Week 11: Conflict and Stress

Intrapersonal

Conflict within self 

• Worried about your health, worried about grades etc  

  • Stress (physiological, psychological and behavioural stress

Interpersonal

Conflict between 2 people 

• Ie conflict with you and your boss 

• 1 to 1 

Intragroup

Conflict with your group 

• Commerce 1ba3 groups could be a having group issues  

Intergroup

Conflict between 2 groups 

• Conflict between 2 divisions or 2 departments 

Traditional View of Conflict

• Negative, dysfunctional, detrimental

• Distracts managers

• Managers motivated to eliminate or suppress conflict

Negative, dysfunctional, detrimental

• Based on exposure 

• They think conflict is negative, dysfunctional and outright bad 

• Don't let the ugliness out because it will  

• It will have adverse effects on conflict. 

Distracts managers

• Then you're not resilient 

• You should be able to overcome conflict 

Managers motivated to eliminate or suppress conflict

There is a belief that the absence of conflict is the best win, however that’s not true

Contemporary View of Conflict

• Benefits of conflict are recognized

• Realization that suppressing conflict can lead to further negative consequences

• Conflict is seen as inevitable rather than avoidable

Benefits of conflict are recognized

• Makes you more grateful 

• Pain will grow you and make you better  

• It will prevent you from being status quo 

• Fosters creativity (think outside the box)

Realization that suppressing conflict can lead to further negative consequences

Humans will commit sabotage and retaliation behaviors

Conflict is seen as inevitable rather than avoidable

• What you resist persist 

• School 4 statement 

  • Prescriptive vs non-prescriptive

Conflict stimulation (= whistleblowers) (STAR)

• Purposely increasing conflict to motivate change  

• Companies will hire people to increase conflict  

What are the 5 more common causes for conflict at any of the 4 levels?

1. Group identification and intergroup bias

2. Interdependence

3. Differences in power, status and culture

4. Ambiguiy

5. Scarce resources

Group identification and intergroup bias

When a team think they're better than the other guys  

• Team mentality that makes them think they're superior 

Interdependence

• 2 types of interdependence causing a lot of conflict

• Sequential

  • Waiting for someone else to do work

• Reciprocal

  • Someone is not pulling their weight 

Differences in power, status and culture

• Killer phrasing, Killing voice, Killing safety 

  • Flaunting your status and expertise and shutting people down 

    • "I'm the CFO, so shut up" 

 

Ambiguity

• Goals 

• Performance criteria 

Scarce resources

• Only so much lab space or jab availability 

• You're asking for coemption in house 

• Fixed pie – only so much pie to go around 

Types of Conflict

• Relationship conflict (the who)

• Task conflict (the what)

• Process conflict (the how)

Relationship conflict (the who)

**Who is the toughest 

• Has more to do with the relationship per se, not the task at hand

  • A member in your 1ba3 group might think OB is stupid so they don't try very hard on assignments. 

Task conflict (the what)

Disagreements about the nature of work to be done

Process conflict (the how)

Disagreements about how work should be organized and accomplished

5 Styles of Managing Organizational Conflict

1. Avoiding

2. Accommodating

3. Competing

4. Compromise

5. Collaborating

Managing Conflict: Avoiding

Conflict management style based on low assertiveness and low cooperation 

When is Avoiding used in managing conflict?

• Short-term stress reduction strategy --> Time out 

• When the issue is trivial --> Projection  

• When information is lacking --> I will avoid talking until I'm certain on my answer 

Managing Conflict: Accommodating

• Conflict management style while one cooperatives with the other party but not asserting one's own interest 

• Give in what the other guy wants but not for your own interest  

When is Accommodating used in managing conflict?

• When you're wrong (takes a healthy ego to say I'm wrong) 

• When the issue is more important to the other person  

• Good will (in business) 

Managing Conflict: Competing/Competitive

• Conflict management style that maximizes assertiveness and minimizes cooperation  

• I'm going to go after what I want  

When is Competing/Competitive used in managing conflict?

• When you have a lot of power --> You think you can get away with anything 

• When the situation is truly win-lose --> You'll go into it with a win mentality 

• When you will not have to interact with the other party in the future --> Not really, truly since karma is real. 

• Emergencies 

Managing Conflict: Compromise

• Conflict management style that combines intermediate levels of assertiveness and cooperatives  

• Satisficing = comprise 

Managing Conflict: Collaborating

• Conflict management style that maximizes both assertiveness and cooperation  

  • HIGH HIGH 

• Equal to a win-win attempt 

When is collaborating used in managing conflict?

• Problem-solving exercise  

• When the conflict is not intense 

• When you've got a ton of time 

Stress equation = D^p > R^p = S^d

"If the demands that I perceive are greater than my

perception of my resources, I will become sick."

Stressors

• Factors that create demands on the individuals

  • ie workload, lack of control, work/non work life balance expectaitons

Stress

• Experience and perception of demands from the environment

  • ie evaluation to threats to self, coping capability and avaliable resources

Strain/Stress Reactions

• Outcomes of stress involve:

  • Immediate physical/physiological responses

    • ie heart

  • Psychological responses

    • ie anxiety

  • Behavioural

    • i.e., drugs/alcohol use

Primary Prevention

• Looking at the stressors in your life 

• Internal stressor 

  • Demand or pressures I put on myself 

  • Internal is worse for people who are perfectionists.

• External stressor 

  • Demands or pressures coming at me  

• Also the ^d in equation 

Secondary Prevention

• This is where all the magic or deadly actions happen. 

