Organizational Behaviour

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Chapter 8Conflict and Negotiation

• Cobra Cars

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Conflict

• Conflict is a process that begins when one party
  perceives that another party has negatively
  affected or will negatively affect something the
  first party cares about
• Of course conflicts vary in size and shape
• Minor disagreements on the layout of reports or
  document templates
• Disagreements on ownership of a particular
  responsibility or problem
• Inter-company conflict over a scarce market share
• Wars are conflict over political power and
  resources on a cultural, social or national level

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What are some sources of conflict?

• Conflict can be caused by just about anything,
  but can be grouped generally into 3 categories
• Structural as related to jobs
• Diversity of goals, reliance on participation and
  ambiguity across departments can cause
  interdepartmental conflict
• Personal Variables.
• Individuals have different value systems and
  personality characteristics resulting in conflict
  over facts or objects
• Communication
• As we saw in Chapter 6, its any wonder that as
  human beings we can actually get any thought
  across from one to another without causing
  conflict

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Evaluating Conflict

• Intentions a conflict can be caused by one
  partys interpretation of another partys
  intention
• Conflict can be positive or negative.
• Positive conflict supports group performance and
  is used for the general evaluation of decisions
  at the workplace
• Conflict can also be positive in that it reduces
  group-think. Interestingly, in hiring decisions,
  executives will often hire like personalities to
  themselves, thinking to reduce conflict, but also
  maybe reducing the richness of their decision
  making
• Negative conflict usually is interpersonal and
  does nothing to further the action for a project.
  It reduces group cohesiveness and slows decision
  making

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Managing Team Conflict

• As we have seen conflict over the tasks or the
  project enrich the decision making around the
  tasks and projects
• We can reduce intragroup conflict by
• Sharing more info so the facts can be debated
• Developing multiple alternatives
• Sharing commonly agreed on goals
• Injecting humour into the discussion
• Maintaining a balanced power structure
• Resolving issues without forcing consensus
• Exercise p 321, Not Your Dream Team. Answer
  questions 1, 2, 3

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Negotiation

• Negotiation a course of resolution for a
  conflict. It is a process in which two parties
  who offer goods and services try to agree upon
  the exchange rate between them
• Within negotiations, individuals have Issues,
  Positions and Interests
• Issues are items placed on the bargaining table
  for discussion (The NHL needs to control its
  costs to survive long-term)
• Positions are the individuals stand on the issue
  (Cost certainty must be present for the NHL to
  survive). Positions are the WHAT you want.
• Interests are the underlying concerns that are
  affected by the negotiation resolution.
  Interests are the WHY you want. (If cost
  certainty is not attained, the NHL may collapse
  in a few years)

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Types of Bargaining

• Distributive Bargaining operates under a
  zero-sum condition (any gain one side makes comes
  at the expense of the other)
• Each party treats the other as an opponent and as
  a result, when one party loses, there is
  animosity
• Integrative Bargaining operates under the
  assumption that there exists one or more
  settlements that can result a win-win solution
• Makes working together in the future easier,
  allowing both sides to have victory

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Tactics for Distributive Negotiations

• Softball developing good relations with the
  other side
• asking lots of questions, showing interest and
  desire to learn
• Create and use deadlines and use persuasion
• Hardball use of intimidation, anger, guilt,
  stress, personal attacks and abuse
• A bogey is when the other side is convinced that
  an unimportant item is a huge item, such that
  giving it away seems like a big deal
• Nibble is the process of going after every last
  concession once a deal has been substantially
  made
• Chicken, similar to playing chicken with cars, is
  the process of setting up a huge demand and
  putting a big consequence in place if it is not
  met

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Tactics for Integrative Bargaining

• Log Rolling giving up on an issue if the other
  side gives up on their issue
• Bridging When the bottom lines of each side are
  too far apart to make a potential settlement,
  bridging is the use of a creative innovation to
  bridge the gap
• Packaging aggregating many different objects of
  negotiation to move the negotiations forward

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Positions for Negotiation

• See Exhibit 8-7
• Target Point what you would like to achieve in
  the negotiation
• Resistance Point/Bottom Line the lowest outcome
  that is acceptable, beyond which it is better to
  let negotiations fail
• Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement
  (BATNA)
• Your BATNA is your next best alternative if your
  negotiations fail
• In the case of the NHL, their next best
  alternative might be a number of fall back
  positions (from laying off staff to hiring
  replacement players)

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Positions for Negotiation

• Settlement Range the range of possibilities
  that is between the bottom lines (BL) of both
  sides
• What do you think are the Target, Bottom Line and
  BATNA for the NHL? For the NHLPA?

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Why do we shoot for a win-win?

• Why do we shoot for a win-win solution?
• Clearly a lose-win scenario does not work for us
• Clearly a lose-lose solution does not work for
  anyone
• A win-lose scenario does not work for the other
  side
• A win-win scenario is the only scenario that
  leaves both sides with success
• Provides both sides with a victory
• Both sides save face
• Most importantly Both sides remain interested
  in the deal after it is complete, because it
  makes sense for them

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3rd Party Negotiations

• When negotiations reach a stalemate, a 3rd party
  can help find a solution
• Conciliation using a trusted 3rd party who
  provides an informal communication link between
  the two sides
• Often help by researching, interpreting and
  persuading
• Mediation using a neutral 3rd party who
  facilitates negotiating a solution by using
  reasoning and persuasion, suggesting
  alternatives, etc
• Are more aggressive than conciliators
• Arbitration using a 3rd party with the
  authority to dictate an agreement
• Always results in a decision

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Final Thoughts on Negotiation

• Negotiations require an understanding of culture
• Some cultures are conflict oriented and gain
  recognition through it
• Some cultures see negotiations as a breakdown and
  want it fixed immediately
• Gender affects the negotiation processes
• Women use dialog to achieve understanding
• Men use dialog to persuade
• Negotiation also involves much ettiquette
• Playing hardball can be seen as aggressive
• Asking for the other parties bottom line right at
  the start shows lack of understanding
• Chapter 9