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Category: Effective Conflict Management Techniques

  • Effective Conflict Management Technique 5

    In the last byte, we looked at how confronting and negotiating could be used as effective mechanisms to resolve conflicts. In today’s byte, we look at the concept of distributive bargaining and integrative negotiating.

    Distributive Bargaining is a negotiating approach in which the goals of the parties are in conflict, and each party seeks to maximize its resources.
     
    Resources are generally limited and each party wants to maximize its share of the resources, and appears as a win-loose approach to negotiations. If a negotiator wants to maximize the value of a single deal and is not worried about good relationship with the other party, distributive bargaining may be an option.
     
    Integrative Negotiation is a negotiation approach that focuses on the merits of the issues and seeks a win-win solution.
     
    This approach focuses on the merits of the issue and attempts to reach a win-win approach. For this attempt to be successful, one has to have faith in one’s own problem-solving ability, a belief in the validity of the other party’s position, mutual trust and clear communication.

  • Effective Conflict Management Technique 4

    In the last byte, we looked how changing the structure of an organization could help reduce conflicts effectively. In today’s byte, we look at how confronting and negotiation help reduce conflicts.

    Some conflicts mandate the use of confrontation and negotiation between parties. Both these strategies need a skillful negotiator and require careful planning when engaging in negotiations. Open discussion is necessary for in these situations and the attempt is to reach towards a mutually beneficial solution.
     
    Negotiation is a joint process of finding a mutually acceptable solution to the conflict under consideration. It has been found to be most useful under the following conditions:
    • There are two or more processes (it is an interpersonal or intergroup process)
    • The conflict is the result of what one party wants is not what the other party wants
    • The parties are willing to negotiate because each believes it can use its influence to obtain a better outcome thanks simply aligning to another parties’ side
    • The parties prefer to work together rather than fight openly, or yield or break off contact etc.

  • Effective Conflict Management Technique 3

    In the last byte, we discussed about some of the effective techniques to resolve conflict. In today’s byte, we look at how changing organization structure could assist in resolving conflict effectively.

    There are many ways to change the structure in an organization and thereby reduce conflict:

    • Use of the integrators’ role:  An integrator is a liaison between groups with very different interests – if this integrator is a neutral third part, it would help disperse even severe conflicts. This is a way of opening dialogue between groups that have difficulty in communicating.
    • Use of Cross functional teams: The traditional method of new product design involved many departments contributing and this created delays due to coordination. The use of cross functional teams reduces delays and by allowing many activities to be performed at the same time instead of sequential execution.
      Also the team approach allows members from different departments to work together and reduce the potential for conflict. Team work helps break the larger tasks into smaller, less complex tasks – this helps reduce conflict, and organizations can potentially improve the performance over the overall team by improving the outcomes in each sub team.

  • Effective Conflict Management Technique 2

    In the last byte, we began our discussion on effective conflict management techniques. Today, we continue the discussion ahead, with a discussion on the following approaches- superordinate goals, expanding resources and changing personnel.

    Superordinate Goals: In an organizational context, noting that the organizational goal to be more important to both the parties involved in conflict – and thereby making the individual or group goals subordinate – is found to be extremely effective.
    Appealing to the superordinate goal – to get the parties to focus on larger issues on which they both agree. This helps them realize their similarities rather than their differences.

    Expanding Resources: Overlooking a conflict, could be an effective conflict resolution technique. Often scarce resources that are for common use lead to conflicts – expanding the resources could reduce conflicts. 

    Changing Personnel: Often we do not dissociate people from the idea/issue and so specific individuals could be a reason the conflict persists. Separating the people from the situation in case one could identify them specifically to an individual could be used to solve the conflict by eliminating the person from the scenario.

  • Effective Conflict Management Technique

    In the last byte, we looked at some ineffective techniques in managing conflicts. In today’s byte, we look at some techniques that have been found to be effective.

    It is not that all techniques to manage conflict are ineffective. There exists some effective conflict management technique and here is a list of few:
    1. Superordinate Goals
    2. Expanding resources
    3. Changing Personnel
    4. Changing Structure
    5. Confronting and Negotiating
    It would be apt to get into this discussion a bit deeper and we shall do it over the next few blogs.