEMBER 2010

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Objectives

 Nature of Conflict

 Responding to Conflict

 Handling Grievances

 Emotional Stress


Nature of Conflict





Conflict
 Conflict is a form of relating or
interacting where we find ourselves
(either as individuals or groups) under
some sort of perceived threat to our
personal or collective goals.
 These goals are usually to do with our
interpersonal wants. These perceived
threats may be either real or imagined
(Condliffe, 1991, p3).


Conflict

 Sources of Conflict
(Bisno)

Project Sources of


Conflict
(Thamhain & Wilemon)


Conflict
(Bisno)

Biosocial


Personality and interactional

Structural

Cultural and ideological

Convergence


Bisno’s Sources of Conflict
(Condliffe, 1991, p6)

Conflict


Source of Conflict
(Bisno)

Biosocial


Personality and interactional

Structural

Cultural and ideological

Convergence

 Project Sources of Conflict
(Thamhain & Wilemon)


Project schedules
Project priorities

Workforce


Conflict

(Nicholas, 2001, p519)


Conflict

 Components of
Conflict


Components of Conflict



 Interests: things that motivate eg. managers and workers have different interests



 Emotional: feelings that accompany human interactions eg. anger, fear, reject, and loss


Dealing with Conflict

When you have to deal with conflict
tackle the emotional issues first
then address values and interests

Emotional: feelings that accompany human interactions eg. anger, fear, reject, and loss
Interests: things that motivate eg. managers and workers have different interests
Values: ideas and feelings about right and wrong (difficult to resolve)


Consequences of Conflict


Conflict

 Good Consequences of
Conflict


Increased Creativity

 increased creativity

Conflict

 It forces people to clarify their views


Conflict

 It can produce constructive
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Conflict
It gives people the
opportunity to test their
capacities


Conflict
development of group and organization
cohesion


Conflict

 Bad Consequences of
Conflict


Conflict

Violence


breakdown of relationships Conflict


Conflict

polarization of views into static positions

Conflict

A breakdown of
collaborative ventures


Conflict

destruction of
communication


Conflict
Groupthink


Conflict
Groupthink

Groupthink is a tendency for strong conformity pressures
within groups to lead to the breakdown of critical thinking and
encourage premature acceptance of questionable decisions


Conflict

 Lack of conflict is a sign of over conformity.


Conflict

 It is unhealthy when there is no conflict


Conflict

You need
diversity of
opinion


Conflict


Conflict

Conflict Handling Styles
Avoiding
Compromise
Competition
Accommodation
Collaboration


Conflict

Which conflict handling style
will you use?

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Conflict
will you use?

Project Managers may have a preferred style
for managing conflict


Conflict
will you use?

Project Managers may have a preferred style
for managing conflict

 You should use different styles depending on
the problem – and get there by using your
ability to read situation


Conflict
avoiding

compromise

competition

accommodation

collaboration


Avoiding
Conflict

 Characteristics
When to use
• ignoring conflicts and hoping they’ll go
• Trivial, small/unimportant issue
away
• no perceived chance of
• putting problems under consideration
resolution
or on hold
• To allow a cool down period
• use of secrecy to avoid confrontation
• To allow others to resolve the
• appeal to bureaucratic rules
situation

Compromise
Conflict

Characteristics When to use
• negotiation • goals are important, but not worth effort
• looking for deals and • opponents with equal power are committed
trade-offs to mutually exclusive goals
• finding satisfactory or • achieve temporary settlements to issues
acceptable solutions • arrive at solutions under time pressure
• back-up to collaboration or competition

Conflict Competition

 Characteristics When to use
• create win-lose situations • quick, decisive action is vital, very
• use of power plays important
• forcing submission • unpopular actions eg. cost cutting
• issues are vital to company welfare
• against people who take advantage of non-
competitive behavior

Conflict Accommodation

• giving way • find you are wrong
• submission and • issues more important to others than yourself
fulfillment • maintain cooperation
• build social credits for later on
• minimize loss
• harmony and stability are important
• allow team members to learn from their mistakes

Conflict Collaboration

• problem-solving carriage • find an integrative solution when
• tackle differences both sets of concerns are
• sharing ideas and information important
• seeing problems and conflicts as • objective is to learn
challenges

2 Methods for Resolving Conflict in a team


• Role Clarification Technique Conflict
• Intergroup Conflict Resolution


Conflict
Role Clarification Technique
This is a systematic procedure which involves all team members

understanding the requirements of their of own and everyone else's
position, duties and expectations

You’ll need to clarify roles for team and individuals; for example via
questionnaires (or for project teams - RAM matrices!)


Conflict
 Intergroup Conflict Resolution

 Each group should prepare list of what they would like the other groups to
start doing, stop doing, and continue to do.

This list narrows he scope of the dispute and makes it easier to work on the
core problems.


Grievance

 What is a Grievance?


Grievance

A grievance is any behaviour or action of
another member or members of a team, which
has or is likely to have an unreasonable negative
impact on the ability of a team member to
undertake their duties


Grievance
 Most grievances are never raised with management

Why?



Grievance Lack of trust
Our complaints
are trivialized

No action
gets taken! They only take
defensive
action


Grievance
 What you should do?


Grievance

 Listen

Discuss

 Plan


Grievance






Stress

 Stress


Stress

 What is Stress?

 A pattern of emotional states and physiological reactions occurring in
situations where individuals perceive threats to their important goals that they
feel unable to meet

 (Greenberg & Baron, 1993, p257).


Stress


Stress
 Effects of Stress

Physical illness


 Lack of sleep

 Reduction in task performance

 Poor quality decision making


Causes of Stress

Long hours
Tight schedules
Transient work force
High risks
Work overload
Role uncertainty
Social relations

A Stress Survey

 How many of these for you
in the last year?


(Greenberg & Baron, 1993, p238)

Stress Management

1. Organizational Level

2. Individual Level


Stress Management at
the Organizational Level
 setting reasonable work plans and
schedules

 delegating responsibility and
increasing independence

clarifying responsibilities,


authority, and performance criteria

 clarifying goals, procedures, and
decision criteria

 giving consideration and support
in leadership

Stress Management


for the Individual

 stress management program

 relaxation training

 diversions from work-related
problems


Review

1. Conflict is the opposition of people or forces that develops
into an aggressive state or action.
2. Sources of IT project conflict includes; schedules, priorities
and workforce issues.
3. Conflict can be good and bad.
4. Conflict handling styles include; avoiding, compromise,
competition, accommodation, and collaboration.
5. Grievance handling strategies include; listen, discuss, and
plan. Not dealing with grievances can be harmful to
projects.
6. Work environment improvements and reducing stress is
essential to a team’s health and the success of the project.

References

Condliffe, P. (1991). Conflict management – A practical guide. Collingwood, Vic.: RMIT.
Greenberg, J. & Baron, R. (1993). Behavior in organizations (4th ed.). Syd., NSW: Allyn
and Bacon.
Nicholas, J. (2001). Project management for business technology – Principles and practice
(2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.


Contact Us

Soft Skills Experts
138 Wandsworth Bridge Road
Fulham
London SW6 2UL
United Kingdom

Tel: +44 772 822 9192
Email: rahat@SoftSkillsExperts.com


Leadership & change management, lecture 8, by rahat kazmi

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