This is the chapter 10 10 Managing Conflict and Negotiations       After readin

This is the chapter 10
10
Managing Conflict and Negotiations
 
 
 
After reading this chapter, you should be able to:Page 378
LO 10-1 Describe contemporary conflict.
LO 10-2 Differentiate conventional forms of work-related conflict.
LO 10-3 Explain common forms of contemporary work-related conflict.
LO 10-4 Apply your knowledge to manage conflict.
LO 10-5 Implement your negotiation skills.
LO 10-6 Describe the implications of managing conflict and negotiations for you and managers.
The Organizing Framework in Figure 10.1 summarizes the key concepts you’ll learn in this chapter. Notice that many person factors, such as personality, experience, conflict-handling styles, mindfulness, and civility influence the type, frequency, and the intensity of conflict you have in all arenas of your life. Many of these same factors influence how you negotiate. You can also expect relationship quality, leadership, organizational climate, as well as norms and practices, to shape conflict and negotiations at work. The importance of these factors notwithstanding, our primary focus in this chapter is understanding conflict and negotiation processes, and how they impact nearly every outcome in the Organizing Framework. The complexity and broad impact of conflict highlights the critical importance of managing conflict for your own satisfaction and performance at work.Page 379Page 380
FIGURE 10.1 Organizing Framework for Understanding and Applying OB
SOURCE: ©2021 Angelo Kinicki and Mel Fugate. All rights reserved. Reproduction prohibited without permission of the authors.
Winning at Work
Negotiating Salaries and Raises
A good place to start is to realize salary negotiations are not as common as you think. Recent research by Robert Half Staffing and Hiring Solutions found only 39 percent of workers attempted to negotiate salary with their last job offer. Breaking this down further by gender and age, the survey showed 46 percent of men versus 34 percent of women, 45 percent of 18–34-year-olds, 40 percent of 35–54-year-olds, and 30 percent of those 55 and older engaged in salary negotiations. Asking can pay off, as one study revealed 84 percent of those who negotiated received more pay.1 With this in mind, experts offer the following advice for getting the best compensation you can.
Negotiating Your Salary for a New Job
Know the market rate. Research what companies are paying other employees with similar jobs. Glassdoor.com, Salary.com, PayScale, LinkedIn, and Randstad can help. It’s a good Idea to gather information from multiple sources. Be sure also to consider geographic differences; sometimes they are substantial. A PayScale survey revealed San Francisco has the largest year-to-year wage growth (4.9 percent at the end of 2018), while Nashville’s declined by a fraction of a percent.2
Know your own value. Can you justify asking for more than the market rate? If yes, then be prepared to justify this premium with compelling examples of your performance and accomplishments. You may also want to consider particular combinations of skills that give you an edge, such as engineering combined with project management, or experience and knowledge in hot industries, such as cybersecurity, cloud computing, or whatever is in demand in a particular city. Whether asking for premium or not, it is always a good idea to focus on how you currently do or will benefit your future or present employers.3
What’s in it for them? Of course, like everyone else you pursue particular jobs because of how they will benefit you. However, during interviews and negotiations for a new job you are best served to focus on the ways you can benefit your new employer, help the hiring manager reach her goals, and the positive impact you’ll have in work teams.
Be honest. Don’t exaggerate your current or past pay, actual value, or accomplishments.
Don’t go first. Try to wait for the other person to name a number. If you must say something first, then say you want to be paid the rate of a top performer with your qualifications. If pressed for an answer, give a range and not a specific dollar figure.
Consider benefits, too. Some of the most valuable parts of the compensation package may be insurance, retirement savings, vacation time, or the ability to work from home a certain percentage of time. Retirement may seem like eons away, but an employer matching a 5 percent contribution to your 401(k) plan is like giving you an extra 5 percent of pay—without an immediate tax bite.
Look at the long term. If you can’t get a big pay package, consider whether asking for something else that will help your long-term career, for example, a chance to work on an important assignment or have the company pay for certification or other training.
