Summarization

Of
Conflict and Stress
Group 3

13 Conflict and Stress

Learning Objectives
1. Understand the nature of conflict in organizations and its leading causes.
2. Have the necessary information to resolve many workplace conflicts, including dealing with
difficult people.
3. Be aware of basic negotiating and bargaining techniques to resolve conflict.
4. Understand the nature, causes, and consequences of work stress.
5. Explain what organizations can do to manage and reduce stress.
6. Do a more effective job of managing your own stress.

A. Understand the nature of conflict in organizations and its leading causes.

Nature of Conflict in Organizations
Organizational conflict, or otherwise known as conflict in the workplace, is
characterized as the state of dispute or confusion arising from the real or perceived
disagreement between the organization’s members about needs, values, resources, and
relationships. Whenever two or more individuals communicate at work, conflict arises when
views are in contradiction with regard to some mission or decision. It is the outcome of human
interaction. Conflict within an organizational may lead members to become dissatisfied if they
feel as though there is no solution in sight, or if they feel that other group members do not
recognize their views. As a consequence, participants are depressed, which affects their
professional and personal lives adversely.

Causes of Conflict in Organizations

A number of factors are known to known to facilitate organizational conflict under certain
circumstances. It has numerous sources, antecedents, or outright causes. Anytime a new type
of conflict might arise. Some of the causes of workplace conflicts are the following:
1. Perceived Adverse Changes
One of the changes that cause sudden chaos and confusions in an organization
is downsizing. It refers to laying off workers to reduce costs and increase competence.
Management will reduce employees as many as possible and replace them with
machines or gadgets. For instance some carwash businesses doesn’t require humans to
clean the car because it can be done by an automatic carwash system. It precipitates
labor versus management conflict.
 2. Line versus Staff Differentiation

Line and Staff units serve different purposes. Line groups work for the main
purpose of the company. They focus primarily on sales. On the other hand, staff units
serve as a support to line groups. They ensure the efficiency and effectiveness of line
staffs and confirm that they are conforming to the environmental laws. When line units
notices or perceives that staff units are meddling with their decisions a conflict
emerges.
3. Sexual Harassment

Sexual Harassment is one of the major concerns of many employees working in

different organizations. It is also known to be experienced by lots of workers which cause
conflicts and discomfort. It has also been reported and presented to media for so long.
Sexual harassment cases often deal with more than just physical injuries. Victims
experience mental and emotional harms that can have wide-reaching effects throughout all
aspects of their lives.
Types and Frequency
 quid pro quo harassment-This refers to the employees reaction or behavior
towards sexual advances. It is used against them by threatening their
positions at work. Depending on their submission or rejection of unwanted
sexual advances, they could be hired, fired or fail to be promoted.
 Hostile working environment-harassment takes place when someone in the
workplace generates an uncomfortable workplace environment. This could
happen because of different interpretations and perspectives of employees
within the same workplace. For example, one of the employees forgot to
exit a pornographic site and one of the female employees accidentally saw
it. This could lead to conflicts between men and women. Recently,
transgender workers were reported to be experiencing sexual harassment
from co-workers. This is not limited to women and trans but there are also
men who are reported to be suffering from the same type of harassment.