  • Converting it from pain to power 

• ^p – perception of crap acting on me or within me 

Tertiary Prevention

How the patient/client presents  

• Physiological

• Psychological

• Behavioural

Organizational Stressors

• Work overload

• Heavy responsibility

• Poor Job design

• Role conflict, role ambiguity, role boundary management

• Interpersonal conflict

• Psychological environment stressors

• Physical environment stressors

• Techno stress

Organizational Stressors: Work overload

• Overload or heavy load 

• Paid overtime or OCB's 

Organizational Stressors: Heavy responsability

Heavy responsibility (burden) on management  

Organizational Stressors: Poor Job design

Job scope 

• Breadth and depth 

Organizational Stressors: Role Conflict

Incompatible role expectations 

• Not what I thought I was going to be doing 

Organizational Stressors: Role ambiguity

• Uncertain on how do this 

• Confusion or uncertainty about performance criteria 

• This isn't what you told me when you hired me 

Organizational Stressors: Role Boundary management

Having healthy boundaries 

Organizational Stressors: Psychological environment stressor

• Organizational injustice 

  • Something is wrong here 

• Psychological contract breach 

  • You lied about what you promised me 

• Job insecurity 

  • 70 people were fired from a job of 75, the remaining 5 are feeling uneasy  

• Any form of harassment 

• Organizational change 

  • Anything there's change, people shake  

Organizational Stressors: Physical Environment Stressors

• Ambient 

• Could be stressed based on excessive noise 

• Could be stressed based Poor lighting  

• Any safety hazards

• Unhealthy air quality  

Organizational Stressors: Techno-stress

Stress from having to use and master workplace communication technologies  

Work/Non-work stressors

• Time conflict

• Strain conflict

Work/Non-work stressors: Time conflict

• When the time required for a non-work activity interferes with work activities  

  • ie My time at work affects my time in my non-work activities. 

    • I don’t have time to help my kids with homework. 

Work/Non-work stressors: Strain conflict

• Stress from one domain spills over to another domain. 

  • Stress from a difficult boss could make you irritable with your children when you get home. 

• (also works the other way around) 

Psychological reactions

Rationalization, projection, anxiety, helpless etc

Physiological reactions

High blood pressure, sweatiness, heart palpitations, dizziess etc

Behavioural reactions

Attempts to cope (e.g., shopping, exercise, drug/alcohol use)

What is burnout? (STAR)

Burnout is the ultimate result of not managing your stress.

Outcomes of Burnout

• Emotional exhaustion

• Cynicism/depersonalization

• Reduced professional accomplishment

• General Adaptation Syndrome (G.A.S)

Emotional exhaustion

• Difficultly emoting 

  • Gone through so much emotion that they can't even cry or get angry 

  • Turns them into a robot-like person 

• Compassion fatigue 

  • They can't feel anyone else's emotions 

Cynicism / depersonalization

• They don't care anymore.

• Treating individuals as objects 

  • No middle ground 

• Strict  

  • Become very rigid. 

Reduced professional accomplishment

Lower self-efficacy 

• Don’t feel the need to do anything amore 

General Adaptation Syndrome (G.A.S) (TEAL QUESTION)

Change —> Resistance —> Balance/imbalance (this is what makes it or breaks it) —>  burnout (exhaustion)

Change

All burnout starts with a burnout in your life. 

• Changes  

  • Grief 

  • Death of a relationship (Someone dumps you) 

  • Death of a job (you get fired) 

  • Changes in your health (diagnosis)

Too much stress can lead to:

Job dissatisfaction

Occupational injuries and illnesses

Decision-making, cognitive abilities, task performance

Absenteeism, turnover

“Flight” or “Fight” or “Freeze” 

• Fight (get the venom out)

• Flee (avoid it or run from it)

• Freeze (stand there and do nothing) - one of the worst things you can do is stay in freeze mode.

Distress, Normal stress and Eustress

Negative stress, positive stress or neutral stress

Name of the game is to take as much negative stress and move it to either neutral or positive stress

TEAL QUESTION: What are the 3 coaching questions that you will ask someone when they are in trouble? 

• Frequency 

  • How often does this imbalance occur? 

    • "How often are you only sleeping 2 hours a night?" 

• Intensity 

  • How severe or life-threatening is this imbalance? 

    • I'm a mess because something personal is going in my life vs I'm stressed because of my final 1ba3 exam coming up 

• Duration 

  • For how long does the imbalance last? 

Personality

Can affect both the extent to which potential stressors are perceived as stressful and the type of stress reactions that occur

Personality that impacts stress

• Type A

• Type B

Type A

• I can’t relax, I’m constantly busy, I’m impatient, and I may develop workaholism. 

• Workaholism

  • “Addiction” to work in which one has an internal compulsion to work, thinks persistently about work, and works excessively. 

Type B

• They are the best with managing non-work life balance  

• Great time management  

• Know how to prioritize  

• Patient 

• Resourceful 

Negative Affectivity

The propensity to view the world, including oneself and other people, in a negative light

• Pessimistic, moody

Positive Affectivity

View the world in a positive light

• Happy go lucky, always smiling, optimistic

Reducing/Coping with Stress

• Job Design

• Social Support

• Human Resource policies

• Stress management programs

• Work-life balance programs

Job Design

Aligning GNS with breadth and depth 

Social Support

• Having close ties with family, friends, networks and people outside of work 

• Social support that you have generated 

Human Resource policies

• Management, Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and Employee and Family Assistance Programs (EFAP)

• Flex time 

• Job sharing 

• Time off for family 

• Childcare/eldercare/family care 

Stress management programs

• Seminars, workshops, mediation and well-being  

• Put on by and paid by your company  

Work-life balance programs

Having an in house gym