Exam 11: Conflict and Negotiation in the Workplace

The effectiveness of negotiating depends to some extent on the environment in which the negotiations occur. Three key situational factors are

CommTel is a telephone company with a policy of filling positions internally through promotions, rather than hiring from outside. Until recently, the company had a strong engineering focus and tended to promote people into senior executive positions from the engineering areas. Consequently, almost all of the company's 14 senior executives joined the company over 20 years ago in junior engineering positions. There is increasing pressure on CommTel to become more marketing-and service-oriented. As a result, four people were hired last year from consumer products and retail firms to fill new senior executive positions in marketing and service management. The external hires were necessary because current employees were not sufficiently qualified. Now there are signs of tension among senior executives, particularly during budget deliberations where there is limited discretionary spending on new corporate activities. The four new hires have been frustrated in their attempts to have the company put more money into marketing and customer services instead of technology investment, and they blame the senior executives for being hard-headed. The conflict episodes are viewed by both sides as personal attacks rather than attempts to resolve the problem. -The four new hires have been attempting to have the company put more money into marketing and customer services instead of technology investment. This is mainly an example of conflict due to

In a team meeting, Jared tells a colleague "That is one of the stupidest ideas I have ever heard. Are you crazy?" This represents

Teams that have developed mutual understanding are less likely to experience relationship conflict.

Andrea talks arrogantly when debating issues with coworkers, particularly when others disagree with her ideas. This indicates Andrea has

In negotiations, what is a potential advantage of setting a high initial offer point?

Ultimately, conflict is based on perceptions.

When negotiators have an audience watching their progress in the negotiations, the negotiator

When two people agree on a goal but have different beliefs about how to achieve the goal, they are experiencing

Some research suggests that people from high collectivism cultures-where group goals are valued more than individual goals-are motivated to maintain harmonious relations and, consequently, are more likely than those from low collectivism cultures to manage disagreements through ________ or problem solving.

Scarce resources are cited as the most often cause of

Which conflict-handling style represents a win-lose orientation?

CommTel is a telephone company with a policy of filling positions internally through promotions, rather than hiring from outside. Until recently, the company had a strong engineering focus and tended to promote people into senior executive positions from the engineering areas. Consequently, almost all of the company's 14 senior executives joined the company over 20 years ago in junior engineering positions. There is increasing pressure on CommTel to become more marketing-and service-oriented. As a result, four people were hired last year from consumer products and retail firms to fill new senior executive positions in marketing and service management. The external hires were necessary because current employees were not sufficiently qualified. Now there are signs of tension among senior executives, particularly during budget deliberations where there is limited discretionary spending on new corporate activities. The four new hires have been frustrated in their attempts to have the company put more money into marketing and customer services instead of technology investment, and they blame the senior executives for being hard-headed. The conflict episodes are viewed by both sides as personal attacks rather than attempts to resolve the problem. -The conflict between the values of the senior engineers and the newer marketing team is due to

The conflict process is a series of episodes which can potentially cycle into conflict escalation.

Employees at Charlotte International have been frustrated with management on just about everything. The conflict episodes are viewed by both sides as personal attacks rather than attempts to resolve problems. Both sides have decided to seek third-party dispute resolution. Management prefers a third-party intervention that has high process and decision control while employees prefer a high level of process control and no decision control. -Management at Charlotte International appears to prefer which of the following types of third-party intervention?

Peggy has been upset with a coworker for weeks, but has not said anything. Then one day, she can no longer hold her feelings in, and yells at the colleague. The conflict in this case has become

Which conflict-handling style tends to occur when the parties have approximately equal power, but can result in suboptimal solutions?

What is the major function of integrators in an organization?

Within a highly cohesive team, ________ is(are) suppressed when conflict occurs.

Using an approach called ________, conflict groups prioritize their problems, and document and share various perceptions among and across the groups.