5 Basic Behaviors to Help You Better Handle Conflict

• openness: state your views openly and honestly

• equality: treat others’ status and ideas as equal to yours

• empathy: try to experience the other person’s feelings and point of view

• supportiveness: let the other person know you want to find a resolution that will benefit you both

• positiveness: be positive about the other person and your relationship

5 Conflict-Handling Styles

• avoiding: ignoring or suppressing a conflict

  • “Maybe the problem will go away.”

• obliging: allows the desires of the other party to prevail

  • “Let’s do it your way.”

• dominating: ordering an outcome, using formal authority and power to resolve a conflict

  • “You have to do it my way.”

• compromising: both parties give up something to gain something

  • “Let’s split the difference.”

• integrating: managers strive to confront the issue and cooperatively identify the problem and seek a solution

  • “Let’s reach a win-win solution that benefits both of us.”

The Nature of Leadership

• leadership: the ability to influence employees to voluntarily pursue organizational goals

• leadership coaching: enhancing a person’s abilities and skills to lead

• managerial leadership: process of influencing others to understand and agree what needs to be done and the process of facilitating individual and collective efforts to accomplish shared objectives

Power and Influence

• power: the ability to marshal human, informational, and other resources to get something done

  • the extent to which a person is able to influence others so they respond to orders

• personalized power: power directed at helping oneself

• socialized power: power directed at helping others

6 Sources of Power

1. legitimate power: results from managers’ formal positions within the organization

2. reward power: results from managers’ authority to reward their subordinates

3. coercive power: results from managers’ authority to punish their subordinates

4. expert power: results from ones specialized expertise

5. referent power: derived from one’s personal attraction (strong, visionary leadership)

6. informational power: derived from the logical and valuable information one communicates

Common Influence Tactics

• soft tactics:

  • rational persuasion

  • consultation

  • inspirational appeals

  • ingratiating tactics

  • personal appeals

• hard tactics:

  • exchange tactics

  • coalition tactics

  • pressure tactics

  • legitimating tactics