Commerce 2BA3 Organizational Behaviour

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Commerce 2BA3 Organizational Behaviour

• Class 9
• Conflict and Stress
• Dr. Christa Wilkin

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Brain Teasers
Right Right Job I'm Job
MANBOARD R E A D I N G
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Last Class

• People do not always make rational decisions
• Different types of power can lead to higher
  commitment
• Some people may behave for political gains and
  may behave unethically
• THIS CLASS
• Conflict and stress

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Agenda

• Types of conflict
• Managing conflict
• Causes of stress
• Outcomes of stress
• How our personality affects stress levels
• Coping with stress

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CH 13 conflict and stress
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What is Conflict?

• Interpersonal conflict is a process that occurs
  when one person, group, or organizational subunit
  frustrates the goal attainment of another.

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Types of Conflict

• Relationship conflict (the who)
• Interpersonal tensions among individuals that
  have to do with their relationship per se, not
  the task at hand
• E.g., personality clashes
• Task conflict (the what)
• Disagreements about the nature of work to be done
• E.g., this is the answer
• Process conflict (the how)
• Disagreements about how work should be organized
  and accomplished
• E.g., I want to do this part

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Question

• Should we avoid conflict at all costs?

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Approaches to Managing Conflict

• There are five styles for dealing with conflict.
• None of the five styles is inherently superior.
• Each style might have its place given the
  situation in which the conflict episode occurs.

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Avoiding

• A conflict management style characterized by low
  assertiveness of ones own interests and low
  cooperation with the other party.
• It might be a sensible response when
• The issue is trivial.
• Information is lacking.
• People need to cool down.
• The opponent is very powerful and hostile.

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Accommodating

• A conflict management style in which one
  cooperates with the other party, while not
  asserting ones own interests.
• It can be an effective strategy when
• You are wrong.
• The issue is more important to the other party.
• You want to build good will.

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Competing

• A conflict management style that maximizes
  assertiveness and minimizes cooperation.
• It can be effective when
• You have a lot of power.
• You are sure of your facts.
• The situation is truly win-lose.
• You will not have to interact with the other
  party in the future.

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Compromise

• A conflict management style that combines
  intermediate levels of assertiveness and
  cooperation.
• It is a sensible reaction to conflict stemming
  from scarce resources and it is a good fall-back
  position if other strategies fail.

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Collaborating

• A conflict management style that maximizes both
  assertiveness and cooperation.
• It is an attempt to secure an integrative
  agreement that fully satisfies the interests of
  both parties (a win-win resolution).
• It works best when the conflict is not intense
  and when each party has information that is
  useful to the other.

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How to Manage Conflict

• Too much is bad, too little is also bad, some is
  ok
• Emphasize common goals
• e.g., project, organization
• Reduce differentiation
• The more team members think they have common
  experiences or backgrounds, more motivated to
  resolve conflict
• Create common experiences (e.g., socialize)

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How to Manage Conflict

• Improve communication and understanding
• Caveat People from different cultures may vary
  in their preference of direct communication
• Clarify rules and procedures (ambiguous)
• Show ultimate frisbee video

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Questions?
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Individual Exercise

• How do you cope with stress? Lets find out.
• For each of the 20 statements, indicate the
  extent to which each statement describes you.
  Once you have completed all 20 questions, follow
  the scoring instructions provided. First, you
  must add up the numbers you circled for the four
  questions that make up each of the five scales.
  Second, you then add the scores from all five
  scales to give you an overall total score that
  can range from 20 to 100.

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Stress

• An adaptive response to a situation that is
  perceived as challenging or threatening

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The Myth of Stress

• Video clip

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What causes stress? (Stressors)
Stress
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Organizational Stressors

• Work overload
• Too much work (paid, overtime, unpaid overtime)
• Role conflict
• When fulfilling the requirements of one role
  interferes with the fulfillment of another role
  requirement
• Inter-role two different roles conflict
• Intra-role conflicting instructions on what to
  do (one role)
• Person-role expectations conflict with values
• Role ambiguity
• Uncertainty about job duties, performance
  expectations, level or source of authority, etc.

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Quiz Question

• Dereks supervisor asks him to work late into the
  evening on a report that is due next week but he
  is supposed to pick up the kids from daycare. We
  can be sure that Derek
• A) is experiencing burnout.
• B) is experiencing role ambiguity.
• C) is a Type A personality.
• D) is experiencing intra-role conflict.
• E) is experiencing inter-role conflict.

