Conflict
What is Conflict?
Interdependence
Positive
Negative
Disagreement
Interference
Negative Emotion
Types of Conflict
Relationship
Task
Procedural
Mediators of Conflict
Perceptual Frame
Gain vs Loss Framing
Personal Characteristics
No significant effect
Team Characteristics
No significant effect
Structural Characteristics
Norms encouraging/accepting conflict
Scarcity of Resources
Power, Trust
Communication
Task Interdependence
Task Importance
Team Performance
50% of performance accounted for by
Existing levels of conflict
Team member characteristics
Team characteristics
Conflict Management / Resolution
moderates impact of conflict on performance
effective resolution associated with positive interdependence
Task Complexity
Conflict during routine tasks not beneficial
Conflict during non-routine tasks beneficial
Task vs Relationship Conflict
Negative Emotionality associated with poor team performance
Relationship conflict more detrimental than Task conflict
Effective teams rely on cooperative conflict resolution over competitive conflict
Time
High Performing Team, Low level of relationship conflict, Low level of task conflict increasing in middle of project and declining at end
Low Performing Team, Low conflict until end where conflict peaks
Structure
Performance enabled by trust & respect
Norms, Supporting open discussion of conflict during middle stages of project
Confidence in Professional relationships
Reliance on Cooperative conflict
Decision Quality
Positively related to positive interdependence
Goal Setting
Cooperative goals increase organizational effectiveness
Team Satisfaction
All types of conflict negatively related
Negative emotion negatively related
Relationship conflicts have more negative impact that task conflict
Role ambiguity has greater impact than role conflict
ISD & Conflict
User Participation / Involvement
Initial levels of involvement & attitude little influence on participation
User participation impacts future attitude and involvement
Participation strongly associated with influenced
Influence associated with conflict
Developer & Tester Relationship
Source of Conflict, Organisation, Power & politics, Process, Documentation, Procedure, Resource, Standards, People, Attitude, View, Focus, Knowledge, Communication, Left out of loop, Misunderstanding of responsibilities, Last minute, Not communicating changes, Lack of feedback
Resolution, Structure for Success, Co-location of staff, Remove Developer tester divide, Integrate staff e.g. reduce 'intellectual distance', Management signal importance of issues, Careful performance metrics to incentivize cooperation, People, Conflict Resolution Training, Frequent contact between staff, Structured work activities acquaint actors with each others work, Process, Time management, Ensure common goals, e.g. Timely deliver & quality
Stakeholder
Frame incompatibility, Inability to answer questions in terms of others world view, Language differences
Incompatible / specialized knowledge
Power relationships, certain groups given superiority resulting in other groups being ignored
ISD models
Waterfall model, Manages conflict via suppression, Power relationship between developer & user, Rigid & structured interaction
Iterative Incremental model, Manages conflict via iteration, User & developer have more balanced power relationship, User & developer have shared goals encouraging cooperative behaviour
Component based Development model, Manages conflict via contract negotiation
Behavioral Strategies
Integrative component
Extent that total outcome for both parties is maximised
positively related to positive interdependence
negatively related to relationship conflict
Distributive component
Extent that an unequal outcome is maximised
negatively related to positive interdependence
Behavioral Styles
Asserting
Win/lose where one side must dominate
Accommodating
Win/lose where one side must yield to other
Compromising
Multiple Win/lose where sides take turns to yield to each other
Problem solving
opportunity to incorporate all views into Win-win solution. Aim to maximize all parties satisfaction
Avoiding
Conflict is not entered and indifference is shown towards the situation
