Power Point Presentation- How to manage conflict in the workplace

1. Managing Conflict In The
Workplace
By: Amy Delchambre

2. Managing Conflict
 Conflict is inevitable to occur in any organization. When
people come together with different personalities,
backgrounds, beliefs, and views, conflict will eventually
happen. It is important to understand this as a leader,
knowing it will occur, and understanding ways to manage
conflict.
 In the past conflict was viewed as something that was
avoidable and caused from bad management and
leadership. It is now viewed as unavoidable, and when
properly managed, can be beneficial for your team.
 Public organizations can be stressful, busy, have tight
deadlines, and have a chaotic environment. Working
with those conditions can cause conflict. It is important
to know strategies on how to deal with those situations.

3. Approaches Dealing With Conflict
 5 approaches people use to deal with conflict in the
workplace. How do you deal with conflict?
 Competition– high assertiveness and low cooperation. People who
use this approach are mainly concerned with their own positions
and views. View the world as zero-sum game with winners and
losers. Goal is to be the winner.
 Collaboration– high assertiveness and high cooperation. Find a
solution that benefits both parties. Usually takes more time to find a
common solution, long term gains are beneficial.
 Compromise– Moderate amount of assertiveness & cooperation.
Each party receives a benefit, but also gives up one as well.
 Avoidance– Low on assertiveness & cooperation. Individuals avoid
the conflict all together. Do not want to explore reasons for the
conflict occurring. Can be harmful in the long run.

4. Approaches Dealing With Conflict
cont.
 Accommodation– Low on assertiveness & high on cooperation. One
individual decides the issue at hand is more important to the other
person and they accommodate for them. Easy to do early on but
can be harmful in the long run. People may end up resenting they
were forced to give up their concerns too early.
 Conflict is necessary for growth, innovation, and change.
If you are able to deal with and resolve conflict, your
work life will be more productive.

5. Approaches Dealing With Conflict
cont.
“Conflict should
be viewed on a continuum of
cooperative to competitive; in
cooperative conflict both
parties receives a mutually
satisfactory outcome
(“positive-sum game”)
whereas in
competitive conflict one
party’s win is matched with
the other party’s loss (“zero-
sum
game”)” (Gupta & Kuzmits,
396).

6. Middle Management & Conflict
 Middle management is described “as individuals who hold
professional positions between front-line professionals and senior
leaders, often play a particularly precarious and important role in
managing challenging workplace situations” (Boice-Pardee & Cooper,
36).
 Middle managers and leaders often have teams they are in charge
of themselves, while having to obey the rules and work with their
own top management. They must communicate both ways, up and
down the corporate ladder.
 One role of a manager or leader is having conflict management
skills.
 Conflict has been associated with greater innovation in the
workplace and can create close bonds between teammates.

7. Fiscal Management
 Conflict is known to arise when dealing with fiscal
management, budgets, and delegation of resources;
tasks a manager is in charge of. Middle managers have
the responsibility of communicating budgets, cutbacks,
and allocation of funds from upper management. They
will be directly dealing with employees when conflict
occurs.
 According to Frunzi and Hal-loran (1991), if a manager
can communicate that a specific action is for the
betterment of the organization, “everyone wins” (p.
424).

8. Sources of Conflict
 Knowing the source of the conflict can affect how you choose to
approach and resolve the issue at hand.
 Whetten and Cameron (1998) describe 4 sources of interpersonal
conflict:
 Personal Differences– focus of conflict are perceptions and
expectations, conflicts can be highly emotional when dealing with
feelings.
 Information Deficiencies- focus of conflict is misinformation and can
be easily resolved with better communication and informational
meetings.
 Role Incompatibility- focus of conflict is on goals and
responsibilities, when employees are not comfortable with assigned
tasks and roles.
 Environmental Stress- focus of conflict on resources, uncertainty,
and heavy work loads.

9. The Evaporating Cloud
o The Evaporating Cloud, developed by Goldratt and Dettmer, is a structural method in
dealing with conflict. It identifies elements that make up the conflict, identifies
underlying assumptions, and develops solutions that removes those assumptions. This
tool works to satisfy both parties, much like Collaboration.
o This method shows the importance of verbalizing the conflicts and writing down the goals
and wants for both parties involved.
o Look for requirements that
both parties share. What does
everyone feel pressure to do?

10. The Evaporating Cloud cont.
o Once the conflict is understood identify assumptions for
each side.
o “Evaporating a cloud is accomplished by examining the
assumptions for any arrow and determining whether
they are invalid, or they can be madeinvalid by taking a
simple action” (Gupta & Kuzmits, 403).
o Leaders are able to compile various possibilities before
deciding on a certain action.