Finally, as pointed out by Kim Churches, chief executive of the American Association of University Women, when you’re offered a job the company wants you to take that job. “Negotiating your salary shouldn’t change their decision.”4
Negotiating a Pay Raise
Even during robust job markets with low unemployment, 81 percent of employers estimate offering raises of 3 percent or less. This means getting a raise is largely on you, and to set yourself up to win, preparation is critical. You need information, and the following are valuable sources and techniques for acquiring it.
Ask current colleagues. Peers are the best source but may also be the toughest. The best strategy is to be honest and say: “I’m not sure my salary reflects market value, so I’m checking with colleagues to find out what the current salary range is in our field. Would you be willing to talk about compensation?” Assure them you’ll keep this information confidential, and, if they’re willing, start by giving a range where your salary falls and asking how it compares with theirs.
Query former colleagues. Ask former coworkers their thoughts on an appropriate range for your job in a company of your employer’s size and industry. It may help to keep the discussion in the third person: What do you think is a competitive or appropriate salary for a solid performer doing X type of work in a company like mine (or a company like yours)?
Give to get. Another effective approach is to offer your salary: “Does X dollars sound competitive with what you’re making or what your company offers?”
Ask recruiters. One of the very best sources is recruiters who place people in jobs and companies like yours. Salary is almost always part of their discussions. So, if you’re going to build out your network, adding a recruiter or two who will share such info can be extremely valuable. But you need the relationship first. It’s no use cold calling a recruiter and expecting him or her to answer your questions—that expertise is part of what recruiters get paid for!
What’s Ahead in This Chapter
We continue our discussion of the group and team level in the Organizing Framework and address conflict and negotiation in this chapter. Conflict is an inevitable part of organizational life and can be both positive and negative. We explore common forms of conflict at work, such as personality and intergroup, and we’ll pay significant attention to work–life conflict and incivility (bullying, cyberbullying, and harassment). We then provide practical guidance on how to manage various forms of conflict, followed by an explanation of negotiation, including types of negotiations, the role of emotions, and ethical pitfalls.Page 381
10.1 A CONTEMPORARY VIEW OF CONFLICT
THE BIGGER PICTURE
Conflict is an ever-present part of life and an important group-level process in the Organizing Framework. To help you better understand and manage conflict, we explore several common causes of conflict at school and work. Then you’ll learn what it means to have too little, too much, and just enough conflict (the conflict continuum). We explain why not all conflict is bad or dysfunctional; some forms are functional or desirable. Next, we describe some desired outcomes of functional conflict.
Because conflicts occur between people, a good place to begin is for you to learn about your own tendencies for conflicts with others. You likely believe you have relatively few conflicts and are easy to get along with, which may be true. However, many of the most problematic bosses, coworkers, business partners, and classmates view themselves the same way. Test your impressions of yourself by completing Self-Assessment 10.1.
LO 10-1
Describe contemporary conflict.
 
SELF-ASSESSMENT 10.1  
Interpersonal Conflict Tendencies
Please be prepared to answer these questions if your instructor has assigned Self-Assessment 10.1 in Connect.
Does your score match your perception of yourself?
The assessment measures how well you get along with others and how they treat you; both are sources of conflict. If you were to improve the measure, what other factors do you think should be included?
Conflict Is Everywhere and It Matters
Conflict is a pervasive part of the human experience, and at work it can manifest as a lack of cooperation, exclusion, insults, bullying, anger, and many other behaviors and emotions. It also occurs within and between levels in the Organizing Framework and can affect most of the outcomes. Among the many undesirable outcomes of conflict are reduced productivity, project failure, stress, damaged reputations, and termination.5 It also is safe and wise to assume all forms of conflict at work are underreported.
However, it is important to realize conflict has both positive and negative consequences. The goal of this chapter is to help you understand how to avoid the negative consequences while also gaining from the positive outcomes. Let’s begin by defining conflict, describing the conflict continuum, then explaining the difference between functional and dysfunctional conflict.