Sexual Harassment should not be taken lightly because it can cause severe impacts to
victims. It could lead to anxiety, depression, eating disorders, drug abuse, voluntary job
turnover, and post-traumatic stress.
4. Factional Groups and Intragroup Conflict
Factional Group- Often called subgroups. These are groups that form by merging of
two companies who wants to work together or start a new business venture. By this, there will
be representatives of the both companies to handle the joint venture. Conflict arises in
factional groups because everyone has different points of view and different loyalties since
employees came from different groups which referred as interpersonal conflict. Also potential
conflict would be the difference in demographic characteristics such as age, gender, or even
educational level (superiority). The conflict in factional group is referred as intragroup conflict
since the problems are just within the group members inside the company. It has several
sources such as diverse opinions and perspectives, and generational conflicts, incivility,
personality clashes, and bullying.
5. Competing Work and Family Demands
Work-family conflict occurs when a person faces incompatible demands between work
and family roles, making it more difficult to engage in both roles. This mismatch causes conflict
at the interaction between work and life. The effects associated with work-family conflict are
critical for organizations and individuals to consider. Work-family conflict has been associated
with increased workplace burnout, job stress, reduced wellbeing, and problems related to
work-family conflict in some situations.
For example, Jean is a single mom of two young boys. Joanne has a full-time career, but
she is also facing financial problems and has recently taken on a second art time job. Jean’s
busy schedule also prevents her from spending time and attending her activities with her kids.
Recently, she overheard her youngest son telling his classmate that his mom was too busy and
was working all the time. Jean is trying to reconcile her job and family life, but her condition
does not allow for many options.
6. Incivility, Personality Clashes, Bullying, and Abusive Supervision
Several conflicts in the workplace stem from incivility, personality clashes, bullying, and
abusive supervision. Incivility refers to a social behavior that lacks good manners. It often leads
to negative consequences such as loss of focus, a decline in productivity, a deliberate slacking
off among disgruntled employees, and sometimes serious health problems. Conflicts could
also happen between two (or more) people due to a fundamental incompatibility in their
personal attributes, preferences, interests, values, and styles. This refers to personality clashes.
Generational differences can result in personality clashes based on differences in values. The
members of different generations often have different values, and these differences can lead
to workplace conflict. Bullying also leads to workplace conflict. Bullies are those people who
possess behaviors like ranting in a loud voice, excessive teasing, hostile glares, and making
threats. Those workers with less power, especially those who are working in personal service
roles, such as housekeepers, nannies, and office assistants are the people who are most likely
to be the victims of bullying. Bullying behavior leads to conflict because the workers’ demand
for peace contradicts to the demand of the bullies. Abusive supervision is considered as a form
of workplace bullying that often leads to workplace conflict. Supervisors often become abusive
when their subordinates possess a poor performance. Supervisors with a tendency toward
being hostile combined with limited self-control are the most likely to be abusive however,
those supervisors who were mindful of their feelings of hostility were less likely to have hostile
outbursts. Generally, these factors destroy collaboration and as a result, team effectiveness
suffers.
7. Task versus Relationship Conflict
To identify a conflict one must know its sources. There are 2 types of conflict in an
organization one is Task Conflict which deals with disagreements within a group mostly on
how to get a work done. It is also referred to as cognitive conflicts because it focuses on work
rather
B. Have the necessary information to resolve many workplace conflicts, including dealing
with difficult people.
The self-managed work team members are working together on an ongoing, day-to-
day basis. The production and service are given to self-managed work team as a responsibility
or the "ownership" of it. They are accountable to any defection and delay of the job because as
a self-managed work team member he/she will be responsible of the action made. In
promoting the ownership, workers were taught to be more generalist rather than specialist.
So, each member will learn and soon to be flexible of any types of work for some reason if the
other member is sick or absent anyone from the worker were able to do the task. This help to
boost the pride of the worker and the team to their work. As a result of, motivation to the
worker that gives a positive feeling in working inside the firm. Although self-managing work
team may lead by an internal leader, which may not be appointed by the firm but by the work
team, external leader, like a middle manager, were most likely contribute to the work team. As
the result of one study, self-managing work teams were more effective when an external
leader coached the team and challenges preparation for the team. Characteristics the edge of
having a successful work team because a work team need a right personality and cognitive
characteristics.
Dealing with Difficult People
It’s hard to handle a coworker who continuously causing problems or makes minimal
actions that unconsciously distracts other workers and affects one’s job performance.
Difficult person- this is what you call to a person who blissfully unaware of the negative impact
that they have on those around them. This person makes other workers feel inconvenient or
they create complications for others.
Example of situations with the occurrence of a difficult person:
The “yes person”- a person who just agree on everything the managers wants the group/team
to do but rarely submit on time.
Well known executives- because of popularity they sometimes have difficulty on interacting
with work associates.
Person who “throw others under the bus”- these individuals are quick to assign blame to
others when problems arise.
Note:
 Difficult employees have been gradually increasing through the years. It is visible to the
number of employees who is part of the employee assistance programs whom the
managers referred to for them to handle their personalities or characteristics but
sometimes managers became bullies and put their coworkers names who they don’t
personally like.
 Psychiatrist Jody Foster notes that, when workers act in inappropriate ways (e.g.,
bullying, excessive micromanaging, displaying narcissistic tendencies), the results can
be devastating to the entire workplace
Techniques for helping difficult people change to more constructive behavioral patterns:
1. Use tact and diplomacy in dealing with annoying behavior- Sometimes, employees
don’t irritate one another purposely, so confrontation is always not the key, being tactful
and diplomacy is helpful. Tact is the act of using gentle (non-offensive) language when
dealing with issues. Tact is knowing what to say to avoid giving offense, and how and
when to say it. Diplomacy is the skill of managing people, and the ability to communicate
in a non-offensive manner. But when tact and diplomacy isn’t effective it can be integrated
with confrontation with pointing out some good qualities of the other party. (i.e. when
your coworkers is talking at your back in the comfort room and you’re at one cubicle, let
them notice your presence by using your phone).
2. Hold an honest and candid conversation with the toxic coworker- Don’t assume that
the person annoying you will suddenly stop. Try to friendly approach the person and have
an honest conversation. Exchange a productive feedback for each other to solve some
misunderstandings. (i.e. Approach the coworker who’s annoying you and say “It is difficult
for me to get my point across when you talk over my voice every time we work on a
problem together. Is there anything I am doing wrong that makes work difficult for you?”
3. Use nonhostile humor- This humor can help you out by making the difficult person be
aware of his/her behavior that affected others in a humorous manner. By using this it can
resolve conflicts between you and that person. (i.e. If you and that person who annoys you
work on a report together and he/she always points out something wrong with your work,
you could phrase to everyone “Striving for perfection is admirable but the striving is
creating stress for you”).
4. Give recognition and attention- Difficult people actually just seeking for attention so
giving them the recognition and attention they want will gradually minimize their
counterproductive behavior. But if their undesirable behavior has a deep cause then
recognition and attention is not helpful, maybe referring them for counseling would be the
best option.
 5. Reinforce civil behavior and good moods- Use the positive reinforcement. Recognize the
difficult person when he/she behave appropriately, let him/her notice that when he/she
behaves they’ll get a good remarks and maybe, they’ll unconsciously behave that way
again. Reinforcing statements would include, “its enjoyable working with you today,”
and “I appreciate your professional attitude.”

