Leadership & change management, lecture 8, by rahat kazmi

LEADERSHIP AND CHANGE

MANAGEMENT

- MANAGING CONFLICT

- CAUSES OF CONFLICT

- STRATEGIES FOR MANAGING CONFLICT

CHANGE TECHNIQUES

LECTURE 8

BY

RA HAT KAZMI PREPARED BY: RAHAT KAZMI

SEPTEMBER 2010

Follow him on Twitter: twitter.com/srahatkazmi or

Join Facebook Fan’s page : facebook.com/TrainingConsultant

Vist the website: www.softskillsexperts.com

Objectives




Nature of Conflict

Responding to Conflict

Handling Grievances

Emotional Stress


Handling Grievances

Emotional Stress

Nature of Conflict




Conflict is a form of relating or

interacting where we find ourselves

(either as individuals or groups) under

some sort of perceived threat to our

personal or collective goals.

These goals are usually to do with our

interpersonal wants. These perceived

threats may be either real or imagined

(Condliffe, 1991, p3).

Conflict




Sources of Conflict

(Bisno)

Project Sources of

Conflict

(Thamhain & Wilemon)

Conflict




Sources of Conflict (Bisno)

Biosocial

Personality and interactional

Structural

Cultural and ideological

Convergence

Conflict




Bisno’s Sources of Conflict (Condliffe, 1991, p6)

Conflict





Biosocial


Structural


Convergence

Conflict





Biosocial


Structural


Convergence

Project Sources of Conflict (Thamhain & Wilemon)

Project schedules

Project priorities

Workforce

Source of Conflict




(Nicholas, 2001, p519)

Conflict




(Nicholas, 2001, p519)

Conflict




Components of

Conflict

Conflict




Components of Conflict




Interests: things that motivate eg. managers and workers have different interests





Emotional: feelings that accompany human interactions eg. anger, fear, reject, and loss





Emotional: feelings that accompany human interactions eg. anger, fear, reject, and loss

Interests: things that motivate eg. managers and workers have different interests

Values: ideas and feelings about right and wrong (difficult to resolve)


When you have to deal with conflict

tackle the emotional issues first

then address values and interests

Dealing with Conflict




Consequences of Conflict




Good Consequences of

Conflict

Conflict




increased creativity

Increased Creativity




It forces people to clarify their views

Conflict




It can produce constructive

social change

Conflict




It gives people the

opportunity to test their

capacities

Conflict




development of group and organization

cohesion

Conflict




Bad Consequences of

Conflict

Conflict




Violence

Conflict




breakdown of relationships Conflict




polarization of views into static positions

Conflict




A breakdown of

collaborative ventures

Conflict




destruction of

communication

Conflict




Groupthink

Conflict




Groupthink is a tendency for strong conformity pressures within groups to lead to the breakdown of critical thinking and encourage premature acceptance of questionable decisions

Groupthink

Conflict




Lack of conflict is a sign of over conformity.

Conflict




It is unhealthy when there is no conflict

Conflict




You need

diversity of

opinion

Conflict




Conflict




Consequences of Conflict




Nature of Conflict


Handling Grievances

Emotional Stress

Conflict




Conflict Handling Styles Avoiding

Compromise

Competition

Accommodation

Collaboration

Conflict




Which conflict handling style

will you use?

Conflict

Prepared by: Rahat Kazmi Follow him on Twitter: twitter.com/srahatkazmi or



Which conflict handling style

will you use?

Project Managers may have a preferred style

for managing conflict

Conflict




Which conflict handling style will you use?

Project Managers may have a preferred style for managing conflict

You should use different styles depending on the problem – and get there by using your ability to read situation