A Modern View of Conflict
Conflict is the energy created by the perceived gap between what we want and what we’re experiencing, and as such, it is important to use this energy most effectively.Page 3826 Notice this definition describes conflict as a gap, just as we describe problems as gaps between what we want and what we have in the 3-Step Problem-Solving Approach. Also notice the word energy, which means conflict is more than a simple difference of opinion. You may disagree with someone and not care, but if you have no energy about it you have no conflict due to the difference. And the word perceived reminds us that sources of conflict can be real or imagined, just like perceptions of fairness. A lack of fairness, incidentally, perceived or real, is a major source of conflict at work. Your knowledge of OB will therefore prove useful in understanding and managing conflict.
A Conflict Continuum
Historically, management experts believed all conflict ultimately threatened management’s authority, reduced productivity, and thus should be avoided or quickly resolved. Experts later recognized the inevitability of conflict and advised managers to learn to live with it. As the understanding of conflict evolved, researchers and managers realized conflict had both positive and negative outcomes, and the most productive way to think of it was in terms of too much conflict or too little. Neither is desirable.
Appropriate types and levels of conflict energize people to move in constructive directions7 and are illustrated in Figure 10.2. The differences between types and levels of conflict lead to the distinction between functional and dysfunctional conflict discussed next.
Functional vs. Dysfunctional Conflict
The distinction between functional conflict and dysfunctional conflict pivots on whether the organization’s interests are being served. Functional conflict, commonly referred to as constructive or cooperative conflict, is characterized by consultative interactions, a focus on the issues, mutual respect, and useful give-and-take. In such situations people often feel comfortable disagreeing and presenting opposing views. Functional conflict can foster several desirable outcomes, such as:
Open-mindedness. When conflict is functional, people speak up, others listen, which in turn can increase engagement.
Increased understanding and strengthened relationships. Feeling understood, even when views differ, cultivates respect and empathy. These of course facilitate productive problem solving.
Innovation. Working through conflicts in a positive manner pushes people to consider different views than they would otherwise, which often results in new and better processes and outcomes.
Accelerated growth. Functional conflict results in change—a break from the status quo—and improves performance across levels of OB.8
Hopefully, these potential benefits will motivate you and others to invest the time and energy to work through conflict rather than avoiding it.
Each of these beneficial factors is lacking in cases of dysfunctional conflict, which are disagreements that threaten or diminish an organization’s interests.9 A primary reason we study and manage conflict is because of its costs due to:
Absenteeism. Conflict is a major driver of people not showing up. More conflict generates more stress, more stress results in more time off.
Turnover. Lack of fairness, bullying, or other forms of disrespect and incivility cause people to quit altogether.
Unionization. Again, a lack of fairness can be costly and motivate employees to organize to combat poor treatment and practices.
Litigation. If conflict is not dealt with effectively internal to the organization, many employees will seek legal remedies which are often expensive not only in terms of money, but also time and reputations.10Page 383
FIGURE 10.2 Relationship between Conflict Intensity and Outcomes
SOURCE: Donald, Carrie G., John D. Ralston, and Suzanne F. Webb. “Arbitral Views of Fighting: An Analysis of Arbitration Cases, 1989–2003.” Journal of Academic and Business Ethics 2 (July 2009): 1–19.
These outcomes highlight the critical role of management, and your own actions, in determining whether conflict is positive or not. To effectively deal with any kind of conflict, we need to understand some of the common causes.
Common Causes of Conflict
Some causes are more common than others, and knowing these can help you and managers anticipate conflict and take steps to resolve it if it becomes dysfunctional. Table 10.1 lists several of the most common. Which have you experienced?
TABLE 10.1 Common Causes of Workplace Conflict11
SOURCE: Society of Human Resource Management. “Managing Workplace Conflict.” Accessed July 4, 2019. https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/tools-and-samples/toolkits/pages/managingworkplaceconflict.aspx.
