GROUP & TEAM DYNAMICS

Conflict management and Negotiation skills

Conflict is basically a disagreement between two or more individuals or groups, with
each individual or group trying to gain acceptance of its own view on others.
Definitions
According to S.P. Robbins, “Conflict is a process in which an effort is purposefully made
by one person or unit to block another that results in frustrating the attainment of the
other’s goals or the furthering of his or her interests.”
Mary Parker Follet defines conflict as, “The appearance of difference, difference of
opinions, of interests.”
Louis R. Pondy defines, “Conflict may be viewed as a breakdown in the standard
mechanism of decision making.”
On the basic of the above descriptions it may be said that conflict is not confined at the
individual level alone but is manifesting itself more and more in organisations.
Employees have become vociferous in their demands for a better deal. Various
departments in an organisation face a situation full of conflicts on account of a number
of reasons like goal diversity, task interdependence etc.
Causes of Conflict: We can categorise the causes of conflict into one of the following
three categories.
1. Communicational Aspect of Conflict: Poor communication can also have a powerful
effect in causing conflict. Any misunderstanding or partial information during the
communication process is another factor supporting it. Due to the improper sending
and receiving of the information conflicts situation. The filtering of information is also
said to be playing its role at various levels of the organisation structure. Amount of
information is functional upto a point, beyond which it becomes a source of conflict.
Semantic difficulties arise due to differences in background, training, selective
perception and incomplete or inadequate information regarding others. In respect of
completion of any job in absence of the senior or supervisor it is essential that proper
information in a correct and understandable form must be disseminated.
2. Behavioural Aspect of Conflict: These types of conflicts arise because of human
thoughts, feelings, attitudes, emotions, values, perceptions and reflect basic traits of a
personality. So perceptions of certain people any arise conflicts among others. On the
other hand individuals who are of low self-esteem may feel threatened by others in
simple matters and over-react causing a conflict. Conflicts in the modern society are
mostly behavior oriented. They induce unrealised expectations and complexity of social
and organisation system. Conflict may also arise due to differing views regarding any
issue or cause which is requiring participation. Under privileged and the one having
unrealised expectations also cause conflicting situation. From organisational behaviour
point of view, there is a conflict between the goals of the formal organisation and
psychological growth of the individual.
Conflict among Employees
A manager often has to deal with disagreements among his employees. When
disagreements occur, strong feelings are aroused, objectivity goes for a toss, egos are
threatened and personal relationships are soured. The manager has to unleash the
individuality of his subordinates in order to tap their full potential for getting novel and
creative solutions to problems as well as develop a harmonious, smooth working team
to carry out the organisation’s activities.
It is very important that the manager understands the disagreements among his
employees and learns to deal with them effectively. A manager’s ability to deal
effectively with disagreements depends on:
 His/Her ability to diagnose and to understand disagreements
 His/Her awareness of, and ability to select appropriately from a variety of
behaviours and actions
 His/Her awareness of, and ability to deal with, his/her own feelings particularly
the feelings which reduces his/her diagnostic insight and ability to act
appropriately.
When dealing with disagreements among employees, a manager needs to keep in mind
the following two characteristics of disagreements:
 Disagreements among people should not be regarded as inherently good or bad.
Sometimes disagreements can result in important benefits to the organisations
but sometimes they are disruptive.
 There is no right way to deal with disagreements. However, a manager who
represses disagreements or emphasizes consistently is not an effective manager as
all problems have different solutions. An effective manager uses a variety of
approaches to disagreements and chooses a specific approach on the basis of an
insightful diagnosis of the disagreement.
Diagnosis of Disagreements
When employees are involved in a heated disagreement, they do not proceed in a
systematic manner to resolve the disagreement. The issues often remain unclear to
them and they talk unnecessarily without looking into the base of the problem. In such a
situation, the manager needs to check the three important criteria to solve the issue.
 Nature of Disagreements
Disagreements occur when employees have different or contrasting opinions and
perspectives and do not accept/respect each other’s points of view.
Disagreements also occur when subordinates are unable to take decisions on what
should be accomplished or how the objectives could be reached.
Sometimes disagreements take place over values, ethics, behaviours, assumptions
about justice and so on. Such disagreements may affect the choice of either goals
or methods of accomplishments.
The manager needs to discover the source of the disagreement because there are
certain steps which are appropriate when disagreements are about facts, goals or
values.

 Underlying factors
Once the manager understands what the disagreements is about, he/she has to
find out why the difference exists.
i) Informational factors exert their influence when various points of view
develop on the basis of different sets of facts.
ii) Perceptual factors exert their influence when each employee interprets the
information in different manners. Each employee brings a different set of
life experiences to the information which makes him/her view the
information through a highly personal kind of filter creating distinctive
perceptual images in the minds of different employees.
iii) Role factors exert their influence because each employee occupies a certain
position and status in society or the company.

 Stage of the disagreement

It is also essential to check if the disagreement has reached a very serious stage or
is at the initial stage of arguments.