Conflict Management – MBA Book

Best examples of conflict are conflict between management and employees. Conflict a serious problem in any organization if the problem not handle properly.

Conflict Management Objectives from the MBA Book

Definition of Conflict

Outcome of Conflict

Forms of Conflict

Conflict Management Strategies

Stress

Causes of Stress

Stress Management

Crisis of Management

About the conflict in an organization there are many definitions by some academician. At 1st we will give some light on Gray and Starke’s theory of conflict management, “Conflict is behaviour by a person or group that is purposely designed to inhibit the attainment of goals by another person or group. This ‘purposeful inhibition may be active or passive.”

According to K. W. Thomas conflict is, “processes that begins when one party perceives that another party has negatively affected or is about to negatively affect, something the first party cares about.”

At last I give one more definition about conflict by B. Kabanoff, “Conflict refers to a disagreement, opposition, or struggle between two or more individuals or groups. It results from incompatible influence attempts between and within individuals, groups or organizations.”

In the age of globalization company has conflicts in terms of people personality, values, attitudes, perceptions, languages, cultures and national backgrounds.

Now, we will discuss about outcomes of conflicts. Outcome of conflicts is the results of conflicts. Conflicts has two consequences – Positive and Negative.

Positive consequences of conflicts are:

Leads to new ideas

Stimulates Creativity

Motivates changes

Promotes Organizational vitality

Helps Individual and Groups

Indicate Problems

Negative consequences of conflicts are:

Diverts energy from work

Wastes of resources

Creates negative climate

Breaks down group cohesion

Increase hostility and aggressive behaviours

Conflicts are divided into two parts – Functional Conflict and Dysfunctional conflict.

Functional conflicts support the goals of the group and improve its performance while dysfunctional conflict hinders the group performance.

In this chapter now we have to discuss about sources of organizational conflict. These are:

Line and Staff Competition

Organization-Individual Disagreements

Overlapping Responsibilities

Functional Interdependence

Personality Clashes

Disagreement over Goals

Flow of Work

Conflict can be divide into two forms also – Intra-Individual or Interpersonal conflict. An Individual can get experience about cognitive conflict, affective conflict, inter-role conflict, intra-role conflict and personal-role conflict.

Strategies of Conflict Management

In the strategies of conflict management we can include – avoiding, accommodating, competing, compromising and collaborating which is style of management.

Negotiation

In this chapter we have to study about negotiation also. Negotiation is a process by which we can define conflict what they are willing to give and accept in return. Negotiation has been including in this chapter because it is a part of conflict management. Negotiation process solves management conflicts towards the employees.

There can be some negotiation steps:

Preparation

Evaluation of Alternatives

Identifying Interests

Bargains

In every country there are different cultural differences in negotiation. Like Japanese give the high importance of emotional sensitivity while for North American it has no high value.

In the negotiation there are two major approaches – Distributive Bargaining and Integrative Negotiation.

In today world there are more value of third-party negotiators who known as – mediator, arbitrator, consultant, inquisitor and delegator or avoider.

Stress

Stress is exceeding complex. Here I will give some definition which has been proposed by theoreticians. According to J. C quick and J. D Quick, “Stress, or the stress response, is the unconscious preparation to fight or flee a person experiences when faced with any demand.”

Another definition from Mikhail is also very important, “Stress refers to a psychological and physiological state that result when certain features of an individual’s environment challenge that person, creating an actual or perceived imbalance between demand and capability to adjust that results in a non-specific response.”

I think stress creates from our environmental situation. Stress affects normally our health.

The causes of stress

After having study the definition of stress we need to know about causes of stress. In the causes of stress we can introduce conflict.

There is some cause of stress:

Inner conflicts

Perceptual influences

Thresholds of stress

Motivational level

Stress value can be measured by a rating scale. These are:

If a person feels about the spouse death its mean value is 100. Like that when a person gets notice of divorce then stress value mean of 73 scales.

In this chapter we will study about two type of behaviour pattern – A and B.

In pattern of “A” behaviour we see these:

Impatience

Aggressiveness

Hostility

Restlessness

Devotion to work

Feeling of Intense time Pressure

Attempts to several things at once

In the type of “B” behaviour pattern we can summarize it as:

Never suffer from a sense of time urgency

Feel no need to display any achievement

Play for fun

To manage stress we can follow some level which can be:

Individual Level

Organisation Level

Crisis Management

It is the last chapter of conflict management. Crisis management is an issue in business world. It is a big issue for now. We can categories crisis management.

Types of Crisis

Natural Disaster

Environmental disaster

Industrial accident

Shortfall in demand

At last, we can say conflict can be a serious problem for a company or organisatioin.

Power and Politics in Organisations – MBA Book

Power and Politics both are associated with each other. In a firm or in a country power in is in dominating position if the politics is associated with that.

In the chapter of “Power and Politics in Organisation” from this MBA book we can decide some objectives which can be:

About Power

Source of Power

Types of Power

Ethical Use of Power

Analysis of Political behaviour in an organization

Power is a potential ability and influence for a people which direct others people in desired direction to do something.

Now, we discuss about source of power in organizations which is depends upon a manger. In an organization manager use multiple source of power to bring out the best employees for the organization.

Manager use normally two types of power – interpersonal and structural. Interpersonal power includes these elements:

Reward Power

Coercive Power

Legitimate Power

Referent Power

Expert Power

All these associated with maintain power and effectively uses of power. To maintain power for reward point we can find out the need and want of people but when we will want to use effectively “Reward Power” then we will offer desirable rewards.

Same with to maintain coercive power we will identify credible penalties to deter unacceptable behaviour while to use effectively coercive power we will inform target and rules and penalties.

In the Legitimate power to maintain we can will gain more formal authority while to use effectively it we will be polite and send a request.

To maintain “Referent Power” we will show acceptance and positive regards while to use effectively it we will use personal appeals when necessary.

To maintain expert power we will gain more relevant knowledge while to use effectively it we will explain the reasons for a request or proposal.

Using of Power Ethically

Ethical power is logical power in the favour of humanity which comes from manager characters.

There are some processes to use “Ethical Power” in a firm or organization which are:

Reward Power in ethical way should be use by manager as: Verify Compliance, make feasible, reasonable requests etc.

Like this all the sources comes from types of power but should be use them ethically by a manager in any firm.

Structure of Sources of Power

Source of power depends upon mainly three abilities which are: reduce uncertainty, lack of substitutes and centrality of activities.

Uncertainty contains - Resource control, information control, decision-making control, substitutability, centrality and managing the boss.

Now, we should come on political behaviour in Organisation

For the topic there is very good definition from D.Farrell and J.C Petersen, “those activities that are not required as part of one’s formal role in the organization, but that influence, or attempt to influence, the distribution of advantages and disadvantages within the organization.”

Politics always tightly linked with power. In our day to day life we can see politics and power also. So, no one people and place escape with politics and power.

So, there should be some political strategies and influence tactics which may affect the thoughts, behaviour or feelings of another person.

In the political tactics we can include these elements:

Pressure

Upward Appeals

Exchange

Coalition

Ingratiation

Rational Persuasion

Inspirational Appeals

Consultation

About the types of politics when we inter we know about Maccoby’s Political thought which is divided into four parts. These are:

The Craftsman

The Jungle Fighter

Company Man or Women

The Gamesman

Using of Power and Politics as a Manager

As a manager we should care something when we use politics and power. These can be:

Effective use of power

Power should be use in Ethical way

We should understand all types and power and should use them very effectively

Should be develop power skills also

In the summery of Power and Politics in Organisation chapter we can say power refers to the potential ability to influence others in a desired direction.