Exam 11: Conflict and Negotiation in the Workplace

People from collectivist cultures tend to apply a forcing style of conflict with colleagues more than do people from individualist cultures.

Write a short note on choosing the best conflict handling style.

People who experience conflict are:

Which of the following is a third-party conflict resolution strategy with high process control and high outcome control?

The problem-solving interpersonal style of conflict has:

Resolving differences with the opposing party through direct communication is not as comfortably applied in collectivist cultures.

A few years ago,a clothing manufacturer was expanding rapidly,so the CEO hired several executives from large corporations.Unfortunately,the new executives clashed with the current executives regarding business strategy.The CEO explained: 'We ended up with an old team and a new team and they weren't on the same wavelength.' Identify the source(s)of conflict in this situation and identify two strategies to minimise this conflict in the future.

You have resolved a conflict with another department by offsetting your losses by equally valued gains.Which of the following conflict handling styles is used here?

When conflict reduces each side's motivation to communicate,they rely more on stereotypes to reinforce their perceptions of the other side.

Conflict is based on the technical skills of the parties involved and is independent of their perceptions.

How does conflict tend to increase with the level of interdependence?

Mergers and acquisitions tend to increase conflict due to different values and beliefs.

Employees at a specialty steel company are divided into the 'hot end' and the 'cold end' of the production process.The hot end forms the steel rods that make their way down the line to the cold end,where they are packed for shipment to clients.Employees at the cold end are primarily responsible for quality control because they are the last ones to see the product before it leaves the plant.Their performance is measured by an index of customer complaints and returns,so they are motivated to reject any rods that don't meet quality standards.But employees at the hot end of the production line earn bonuses based on their output and rejection rate.The fewer rods rejected by employees at the cold end,the fatter the bonuses of employees at the hot end.This creates conflict between the hot-end and cold-end employees.Hot-end employees complain that their cold-end colleagues are too fussy about product quality.Cold-end employees don't like the hot-end employees questioning their quality control decisions.Discuss the source(s)of conflict in this situation and recommend a solution to this conflict.

In organisational conflict,scarce resources are typically identified as:

Two employees from different departments who are evaluated on different performance criteria and compensated based on different reward systems are likely to experience conflict due to goal incompatibility.

In a purely win-lose situation which strategy is most common:

Conflicts tend to be higher when rules and procedures exist.

Constructive conflict tests the logic of arguments and encourages participants to re-examine their basic assumptions.

You are assigned to resolve a conflict between two departments of an organisation.Both parties have equal power.Both the parties are under time pressure to resolve the conflict.You also realise that the parties lack trust/openness for problem solving.You are actively searching for a middle ground between the interests of the two parties.Which of the following conflict resolution styles would you use in this situation?

Conflicts could reduce the significance of organisational politics.