MODULE 5

CONFLICT AND CHANGE

Course: Organisational Behaviour

Programme & Semester: MBA Sem I
 Course Outcome (CO) 5
The students will be able to justify how
organizational change and conflict affect
working relationships within organizations
and demonstrate how to apply relevant
theories to solve problems of change and
conflict within organizations.
 MODULE - 5
ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
 Contents:
• Concept of Organizational Culture
• Managing Organizational Culture
• Concept of Conflict
• Organisational Conflict
• Process of Conflict
• Managing Conflict
• Concept of Power
• Politics: Power in Action
• Organizational Politics
• Organizational Life Cycle
• Organizational Change
• Forces for Change
• Planned Change
• Resistance to Change
• Overcoming Resistance to Change
• Managing Organizational Change
 Concept of
Organizational
Culture
 Organizational culture refers to a system of shared meaning held
by members that distinguishes the organization from other
organizations.
 Seven primary characteristics seem to capture the essence of an
organization’s culture:
Innovation and risk taking
Attention to detail
Outcome orientation
People orientation
Team orientation
Aggressiveness
Stability
 Managing
Organizational Culture
 CREATING AN ETHICAL
ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE
• Be a visible role model
• Communicate ethical expectations
• Provide ethical training
• Visibly reward ethical acts and punish
unethical ones
• Provide protective mechanisms
 CREATING A POSITIVE
ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE
• Building on Employee Strengths
• Rewarding More Than Punishing
• Emphasizing Vitality and Growth
Concept of Conflict
• It is a process that begins when one party
perceives that another party has
negatively affected, or is about to
negatively affects something that the first
party cares about.
Organisational
Conflict
• Organisational conflict is a disagreement
between two or more organisation members or
groups arising from the fact that they must
share scarce resources or work activities
and/or from the fact that they have different
statuses, goals, values or perceptions.
Process of Conflict
Fig: Process of Conflict
Managing Conflict
• One of the keys to minimizing counterproductive
conflicts is recognizing when there really is a
disagreement.
• Successful conflict management recognizes different
approaches and attempts to resolve them by encouraging
open, frank discussion focused on interests rather than
issues.
• Another approach is to have opposing groups pick parts
of the solution that are most important to them and then
focus on how each side can get its top needs satisfied.
• The most disruptive conflicts are those that are never
addressed directly.
Concept of Power
• Power refers to a capacity that A has to influence the
behaviour of B so B acts in accordance with A’s wishes.
• Someone can thus have power but not use it; it is a
capacity or potential.
• A person can have power over you only if he or she
controls something you desire.
Politics: Power in Action
• When employees in organizations convert
their power into action, we describe them as
being engaged in politics.
Organizational
Politics
• The definition is broad enough to include varied
political behaviours such as withholding key
information from decision makers, joining a coalition,
whistle blowing, spreading rumours, leaking
confidential information to the media, exchanging
favours with others in the organization for mutual
benefit, and lobbying on behalf of or against a particular
individual or decision alternative.
Organizational Life
Cycle
• Organizational life cycle is a model that proposes that
businesses, over time, progress through a fairly predictable
sequence of developmental stages.
• This model is linked to the study of organizational growth and
development.
• Likewise, the OLC of businesses has been conceived of as
generally having four or five stages of development: start-up,
growth, maturity, and decline, with diversification sometimes
considered to be an additional stage coming between maturity
and decline.
Organizational
Change
• No company today is in a particularly stable
environment. Even those with dominant
market share must change, sometimes
radically.
• Even though Apple has been successful with
its iPad, the growing number of competitors in
the field of tablet computers suggests that
Apple will need to continually update and
innovate to keep ahead of the market.
Forces for Change
• The changing nature of the workforce
• Technology
• Economic shocks
• Competition
• Social trends
• World Politics
Planned Change
• A group of housekeeping employees who work for a
small hotel confronted the owner: “It’s very hard for
most of us to maintain rigid 7-to-4 work hours,” said
their spokeswoman. “Each of us has significant family
and personal responsibilities.
• And rigid hours don’t work for us. We’re going to begin
looking for someplace else to work if you don’t set up
flexible work hours.”
• The owner listened thoughtfully to the group’s
ultimatum and agreed to its request. The next day, a flex
time plan for these employees was introduced.
• A major automobile manufacturer spent several billion
dollars to install state-of-the-art robotics.
• One area that would receive the new equipment was
quality control, where sophisticated computers would
significantly improve the company’s ability to find and
correct defects.
• Because the new equipment would dramatically change
the jobs in the quality-control area, and because
management anticipated considerable employee
resistance to it, executives were developing a program to
help people become familiar with it and deal with any
anxieties they might be feeling.
• Both these scenarios are examples of change ,
or making things different.
• However, only the second scenario describes a
planned change .
• Planned Change- means change activities that
are intentional and goal oriented.
• Change Agents - persons who act as catalysts
and assume the responsibility for managing
change activities.
Resistance to Change
• Resistance doesn’t necessarily surface in
standardized ways.
• It can be overt, implicit, immediate, or deferred.
• It’s easiest for management to deal with overt
and immediate resistance, such as complaints, a
work slowdown, or a strike threat. The greater
challenge is managing resistance that is implicit
or deferred.
Overcoming Resistance to
Change
• Education and Communication
• Participation
• Building Support and Commitment
• Develop Positive Relationships
• Implementing Changes Fairly
• Manipulation and Cooptation
• Selecting People Who Accept Change
• Coercion
Managing Organizational
Change
Kurt Lewin’s Three-Step Model:
Thank You!