COMM 3170: Introduction to Organizational Communication

1
COMM 3170Introduction toOrganizational
Communication

• Summer 2005
• Dan Lair
• d.lair_at_utah.edu

2
Questions from Chapter 10
3
Levels of Conflict

• Intrapersonal e.g., work-home tensions
• Interpersonal e.g., fear of ones supervisor
• Group e.g., coalitions within a committee
• Inter-group e.g., sales vs. production
• Organizational e.g., labor vs. mgmt
• Inter-organizational e.g., pressure on
  suppliers
• Societal e.g., class inequalities and resentment
• International/Global e.g., threats of war or
  economic embargoes

4
Phases of Conflict

• Latent Arising conditions
• Perceived Recognizing the possibility
• Felt Sensing problems
• Manifest Overtly or openly clashing
• Aftermath Dealing with the outcomes

5
ConflictProblematic Perspectives

• Attribution Bias
• Fundamental attribution error
• Actor-observer bias
• False consensus effect
• False uniqueness effect
• Self-serving bias
• Male gender bias

• Accounts for Conflict
• Excuses
• Justifications
• Organizational Responses
• Denial
• Evasion of Responsibility
• Reducing Offensiveness

6
General Sources of Conflict

• Differing understandings of a situation
• Actions of an individual that are or seem
  threatening or disruptive
• Clashes between different roles
• Limited resources (including time and energy)
• Threats or perceived threats to values identities
  or relationships

7
Diagnosing Underlying Conflict Goals CRP (see
Wilmot and Hocking)

• Parties to conflict have three types of
  goals/interests
• Content Interest
• Relational Interest
• Procedural Interest
• Content goals are usually the only goals in the
  open
• The Three Times Rule

8
Chapter 10 Styles of Conflict Management

• Avoidance, denial, or withdrawal
• Accommodation or smoothing over
• Competition, force, or dominance
• Compromise, or meeting half-way
• Collaboration, integration, or problem-solving

9
Negotiating ConflictSpecific Communication
Strategies

• Fractionating
• Reframing
• Language
• Positions as Interests
• Specific Goals into Larger Goals
• Independence as Interdependence
• Complaints as Requests