Conflict Management

141 Pages·2016·1.923 MB·English

by  Stephan Proksch (auth.)

Management for Professionals
Stephan Proksch
Confl ict
Management
Management for Professionals
Moreinformationaboutthisseriesathttp://www.springer.com/series/10101
Stephan Proksch
Conflict Management
StephanProksch
Vienna,Austria
Originally published in German with the title “Konfliktmanagement im Unternehmen”
publishedbySpringerGablerin2014withISBN978-3-642-35688-9.
ISSN2192-8096 ISSN2192-810X (electronic)
ManagementforProfessionals
ISBN978-3-319-31883-7 ISBN978-3-319-31885-1 (eBook)
DOI10.1007/978-3-319-31885-1
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2016942886
#SpringerInternationalPublishingSwitzerland2016
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Preface
This book demonstrates that tensions, differences and conflicts in companies and
organisationsarenormal,necessaryandproductiveiftheyaretakenseriouslyand
theemployeesandmanagersinvolvedfindaproactivewaytoapproachthem.
I have written this book for all those who are seeking new possibilities to
overcome difficult situations and conflicts. It provides managers and employees
in organisations with suggestions and methods to effectively and permanently
resolveproblems.Inordertohighlighttherelevanceofthecontentforprofessional
practice,eachchapterbeginsandendswithanexamplecasestudy.
After a general introduction to the topic of conflict, I address the classic and
traditionalmethodsofconflictmanagement.Thisisfollowedbyanexplanationof
the newer—I refer to them as complementary—methods. The central approach to
conflict management, mediation, is described in terms of its applicability for
managersandemployeesinorganisations.Isubsequentlyaddresstheconversation
techniques for conflict management as well as the questioning techniques. The
chapteronconflictpreventionprovidessuggestionsonhowunproductiveconflicts
canbeavoided.Finally,Idedicatetwochapterstotheimplementationofaninternal
companyconflictmanagementsystemanddescribetwopracticalcasesofsuccess-
fulimplementation.
I would like to sincerely thank the following people for their active support of
thisbookproject:
My wife, Sabine, for the patient review and improvement of the manuscript.
MybusinesspartnersGerhartC.F€urstandBarbaraWurz,fortheirsuggestionswith
respecttocontent.JackieKayeforherprofessionalhelpwiththetranslation,Max
Jahn for his helpful corrections and Robert Fucik for designing the humorous
cartoons.
Vienna StephanProksch
February2016
v
ThiSisaFMBlankPage
Contents
1 RecognisingandResolvingConflicts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 RiftBetweenCompanyFounders. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 WhatIsaConflict?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.3 ConflictsOftenApproachQuietly. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.4 ConflictAnalysis. . . . .. . . . .. . . . .. . . . .. . . . .. . . . .. . . . . 3
1.4.1 SettingObjectivesinaConflictSituation. . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.4.2 TypesofConflict. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.4.3 PartiestotheConflict. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.4.4 ConflictProgressionandEscalation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.5 HowtoConductaClarifyingConversation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.6 ConflictsintheWorkplace:CurseorBlessing?. . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.6.1 RisksArisingfromConflicts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.6.2 UsesofConflicts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.7 Excursus:Mobbing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.8 RiftBetweenCompanyFounders:WhatHappenedNext.... . . . 11
2 TraditionalMethodsofConflictManagement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.1 DifferingLeadershipStylesintheManagementTeam. . .. . . . . 13
2.2 TheTraditionalApproachtoConflictsinOrganisations. . . . . . . 14
2.2.1 ConflictsasOppositionBetweenEmployerand
Employee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.2.2 TraditionalMethodsofConflictManagement. . . . . . . 18
2.2.3 ConflictsasManifestationofPowerStruggles
andMicroPolitics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2.2.4 Excursus:FormsofPowerUsage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.3 TheFourBasicFormsofConflictManagementin
Organisations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.3.1 SeparativeMeasures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.3.2 Issue-RelatedMeasures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.3.3 Individual-RelatedMeasures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
2.3.4 IntegrativeMeasures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
vii
viii Contents
2.4 HowDoCorporationsDealwithConflictsToday?. . . . . . . . . . 27
2.4.1 UsesandLimitationsoftheTraditionalMethods. . . . . 28
2.5 ConflictManagement:TheHolisticView. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2.6 DifferingLeadershipStylesintheManagementTeam:What
HappenedNext.... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
3 ComplementaryFormsofConflictManagement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3.1 TheDifficultBoss. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3.2 BasicComplementaryFormsofConflictManagement. . . . . . . 32
3.2.1 Mediation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
3.2.2 Moderation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3.2.3 Supervision. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3.2.4 Coaching. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