Proactive managers look for these early warnings and take appropriate action. For example, conflict can sometimes be reduced by making decisions on the basis of majority approval rather than striving for a consensus. However, if conflict is unnoticed or allowed to continue, it can and does escalate.
Escalation of Conflict
When conflict escalates, the exchanges intensify and conflicting parties commonly turn to destructive and negative attacks. When this happens those involved are often more about undermining or hurting the other party than advancing one’s own interests. The involvedPage 384 parties also tend to take more extreme positions and becoming less flexible.12 Common warning signs of conflict escalation are:
Tactics change. Parties move from “light tactics,” such as persuasive arguments, promises, and efforts to please the other side, to “heavy tactics” that include threats, power plays, and even violence.
Number of issues grows. More issues that bother each party are raised and included in the conflict.
Issues move from specific to general. Small and specific concerns often become more vague or general and can evolve into a general dislike of or intolerance for the other party.
Number of parties grows. More people and groups are drawn into the conflict.
Goals change. Parties change their focus from “doing well” or resolving conflict to winning and even hurting the other party.13
Sometimes conflict will result in wanting to quit your job—you’ve either had enough or you don’t see the people or situation changing meaningfully. When this occurs, you’ll be looking for a job while still in your conflict-ridden job and will thus need to explain in an effective way why you want to leave. The Applying OB box provides some guidance.
 
Applying OB CAREER READINESS
You’ve Decided to Leave Your Job . . . How Do You Explain It During an Interview?14
Many of your job searches will occur while you’re still employed. This means you’ll often be asked during interviews, “So, why do you want to leave your current job?” There may be many specific reasons, but often it’s because you’re unsatisfied, perhaps due to a lack of opportunity, boring work, horrible boss, or low pay. Of course, another common reason is conflict. Whatever the reason, you need to have an effective response to this question. The following tips should help.
Acknowledge the Obvious
When you currently have a job and are interviewing for another, interviewers realize something isn’t working for you and you’re willing to leave. This obvious fact is often overlooked by job candidates and undermines their performance in interviews. Don’t forget or feel uncomfortable with this obvious fact.
This is the problem to solve
PROBLEM-SOLVING APPLICATION CASE
With Trouble Comes Conflict, and with Conflict Comes Trouble
Facebook’s meteoric growth and central role in revolutionizing social media has been overshadowed in recent years by its many controversies, such as the company’s role related to influencing the presidential election in 2016, the improper harvesting and use of nearly 90 million user accounts by Cambridge Analytica, and the widespread concerns by users and regulators that the company insufficiently protects its more than 2.2 billion users’ data and privacy. These issues are significant, as they can and have cost the company users, advertising revenues, damage to its reputation, along with fines and restriction from regulators. Adding to the troubles, top level executives like Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg’s conduct has been questioned on ethical grounds for how they’ve responded.108
PRECIOUS JEWELS, NOW COSTLY CONFLICT
However, the issues that grab fewer headlines but perhaps signal other significant troubles are the departures of key executives of companies Facebook has acquired, notably Instagram and WhatsApp. Facebook bought Instagram in 2012 for $1 billion, when it had only a few employees and about 30 million users. It now has 1 billion users and an estimated value of $100 billion if it were independent. WhatsApp was purchased in 2014 for $19 billion at a time when it had approximately 50 employees and about 450 million users. Just two years later the number was over 1 billion users. These acquisitions have been central to Facebook’s strategy and growth, but the founders of these two companies (Jan Koum and Brian Acton of WhatsApp, and Kevin Systom and Mike Krieger of Instagram) have all left in the period of a few months, signaling conflict and trouble at the social networking icon.109
HARMONIOUS AUTONOMY
The founders of both Instagram and WhatsApp stayed in place for several years after their companies were acquired, which is not the norm given many cash out and leave. They however were allowed to run their companies much as they had, maintaining autonomy and the ability to creatively realize their visions for the companies they created. For WhatsApp founders, Koum and Acton, their passion was the privacy of communication. WhatsApp’s encrypted messaging service exploded in parts of the world where messaging services were either expensive or social networks like Facebook had not penetrated. Mr. Koum, in particular, valued secure communication due to his upbringing in the Soviet Union where everyone was monitored all of the time. The founders continued to develop Whats-App’s end-to-end encryption after the Facebook acquisition, avoided advertising, and maintained offices separate from Facebook’s campus. In fact, WhatsApp’s offices do not even bear the company’s name; how about that for dedication to privacy?
