Unit 1: Introduction to Conflict Management and Negotiation
This unit focuses on an introduction to conflict management and negotiation, what it is, why it is important, and how you can utilize these skills in the workplace and your personal life. These are important work skills to develop, and those with great negotiation skills are highly sought after. This unit will help you to answer the following questions and more. What does negotiation look like? What's your personal conflict style? How can you use this to assist in a negotiation? Why do you need to think about the other side's wants and needs? How can that help me in a negotiation?
Completing this unit should take you approximately 5 hours.
Upon successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- compare the different types of negotiation;
- evaluate why it is important to determine needs;
- examine the costs and benefits of managing conflict; and
- differentiate between the different types of conflict.
1.1: Conflict Management
Conflict management means managing yourself and others in conflict efficiently and fairly. Conflict may occur between you and a co-worker, an employee, another manager, or even between you and a vendor. As a manager, you may see conflict within your team, between departments, managers, or with outside vendors, which you may need to deal with daily. When you understand why conflict occurs, you can assess how to handle conflict on your own team, which will help you become a more effective manager.
This video gives a great overview of the topic with a detailed perspective of what we will discover in this course by explaining conflict in the workplace. When conflict is not dealt with when it occurs, it may become a bigger issue that goes beyond your department or even your company. You can stop issues from escalating by addressing these issues early on and confronting conflict when it occurs. For example, when a manager refuses to deal with conflict between two employees, the issue may develop into open arguing or even yelling. The issue may be forwarded to human resources because it interferes with workplace cohesion. At this point, the issue may be out of the managers' hands. At some point in the resolution process, the managers' skills may be analyzed for not controlling the situation sooner.
Conflict management is an important skill for any manager in business today. As the short reading for this introduction will show, managers spend approximately 20% of their time handling conflict management. This is important to consider as you manage your team and try to accomplish your department and company goals. The more efficient you can be with your time and your team members' time will depend on how successful your team is. Before we get into the types of conflict that can arise, let's discuss the conflict at General Concrete because one employee picketed the company after being laid off. All employees refused to cross the picket line. As a result, business was halted for several weeks. This example shows us how important it is to resolve conflict efficiently and fairly. Conflict can be costly for organizations, and having managers who can assist in that process is needed.
1.2: Costs and Benefits of Conflict
There are numerous benefits to conflict. As a manager, conflict allows you to discover the motives of the people on your team. By avoiding conflict, you may miss an opportunity to make your team stronger. By addressing and embracing conflict, you may strengthen your team and improve communication between team members. Being open to conflict may help your employees to be more flexible and help them to listen to each other more often. This is a good skill for you, your team, and your organization.
Conflict is not always negative. By calmly listening to the opposition, you may be able to uncover ideas that will work for both sides of an argument. It may feel uncomfortable to confront conflict, but the benefits may outweigh those feelings. This video discusses the benefits of conflict.It can be negative when a manager avoids conflict. They may be av oiding it because they feel uncomfortable, but the costs of this type of action can be high. Employees may not work well together: they may openly argue, make the workplace confrontational, or simply leave to avoid stress. To better your understanding, answer the three questions in the managerial leadership box as you think about the type of manager you are.
1.3: How Conflict Advances the Workplace
Conflict can help advance the workplace and can be both negative and positive. Positive conflict can help to advance your department, make you a better leader, and allow for respect from those you supervise. Negative conflict can sour relations with employees, increase anger in the department, and employees may leave because they don't wish to be part of the angry conversation. This section includes information on great leaders and what happens when conflict is not resolved in the workplace.
As we discovered in the last section, healthy conflict is good for the workplace, your employees, and it can help to advance your organization. By openly expressing ideas, what works and what does not work, your employees may work together in a more efficient manner. This video demonstrates how to have constructive conflict.
1.4: Type and Levels of Conflict
Conflict can occur in any setting: at work, at home, while driving, or with friends. Most of the time, conflict cannot be avoided and must be dealt with so everyone can move forward. This section will cover the different types and levels of conflict.
