BUS272 TB

316 Part 3 Interacting Effectively
OB IN ACTION
Choosing Strategies to Deal with Conflicts
Forcing
➔ In emergencies
➔ On important but unpopular issues
➔ On vital issues when you know you are right
➔ Against people who take advantage of noncompetitive
behaviour
Problem solving
➔ If both sets of concerns are too important for
compromise
➔ To merge different perspectives
➔ To gain commitment through a consensus
➔ To mend a relationship
Avoiding
➔ When an issue is trivial
➔ When your concerns won’t be met
➔ When potential disruption outweighs the benefits
of resolution
Yielding
➔ When you find you are wrong
➔ To show your reasonableness
➔ When issues are more important to others than
yourself
➔ To build social credits for later issues
➔ When harmony and stability are especially
important
Compromising
➔ When goals are important but not worth more
assertive approaches
➔ When opponents are committed to mutually exclusive
goals
➔ To achieve temporary settlements to complex
issues
➔ To arrive at expedient solutions under time pressure 26
➔ To let people cool down and regain perspective
• Smoothing. Playing down differences while emphasizing common interests
with the other party.
• Compromising. Agreeing with the other party that each will give up something
of value to reach an accord.
• Avoiding. Withdrawing from or suppressing the conflict.
The choice of technique may depend on how serious the issue is to you, whether you
take a win–win or a win–lose approach, and your preferred conflict management style.
When the conflict is specifically work-related, there are additional techniques that
might be used:
• Expansion of resources. The scarcity of a resource—say, money, promotion
opportunities, office space—can create conflict. Expansion of the resource can
create a win–win solution.
• Authoritative command. Management can use its formal authority to resolve the
conflict and then communicate its desires to the parties involved.
• Altering the human variable. Behavioural change techniques such as human
relations training can alter attitudes and behaviours that cause conflict.
• Altering the structural variables. The formal organization structure and the interaction
patterns of conflicting parties can be changed through job redesign,
transfers, creation of coordinating positions, and the like.