Deck 11: Conflict and Negotiation in the Workplace

Question 1

Conflict perceptions and emotions lead to conflict sources.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

The view that conflict in organizations is bad is oversimplistic and in some cases incorrect.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

The main objective of conflict management is to reduce the level of conflict in the organization.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

According to one Canadian survey,most voluntary and involuntary employee turnover is triggered by workplace conflict.

Question 5

When people experience relationship conflict,they tend to increase their reliance on communication with the other party.

Question 6

Moderate levels of conflict produce improved decision-making.

Question 7

Although constructive conflict can degenerate into relationship conflict,it is easy to prevent this from happening.

Question 8

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

Question 9

Conflict begins when two parties experience manifest conflict.

Question 10

If conflict was eliminated,organizations would be more productive.

Question 11

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

Question 12

Conflict occurs when one party perceives that its interests are being opposed or negatively affected by another party.

Question 13

Corporate leaders should view conflict as a problem that should be minimized or eliminated.

Question 14

Conflict begins whenever both parties realize that they have opposing interests.

Question 15

Relationship conflict refers to conflict between individuals,whereas constructive conflict refers to conflict between departments and organizations.

Question 16

Approximately 42 percent of a manager's time is spent dealing with workplace conflict.

Question 17

Most people can avoid experiencing relationship conflict if they focus on constructive debate instead.

Question 18

Constructive conflict is one of the more serious forms of relationship conflict.

Question 19

The modern perspective on conflict is that an optimal level exist which is beneficial to the organization.

Question 20

Constructive conflict helps people to recognize problems,identify a variety of solutions and better understand the issues involved.

Question 21

Conflict tends to escalate more with a win-lose than with a win-win orientation.

Question 22

Emotional intelligence helps employees to avoid escalating constructive conflict into relationship conflict.

Question 23

Avoiding is usually the best interpersonal conflict management style when the issue is trivial to everyone involved.

Question 24

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

Question 25

Although forcing is one of five interpersonal styles of conflict management,it should never actually be used to manage conflict.

Question 26

The compromising conflict management style has the highest win-win orientation and should be applied wherever the parties seem to have mutual interests.

Question 27

It is possible to agree on a common goal yet still experience conflict due to differentiation.

Question 28

Poor work ethic is one of the main sources of conflict between baby-boomer and Generation-X employees.

Question 29

The conflict process is really a series of episodes that potentially link together into an escalation cycle.

Question 30

The five interpersonal conflict management styles are distinguished by their level of interdependence with the other party.

Question 31

Communication problems partly explain why conflict is more likely to occur in a multicultural workforce.

Question 32

Constructive conflict is more likely to escalate into relationship conflict among employees in highly cohesive teams

Question 33

Conflict is more likely to occur between two departments with pooled interdependence than reciprocal interdependence.

Question 34

The problem-solving conflict management style involves a high degree of assertiveness and cooperativeness.

Question 35

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

Question 36

Conflict is more likely to occur when two people or departments share a resource that is strictly dictated by programmed decision rules.

Question 37

Conflict may occur because the conflicting parties lack the opportunity,ability and/or motivation to communicate with each other.

Question 38

Two employees with divergent goals are less likely to experience conflict.

Question 39

Conflict is sometimes apparent by the style each side uses to resolve the conflict.

Question 40

Some team norms encourage tactics that diffuse relationship conflict when it first appears.

Question 41

Focusing employees on superordinate goals is particularly useful where conflict is caused by goal incompatibility and differentiation.

Question 42

The yielding conflict management style is preferred when both parties have equal power and enough trust to share information.

Question 43

A logical strategy for minimizing conflict due to different values and beliefs is to have employees move through different departments,regions and occupations of the company throughout their careers.

Question 44

Reducing conflict by reducing differentiation should occur only after communication and understanding have improved.

Question 45

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

Question 46

When negotiators get closer to their time deadline,they become less committed to resolving the conflict.

Question 47

Most negotiators prefer using email,videoconferences and other forms of electronic communication when negotiating rather than meeting face-to-face.

Question 48

Communication only reduces or minimizes conflict when it takes the form of structured meetings and dialogue sessions.

Question 49

The yielding conflict management style can produce more conflict rather than resolve it.

Question 50

According to the bargaining zone model,the target point is the team's realistic goal or expectation for a final agreement.

Question 51

Negotiators share information more fully by adopting a win-lose orientation.

Question 52

Conflicts can be minimized by negotiating a collective agreement between union and management which both parties must follow.

Question 53

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

Question 54

According to the bargaining zone model,the parties should begin negotiations by describing their resistance point to each other.

