Managing Conflict in Negotiations

1
Managing Conflict in Negotiations

• Bargaining, Conflict and Negotiations in
  Organizational Settings

2
Conflict Defined

• its pervasive, its inevitable, and its a
  process, not a product
• Lulofs conflict occurs in situations in which
  (1) the people are interdependent, (2) they seek
  different outcomes or they favor different means
  to the same ends and/or (3) the people perceive
  the other is interfering with their pursuit of
  scarce rewards or resources.

3
Overview of Conflict in Organizations

• The cultural naturalness of conflict
• Legal system
• Labor negotiations
• Political system
• The pervasiveness of conflict--20 of a managers
  time
• Connection to management theories

4
Benefits of Organizational Conflict

• Defuse potentially larger conflicts
• Forces us to acquire new information
• Inter-group conflict promotes intra-group
  cohesiveness
• Provides a opportunity to measure power,
  strength, or ability

5
Disadvantages of Organizational Conflict

• Leads to avoidance behavior
• Leads to withholding of information
• Threatens individuals
• Causes cynicism and reduced communication

6
Tannens View of Organizational Conflict

• Ritual Fighting
• Ritual Fighting as a function of organizational
  culture
• Gender differences

7
Kilmann Thomas Conflict Model

• Xcooperativenss, Yassertiveness
• Avoidance (low coop, low assertiveness)
• denial, underresponsiveness, shifting, semantic
  focus, postponement,
• Advantage--takes out the heat of the moment
• Disadvantage--conflict remains unresolved, may
  lead to larger outbreak

8
Kilmann-Thomas Model, cont.

• Competition (low coop, high assertiveness)
• presumptive attribution, prescription
• Advantages--increased creativity and enthusiasm
• Disadvantages--violence, driving opponent
  underground

9
Kilmann Thomas, cont.

• Compromise (moderate X and Y)
• Advantages--often actually resolves the conflict
• Disadvantage--may actually be bad policy or
  decision by not staying true to either set of
  goals

10
Kilmann Thomas cont.

• Accommodation (High coop, Low assert.)
• appeasement, smoothing over
• Advantage--often quickly leads to solution
• Disadvantage-- may, in the long run, be
  detrimental, denies the legitimacy of the claims
  of one of the participants

11
Kilmann Thomas, cont.

• Collaboration (High coop, High assert.)
• High levels of commitment and empathy are
  necessary
• use description, qualification, accept
  responsibility, initiating problem solving
• Advantage--truly worthy of humans
• Disadvantage--difficult and many are not trained
  to do it very well

12
A Four Phase Model of Conflict Resolution

• Introduction--brief statement reviewing
  procedures for conflict resolution
• Explanation--each party discusses the source of
  the difficulty
• Clarifying--develop a better understanding of all
  relevant issues (positions versus interests)
• Problem Solving--brainstorms solutions, eliminate
  solutions, settle on a final solution

13
A Glossary of Negotiation Terms

• Negotiation--Back and forth communication
  designed to reach an agreement when you and the
  other side have some interests that are shared
  and others that are opposed
• Bargaining---trading of assets among parties to
  solve problems
• Mediation-- a neutral 3rd party is introduced to
  work with two parties
• Arbitration--like mediation, except that the
  third party has the authority to impose a binding
  decision

14
Bargaining at a glance

• Distributive bargaining(Win-lose)
• Integrative bargaining
• (Win-win)

15
Bargaining Strategies

• Force the opposition to open the bidding
• Frequent concessions
• Reciprocity for good faith
• Look for win-win solutions
• expand the pie
• joint brainstorming
• try bridging