Communication Conflict Negotiation

Welcome to Topic 3: Communication Conflict Negotiation. Any organisation could face conflicts therefore, it is important to know how to resolve them. In order to resolve any conflict employees, as well as employers, need to know what negotiation techniques to use and how to use them.

In this topic, you will learn about:

• Decision making
• Faulty decision making
• Understanding communication
• Different types of communications and various communication channels.

These relate to the Subject Learning Outcomes:

1. Assess the key principles and theories underlying strategic people management and explain how their application enhances organisational and individual performance.
2. Evaluate the effectiveness of different approaches of leadership and the relationships between effective people management and organisational performance.
3. Demonstrate effective communication and practical problem-solving skills to effectively manage people in a range of organisational contexts.

Welcome to your pre-seminar learning tasks for this week. Please ensure you complete these prior to attending your scheduled seminar with your lecturer.

Click on each of the following headings to read more about what is required for each of your pre-seminar learning tasks.

Decision making and communication

Leaders are made by combining many attributes. A leader’s effectiveness and leadership are judged on the various decisions that are taken by them. The obvious attribute that gets overlook is that to be a great leader, they need to lead. People managers need to manage people, but leaders need to lead and many don’t. The leader will put their “neck on the line” and make choices and lead their team to understand their vision and choices (Smith 2021). Managers use their leadership capabilities to support and guide a team and improve the organisation (Indeed Editorial Team 2021). Understanding decision-making skills can help managers make difficult decisions. During this topic, we will understand how individuals make decisions in daily organisational activities, and what methods can be used to ensure a smooth decision-making process.

The following are examples of some of the basic questions you can ask yourself to determine if your decisions were ethical (Blanchard & Peale 1988).

• Is this decision fair?
• Will I feel better or worse about myself after I make this decision?
• Does this decision break any organisational rules?
• Does this decision break any laws?
• How would I feel if this decision was broadcast on the news?

While several decisions taken on behalf of the organisation can be crucial and have major consequences, other decisions can be made without giving much thought or effort. For example, before attending class you will make simple habitual decisions like dressing up. You do not spend much time thinking about these decisions. They are called programmed decisions (Garvin 2006).

Decisions that require conscious thinking and gathering of information can be called non-programmed decisions. According to the level at which it occurs, the decision making can be classified into three (3) areas. Each area of decision making has been provided as follows:

1.  Strategic decisions set the course of an organisation.
2. Tactical decisions are decisions about how things will get done.
3.  Operational decisions are decisions that employees make each day to run the organisation (Garvin 2006).

The following figure outlines eight (8) steps that can be taken when making a rational decision.

The preceding figure outlines eight (8) steps that can be taken when making a rational decision:

1. Identify the problem
2. Establish decision criteria
3. Weigh decision criteria
4. Generate alternatives
5. Evaluate the alternatives
6. Choose the best alternative
7. Implement the decision
8. Evaluate the decision.

The rational decision-making model has important lessons for decision-makers. Managers who have experience and are successful, are very much clear about what they want at the outset in the decision-making process. 

The following video provides you with details of the rational model, used to help support effective decision making. You will also learn, the role creativity plays when making decisions. 

Faulty decision making

Even though we use several types of models to ensure we make the best decision, sometimes the decisions we make might turn out to be the wrong decisions. This could be due to various reasons that lead individuals to be influenced in their decision making.

Influences that affect decision making

The following are examples of influences that can affect individuals’ decisions.

Overconfidence bias

Overconfidence bias takes place when employees overestimate their capabilities to predict future events. In an organisation there can be many individuals who exhibit signs of overconfidence. To avoid this happening, it is advised to take the time to stop and ask yourself whether you are being realistic in your judgements (Orkin 1991).

Hindsight bias

Hindsight bias is the opposite of overconfidence bias, as it occurs when looking backward in time where mistakes made seem obvious after they have already occurred.

Anchoring

Anchoring occurs when employees rely too much on one piece of information. Job seekers often fall into this trap by focusing on a desired salary while ignoring other aspects of the job offer such as additional benefits such as training and exposure (Becker 2007).

Framing bias

Framing bias refers to the tendency of decision-makers to be influenced by the way that a situation or problem is presented.

Escalation of commitment

Escalation of commitment takes place when employees continue on a failing course of action even after information states that the decision could lead towards a negative outcome. It is also referred to as sunk costs fallacy because the continuation is often based on the idea that one has already invested in this course of action (Finkelstein & Sanford 2000).

