Is conflict a bad thing?
No
Define ‘conflict resolution’
An approach to conflict that usually involves the reduction or elimination of conflict
Define ‘conflict management’
An approach to conflict that may involve reduction or eliminaytion of, or an increase in, conflict
What causes conflict?
- Scarce resources (two parties want the same thing)
- Adversity (economic hardschip can cause stress)
- Faulty communication (someone may misinterpret a remark, taking it as an insult)
- Perceived differences (people perceive people from differeny races, religions, class etc as ‘the other people’ and as being threats as well as potential allies
- Biology (may be part of biological makeup)
What are some approaches to conflict?
- avoidance or inaction (do nothing, adopt a wait and see attitude)
- withdrawal
- domination (one individual abusing another, bullying, war)
- capitulation (giving in to the other side)
- unilateral power play (involves physical violence)
- referral up the chain of command (let the bosses, senior officers or parents take care of it)
- negociation (two parties sit down and try tp reach agreement, usually by seeking common ground abd trading consessions)
- mediation (a third party is brought in to hlp disputing parties)
- arbitration (a third party is brought in tow help and has some power to compel a decision)
- other (ombudsman, private judge, expert evaluation)
- litigation (courtroom, with judge having substantial power to compel decisions with or without jury)
What the five conflict handling styles?
- Competing
- Collaborating
- Compromising
- Avoiding
- Accommodating
Define ‘conflict spiral’
A fairly predictable development sequence of conflict events and perceptions
- avoidance -> prolem solving
Define ‘critical incident’
An event that is, or is perceived to be, significant in the escalation of a conflict
Define ‘selecting perception’
Distorting or filtering reality so that conflict is polarised
Explain the ‘conflict spiral’ (see p. 451 for picture)
- toleration
- covert resisitance
- overt resistance (move not only from covert to overt zone but also from passivity to action)
- critical incidents
- selective perception
- enlisting the support of others
- issue linkage
- ritual or hot button words
- threats
- action (deliberate action e.g. sitting down at a negociation table or going to court)
- provocation (pushing, jossling, vandalism)
- retaliation (tit-for-tat exchange)
- violence
Define ‘issue linkage’
Linking issues that may or may not be connected, to strenghten a case
Define ‘building a case’
Developping an argument in a valid or invalid way to acheive persuasion
Define ‘hot button words’
Words that are changed with particular emotion, value or prejudice that may trigger off rapid, unthinking responses on one or both sides
Define ‘provocation’
Deliberately teasing or needling someone, sometimes with a view to evoking a physically violent response
Define ‘retalliation’
Reciprocal action in a conflict, where a real or perceivwed offence by one side is matched or surpassed by a real offence by the other side
Define ‘vertical conflict’
Conflict that occurs in organisations between people at different hierarchical levels
Define ‘horizontal conflict’
Conflict that occurs in organisations between people at the same hierarchical level
Define ‘staff-line conflict’
Conflict that occurs in organisations between people doing frontline and backup tasks
Define ‘role conflict’
Conflict that occurs in organisations when there are misunderstandings about what duties and behaviour are expected from persns
Define ‘resource scarcity’
Conflict that occurs in organisations when resources are, or are perceived to be, scare
Define ‘workflow interdependence’
Conflict that occurs in organisations when the output of one section is the input of another, and mismatches occur
Define ‘power/value asymmetry’
Conflict that occurs in organisations between people with differing values and/or status
Define ‘goal incompatibility’
Conflict that occurs in organisations when the specific goals of different sections to not match
How can conflict be managed?
- Negociation
- Interpersonal skills
- Understanding cultural and gender differences
- work in groups (can help manage conflict in a healthy way)
- Get both sides of the story
- set superordinate goals (a goal that can be worked towards by all parties to a conflict)
- tit-for-tat (use for positive, not negative e.g. return a smile or kind gesture/words)
- De-escalate the situation by openning up communication, replace person causing conflict etc
- apologise
- forgive, praise, sacrifice, compromise (split the difference)
- decoupling and buffering (physically separating the warring factions so the conflict can be minimised or eliminated
- formal authority, mediation
- planning (Gannt chartys, project/management tools)
- match the scale of the solution to the nature of the situation
