Managing Organizational Conflict and Creativity

• conflict management requires the three roles of the manager which are interpersonal, informational and decisional roles.
• Viewing conflict as functional

  1. Conflict is not always socially disruptive, but rather an essential mechanism in the positive evolution of society
  2. Conflict is not only functional for the organization, it is essential to its very existence
  3. Conflict can be potentially constructive and have this typology
• Conflict management is the process by which disputes are resolved, there negative results are minimized and positive results are prioritized.
• The conflict management style

  1. Accommodating
  2. Avoiding
  3. Compromising
  4. Competing
• Accommodation

  • is for situations where you don’t care as strongly about the issue as the other person, if prolonging the conflict is not worth your time, or if you think you might be wrong. This option is about keeping the peace, not putting in more effort than the issue is worth, and knowing when to pick battles.
• Avoiding

  This style aims to reduce conflict by ignoring it, removing the conflicted parties, or evading it in some manner. Team members in conflict can be removed from the project they are in conflict over, deadlines are pushed, or people are even reassigned to other departments.
• Compromising.

  • This style seeks to find the middle ground by asking both parties to concede some aspects of their desires so that a solution can be agreed upon. This style is sometimes known as lose-lose, in that both parties will have to give up a few things in order to agree on the larger issue. This is used when there is a time crunch, or when a solution simply needs to happen, rather than be perfect. It can lead to resentment, especially if overused as a conflict resolution tactic, so use sparingly.
• Competing

  • This style rejects compromise and involves not giving in to others viewpoints or wants. One party stands firm in what they think is the correct handling of a situation, and does not back down until they get their way. This can be in situations where morals dictate that a specific course of action is taken, when there is no time to try and find a different solution or when there is an unpopular decision to be made. It can resolve disputes quickly, but there is a high chance of morale and productivity being lessened. Note: This is not a style that should be relied upon heavily
• Creativity refers to the ability to combine ideas in a unique way or to make unusual associations between ideas.
• Disruptive Innovation

  • innovations in products, services or processes that radically change an industry’s rules of the game
• change

  • is characterized as a constant yet varies in degree and direction
  • produces uncertainty yet is not completely unpredictable, and it creates both threats and opportunities.
• Organizational change occurs when there is any alteration in the People, Structure or Technology in it.
• Two main viewpoints on the change process:

  1. Calm waters metaphor
  2. White-water rapids metaphor