Literature Review

Discuss about the Literature Review for Conflict & Negotiation.

In this era of globalization, Internet and digitization, the organizations have started to focus on the global markets. There are times when organizations have to manage the conflicts within the team. The conflict among the team members may arise from cultural differences or there could be some other reasons. Negotiation is an art of getting the best in the situation of conflict (Kuvaas, 2010). The objective of this paper is to discuss the literature review on conflict and negotiation. It is important that the organizations should focus to take conflict in a positive manner, as often conflict would provide a platform for lot of new ideas. In this paper I would also discuss my capabilities in the area of conflict and negotiation and based on this analysis, I would also discuss my future development plan.

Conflict management is the process of limiting the negative aspects of conflict while increasing the positive aspects of conflict. The aim of conflict management is to enhance learning and group outcomes, including effectiveness or performance in organizational setting. Anderson & Fornell (2004) highlighted that the leaders and managers should tackle conflicts from the early stages of group or team formation. The team forming, is known to be the stage in where the organization begins to groom its self for stability and success by placing the right people in the right places to establish and enforce organizational goals and initiatives that have been identified as critical factors of the organizations mission and vision (Phelps, et al., 2007).  Phelps, et al., (2007) states that people management is a very vital characteristic in conflict management. Growth maturity and decline are the main sequences involved in assessing the organizational development life cycle.  Daft, (2015) states that organizational communication and control may be informal although order plays a vital role in monitoring all aspects of organizational development.  This assessment or monitoring is the most important characteristic of any organization during the life cycle process. 

Conflicts of interest can exist among stakeholders of a for-profit organization. In their study, Kujala et al. (2012) examined stakeholder relationships and stakeholder management in the 2005 decision by a Finnish pulp producer to build a large pulp mill in Uruguay.  Economically, the decision seemed to be a good one for Uruguay as it would create 8,000 jobs and increase the country’s GDP by almost 2%. Consequently, the project received government support.  The company also made an effort to reach out to other stakeholder groups, including the media, local communities, political leaders, and various NGOs.  In spite of this, there was heavy opposition from environmental and tourism groups that were concerned the mill would pollute the Uruguay River.  Kujala et al. (2012) observed that the conflict soon became public and “attracted various sets of stakeholders, such as civic and environmental organizations, local people, workers, financiers and the governments of Uruguay, Argentina and Finland” (p. 54).

Self Analysis of the Topic

Chand (2010) highlighted that there can be various ways to deal with conflicts at workplace. It is important that the people should focus to create a win-win situation. Authors discussed the four key techniques of conflict management. These are Forcing, Collaborating, Compromising, and Withdrawing. The organization and the group would be benefited maximum only when leaders and managers use the Collaborating techniques (Thomas, 2012). The other techniques of conflict management can provide a short-term solution to the problem. However, the long-term effectiveness could be achieved only by creating a win-win situation.

Baillien & Witte (2009) provided a different perspective of conflict and negotiations for corporations. Authors highlighted that the leaders and managers could use the servant leadership model to overcome the conflicts within the organization. The Servant Leadership model is very powerful model of leadership. However, this model is not much prevalent in the corporate world and multinational organizations. I believe that the servant leadership is model is too ideal for corporations to follow. The servant leadership model is effective, however it is always difficult to implement. It is not easy for corporate leaders to attain the path of servant leadership (Giolito, 2015). The corporate leaders should be willing to overcome the various internal and external hindrances in order to become a successful servant leader. For example, the CEO or any senior leader of a multinational organization would be able to become a true servant leader only when it can be an example for all the employees in the organization and with the fast pace with which organizations are moving, it may not be possible for leaders to serve the need of all the employees. It is also believed that the servant leadership style is an outdated style of leadership as it has limited application in the contemporary business environment (Liden, 2014). However, I believe that this concept is a powerful concept that can improve the overall organization effectiveness.

In an organizational setting, the conflict can also increase due to ineffective change management. The greatest challenge or challenges of operationalizing strategy is the anticipate to be is the resistance of change. Team members and other stakeholders can resist the change for multiple reasons (Robison, 2005). I think that the challenges change depending on the circumstances. Researchers have studied various methods for dealing with resistance to change (Draft, 2013). Regardless of the type of organization people are more likely to be resistant to change due to the unknown, don’t want to learn new techniques or information about the job.  Ineffective leadership and weak and inappropriate strategies also can be challenges that I anticipate.  Challenges sometimes change due to the circumstances.

Development Plan

I would say that I have good skills for conflict and negotiation. However, there exists a scope of improvement. I anticipate the greatest challenge of operationalizing strategy across various business functions is resistance to change.  One department may see benefit but another may only see obstacles.  Often time resistance can be attributed to lack of understanding.  When the strategy is explained and barriers identified, implementing change can be improved.  Daft (2013), lists four reasons for resistance to change.  They are self-interest, lack of understanding, uncertainty, and different assessments and goals (p. 366-367).  It can be challenging to get everyone to agree and work together to make the strategy successful.  But having the right leaders and champions, involving people in the process, and frequent communication can help overcome resistance.

