amity global business (bangalore)

1. CONFLICT MANAGEMENT

2. NATURE OF CONFLICT
• Conflict refers to collision or disagreement.
• The conflict may be within an individual when
there is incompatibility between his or her
own goals or events, may be between two
individuals or between two groups in an
organisation.

3. • Chung & Megginson define conflict as the
struggle between incompatible or opposing
needs, wishes, ideas, interests, or people.
• Conflict may be COGNITIVE or AFFECTIVE

4. Cognitive Conflict
• It refers to differences
in perspectives or
judgements about
issues.
• It can air differences of
opinion & develop
better ideas & solutions
to problems.

5. Affective Conflict
• • Affective conflict is
emotional & directed at
other people.
• It is likely to be
destructive because it
can lead to anger,
bitterness, goal
displacement & poor
decisions.

6. Question
• According to you which conflict would be
beneficial to the organisation ?
• ANS…Cognitive

7. Competition & Conflict
• Track events are
examples of
competition since each
runner attempts to run
faster than the others,
but no one is allowed to
trip or interfere with
the other.

8. • On the other hand,
games of football,
hockey & cricket involve
both competition &
conflict because each
team acts directly to
interfere with the
activities of the other.

9. CHANGING VIEWS OF CONFLICT

11. FUNCTIONAL CONFLICT
• Functional conflict refers to confrontation
between two ideas, goals & parties that
improve employees & the organisation’s
performance.
• Well managed conflict helps workers
anticipate & solve problems, feel confident,
strengthen their relationships, & be
committed to the organisation.

12. • Potential benefits of conflict are the following
–
1. Conflict increases awareness of what
problems exist, who is involved, & how to
solve the problem.
2. Conflict motivates organisational members
to consider problems. They are energised &
psychologically focused on the problems &
motivated to put plans into action.

13. 3. Conflict promotes change. Persons are more
aware of injustices, inefficiencies, & frustrations,
& see the need to correct them.
4. Conflict enhances morale.
Organisational members deal with & clear up their
frustrations & resentments. They conclude that
their relationships are strong enough to
withstand stress & to handle difficulties. They
also learn about each others needs, styles &
values through conflict.

14. 5. High quality decisions result when people
express their opposing views & perspectives.
They share their information & check each
other’s reasoning to develop new decisions.

15. 6. Conflict stimulates interest & creativity. Being
in conflict often sparks curiosity & stimulates
viewing problems from several perspectives &
combining the best of these positions to form
a creative solution. Conflict is exciting as
people learn about what makes them &
others angry, frustrated & willing to fight.

16. 7. Conflict provides a forum for all members of
the organisation to be self – critical, & to be
critical of the organisation as a whole.

18. • When the level of conflict is low, such as at
point A on the curve, performance suffers.
• Employees find the environment too
comfortable & they become complacent
(unconcerned).
• On the other hand, when the level of conflict
is extremely high (point C) performance
suffers because of inadequate co-ordination &
co-operation.

19. • The organisation is in a state of chaos
because of disruption & interference in critical
activities.
• Individuals spend more time defending
themselves or attacking others than
accomplishing productive work.

20. • Maximum organisational performance occurs
somewhere between the two extremes,
where there is an optimal level of conflict.
• In this situation, at point B on the curve ,
there is sufficient conflict to stimulate new
ideas & a creative search for solutions to
problems.

21. Conflict

22. PROCESS OF CONFLICT

23. Latent Conflict
• When two or more parties need each other to
achieve desired objectives, there is potential for
conflict.
• Latent conflict often arises when a change
occurs.
• Conflict is likely to be caused by a budget
cutback, a change in organisational direction, a
change in personal goals or the assignment of a
new project to an already overloaded team.

24. Perceived Conflict
• This is the stage at which members become
aware of a problem.
• Incompatibility of needs is perceived &
tension begins as the parties begin to worry
about what will happen.
• But no party feels that it is being overly
threatened.

25. Felt Conflict
• At this stage, parties become emotionally
involved & begin to focus on differences of
opinion & opposing interests – sharpening
perceived conflict.
• Internal tensions & frustrations begin to
crystalise around specific , defined issues, &
people begin to build an emotional
commitment to their position.

26. Manifest conflict
• Parties engage in actions that help achieve own
objectives & thwart <prevent (someone) from
accomplishing something> those of others.
• Conflict behaviours vary from the subtle, indirect
& highly controlled forms of interference to
direct, aggressive, violent & uncontrolled
struggle.
• At the organisational level, strikes are the result.

27. Conflict Outcome
• The conflict finally results in an outcome
which may be functional or dysfunctional.
• If handled well, the result is functional
conflict.
• If mishandled, the consequences is
dysfunctional conflict.

28. • As conflict proceeds through the stages,
resolution becomes more difficult.
• It is usually easier to achieve win – win
outcomes when the conflict is recognised
early before frustration & negative feelings set
in.