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Organizational Stressors

• Psychological Environment Stressors
• Organizational injustice, interpersonal conflict
• Psychological contract
• Job insecurity
• Organizational change
• Physical Environment Stressors
• Excessive noise
• Poor lighting
• Safety hazards

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Work Non-work Stressors

• Time conflict
• Time required for non-work activities interferes
  with work
• E.g., family responsibilities (e.g., caring for
  sick parents), volunteer work etc.
• Strain conflict
• Stress from one domain spills into other
• Relationships, finances, new responsibilities,
  etc.
• Attitudes can be transmitted to other people

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Outcomes of Stress?
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Outcomes of Stress

• Psychological reactions
• Physiological reactions
• High blood pressure, sweatiness, heart
  palpitations, dizziness, more cortisone, etc.
• Behavioural reactions
• Attempts to cope (e.g., shopping, exercise)
• Videos of Office Stress

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Burnout

• Emotional exhaustion
• Lack of energy, difficulty emoting
• Compassion fatigue no longer able to empathize
• Cynicism / depersonalization
• Indifferent attitude to work
• Treating individuals as objects / callousness
• Strict adherence to rules and regulations
• Reduced professional accomplishment
• Lower self-efficacy
• No longer see value of extra effort

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Organizational Outcomes

• Too much stress can lead to
• Job dissatisfaction
• Occupational injuries and illnesses
• Decision-making, cognitive abilities, task
  performance
• Absenteeism, turnover

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Question

• Are certain types of people more stressed out
  than others?

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Personality

• Personality can affect both the extent to which
  potential stressors are perceived as stressful
  and the types of stress reactions that occur.

Personality
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Locus of Control

• Peoples beliefs about the factors that control
  their behaviour
• Externals are more likely to feel anxious in the
  face of potential stressors
• E.g., The world is against me
• Internals are more likely to confront stressors
  directly
• E.g., I can get through this

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Type A Behaviour Pattern

• A personality pattern that includes
  aggressiveness, ambitiousness, competitiveness,
  hostility, impatience, and a sense of time
  urgency.
• Type A cant relax, constantly busy, impatient
• Type B easy-going, patient, relaxed
• Question Which personality type are you? Are you
  one or the other?

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Negative and Positive Affectivity

• Negative The propensity to view the world,
  including oneself and other people, in a light
• E.g., pessimistic, moody
• Positive View world in a light
• E.g., happy go lucky, always smiling, optimistic
• People high in NA report more stressors in the
  work environment and feel more subjective stress

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Reducing or Coping with Stress

• Some of the things that organizations can do to
  reduce workplace stress and assist employees in
  coping with stress include
• Job redesign
• Social support
• Family-friendly human resource policies
• Stress management programs
• Work-life balance programs

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Job Redesign

• Organizations can redesign jobs to reduce their
  stressful characteristics.
• Most formal job redesign efforts involve
  enriching operative-level jobs to make them more
  stimulating and challenging.
• There is growing evidence that providing more
  autonomy in how service is delivered can
  alleviate stress and burnout.

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Social Support

• Social support refers to having close ties with
  other people.
• A social network acts as a buffer against stress.
• The buffering aspects of social support are most
  potent when they are directly connected to the
  source of stress.
• Coworkers and superiors are the best sources of
  support for dealing with work-related stress.

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Family Friendly Human Resource Policies

• Family friendly human resource policies include
  some combination of formalized social support,
  material support, and increased flexibility to
  adapt to employee needs.
• A common form of material support is corporate
  daycare centres.
• Flexibility is also important and includes
  flex-time, telecommuting, job sharing, and family
  leave policies.

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Stress Management Programs

• Programs designed to help employees manage
  work-related stress.
• Stress management programs involve techniques
  such as meditation, training in time management,
  and biofeedback training.
• They can be useful in reducing physiological
  arousal, sleep disturbances, and self-reported
  tension and anxiety.

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Work-Life Balance Programs

• Work-life balance programs encourage employees to
  participate in activities to improve their mental
  and physical health.
• Work-life balance programs include fitness
  facilities and memberships, employee assistance
  programs, and health food programs.
• Work-life programs are believed to lower
  health-care costs due in part to stress reduction.

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Wellness Programs Research

• My study on wellness programs
• Findings suggest that after one year health promo
  initiatives decrease return on assets (ROA),
  while work-life balance initiatives increase ROA.
  However, both effects become non-significant
  after three years.

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Group Exercise

• Form groups of 5 to 6 people. Share your results
  within your group from your stress test. Talk
  about potential stressors and outcomes of your
  stress. Talk about effective ways to deal with
  stress.
• Pick a spokesperson to summarize your results
• I will randomly call on a few groups to present

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Summary

• There are different styles to managing conflict
  but no style is inherently superior (contextual)
• Stress isnt necessarily a bad thing but it
  depends on how we cope with it

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For Next Class

• Read Chapter 14 on organizational structure
• Hand in group assignment at the beginning of class