If I have to rate my skills for conflict and negotiation then, I would rate it as 7 (out of 10). At the same time I would like to say that I am in the process of continuously improving my skills in this area. After reading Kepp (2014), I found the contingency theory to be my favorite. As much as organizations may want to ignore conflict, it is a very real issue, with very real consequences. The best way to deal with conflict is to meet it head on. I strongly believe that the effectiveness of the conflict and negotiation strategies in the organizations depends a lot on the skills and capabilities of leaders. I agree it can be a challenge for leaders in an organization to agree on goals that are set in place. They must remember that is not about them it about the successful of the organization for the good of employees, customers, and stakeholders (Nissen, 2007). When leaders are not on the same pathway then this will send the organization toward failure. This is when an organization design a structure would help directing everyone to a successful outcome according to his or her vision, mission, and values.

Sometime obtaining our ideal position can be challenging however there are ways of increasing our chances of developing our skillset and enhancing our personality to attract potential employers, by using SMART objectives (Lyles, 2008). SMART objectives for my personal development in the area of conflict and negotiation would include skill set and the abilities to manage the conflict within the team. The three activities to achieve the goal of conflict and negotiation can be discussed as:

Activity 1:

I would spend some time with the leaders of business corporations to learn the art of creating win-win situation in the organizational setting.

Activity 2:

I would spend some time with the leaders to understand the tenets of servant leadership that could help the managers and employees to negotiate effectively within the organization.

Activity 3:

I would have peer reviews with my colleagues to get a real time feedback on my skills in the area of conflict and negotiation.

I can say that it would be very interesting to overcome different barriers together and discover the best solutions to make us a “perfect” candidate. I have arrived at the conclusion that to improve our chances to overcome conflicts it is important to show we are committed in what we do, this can be shown by establishing rapport with internal and external stakeholders. It is important to have a specific development plan that would enable me to learn the skills in the area of conflict and negotiation. The specific action plan for my development plan can be discussed as:

I would also like to carry out a positive attitude in my self. It is recognized that positive attitudes travel fast in the work place whether they be negative or positive, working with a positive person can help to inspire and energize others similarly negative people can have the opposite effect. I can say that the people with positive attitude would be in a better place to avoid the conflict and negotiation in the workplace. One of the main ways I personally plan to overcome the learning barrier is to practice lifelong learning, this would ensure I am less averse to risk allowing me to adapt to environments, which are rapidly changing. Ways I have been practicing this is by using my own initiative to take opportunities which are available to me at work for example enrolling on to training courses and keeping up to date with new advances in technology. I would also like to develop my skills in the area of change management. In my opinion, the front-line supervisor has a great deal of influence regarding the successful implementation of change or innovation. I believe the challenges change if the power pools were being develop in a nation that has establish rules and guidelines and if there were organizations in place to monitor the usage, regulations and disputes.

Conclusion

The above paper discusses the literature review in the area of conflict and negotiation. With the above discussion, it can be said that the organizations must realize the importance of conflict and negotiation in the organizational setting. The above paper also discussed the development plan in the area of conflict and negotiation. In the present situation, I would rate myself 7 on the scale of 10 in this parameter. However, I would like to develop the skills in this area and would like to reach a stage where I can be rated as 9 or 8.5. Based on the above discussion, I can say that leaders must be willing to listen to followers.  A collaborative approach is the key to avoid the conflict in the organization and a collaborative approach also enables the managers and employees to negotiate effectively with other internal and external stakeholders. 

References

Anderson, E. W., Fornell, C. & Mazvancheryl, S. K. (2004) ‘Customer Satisfaction and Shareholder Value’, Journal of Marketing, 68, October, pp. 172-185.

Baillien, E., & De Witte, H. (2009). Why is organizational change related to workplace bullying? Role conflict and job insecurity as mediators. Economic and Industrial Democracy, 30(3), 348-371.

Chand, M. (2010) ‘The impact of HRM practices on service quality, customer satisfaction and performance in the Indian hotel industry’, The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 21 (4), March, pp. 551-566.

Daft, R. L. (2013). Management (11th ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.

Easterby-Smith, M., Lyles, M.A. and Tsang, E.W.K., (2008) Inter-Organizational Knowledge Transfer: Current Themes and Future Prospects, Journal of Management Studies, 45(4), pp677-690

Giolito, V., & Van Dierendonck, D. (2015, January). Servant leadership: influence on financial business-unit performance and employee’s well-being. In Academy of Management Proceedings (Vol. 2015, No. 1, p. 18378). Academy of Management.

Kuvaas, B. & Dysvik, A. (2010) ‘Does best practice HRM only work for intrinsically motivated employees?’,International Journal Of Human Resource Management, 21 (13), pp. 2339-2357

Liden, R. C., Wayne, S. J., Liao, C., & Meuser, J. D. (2014). Servant leadership and serving culture: Influence on individual and unit performance.Academy of Management Journal, 57(5), 1434-1452.

Nissen, M.E. (2007), ‘‘Knowledge management and global cultures: elucidation through an institutional knowledge-flow perspective’’, Knowledge and Process Management, Vol. 14 No. 3, pp. 211-25

Phelps, R., Adams, R., & Bessant, J. (2007). Life cycles of growing organizations: A review with implications for knowledge and learning. International Journal Of Management Reviews, 9(1), 1-30.

Robison, H.S., Carrillo, P.M, Anumba C.J., & Al-Ghassani A.M, , (2005) “Knowledge management practices in large construction organisations”, Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, Vol. 12 Iss: 5, pp.431 – 445 

Thomas, K. W. (2012). Conflict and conflict management: Reflections and update. Journal of organizational behavior, 13(3), 265-274.