Deck 11: Conflict and Negotiation in the Workplace Revised

Question 1

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

Answer 1

False

Question 2

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

Answer 2

True

Question 3

Conflict begins when two parties experience manifest conflict.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

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

Question 5

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

Question 6

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

Question 7

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

Question 8

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

Question 9

Moderate levels of conflict produce improved decision making.

Question 10

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

Question 11

Conflict perceptions and emotions lead to conflict sources.

Question 12

If conflict was eliminated,organizations would be more productive.

Question 13

Relationship conflict is also known as psychoemotional conflict.

Question 14

In one survey more than 50 percent of employees in Germany complained that conflict was consuming their workday.

Question 15

Task conflict is also called constructive conflict.

Question 16

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

Question 17

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

Question 18

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

Question 19

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

Question 20

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

Question 21

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

Question 22

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

Question 23

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

Question 24

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

Question 25

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

Question 26

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

Question 27

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

Question 28

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

Question 29

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

Question 30

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

Question 31

Poor communication skills partly explain why conflict occurs in the workplace.

Question 32

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

Question 33

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

Question 34

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

Question 35

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

Question 36

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

Question 37

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

Question 38

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

Question 39

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 40

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

Question 41

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

Question 42

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

Question 43

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

Question 44

An obvious way to reduce conflict is to increase resources.

Question 45

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

Question 46

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

Question 47

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

Question 48

Gender has a weak influence on conflict management style.

Question 49

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

Question 50

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

Question 51

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

Question 52

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

Question 53

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

Question 54

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

Question 55

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 56

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

Question 57

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

Question 58

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

Question 59

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

Question 60

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

Question 61

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

Question 62

According to the bargaining zone model,the target point is the team's realistic goal or expectation for a final agreement.

Question 63

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

Question 64

Negotiating in teams is not advisable because some team members will hear information that should be kept confidential.

Question 65

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

Question 66

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 67

One approach to build trust in negotiations is to discover common backgrounds and interests.

Question 68

Making concessions symbolizes a negotiator's motivation to bargain in good faith.

Question 69

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

Question 70

An important rule in negotiations is to make large concessions rather than many smaller ones.

Question 71

When negotiators get closer to their time deadline,they have a tendency to make fewer concessions.

Question 72

Building the relationship during the negotiation process requires emotional intelligence.

Question 73

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 74

Distributive and integrative are two types of negotiations.

Question 75

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

Question 76

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

Question 77

Many negotiation situations are not zero-sum,winner-take-all problems.

Question 78

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

Question 79

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

Question 80

Having a high BATNA provides considerable power in negotiation.