Understanding communication

Communication is extremely important in any organisation. It could be top-down communication bottom-up communication or even communication conducted in parallel. Proper communication is vital to any organisation, as it directs and coordinates all relevant actions taken and to be taken in the organisation (University of Minnesota 2015).

We also must keep in mind, that miscommunication can lead to various disasters in the organisation.

Functions of communication

Three (3) main functions are covered by the communication process, these include:

1. Transmitting information
2. Coordinating effort
3. Sharing emotions and feelings.

Even though communication is thought of as an easy process and communication can take place without a problem, we need to understand communication too can come with barriers. These barriers include:

• Filtering
• Selective perception
• Information overload
• Workplace gossip
• Gender differences
• Biased language (University of Minnesota 2015).

Different types of communications and various communication channels

There are various types of communication and communication channels that need to be considered.

Three (3) types of communications are available include:

1. Verbal communication
2. Written communication
3. Nonverbal communication.

The channel, or medium, used to communicate a message affects how accurately the message will be received. Verbal, written, and nonverbal communications have different strengths and weaknesses (Hall 1966).

Verbal communication

Verbal communications can occur in person, by phone or via electronic media. The medium of the message is oral. Storytelling, which is the sharing of stories that evoke emotions and insights, has been shown to be an effective form of verbal communication. It has helped organisations to construct dialogue and common meaning to employees within the organisation (McCarthy 2008).

Written communication

Written communications are printed messages such as memos, proposals, emails, letters, training manual and operating policies (University of Minnesota 2015). This means they can be a a hard copy or on the screen. It is also asynchronous (occurs at different times), meaning that the sender can write an email at 11am on Monday and the reader can read it at 2pm on Tuesday.

non-verbal communication

According to research non-verbal cues are also important forms of communication. To be effective communicators, we need to align our body language, appearance, and tone with the words we are trying to convey. For example, a frown may convey dissatisfaction and folded arms may convey a defensive message.

Think about a time you have experienced conflict, particularly in a workplace setting. How did you resolve them? Was it verbally or in written form? Did you need to negotiate a solution? There are numerous ways to resolve conflict and different communications forms come into play depending on the type of conflict. Whether you are an employee or employer, you will need to continue to build your communication skills to resolve conflict and ensuring you understand the three different types of communications can better assist you in conflict situations.

Conflict negotiation

Now that you’re more familiar with different decision-making approaches and communication types, let’s look at how we might use this to manage conflict. Conflict negotiations is an important component of being an effective manager and one that can’t be avoided. In fact, many individuals may want to avoid conflict where possible, but the best decisions sometimes involve conflict (Bright et al 2019). Imagine you’re a manager at an international law firm and you have an employee that turns up late to work every day. As the manager, you’re going to need to have a conversation with the employee to correct the behaviour. For both the manager and the employee this might be a difficult conversation that includes some conflict. If it is corrected, it can influence what other employees consider acceptable behavior, result in long term impacts on the organisations (Bright et al 2019).

There are two types of conflict that managers need to be aware of. These include:

1. Process conflict - This is be recommended way to manage conflict because research shows it leads to improved performance because managers and employees work together to identify solutions (Bright et al 2019).
2. Relationship conflict - This is conflict that should be avoided as it focuses on the conflict between individuals on a personal level such as personal attacks. This conflict can be harmful people will be reactive rather than rational in these situations (Bright et al 2019).

There are many different ways to manage conflict and each situation managers face will be different and require different strategies. Shonk (2021) proposed three negotiation strategies for conflict resolutions which are:

1. Avoid being provoked by an emotional response

During negotiations there may be a challenge of an individual’s competence or expertise. For example, it might be implied that you don’t have enough experience for the task, someone might say “you can’t be serious!” to degrade your ideas or criticise your style by asking you to not be so sensitive. Your initial reaction to this might be to get defensive, but there is another way. Kolb & Williams (2003) suggest the following responses:

• Recommend a break from the meeting to give everyone a chance to gain control of their emotions.
• Recognise the power play. For example, saying “I am serious. How about you allow me to clarify my plan”.
• Use evidence to support your response. For example, if someone says you’re wrong, provide specific examples of situations and facts that support your information.
• Focus on the issue at hand by recommending personal judgements are avoided (Shonk 2021).