C. Be aware of basic negotiating and bargaining techniques to resolve conflict.

In any conflict, people aim to reach the best possible outcome. Negotiating and
bargaining refer to a common way of how people resolve conflict. Bargaining refers to
conversing about the possible outcome that the other party wants while negotiating refers to
conversing about the reason why they want such outcome to happen. For example, when you
are trying to negotiate an equitable working hour for yourself, you are trying to settle a dispute
between yourself and your employer.
Compromise
Compromise refers to the approach of resolving conflict wherein a person agrees to carry out
something if the other person agrees to do something else. This approach is typically used by a
person mainly to balance the need of both parties by encouraging the parties involved to give
in on at least some points. For example, Camille wants to buy a land worth ₱ 12,000,000.
However, she does not want to pay that much, so she makes an offer of ₱10,000,000. Thea,
the seller does not want to go that low but does want to sell the land soon so she offers to sell
for ₱11,000,000. Camille accepts the deal and the land is sold. In this case, Camille paid
₱1,000,000 more than she wanted to and Thea sold for ₱1,000,000 less, but the land was
exchanged, which was the main goal of both parties.
Allow Room for Negotiation, but Be Plausible
To allow room for negotiation, there must be a demand first that opens a room for
compromise and concession. An example would be anyone negotiated for the price of a car.
The buyer makes an initial offer of ₱5,000,000. After negotiation, you closed the deal with an
offer of ₱4,500,000, precisely what you wanted. However, one must have his demand plausible
in a way that it would not stake out a position so high.

Use Facts More than Threats

In the middle of a negotiation, both parties often become emotional. There are instances that
one party comes to a point that it already threatens the other party. It is best to stick with the
facts rather than possessing threats to the other side. For example, an author might say “I want
you to eliminate those lines in your text because those are my intellectual property.” One
should share his understanding of the situation without activating a perception of anger.
Focus on Interests, Not Positions
Keep your general interests in mind rather than sticking to particular bargaining points, and
strive to fulfill them. Bear in mind that the real aim of negotiations is to meet the underlying
interests of both parties. This is how this technique operates: You are given an offer for a role
you really want when job searching. You have in mind a certain starting wage, which is $5,000
higher than the job offers per year. By analyzing the overall compensation package, including
employee benefits, along with the cost of living in the city, your interests are best served. It
might best serve your true interests to consent to a starting salary lower than you had
expected.
A main advantage of concentrating on interests rather than places is that it helps to put the
emphasis away from winning and on what you actually want to accomplish.
Make Small Concessions Gradually
In most cases, making steady compromises leads to more satisfactory agreements.
Negotiation Concessions are also sometimes referred to as 'trade-offs' where one or more
parties to a negotiation engage in conceding, yielding, or compromising on issues under
negotiation and do so either willingly or unwillingly. Gradually, if the person decides to step up
the deal for the 10-speed bike, you concede little things to the other side, such as throwing in
an air pump and a backpack. The simple-concession tactic is described as a soft bargaining
strategy. The hardline policy is to make the maximum agreement early in the negotiation and
not to grant any additional concessions. In our example, "My bike includes an air pump and a
backpack for sale at $400." Instead of letting it go for less, I'll keep the bike.
Use Deadlines
In winning a negotiation or settling a dispute, setting the other side a deadline is always
beneficial. Deadlines also push individuals into action because some kind of external influence
or motivation is required. “Here is an example of how you will be able to use deadlines in your
negotiation to gain advantage:" Shall I obtain a promotion to project leader by 31 December? If
not, I'm going to be forced to accept jobs at another organization that gave me such a
promotion.

