Management of Conflict

  • When determining how to manage conflict, we tend to utilize different styles depending on the situation:
    • Avoidance - Non-confrontational: walking away from the situation
    • Accommodation - Non-confrontational: setting aside your needs for the needs of the other party
    • Competition - Win/lose: your loss is the other party's gain; tactics include: forcing, low-balling, time constraints, deception, etc.
    • Compromise - Splitting the difference: (i.e. flipping a coin, cutting something in half)
    • Collaboration - Win/win: both parties mutually benefit, and creative alternatives are achieved.

Responding to Conflict



New Directions for Conflict Management

  • Bargaining/Negotiation
  • Third-Party Conflict Resolution

Bargaining/Negotiation

  • Negotiation: an interpersonal decision-making process necessary whenever we cannot achieve our objectives single-handedly
  • Ex. Buying a car; buying a house; things at work
  • Integrative Bargaining
  • Distributive Bargaining


Differences Between Distributive & Integrative Bargaining


Distributive
 Integrative
  • Claim Value (win-lose)
  • Positional/ Rights/ Power
  • Goal: Individual Gain
  • Single Issue
  • No future relationship
  • Create Value (win-win)
  • Principled / Interest
  • Goal: Mutual & Individual Gain
  • Multiple Issues
  • Long-term relationship

Third-Party Conflict Resolution

  • Managerial Conflict Resolution
  • Outside Conflict Resolution

Managerial Conflict Resolution

Roles:
  • Inquisitor
  • Judge
  • Advisor
  • Motivator
  • Investigator
  • Restructurer
  • Problem solver
  • Procedural marshal

Outside Conflict Resolution

  • Mediators - help parties facilitate the dispute but hold no decision power
  • Arbitrators - makes binding decisions based on the proposals and arguments of the parties involved in the conflict

Creative Commons License This text was adapted by Saylor Academy under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License without attribution as requested by the work's original creator or licensor.

Last modified: Tuesday, 7 December 2021, 4:16 PM