Managing Conflict

Personnel Development

Organized Change

Change is the only constant when dealing with people

Change focuses or re-directs an organization

Often requires organization to rethink mission and compete for talented “employees”

Strategies for change Rational empirical

– Based in theory that people are rational and if they understand a change is in their best interest they will get on board

– Founded in scientific method Normative re-educative

– Assumes people will be motivated by unsatisfied needs– Not a rational approach but based on interpersonal issues;

people must be convinced of change Power-coercive

– Little to defend against this method – orders are stated and followed

– Can be challenged by departments heads but with risks• 2 threats to these styles is resignation and threaten to tell media

Four steps to implement change Awareness

– 5 crises of management– Mang. Looks at the life of the org., interest of mang. Toward

change, and the environment within the org to accept and implement change (subjective assessment)

Diagnosis– Objective evidence– Collect info and demonstrate how the implementation will

improve the org; get people to think along the same lines Intervention

– Must understand what is changing– Deal with resistance

Evaluation– Did change resolve the problem and did new problems result

Conflict Adjustment

Defined: type of competition in which the parties to the conflict are aware of the directly opposite (or conflicting) nature of their positions and in which each side wishes to cont9inue to hold the position

Frustration where goals are blocked by other goals

Conflict is not necessary for growth Conflict is usually personal Disruptive conflict may sabotage the

organization

Causes and Responses Communication difficulties Organizational structures Psychological and social factors Competition for scarce resources

– For one to succeed, one must fail– How do you decreases individual success and make it more

about group success Use of threatening, antagonistic power strategies

– Direct, non rational, unilateral– Increase hostility, counteractions and unwillingness to

compromise Personal characteristics of group members

– Competitors verses cooperator– Need role definition to relate to role prescription

You are the manager…What do you do? With a defensive employee?

– Assess the cause– Find a position to diminishes the effectiveness

of the conflict

A young, new employee who has stepped on the toes of your seasoned employees (think of ATS)

Feedback

Positive– Reinforcing desired behaviors

Negative– Offers negative opinion with offering a positive

solution or modification

Problem Centered– Attack the negative and presents a solution

Example

Look at the situation where one of the ATSs want to date the athletes– ATS sponsored gathering would be encouraged

to exclude athletes– The idea is forbidden– Point out the difficulty in remaining objective if

the injured party is your girlfriend / boyfriend

Come up with an other example

Resolution

Win-lose (domination), win-win (integration), lose- lose (compromise)

Coalitions: divide into sides; may have begun as two people or to positions but they have involved others to proper they are “right”– Members do not have to agree on anything else

but their commitment to stand together on an issue

Common methods to resolve interpersonal conflicts Imposition: one side must accept the position of another

(win-lose) Withdrawal: losing group leaves rather than accept the

position of the winner Inaction: (avoidance)ignore the problem Yielding : (conceding) a side will retract demands rather

than confront and lose Compromise : (lose-lose) find middle ground and both

sides give Problem solving: (win-win confrontation) agree on

problem and solution Negotiation ad third party intervention

Stress and Burnout

An be positive and negative Responses: psychological components and

physical components Signs: physical and emotional Burnout: person becomes inoperative;

fatigue, illnesses, migraine, irritability, withdrawal, social practices

Operational Planning

Planning

Decision making process to determine course of action

Best way to ensure goals are achieved 3 characteristics of palling

– Takes place prior to action– Need to produce future state– Future state results form multiple

interdependent decisions

Operational

Policies: type of plan that expresses an organization's intended behavior relative to a specific program sub function

Processes: collection of steps to direct task of organization

Procedures: Type of operational plan that provides specific directions for members of an organization

Operational

Practice: ways to administrate tasks– Should never contradict P& P

All these should be reviewed and modified at least once over few years

Other types– PERT:program evaluation and review technique- graph

of time line and relationships within a program

– Gannt Charts: graphic planning and control method

– Allies-Opponents-Bedfellows-Adversaries

Strategic ID course of action to be taken ID outside interests Defines client base and plans for feedback,

evaluations, outcomes, re-organization, etc WOTS UP analysis (Ray pg 32 &285

– Weakness, opportunities, threats, and strengths in underlying planning

– Most appropriate if program is already established)– Must be done by many participants with different

viewpoints– Relates to evaluation