Ask the Other Side, “What Do You Want Me to Do?”

For all negotiation and other methods of dispute resolution, a successful strategy is to ask the
other party what he or she would want you to do to achieve an agreement. If you do what the
other side wishes, an agreement is always reached. The underlying psychology is that the
other side would feel engaged, having offered the solution. Here is an example, For a major
mission, your teammates and you divide up the job. Several of your colleagues don't seem to
think that you are making an equitable contribution. You learn that negotiations are
interrupted after negotiating your contribution for about 30 minutes. Then you ask, "What
would you want me to do, people?" Since you are so cooperative, you're very cooperative.

D. Understand the nature, causes, and consequences of work stress.

Nature of Work Stress
Physiological symptoms of stress include increased heart rate, blood pressure, breathing
rate, pupil size, and perspiration. If stress symptoms are severe or persist over a prolonged
period, the result can be additional stress-related disorders, such as migraine headaches,
ulcers, colitis, and allergies.
Emotional symptoms of stress include anxiety, tension, depression, discouragement, feeling
unable to cope, boredom, prolonged fatigue, feelings of hopelessness, and various kinds of
defensive thinking. Workplace anxiety is refers to stress caused by work that leads to
uneasiness or anxiety, it involves feelings of nervousness, uneasiness, and tension about job-
related performance.
Behavioral symptoms include nervous habits such as facial twitching, as well as sudden
decreases in job performance due to forgetfulness and errors in concentration or judgment.
Another example of behavioral symptoms of stress is changes in appetite that currently the
problem of people which is either to not to eat or to eat too much.
If the stress is particularly uncomfortable or distasteful, it will lower job performance. Example
pf stressor that can lower the job performance of the employee is family relationships/
problems or the demanding boss.

Causes of Work Stress

Being stressed over something is quite normal; however, work stress is not an
exception. Work stress is rooted from different
causes.Ageneralstressorthatencompassesbothindividualandorganizationalfactorshastocop
ewithsignificantchange. An example of these changes may be dealing with new job,
unemployment, getting married, and etc.
If you are a person with Type A personalities, you are more likely to be more prone to
work stress for such personalities serve as one of the factors contributing to work stress.
These personalities includes being hostile, aggressive, and impatient which turns almost
any job into stressful experience. That is why, it is important for a person to love their work
in order for them to be more positive towards any changes encountered.
Another cause of work stress is a result of having Negativelifestylefactors. According
 to The Genomind Team, research has shown that there is a correlation between mood and
food because what we intake affects our brain which is responsible for our thoughts,
emotions, senses, and the likes. With that being said, negative lifestyle such as poor
exercise andeatinghabits,andheavyconsumptionofcaffeine,alcohol,tobacco,andotherdrugs
will result to more possibility of being stressed.
Lastly, anotherformofstressmanyworkersbringonthemselvesisnomophobia,a short
termfornon-mobilephobiaandisalsoreferredtoasbatteryanxiety. People experiencing this
kind of phobia have a hard time enjoying a day without mobile phones for the fear of
missing out (FOMO); they experience panic attaks and their anxiety increases once they
have absence of mobile devices .
With regards to contributors of stress within an organization, the following serves as
examples:
 According to the job demands–job control model, workers experience the most
stress when the demands of the job are high, yet they have little control over the
activity. For this, it is better to give workers high control over an activity for
them to be energized, motivated, and creative.
 Role overload is a result when an organization reduces its staffs in order to
increase work output, therefor, letting other workers do the job of those who
were removed.
 Role conflict, or having to choose between competing demands or expectations,
creates stress for it is either you are stuck between doing what you want to do or
complying what an organization demands you to do.
 Role ambiguity, a condition in which the jobholder receives confusing or poorly
defined expectations. Working without knowing what exactly your reasons of
doing such job, how you are supposed to perform the job, and what needed
outcome you must done surely results to you being stressed out. 
 Lastly, if a worker has too many information to process, their brain become
overloaded that they lose their concentration. This situation is known as having
information