Conflict




avoiding

accommodation

competition

compromise

collaboration

Conflict




Characteristics

• ignoring conflicts and hoping they’ll go

away

• putting problems under consideration

or on hold

• use of secrecy to avoid confrontation

• appeal to bureaucratic rules

Avoiding

When to use

• Trivial, small/unimportant issue

• no perceived chance of

resolution

• To allow a cool down period

• To allow others to resolve the

situation

Conflict




Characteristics

• negotiation

• looking for deals and

trade-offs

• finding satisfactory or

acceptable solutions

When to use

• goals are important, but not worth effort

• opponents with equal power are committed

to mutually exclusive goals

• achieve temporary settlements to issues

• arrive at solutions under time pressure

• back-up to collaboration or competition

Compromise Conflict




Characteristics

• create win-lose situations

• use of power plays

• forcing submission

When to use

• quick, decisive action is vital, very

important

• unpopular actions eg. cost cutting

• issues are vital to company welfare

• against people who take advantage of non-

competitive behavior

Competition Conflict




Characteristics

• giving way

• submission and

fulfillment

When to use

• find you are wrong

• issues more important to others than yourself

• maintain cooperation

• build social credits for later on

• minimize loss

• harmony and stability are important

• allow team members to learn from their mistakes

Accommodation Conflict




Characteristics

• problem-solving carriage

• tackle differences

• sharing ideas and information

• seeing problems and conflicts as

challenges

When to use

• find an integrative solution when

both sets of concerns are

important

• objective is to learn

Collaboration Conflict




2 Methods for Resolving Conflict in a team

• Role Clarification Technique

• Intergroup Conflict Resolution

Conflict




Role Clarification Technique

This is a systematic procedure which involves all team members

understanding the requirements of their of own and everyone else's

position, duties and expectations

You’ll need to clarify roles for team and individuals; for example via

questionnaires (or for project teams - RAM matrices!)

Conflict




Intergroup Conflict Resolution

Each group should prepare list of what they would like the other groups to

start doing, stop doing, and continue to do.

This list narrows he scope of the dispute and makes it easier to work on the

core problems.

Conflict




Nature of Conflict


Handling Grievances

Emotional Stress

Conflict




What is a Grievance?

Grievance




A grievance is any behaviour or action of

another member or members of a team, which

has or is likely to have an unreasonable negative

impact on the ability of a team member to

undertake their duties

Grievance




Most grievances are never raised with management

Why?

Grievance




Lack of trust Our complaints

are trivialized

No action gets taken! They only take

defensive action

Grievance




What you should do?

Grievance




Listen

Discuss

Plan

Grievance




Nature of Conflict


Handling Grievances

Emotional Stress

Grievance




Stress

Stress




What is Stress?

A pattern of emotional states and physiological reactions occurring in

situations where individuals perceive threats to their important goals that they

feel unable to meet

(Greenberg & Baron, 1993, p257).

Stress




Stress




Effects of Stress

Physical illness

Lack of sleep

Reduction in task performance

Poor quality decision making

Stress




Long hours

Tight schedules

Transient work force

High risks

Work overload

Role uncertainty

Social relations

Causes of Stress




How many of these for you

in the last year?

A Stress Survey




(Greenberg & Baron, 1993, p238)




1. Organizational Level

2. Individual Level

Stress Management




Stress Management at

the Organizational Level

setting reasonable work plans and

schedules

delegating responsibility and

increasing independence

clarifying responsibilities,

authority, and performance criteria

clarifying goals, procedures, and

decision criteria

giving consideration and support

in leadership




Stress Management

for the Individual

stress management program

relaxation training

diversions from work-related

problems




1. Conflict is the opposition of people or forces that develops into an aggressive state or action.

2. Sources of IT project conflict includes; schedules, priorities and workforce issues.

3. Conflict can be good and bad.

4. Conflict handling styles include; avoiding, compromise, competition, accommodation, and collaboration.

5. Grievance handling strategies include; listen, discuss, and plan. Not dealing with grievances can be harmful to projects.

6. Work environment improvements and reducing stress is essential to a team’s health and the success of the project.

Review




Condliffe, P. (1991). Conflict management – A practical guide. Collingwood, Vic.: RMIT.

Greenberg, J. & Baron, R. (1993). Behavior in organizations (4th ed.). Syd., NSW: Allyn

and Bacon.

Nicholas, J. (2001). Project management for business technology – Principles and practice

(2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.

References




Soft Skills Experts

138 Wandsworth Bridge Road

Fulham

London SW6 2UL

United Kingdom

Tel: +44 772 822 9192

Email: [email protected]




Contact Us

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

Business

Leadership & change management, lecture 8, by rahat kazmi