Causes Of Interpersonal Conflict

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Interpersonal conflict: the process that occurs when one person, group or org subunit frustrates the goal attainment of another.
Causes of organizational conflict:
Group identification and intergroup bias: personal characteristics, job level, job function
Interdependence: indiv or subunits are mutually dependent on each other to accomplish their own goals, the potential for conflict exists.
Differences in power, status and culture
Status: when people of lower status are dependent on those of higher status.
Ambiguity: in goals, performance criteria
Scarce resources
Types of conflict
Relationship conflict: interpersonal tensions among indiv that have to do with their relationship per se, not the task at hand. (personality clashes)
Task conflict: disagreements about the nature of the work to be done
Process conflict: disagreements about how work should be organized and accomplished
Modes of managing conflict
Avoiding: characterized by low assertiveness of one's own interests and low cooperation with the other party
Accommodating: when one cooperates with the other party while no asserting one's own interests
Competing: maximizes assertiveness and minimizes cooperation
Comprise: combines intermediate levels of assertiveness and cooperation
Collaborating: maximizes both assertiveness and cooperation
Negotiation: a decision making process among interdependent parties who do not share identical preferences to reach a satisfactory exchange
Distributive negotiation: win-lose negotiation in which a fixed amount of assets is divided between parties. Tactics:
Threats and promises:
Firmness vs. concessions
Persuasion: verbal attempt to change the attitude of the other party or debate
Integrative negotiation: win-win that assumes that mutual problem solving can enlarge the assets to be divided between parties. Tactics:
Copious information exchange:
Farming differences as opportunities
Cutting costs
Increasing resources
Introducing superordinate goals: attractive outcomes that can be achieved only by collaboration
Third party involvement: for negotiation
Mediation: occurs when a neutral third party helps to facilitate a negotiated agreement. Helps in clarifying underlying interests. might have to intervene in the content of the negotiation, highlighting points of agreement, pointing out new options or encouraging concessions
Arbitration: when a third party is given the authority to dictate the terms of settlement of a conflict. Conventional arbitration: can choose any outcomes such as splitting the difference between the 2 parties. Offer arbitration: each party makes a final offer, and arbitrator chooses one of them. Ex) dismissal for excessive absenteeism
Conflict stimulation: a strategy of increasing conflict to motivate change
Stressors: environmental events or conditions that have the potential to induce stress ex) extreme heat or cold, isolation.
Stress: a psychological reaction to the demands inherent in stressors that has the potential to make a person feel tense or anxious.
Stress reactions: the behavioural, psychological, and physiological consequences of stress.
Personality and stress
Locus of control: a set of beliefs about whether one's behaviour is controlled manly by internal or external forces. Internal believe they control their own behaviours and confront stressors directly. External believe it's controlled by fate or luck and more prone to simple anxiety-reduction strategies the only work in the short run.
Type A behaviour pattern: a personality pattern includes aggressiveness, ambitiousness, competitiveness, hostility, impatience and a sense of time urgency
Negative affectivity: propensity to view the world, including oneself and other people in a negative light. Factors: -predisposition to perceive stressors in the workplace –hypersensitivity to existing