ORGANIZATION CONFLICT AND NEGOTIATION

Organization Conflict and Negotiation

Organization Conflict and Negotiation

Introduction

The traditional literature of management stresses is (1) the importance of managerial performance to organizational effectiveness, and (2) the continuing need for research to improve that performance. The literature's focus is on identifying important managerial skills in negotiations and, one senses, a conceptual breakthrough that will provide the key to enhance managerial effectiveness. It is not a question of "not seeing the forest for the trees" but of not noticing how certain trees have changed. One tree that has changed is the bargaining tree. The reality of management by bargain is clearer now that the manager (1) is less a boss and more a builder of consensus, and (2) has to bargain with subordinates for their commitment and loyalty to the organization. Also the dialogues of management have increased so that there is more bargaining than there used to be. The traditional, limited negotiating role of the manager has taken on a new importance and meaning. None of this has ever been reflected in the literature on management. For example, negotiation is still not recognized as a managerial skill. This can be attributed to complacency and inertia and the traditional caution of practicing managers to regard new ways of doing things with suspicion.1

The tasks of this work are to (1) review the operational relevance and efficacy of bargaining as an organizational management tool and (2) make the case for effective negotiation as the bargaining system most compatible with the operational needs of the organization. The former requires review of the key functions, roles, activities, and skills of bargaining managers. The latter depends on the compatibility of the effective-negotiation system with the process of the organization and its need for structured, problem solving dialogues, which serve its interests. There must also be a showing that the system can be easily assimilated by managers and smoothly operate as an integral part of management process.

Explanation

The traditional Mintzberg view of managerial roles includes limited negotiation when representing one's organization in dialogues with other organizations and entities. Negotiation is not envisaged in connection with the other roles of management related to the planning, organizing, leading, and controlling functions. The limited negotiation role can be explained by the tradition of the authoritarian manager, which has been eroded under the influence of the behavioral approach. Now, there is increasing emphasis on consensus in management process as reflected in such concepts as participative management, collective decision-making, conflict resolution, and authority acceptance. Furthermore, the trend toward the use of semi-autonomous project and work teams, domestically and as part of international business activities, increases the importance of the negotiating role of managers who will be involved in developing and implementing cooperative arrangements with domestic and foreign counterparts. As managers increasingly will have to persuade rather than command, negotiation--the basic process for the development of consensus through persuasion--will become a more important operational skill of management.

Two recent works have looked into negotiation from the bargaining perspective and have concluded that negotiation is ...