Consequences of Work Stress

Stressor- it is any force creating the stress reaction. Stressors are events or conditions
in your surroundings that may trigger stress. Person experiencing stress displays certain
symptoms indicating that he or she is trying to cope with a stressor. Work stress can either
have positive or negative consequences towards the employees; it sometimes depends on
their individual differences and on how they perceive things. Stress doesn't always results to
negative effect, stress is also considered as a driving force for some people to function
optimally. In the Yerkes-Dodson law, it suggested there is an imprecise relationship between
the performance and stress. The law stated that the performance of an employee increases
when there is an arousal of stress occurs that led the person to be focused and motivated in
accomplishing the task. However, when the stress level becomes too high, it will result to
decrease in performance. A reason why performance decreases when accompanied with high
level of stress is that the workers tends to divert its attention from one to another which makes
them have difficulties in concentrating to their main goal. As a consequence, continuous
exposure into this kind of behavior might lead the workers to job stress which will then lead to
burnout.

E.Organizational Approaches to Stress Management

Employees that are experiencing negative stress will likely disrupt the company by
affecting the company’s productivity. There are several approaches that an organization can
apply to combat job stress. First is giving employees emotional support from the immediate
supervisor. A study shows that employees who felt the support from their manager will only
suffer half of the illness from heavy stress as those who believe they lack such support. Keeping
the communication channels open and providing help to the employees through verbal
encouragement and time off are some supportive behaviors that will help employees feel
efficacious.
Wellness Program – Another approach in stress management is a wellness program in
the workplace that promotes health fitness activities to support healthy behavior in the
company. The activities in the wellness program include medical examinations, stress-
management techniques, smoking-cessation programs, and preventive health care. When
done correctly, a wellness program can give employees benefits such as social support,
incentives, and strategies to cope up and manage stress. Although there are doubts about the
effectiveness of wellness programs due to problems in payoffs and some individuals who are
not highly motivated to stay well, wellness programs are still one of the effective approaches
to stress management.
Napping – Giving employees’ time to take a nap is also an effective method in
managing stress in the workplace. Taking a 15 to 20 minutes nap is said to alleviate job stress,
restore alertness and memory, and decrease the effects of fatigue.
Walking Meetings – The walking meeting is a novel approach by the company to
manage stress. The purpose of this activity is to change the scenery that employees always see
and let them do some physical exercise. With this activity, employees can unwind and relax for
a while outside the company building.

F. Do a more effective job of managing your own stress.

Control, symptom management, and removal of the stressor are the three categories of
techniques which an individual can use to manage stress.
Control
An individual who can take control is a stress-free person. An individual who knows how
to control was practicing good working habits and time management. Knowing how to control
is very important in team especially if you are a manager. Controls help to better define an
organization’s objectives so that employees and resources are focused on them. Employees
would have precaution against misuse of resources and facilitate corrective measures. Having
good records means management will better understand what happened in the past and
where change can be effective.
Symptom Management
Physical Exercise and Relaxation Response are some techniques used in symptom
management. Engaging in physical exercises eliminates the tension caused by stress and
prevents body from having stress-related illness in the future. Any aerobic activity could pump
up endorphins, these are chemicals produced by the body to relieve stress and pain.
Another symptom management technique was Relaxation Response. This method was
like meditating. It is a physical state of deep rest that counteracts the harmful effects of
fighting stressors.
Benson, of Harvard Medical School discovered that relaxation response has been used
since 1960 to reduce stress and this technique is most likely a prayer, chanting and repetitive
motion. He also said that 60%-90% of health care professionals use this technique to relieve
stress.
Removal of the Stressor
As an individual it is unavoidable to be stressed. But staying stressed out of the things
around us isn’t good it would contribute to our poor behavior at work preventing us to be
productive. Individuals who are experiencing stress should escape in this kind of situation.
Eliminating the stressor is the most effective escape technique.
Stop being so hard on yourself, stop being so hard on other people, give up on holding
grudges, remove all or nothing thinking, stop sweating the small stuff, and stop telling yourself
you hate exercise are some ways to remove the stressors that keep us from being productive.