Question

Structural Approaches to Conflict Management

Resolving conflict is an especially important skill. Our personal conflict resolution styles help us understand how we individually approach conflict resolution. But effective conflict management also involves recognizing and altering underlying structural sources of potential conflict.

In this exercise, you'll learn more about these structural approaches to managing conflict. Specifically, you'll match a set of conflict situations with appropriate conflict resolution techniques. As you complete the exercise, think about whether these approaches would help resolve conflicts you are experiencing. Learning about these approaches is an important first step to being able to implement them in the future.

Structural approaches to resolving conflict include emphasizing superordinate goals, reducing differentiation, improving communication and understanding, clarifying rules and procedures, and reducing interdependence. Independence can be reduced by creating buffers, using integrators, and combining jobs.

Review the case, then read the situation presented for each pair of conflicting parties.

Case

You are the manager of a branch office of a large home and automotive insurance company. Unfortunately, there seems to be a lot of conflict among the employees in your office. Until now you've treated conflict as just a normal part of work life and have done little to correct it. But recently, the conflict seems to be getting out of control. It is to the point that it is not only affecting the performance of your employees, but also the overall success of your office. You realize that you need to take steps to manage the conflict if things are going to improve. Last week corporate headquarters offered a seminar on conflict management and you attended. In the seminar you learned several approaches that might be helpful. Which of these can you use to manage the conflict that exists in your office?

Now, match each pair to the most appropriate structural approach to managing conflict.

Increased Resources
Emphasize Superordinate Goals
Clarify Rules and Procedures
Improve Communication and Understanding
Reduce Interdependence
Reduce Differentiation
a) Agent vs. Agent: Agents are paid on a commission basis, so getting new customers is competitive. Agents may not realize, however, that branch bonuses based on office-level performance could make them even more money.

b) Management vs. Employees: Managers and employees hardly interact at all, except to assign work and report on its completion. It’s no surprise that they have difficulty understanding each other when they discuss problems in the office.

c) Branch vs. Corporate Headquarters: Small claims are paid out of a fund the branch keeps locally. Getting corporate headquarters to reimburse these claims inexplicably takes one week sometimes, and six months other times, frustrating everyone.

d) Account Representatives vs. Billing: Account representatives accept initial payments on new accounts. Unless the billing department is notified, the next invoice will be inaccurate. You’ve considered requiring all payments be made directly to billing.

e) Front Office vs. Back Office: The branch has one secretary who sits in the front office at the reception area. The back office workers share this secretary, but their work usually gets done last. You’ve thought of hiring a second part-time secretary.

f) Mark vs. Linda: Mark and Linda come from different cultures and have different values, beliefs, and experiences. You’ve thought about sending them both to the next corporate training event so they’ll have something in common.
p 1

Answer 1

a) Emphasize Superordinate Goals

b) Improve Communication and Understanding

c) Clarify Rules and Procedures

d) Reduce Interdependence

e) Reduce Differentiation

f) Improve Communication and Understanding

Step-by-step explanation:

In the given scenario of managing conflict within a branch office of an insurance company, specific structural approaches align with the identified conflict situations:

a) Agent vs. Agent: Emphasizing superordinate goals by highlighting the potential benefits of branch bonuses based on office-level performance could encourage collaboration rather than competition among agents.

b) Management vs. Employees: Improving communication and understanding is essential to bridge the gap between managers and employees who hardly interact. Facilitating effective communication channels and promoting mutual understanding can help address their difficulties.

c) Branch vs. Corporate Headquarters: Clarifying rules and procedures is crucial to streamline the process of reimbursing claims. Establishing clear guidelines on claim processing and reimbursement timelines can alleviate frustrations.

d) Account Representatives vs. Billing: Reducing interdependence can be achieved by implementing a direct payment system to the billing department, ensuring accurate and timely invoicing.

e) Front Office vs. Back Office: To address the conflict between the front and back office, reducing differentiation by hiring a second part-time secretary can help balance work distribution and enhance overall efficiency.

f) Mark vs. Linda: Improving communication and understanding is essential when dealing with cultural differences. Sending both individuals to a corporate training event can foster common ground and facilitate better collaboration.

By strategically applying these structural approaches, the manager can work towards resolving conflicts and improving the overall performance of the branch office.