Conflict

presented by :

Abhishek Upadhyay , Akhil Bhadrecha

Anshul k. Singh, Avijit Das
Kesharpu Sekhar & Saurabh Tamrakar
 Definition of Conflict
• A situation in which someone believes that his or her own
needs have been denied.

• Implies disagreement, discord, and friction among members of

a group; where words, emotions, and actions "strike together"
to produce disruptive effects.

• A state of incompatibility of ideas between two or more parties

or individuals.
 What is Conflict?

• Opposition
• A clash of opposing ideas/interest
• Disagreement
• Fight or battle
• Contention
• Hostility
• Be incompatible
• Struggle
Symptoms Of Conflict (1 of 2)
 Tensions.
 Work not done properly.
 Disastrous meetings.
 Anger occurs quickly and easily.
 Absenteeism.
 Competition
 Decreased rate of interaction
 Low trust and Suspicion
 Hostility
Symptoms Of Conflict (2 of 2)
 Accidents and errors become more frequent.
 Disagreements become more pronounced.
 The employee (or employees) involved
display no desire to communicate.
 Bad tempers are evident.
 Productivity is falling.
 Morale is slipping.
 Causes of Conflict
• Opposing viewpoints or opinions
• Emotions
• Selfishness
• Breach of faith and trust
• Miscommunication or misunderstandings
• Assumptions
• Underlying stress and tension
• Ego problems
 Levels of Conflict

Conflict can occur at three levels namely: Individual level

,Interpersonal level, Group or organizational level.
 Perhaps nothing is said yet.
Discomforts Things don't feel right. It may be
difficult to identify what the
problem is.
Here a short, sharp exchange occurs
without any lasting internal reaction. Has
something occurred between you and Incidents
someone else that has left you upset,
irritated or with a result you didn't want?

Here motives and facts are often confused or Misunderstandings

misperceived.

Here relationships are weighed down by negative

attitudes and fixed opinions. Has the way you feel
about and regard the other person significantly Tension
changed for the worse?

Behavior is affected, normal functioning becomes Crisis

difficult, extreme gestures are contemplated or
executed
 What About Organization?

Unrealistic Inadequate
Expectations Resources

CONFLICTS

Lack of Reduce
Cooperation Energy
 How do we see conflict
• Traditional view
– Conflict is bad
– Caused by trouble-makers
– Should be avoided

• Human Relation view

– Conflict is natural
– It is inevitable
– Cannot be eliminated

• Interactions view
– Conflict is necessary
– It can be negative or positive
– It effects group performance
 Common Myths About Conflict
• Deciding to withdraw from a conflict is weakness.
• Every fight or disagreement must be won.
• Men are supposed to be aggressive, never passive.
• Women are supposed to be passive and submissive,
and never stand up for themselves.
Our complaints Lack of trust
are trivialized

No action
gets taken! They only take
defensive
action

Types of Conflict
 INTRAPERSONAL CONFLICT-  Conflict within the
individual. 
• Approach conflict: an individual must choose among
alternatives, each of which is expected to have a positive
outcome. 
• Avoidance conflict: an individual must choose among
alternatives, each of which is expected to have a negative
outcome. 
• Avoidance conflict: an individual must decide whether to
do something that has both positive and negative
outcomes.
• INTERGROUP CONFLICT-  An overt expressions of
tensions between goals or concerns of one group or
those of another group.  There are opposing interests,
group boundaries or group differences involved.  The
conflict is directly or indirectly related to culture group
identities.  Sources of this type conflict includes:
Competing Goals; Competition of Resources; Cultural
Differences; Power Discrepancies; Assimilation  vs.
Preservation of micro cultural identity.
 INTRAGROUP CONFLICT This type of conflict is conflict
between the group members.  There are two types of
conflict:
Relationship conflict
• Relationship conflict exists when there are interpersonal
incompatibilities among group members, which typically
includes tension, animosity, and annoyance among
members within a group.
Task conflict
• Exists when there are disagreements among group
members about the content of the tasks being performed,
including differences in viewpoints, ideas, and opinions.
Conflict Management

Conflict is inevitable, but combat is

optional.
~Max Lucado, theologian
 Conflict Handling Styles

avoiding

compromise

competition

accommodation

collaboration
 Avoiding

• Characteristics When to use

• ignoring conflicts and hoping they’ll
go away
• putting problems under consideration
or on hold
• use of secrecy to avoid confrontation
• appeal to bureaucratic rules
• Trivial, small/unimportant
issue
• no perceived chance of
resolution
• To allow a cool down period
• To allow others to resolve the
situation
 Compromise

Characteristics When to use

• negotiation • goals are important, but not worth effort
• looking for deals and • opponents with equal power are committed
trade-offs to mutually exclusive goals
• finding satisfactory or • achieve temporary settlements to issues
acceptable solutions • arrive at solutions under time pressure
• back-up to collaboration or competition

• Characteristics
• create win-lose situations
• use of power plays
• forcing submission
Competition
When to use
• quick, decisive action is vital, very
important
• unpopular actions eg. cost cutting
• issues are vital to company welfare
• against people who take advantage of non-
competitive behavior
 Accommodation

Characteristics When to use

• giving way • find you are wrong
• submission and • issues more important to others than yourself
fulfillment • maintain cooperation
• build social credits for later on
• minimize loss
• harmony and stability are important
• allow team members to learn from their mistakes
 Collaboration

Characteristics When to use

• problem-solving carriage
• tackle differences
• sharing ideas and information
• seeing problems and conflicts as
challenges
• find an integrative solution when
both sets of concerns are
important
• objective is to learn
Is Conflict Good or Bad ?
• Good Consequences
of Conflict
• increased creativity
• It forces people to clarify their views
• It can produce constructive
social change
• It gives people the
opportunity to test
their capacities
• development of group and
organization cohesion
• Bad Consequences
of Conflict
Violence
Breakdown of Relationship
polarization of views into static positions
Breakdown of
collaborative ventures
destruction of
communication
Diverts energy
 Conclusion
• Conflict is neither good nor bad .It’s inevitable.
• All unresolved conflict weakens relationships
• All unresolved conflict decreases productivity & lowers
performance. -

• When managed properly it can be a catalyst for growth

but when managed poorly it can be disastrous.

• Productivity is GREATEST with a MODERATE amount of

conflict. Productivity is LOWEST when:
– There is no conflict (laissez-faire attitude)
– There is too much conflict (high anxiety, tension)
Thank You