2. Don’t abandon value-creating strategies

Try to find the same set of value-creation opportunities when dealing with conflict (Shonk 2021). This means that negotiators should understand the importance of collaborating with others when it comes to dispute resolution. For example, the conflict of both parties could result in reputation damage, then both parties would want to reach an agreement that is confidential – this is a value-creation opportunity. In the end, both parties will want to have the most peaceful and lasting resolution, so choosing a value-creating strategy can achieve this (Shonk 2021).

3. Use time to your advantage

Sometimes having regular meetings to work through conflict can be advantageous. It allows individuals to work through different strategies and use time to work through the differences. For example, an employee that is being performance managed may require weekly meetings with their manager to work through different strategies (Shonk 2021).

Now that you’ve explored some conflict negotiation approaches, see if what else you can find on managing conflict.

Welcome to your seminar for this topic. Your lecturer will start a video stream during your scheduled class time. You can access your scheduled class by clicking on ‘Live Sessions’ found within your navigation bar and locating the relevant day/class or by clicking on the following link and then clicking 'Join' to enter the class.

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The learning tasks are listed below. These will be completed during the seminar with your lecturer. Should you be unable to attend, you will be able to watch the recording, which can be found via the following link or by navigating to the class through ‘Live Sessions’ via your navigation bar.

Click here to access the recording. (Please note: this will be available shortly after the live session has ended.)

In-seminar learning tasks

The in-seminar learning tasks identified below will be completed during the scheduled seminar. Your lecturer will guide you through these tasks. Click on each of the following headings to read more about the requirements for each of your in-seminar learning tasks.

Welcome to your post-seminar learning tasks for this week. Please ensure you complete these after attending your scheduled seminar with your lecturer. Your lecturer will advise you if any of these are to be completed during your consultation session.

Each week you will have a consultation session, which will be facilitated by your lecturer. You can join in and work with your peers on activities relating to this subject. These session times and activities will be communicated to you by your lecturer each week. Your lecturer will start a video stream during your scheduled class time. You can access your scheduled class by clicking on ‘Live Sessions’ found within your navigation bar and locating the relevant day/class or by clicking on the following link and then clicking 'Join' to enter the class.

Click here to access your consultation session.

Should you be unable to attend, you will be able to watch the recording, which can be found via the following link or by navigating to the class through ‘Live Sessions’ via your navigation bar.

Click here to access the recording. (Please note: this will be available shortly after the live session has ended.)

• Gallup 2017, Gallup Daily: U.S. Employee Engagement, GALLUP
• Limbare, S 2012, ‘Leadership styles & conflict management styles of executives', Indian Journal of Industrial Relations, 48(1):172-180.

References

• Becker, WS 2007, 'Missed opportunities: The Great Bear Wilderness Disaster', Organizational Dynamics, 36:363–376.
• Finkelstein, S & Sanford, SH 2000, 'Learning from corporate mistakes: The rise and fall of Iridium', Organizational Dynamics, 29(2):138-148.
• Flink, H 2007, ‘Tell it like it is: Essential communication skills for engineers’, Industrial Engineer, 39(3):44-49.
• Garvin, DA 2006, 'All the wrong moves', Harvard Business Review, 18-23, https://hbr.org/2006/01/all-the-wrong-moves
• Hall, ET 1966, The hidden dimension, Doubleday.
• Indeed Editorial Team 2021, Why is decision-making an important leadership skill, Indeed, https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/why-is-decision-making-an-important-leadership-skill
• Kolb, DM & Williams, J 2003, Everyday negotiations, Jossey-Bass.
• McCarthy, JF 2008, ‘Short stories at work: Storytelling as an indicator of organizational commitment’, Group & Organization Management, 33(2):163-193.
• Nutt, PC 1998, ‘Surprising but true: Half the decisions in organizations fail’, Academy of Management, 13(4):75-89.
• Orkin, M 1991, Can you win? The real odds for casino gambling, sports betting and lotteries, WH Freeman.
• Shonk, K 2021, 3 negotiation strategies for conflict resolution, Harvard law School.
• Smith, DA 2021, The one leadership quality that you need: decision-making, Forbes, https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2021/12/09/the-one-leadership-quality-that-you-need-decision-making/?sh=2d7bb8e83f59
• University of Minnesota 2015, Principles of management, University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing Edition.