CHAPTER 11
MANAGING INTERPERSONAL CONFLICTS
Objectives
After studying the material in Chapter Ten of Looking Out/Looking In, you should understand:
2. Styles of conflict.
4. Factors to consider when deciding on an approach to handling conflict.
6. How gender and culture affect the ways in which conflict is handled.
8. Questions and answers about the validity of the win-win negotiating style.
Specifically, you should be able to:
2. Describe your personal conflict styles, evaluate their effectiveness, and suggest alternatives as
appropriate.
4. Demonstrate how you could use the win-win approach in a given conflict.
Activities Manual)
Objectives
To illustrate how conflict styles can differ.
Discussion Questions
1. Which styles seemed to produce the most satisfying outcome in each situation?
B. Your Conflict Rituals (Pause and Reflect, text, p. 361)
Objective
To describe positive and negative conflict rituals.
Discussion Questions
1. How and why did these rituals develop?
2. How often, if at all, do you break from these rituals? And, in what way?
C. Win-Win Problem Solving (11.4 in the Student Activities Manual)
Objective
To apply win-win problem-solving to real situations in which the students are involved.
Discussion Questions
1. Were there difficulties in getting the other people involved in your conflict to try win-win
problem-solving?
2. Which of the win-win problem-solving steps seemed the easiest? The most difficult?
3. What kinds of brainstorming ideas were generated? Can you think of more ideas now that you are
2. Have students (individually or in pairs) diagram a conflict in their own lives illustrating (either
visually or verbally) each part of the definition. You might put thought-provoking questions on
the board to help them sort through the parts. For example:
• Expressed Struggle: When and how did both parties become aware of the conflict?
• Perceived Incompatible Goals: What goals do each party have that are incompatible? Do you
1. Did you learn anything new about your conflict from analyzing it in this way?
2. What is your attitude toward conflict, in general?
3. What do you suppose the attitude of the other party might be?
1. Copy the following chart onto the chalkboard.
HOW TO SCORE POINTS
WHEN VOTE IS
GROUP’S SCORE
X X X X
Each group gets +50 pt.
X X X Y
Groups voting X get –100 pt.
Groups voting Y get +300 pt.
X X Y Y
Groups voting X get –200 pt.
Groups voting Y get +200 pt.
X Y Y Y
Groups voting X get –300 pt.
Groups voting Y get +100 pt.
Y Y Y Y
Each group gets –50 pt.
2. Review these instructions about how to score. Each of the four groups will cast either an X or Y
vote in each round. When the vote is tabulated, one of the preceding five combinations will result,
4. Each group should now move to a corner of the room so that the members can talk together
without interruption. There should be no communication—verbal or nonverbal—among groups
ROUND
VOTE
GROUP I
GROUP II
GROUP III
GROUP IV
1
2
(N) 3
4
(N) 5
(2X)
6
(N) 7
(N) 8
9 (10X)
6. Explain that the object of the game is for each group to score the greatest number of positive
8. After the three minutes, the instructor will collect a ballot from each group. Tally the votes and
score for round 1 on the scoreboard.
9. Repeat the same procedure for the remaining rounds. Before each N round, one negotiator from
Discussion Questions
1. Who won the game?
2. If two groups with the same goal finished with a tie score, did they both win? Did both lose?
3. In this game, can there be more than one winner? Why?
1. What are the potential short and long-term effects of workplace bullying?
2. Have you experienced situations like those described in the text?