3.2.5 TeamDevelopment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
3.3 OrganisationalDevelopmentVersusMediation?. . . . . . . . . . . . 35
3.3.1 OrganisationalDevelopmentandConflict
Management. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
3.3.2 MediationIsComplementarytoOrganisational
Development. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.4 IntegrativeFormsofConflictManagement:UsedtooRarely?. . . 40
3.4.1 MediationCostsTimeandMoney. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
3.4.2 ConflictAversion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
3.4.3 LossofPowerandControl. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
3.4.4 FearofDiscoveryandExposure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
3.4.5 LossofImageAmongColleagues. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
3.4.6 LackofKnow-howinDealingwithConflicts. . . . . . . 42
3.5 ConsequencesoftheRareUsageofIntegrativeForms
ofConflictManagement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
3.6 TheDifficultBoss:WhatHappenedNext.... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
4 Mediation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
4.1 ThePerformanceAppraisal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
4.2 Mediation:TheOrigins. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
4.3 TheMediationPhaseModel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
4.3.1 Pre-mediationPhase. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
4.3.2 ParameterDefinitionPhase. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
4.3.3 IssueCompilation. . .. . . . . .. . . . . .. . . . . .. . . . . .. 52
4.3.4 ConflictDiscussion. . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . .. 53
4.3.5 SearchforaSolution. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
4.3.6 Agreement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
4.3.7 Post-mediationPhase. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
4.4 ThePerformanceAppraisal:WhatHappenedNext.... . . . . . . . 55
5 MediationTechniques. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
5.1 ConflictintheSalesTeam. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
5.2 TensionsOftenTurnintoRealConflicts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
5.3 WhichFormsofCommunicationCauseConflictstoEscalate?. . . 59
Contents ix
5.4 WhichDiscussionTechniquesDefuseConflicts?. . . . . . . . . . . 61
5.4.1 ActiveListening. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
5.4.2 Paraphrasing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
5.4.3 I-Messages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
5.4.4 Meta-dialogue. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
5.4.5 GoalOrientation. .. . . . . . .. . . . . .. . . . . . .. . . . . . . 63
5.4.6 ChangeofPerspective. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
5.4.7 Feedback. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
5.4.8 (Constructive)Reformulation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
5.5 EmotionalIntelligence. . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. . .. 65
5.6 ConflictintheSalesTeam:WhatHappenedNext.... . . . . . . . . 66
6 QuestioningTechniques. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
6.1 WhenIsOneAllowedtoSmoke?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
6.2 TheAnswerDependsontheQuestionFormulation. . . . . . . . . . 70
6.3 TheThreeLevelsofMediationQuestioningTechniques. . . . . . 71
6.3.1 MediationApproach. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
6.3.2 QuestionForms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
6.3.3 QuestioningMethodology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
6.4 WhenIsOneAllowedtoSmoke?WhatHappenedNext.... . . . 77
7 ConflictPrevention. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
7.1 EverydayDisputesintheOffice. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
7.2 ProductiveandUnproductiveConflicts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
7.3 ConflictPreventionThroughCommunicationStructure
Configuration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
7.3.1 FormalCommunicationStructures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
7.3.2 OtherStructuralFormsofCommunication. . . . . . . . . . 83
7.4 ConflictPreventionThroughDiscussionandExpectation
Management. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
7.5 ConflictPreventionThroughSelf-ReflectionandPersonal
Development. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
8 SettingUpanInhouseConflictManagementSystem. . . . . . . . . . . 89
8.1 APharmaceuticalCompanyImprovesInternalCooperation. . . 89
8.2 WhatIsthePurposeofanInhouseConflictManagement
System?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
8.3 TheCoreElementsofanInternalConflictManagement
System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
8.3.1 InternalConflictManagers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
8.3.2 TheRoleofManagement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
8.3.3 InformationandInternalMarketing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
8.4 GuidelinesfortheImplementationofCooperativeConflict
Management. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
8.4.1 ConceptPhase. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
8.4.2 SteeringCommittee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95