There are many types of conflict. We may have interpersonal conflicts with family members or friends, but in this course, we are addressing workplace conflict. Many of the skills you learn in this course may help you in your relationships, but the purpose of this course is to utilize these skills in the workplace. The types of conflict we will address in this section are goal, cognitive, affective, and behavioral. There are other types of conflict, but most fall into one of these four categories.
The levels of conflict are another important aspect to consider when analyzing a conflict. The levels include intrapersonal conflict, interpersonal conflict, intergroup and inter-organizational conflicts.
1.5: Conflict Management Styles
Each person deals with conflict differently. Your conflict management style will define how you deal with conflict directly or indirectly. This section will cover those styles and what each style means. Just because you may lean towards a certain style does not mean you cannot develop traits that belong to another style. Consider that as you determine which conflict management style you have.
The conflict management styles include collaborating, competing, avoiding, accommodating, and compromising. Each of these styles has its strengths and weaknesses. Think about how you might develop a conflict management style that you admire. For example, if you want to be a better collaborator, how can you use this information to develop more traits of that style? Read this page for an overview of conflict management styles. Answer the two concept check questions at the end.
Read about the conflict styles applied to your personal life and strategies for managing personal conflict. Each one of us has a conflict management style. Each conflict management style uses a different way of handling a conflict. It is possible to develop a conflict management style by using and developing the skills associated with that style. As you read the descriptions of each conflict management style, think about which style most closely suits your skills. Can you give an example that covers each? Also, be sure to complete the two exercises at the end.
Now that you understand each conflict management style, work through this lesson about conflict that includes examples and sample problems. This will help you to determine what your initial response might be in a given conflict and what you might be able to improve upon when confronted with conflict. Complete each activity and read the sample conversations. Also, be sure to answer the related questions.
How you respond to conflict can affect the outcome of a conflict. This assessment will help you to determine your approach to conflict. After you have answered the questions, review how to score your results.
1.6: Negotiation
The process of negotiation is when two or more parties attempt to come to an agreement on a specific issue. Most of us use our negotiation skills daily, sometimes without realizing we're doing it. It may be in a conversation with your significant other as you talk about where to go to dinner, or at work when you need something from a colleague and they need something in return.
Negotiations may be simple or much more complicated depending on the topic and who we are negotiating with. Watch this overview, which explains the basics of negotiating in the workplace.
1.7: Stages and Types of Negotiation
In business today, negotiation is needed to accomplish daily tasks and move the business forward. As a manager, you may need to negotiate with vendors, employees, or other departments. This is an important skill to develop and will be well worth the time it will take for you to become good at negotiation.
Read this example of the stages of negotiation, which include non-task time, information exchange, influence and persuasion, and closing. Pay attention to the four phases of the negotiation process, which include understanding why it is important to address the wants and needs of both sides. These phases help address the issues from both sides, leading to a better resolution if all needs and wants are considered. Answer the three concept questions after you read.
There are a few different types of negotiation, including distributed and integrative. Read about these here.
1.8: Group Negotiation
A group negotiation is more complex than most, and many issues may need to be considered. Typically, one person may be in charge of the group. However, the decision-making process involves several people, which can cause delays or hesitations.
There may be times in your management career when you must negotiate within or with a group, which can be completely different from a one-on-one situation. Read this section about group negotiations.
Unit 1 Summary
This unit covered the basics of conflict management, conflict management styles, and the various levels of managing conflict. The next unit will cover how important good communication skills are to the negotiation process. Read the key terms and summary of the learning outcomes sections. The key terms include several types of conflict that might arise at work or in your personal life. The summary of learning outcomes provides a good overview of causes and resolutions in the workplace.
Unit 1 Study Resources
This review video is an excellent way to review what you've learned so far and is presented by one of the professors who created the course.
Watch this as you work through the unit and prepare to take the final exam.
- Unit 1 Review Slides File PDF document
You can also download the presentation slides so you can make notes.
We also recommend that you review this Study Guide before taking the Unit 1 Assessment.
Unit 1 Assessment
- Receive a grade
Take this assessment to see how well you understood this unit.
- This assessment does not count towards your grade. It is just for practice!
- You will see the correct answers when you submit your answers. Use this to help you study for the final exam!
- You can take this assessment as many times as you want, whenever you want.