Deck 11: Conflict and Negotiation in the Workplace

Question 1

Relationship conflict refers to conflict between individuals, whereas task conflict refers to conflict between departments and organizations.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

Relationship conflict escalates more easily than task conflict.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

It wasn't until the 1950s that conflict management experts such as Elton Mayo began to embrace the "optimal conflict" perspective.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

If conflict was eliminated, organizations would be more productive.

Question 5

Research indicates that we rarely experience task and relationship conflict together.

Question 6

Most of us experience some degree of relationship conflict whenever we are engaged in constructive debate.

Question 7

Moderate levels of conflict produce improved decision making

Question 8

Conflict occurs when one party perceives that its interests are being opposed or negatively affected by another party.

Question 9

Almost one-third of the 5000 employees recently surveyed across nine countries reported that they are frequently or always dealing with workplace conflict.

Question 10

The modern perspective on conflict is that an "optimal level" exists which is beneficial to the organization.

Question 11

Relationship conflict is also known as psychoemotional conflict.

Question 12

Deconstructive conflict is one of the more serious forms of relationship conflict.

Question 13

Conflict begins whenever both parties realize that they have opposing interests.

Question 14

Task conflict helps people to recognize problems, identify a variety of solutions, and better understand the issues involved.

Question 15

When people experience relationship conflict, they tend to increase their reliance on communication with the other party.

Question 16

Most people can avoid experiencing relationship conflict if they focus on constructive debate instead.

Question 17

The view that all conflict in organizations is bad is over simplistic and incorrect.

Question 18

Although task conflict can degenerate into relationship conflict, it is easy to prevent this from happening.

Question 19

The more an issue is tied to our self-concept, the higher the chances that task conflict will degenerate into relationship conflict.

Question 20

Task conflict is also called constructive conflict.

Question 21

Conflict is sometimes manifested by the style each side uses to resolve the conflict.

Question 22

The six main conditions that cause conflict in organizational settings are incompatible goals, differentiation, interdependence, scarce resources, ambiguous rules, and communication problems.

Question 23

Conflict is more likely to occur when two people or departments are governed by programmed decision rules.

Question 24

Team cohesion produces a stronger social identity with the group, this motivates team members to avoid escalating relationship conflict.

Question 25

It is possible to agree on a common goal yet still experience conflict due to differentiation.

Question 26

Conflict perceptions and emotions manifest themselves in actual conflict.

Question 27

Higher interdependence increases the risk of conflict because there is a greater chance that each side will disrupt or interfere with the other side's goals.

Question 28

Research indicates that we experience some degree of relationship conflict whenever we are engaged in constructive debate.

Question 29

Conflicts do not manifest due to differences about how to achieve a goal

Question 30

Two employees from different departments who are evaluated on different performance criteria and receive different reward systems are likely to experience conflict due to goal incompatibility.

Question 31

The conflict process is really a series of episodes that potentially cycle into conflict escalation.

Question 32

Task conflict is more likely to escalate into relationship conflict among employees in highly cohesive teams.

Question 33

Two employees with incompatible goals are less likely to experience conflict.

Question 34

The poor work ethic of Generation-X employees is one of the main sources of conflict in work organizations.

Question 35

Mergers and acquisitions tend to increase conflict due to different values and beliefs.

Question 36

Conflict is more likely to occur when parties compete for limited resources such as money.

Question 37

Some team norms encourage tactics that diffuse relationship conflict when it first appears.

Question 38

Conflict is more likely to occur between two departments with pooled interdependence than reciprocal interdependence.

Question 39

Differentiation conflict can also manifest due to incongruent values

Question 40

Emotional intelligence helps employees to avoid transforming task conflict into relationship conflict.

Question 41

Research indicates that the most effective executive teams frame their decisions as superordinate goals that rise above each executive's departmental or divisional goals.

Question 42

Although forcing is one of five interpersonal styles of conflict management, it should never be used to manage conflict.

Question 43

People in collectivist and high power distance cultures are less comfortable with the practice of resolving differences through direct and open communication.

Question 44

A person's preferred conflict management style tends to depend partly on that individual's cultural values.

Question 45

Gender has a weak influence on conflict management style.

Question 46

Conflict tends to escalate more with a win-lose than with a win-win orientation.

Question 47

Avoiding is usually the best interpersonal conflict management style when the issue is trivial to everyone involved.

Question 48

Focusing employees on superordinate goals is particularly useful where conflict is caused by goal incompatibility and differentiation.

Question 49

The yielding conflict management style can produce more conflict rather than it resolves.

Question 50

The problem-solving conflict management style involves a high degree of assertiveness and cooperativeness.

Question 51

The compromising conflict management style involves searching for a middle ground.

Question 52

Communication and understanding interventions should be applied only after differentiation between the parties has been reduced.

Question 53

The yielding conflict management style is preferred when both parties have equal power and enough trust to share information.

Question 54

A logical strategy for minimizing conflict due to different values and beliefs is to have employees move through different departments, regions and occupations of the company throughout their careers.

Question 55

Goals that the conflicting parties value and whose attainment requires the joint resources and effort of those parties are called supraordinate goals.

Question 56

People from high collectivist cultures tend to apply a forcing style of conflict with colleagues more than do people from low collectivism cultures.

Question 57

Poor communication skills partly explain why conflict occurs in the workplace

Question 58

Reducing conflict by reducing differentiation should occur only after communication and understanding have improved.

Question 59

The five interpersonal conflict management styles are distinguished by their level of animosity with the other party.

Question 60

Conflict may occur because the conflicting parties lack the opportunity, ability and/or motivation to communicate with each other.

Question 61

Managers should arbitrate decisions when employees cannot resolve their differences alone.

Question 62

Claiming value during negotiations involves trying to obtain the best possible outcome for yourself and your constituents.

Question 63

Developing more precise rules for the allocation of resources represents one of the two ways to increase conflict.

Question 64

Integrators reduce conflicts by reducing the frequency of direct interaction among work units with diverse goals and perspectives.

Question 65

The approach to negotiation that employs win-lose strategies and tactics is called distributive bargaining.

Question 66

According to the bargaining zone model, the parties should begin negotiations by describing their target points to each other.

Question 67

Arbitration has a high level of process control but a low level of decision control

Question 68

Inquisition is the most effective third-party conflict resolution method for managers in organizational settings.

Question 69

Research suggests that managers tend to avoid the inquisitional approach to third-party conflict resolution.

Question 70

Having a high BATNA provides considerable power in negotiation.

Question 71

An obvious way to reduce conflict is to increase resources

Question 72

The best alternative to a negotiated agreement (BATNA) helps estimate your opponent's power in the negotiations because it represents the estimated cost if you walk away from the relationship.

Question 73

Collective bargaining between union and management, in order to hammer out a collective agreement, is a form of negotiation.

Question 74

Mediation has a high level of process control but a low level of decision control.

Question 75

Distributive situations occur when the parties' goals are linked, but not zero-sum, so that one person's goal achievement does not block the goal achievement of another.

Question 76

The bargaining zone model of negotiations describes the best physical zone in which negotiations should occur.

Question 77

We negotiate whenever we cannot achieve our objectives single-handedly.

Question 78

Buffers tend to resolve conflict by reducing the level of interdependence between the conflicting parties.

Question 79

The preference for arbitration or mediation in work disputes partly depends on cross-cultural values.

Question 80

Distributive and integrative are two types of negotiations.