Question 55

Communication and understanding interventions should be applied only after differentiation between the parties has been reduced.

Question 56

Negotiation occurs whenever two or more conflicting parties try to redefine the terms of their interdependence.

Question 57

The preferred conflict management style tends to depend partly on the individual's cross-cultural values.

Question 58

Buffers tend to resolve conflict by reducing the level of interdependence between the conflicting parties.

Question 59

The bargaining zone model of negotiations describes the best physical zone in which negotiations should occur.

Question 60

Increasing resources and creating more precise rules for the allocation of those resources represent two ways to increase conflict.

Question 61

Which of the following is NOT a benefit of moderate conflict in organizations?

A) It prevents stagnation and nonresponsiveness to the external environment.
B) It improves decision making.
C) Conflict with people outside the team can potentially increase cohesion with the team.
D) It energizes people to debate issues more thoroughly.
E) It helps regenerate employee ranks, since those who cannot manage conflict effectively tend to leave the organization and are replaced with more effective staff.

Question 62

An important rule in negotiations is to make several major concessions early in the proceedings to communicate your willingness to resolve the conflict.

Question 63

Mediation has a high level of process control but a low level of decision control.

Question 64

An important rule for effective negotiations is to avoid using persuasive communication tactics since this often demonstrates weakness.

Question 65

A large computer company was well known for the frequent debate among employees regarding various issues.Employees weren't afraid to disagree with their colleagues and to clearly argue their point.Although the discussions would sometimes get loud,employees never spoke angrily at each other and the discussants would always end the meeting in friendship.This computer company has many instances of:

A) constructive conflict
B) debating conflict
C) avoiding conflict management style
D) relationship conflict
E) positional conflict

Question 66

The process in which one party perceives that its interests are being opposed or negatively affected by another party is called:

A) mediation
B) conflict
C) negotiation
D) dialogue
E) conflict management

Question 67

Conflict is defined as:

A) any event where two parties demonstrate their dislike of each other.
B) any occasion where both parties perceive each other as a threat to achieving the other party's goals.
C) a process in which one party perceives that its interests are being opposed or negatively affected by another party.
D) any event where one party acts in a way that prevents another party from achieving its goals.
E) a process in which each party tries to learn the resistance point of the other party.

Question 68

Constructive conflict:

A) is the opposite of task-related conflict.
B) encourages employees to re-examine their basic assumptions about a problem and its possible solution.
C) is one of the dysfunctional outcomes of conflict.
D) is the most common outcome of arbitration.
E) sometimes replaces manifest conflict in the conflict process.

Question 69

Research suggests that managers tend to avoid the inquisitional approach to third-party conflict resolution.

Question 70

Constructive conflict exists:

A) when the conflict is viewed as a personal attack on each person in the relationship.
B) when an employee disagrees with his or her supervisor regarding what tasks should be performed as part of the job.
C) when the conflict is emotionally charged.
D) when all of these exist.
E) when none of these exists.

Question 71

Constructive conflict:

A) is the same as relationship conflict.
B) encourages people to think about different points of view.
C) is a source of conflict based on the physical layout of the office.
D) is the main source of groupthink and denial of external problems.
E) is none of these.

Question 72

Negotiators tend to avoid "hardline" behaviours when they know an audience is watching them.

Question 73

According to the literature on organizational conflict,constructive conflict:

A) is a positive application of conflict in organizations.
B) is one of the most common outcomes of conflict.
C) is the only conflict management style that has high assertiveness and low cooperativeness.
D) is the main source of conflict in organizations.
E) should never be used as a conflict management strategy.

Question 74

The current perspective on organizational conflict is that:

A) conflict should be minimized.
B) conflict is the result of poor communication.
C) conflict is an inevitable result of increased technology and globalization.
D) All of these are correct.
E) moderate levels of conflict are necessary and produce favourable outcomes.

Question 75

Arbitration has a high level of process control but a low level of decision control.

Question 76

The preference for arbitration or mediation in work disputes partly depends on cross-cultural values.

Question 77

Negotiators tend to be more competitive and less willing to give concessions when their audience directly observes the negotiations.

Question 78

In most cultures,making concessions symbolizes a negotiator's motivation to bargain in good faith.

Question 79

Managers should arbitrate decisions when employees cannot resolve their differences alone.

Question 80

Which of the following best describes relationship conflict?

A) One party perceives that another party might oppose its interests.
B) The conflict is between two individuals rather than departments or organizations.
C) The conflict episodes are viewed as personal attacks rather than attempts to resolve the problem.
D) Two people adopt a win-win rather than a win-lose orientation.
E) None of these describes relationship conflict.