As for Instagram, Systom and Krieger also preserved considerable autonomy over the app and grew advertising revenues to $6 billion in 2018. The app is growing and is particularly popular with younger people. Despite the controversies consuming Facebook and Zuckerberg, the founders’ relationship with Zuckerberg seemed harmonious and was often touted by Zuckerberg and others as a model for how to acquire and work with small tech companies.
ZUCKERBERG ASSERTS CONTROL
Facebook, fairly or not, is equated with its founder, Mr. Zuckerberg, who maintains control and largely determines the direction and structure of the company he founded. And therein lies the source of many of the conflicts. Zuckerberg envisions integrating Facebook’s apps (Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram) which will require the sharing of user data between the products in ways not done previously. Part of this effort has included reorganizing senior management and installing Adam Mosseri as VP of product design at Instagram, a role previously filled by the founders. But it didn’t stop there. Zuckerberg also inserted Chris Cox, Facebook’s chief product officer, between him and Systom and Krieger, which many internal to Instagram viewed as a move to put a trusted “Facebook first” person in place to control the direction and guard against the departure of the founders.
CONFLICTS GROW AND FOUNDERS EXIT
Instagram’s founders increasingly disagreed with Zuckerberg and other Facebook executives during meetings, and although historically quite cordial, the disagreements became more severe and spilled overPage 420 onto internal message boards. As for WhatsApp, Zuckerberg is determined for the app to start using advertising and making money, which requires sharing user data between the apps. Koum had taken issue with how data was used by social media companies, especially by Facebook, and abruptly resigned. As one reporter put it: “Instead of changing his values, Mr. Koum is leaving Facebook.”110 His departure was further complicated due to his seat on Facebook’s board of directors (he resigned).
In the period of only a few months all of the founders of these crown jewel acquisitions had left. Although some of the motives were unique to individual executives, they appeared to share a growing dissatisfaction with Zuckerberg and the direction of the company. Power and decision making were shifting away to others and becoming more centralized. It is likely the departing executives felt their objections would not prevail and resistance would be futile.
THE PROBLEM IS BIGGER AND THE CONFLICTS MORE NUMEROUS
The problem is not just confined to WhatsApp and Instagram. Justin Rosenstein (creator of the “like” button), Chamath Palihapitiya (head of user growth), and Sandy Parakilas (platform operations manager) have all left. They, too, have taken issue with protection of data and privacy, the use of the platforms to manipulate thought and behavior, as well as the lack of personal accountability by executives. Their issues reflect a growing concern across the industry about increased growth and connectivity, but at what cost. Zuckerberg and other social media executives are being pressed to justify if not alter their own values, or at least the practices of their companies, related to data protection, usage, and privacy.111
Some view the conflicts and departures of key executives as pushback against Zuckerberg’s mission for Facebook, to “make the world more open and connected.” Increasingly, as described in this case, important players both inside and outside the company are taking issue with the means for reaching this end. Zuckerberg, as the founder and face of the company, is now forced to confront challenges and genuine conflict on many fronts, and how effectively he does this will determine the direction, path, and outcomes for years to come.
Assume you are Mark Zuckerberg, and you can go back in time before the departures of these key executives. Apply the knowledge and tools in this chapter and the 3-Step Problem-Solving Approach to determine how you would deal with the conflicts described above.
please do chapter 10 just like chapter 9 if you have any questions please reach out to me.