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Organizational Behavior: Solutions for Management

Paul D. Sweeney, University of Central Florida
Dean B. McFarlin, University of Dayton

Constructively Dealing with Conflict and Stress

Chapter Outline

Constructively Dealing with Conflict and Stress
The wielding of power and practicing politics can often put individuals or groups in conflict with one another.
1. Not all conflict should be considered to be bad for the organization.
2. Conflict is not the only cause of stress within organizations.
Conflict in Organizations
Conflict is the friction felt when two or more people or groups disagree about something.
1. A. How Much Conflict is Too Much?
  - As conflict situations increase, it is common for the leadership style to switch toward a more authoritarian style.
  - A negative effect of conflict is that it can break down the cohesion of a group.
  - If group members are spending a lot of time and energy dealing with conflict, effort and energy is diverted away from the work itself.
  - Conflict can be beneficial by:
  - Bringing into the open what has been otherwise ignored.
  - Consideration of new ideas and methods.
2. What Causes Conflict?
  Conflict can either simmer below the surface as with passive-aggressiveness or boil over in the form of open confrontation.
  1. Organizational Causes:
    - Organizational causes deal mainly with the way an organization is structured.
    - Some causes are:
    - Specialization
    - Interdependence of work
    - Competition for common resources
    - Ambiguity
  2. Interpersonal Causes:
    - Some of these causes include:
    - People with difficult and argumentative personalities
    - Differences in perceptions
    - Poor communication skills
3. How Do Managers Typically Deal With Conflict?
  We differ considerably in our ability to effectively handle conflict. One reason is that we all have our favorite styles for dealing with conflict once it surfaces.
  - Flexibility to move back and forth between styles is a true managerial skill as is knowing when to use the right style.
  1. The Avoiding Style:
    - Individuals who utilize the avoiding style of conflict resolution rate very low on both cooperativeness and assertiveness.
    - Individuals using this style make a deliberate decision to stay out of the situation and take no action.
  2. The Accommodating Style:
    - An accommodating style rates very high on concern for other's needs but is low on asserting one's own needs.
    - Individuals using this style deal passively with disputes by giving in to others.
  3. The Forcing Style:
    - The forcing style rates very high on assertiveness but low in consideration of others.
    - Individuals using this style are uncooperatively aggressive and are not afraid to use their power and authority to settle an argument.
    - Forcers do not tend to be good at human relations.
  4. The Compromising Style:
    - A compromising style approaches conflict as a give-and-take situation.
    - Users of this style rate mid level of assertiveness and cooperativeness.
  5. The Collaborating Style:
    - The collaborating style ranks high on both assertiveness and cooperation.
    - A collaborative style results in less conflict and better performance for project and cross-functional teams than any other style.
  6. Cross-Cultural Caveats:
    - There are wide differences across countries in the attractiveness of the various conflict handling styles.
    - There are different ways for how best to handle conflict when dealing with other cultures.
4. Techniques for Resolving or Reducing Conflict:
  1. What Not to Do:
    - Generally, doing nothing is not a good strategy.
    - The use of administrative technicalities often does not work.
    - The technique called "due process inaction" is not a good method.
  2. What to Do:
    - Use the right style of conflict resolution for the situation.
    - Physically separate the warring parties.
    - Focus people's efforts on a larger superordinate goal.
    - Rotate or bring new people into the group.
    - Use of an integrator or neutral third party.
5. Stirring Up the Pot - When Managers Need to Stimulate a Little Conflict:
  Some good can come from conflict.
  1. Change Your Organizational Structure:
    - Organize the firm so that various units compete more directly with one another.
    - The key is to keep the competition healthy and not dysfunctional.
  2. Be More Autocratic in Your Leadership Style:
  3. Appoint a Conflict Stimulator:
    - vil's ad
    - Practice the "devil's advocate" method of stimulating conflict.
    - The job of the stimulator is to spur conflict in a controlled and positive way.
    - De
    - vocates may best be used in situations where big costs are involved.
Understanding and Dealing With Stress
Conflict should not be thought of as the only cause of stress in organizations.
1. A. What is Stress and How Common Is It?
  - A moderate amount of stress can be motivating.
  - A stressor can produce very different reactions depending upon one's perception of that stressor.
  - Stress can be expensive. Stress related illnesses end up costing organizations anywhere from $50 to $70 billion dollars per year.
  - Stress is involved in approximately 15% of all workers compensation claims.
2. B. The Many Causes of Stress:
  1. The Job Itself:
    - The first thing we could pinpoint as a cause of stress is the actual job itself.
    - Examples of characteristics about the job that can cause stress include:
    - Role conflict: jobs that have built in but opposing requirements.
    - Role ambiguity: lack of clear expectations about your job or role in the firm.
  2. Personality Factors:
    - There seem to be certain personality types more predisposed to stress.
    - Type As: more aggressive and hard charging.
    - Type Bs: more laid-back.
    - Type As are more likely to develop adverse physical reactions such as hypertension and heart disease than Type Bs.
  3. Change:
    - Change can be uncomfortable for individuals.
3. C. The Effects of Stress - Too Many to Mention, Too Costly to Ignore:
4. D. Dealing With Stress:
5. E. What's an Employee to Do?
  1. Use or Develop Better Coping Skills:
    - Coping skills allow us to essentially think away the stress or to overcome it once we do perceive it.
    - Adopt a control strategy or a take-charge attitude about a problem
    - Develop "hardiness" skills
  2. Seek Social Support:
  3. Seek Therapy/Exercise/Relaxation:
    - Sabbatical programs
    - Regular exercise/relaxation program
6. F. What Are Organizations Doing about Stress?
  - Two main approaches taken about stress by organizations:
  - Build in mechanisms that prevent stress from happening in the first place
  - Dealing with excessive stress once it has occurred
  1. Stress Management:
    - Employee assistance programs: provide professional help to people under stress.
    - Focused stress management training:
    - Instructions in recognizing stress
    - Techniques for handling stress
  2. Stress Prevention:
    - Stress prevention techniques get at the root causes of stress
    - Family supportive policies
    - Jobs redesign
    - Corporate wellness or health promotion programs

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