Instructor Resources
Denhardt, Managing Human Behavior in Public and Nonprofit Organizations 4th edition
SAGE Publications 2016
Chapter 11 – Managing Conflict
Slide 1 – Opening
Slide 2 – Chapter Objectives
•Identify the difference between functional and dysfunctional conflict
•Apply the theories of conflict
•Define the sources of conflict
•Recognize the stages of conflict
•Apply the strategies for negotiation and conflict
•Understand how conflict develops in the public sector
Slide 3 – Public Sector Conflict
•They argue that so long as there are humans, deadlines, and things that do not work, there is
going to be conflict. Public administrators are especially open to conflict because they are, by the
very nature of their work, required to deal with uncertainty, ambiguity, and differences of opinions.
Slide 4 – Benefits
•By managing conflict properly, an administrator can mobilize disparate pieces of information and
diverse perspectives into productive solutions. For this reason, conflict presents opportunities for
mobilizing ideas and approaches in the organization and can promote increased creativity,
Slide 5 – Disadvantages
Slide 6 – Making It Constructive
•Reflect—Provide yourself with an honest appraisal of your readiness to challenge, give bad news,
or otherwise create a degree of conflict.
•Get feedback–Talk to friends, family, or co-workers.
•Correct the problem, gradually–Do some experimenting, particularly in the areas that are most
difficult for you. Try pushing back on a request from your boss that doesn’t make sense. Speak up
in a meeting when you don’t agree. Give someone you supervise feedback on their performance
Slide 7 – Approaches
•Thomas presented five approaches that the individual may take (although we should note that
different approaches may be more or less appropriate depending on the circumstances).
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Instructor Resources
Denhardt, Managing Human Behavior in Public and Nonprofit Organizations 4th edition
SAGE Publications 2016
Slide 8 – Theories
•Systems theory urges that conflict be viewed as one aspect of a larger system of interactions.
Slide 9 – Theories
•The individual in a conflict plays a major role in determining the direction that the conflict will take.
Slide 10 – Theories
•A relationship is assessed in terms of the amount of effort put into the relationship (costs)
compared with what is received as a result of the relationship (rewards).
Slide 11 – Sources of Conflict
•Personal differences are influenced by the personality and culture of the individual. Conflicts
based on personal differences tend to be highly emotional and difficult to resolve.
•Personal differences also may arise from information deficiencies in the organization’s
Slide 12 – Organizational Bases
•From an organizational perspective, Katz identified three organizational bases of conflict.
Slide 13 – Organizational Bases
•Public and nonprofit organizations may suffer from mission mirroring. Stakeholders will hold the
same organizations charged with addressing the issue to higher standards, causing emotions to
run high when the conflict is discovered. Public and nonprofit leaders must be especially vigilant
when it comes to upholding the values of the organizations they represent.
•Today’s rapidly changing work environment is also contributing to conflict.
Slide 14 – Types
•There are four types of conflicts most commonly encountered by public managers;. Intrapersonal
conflict, defined as a person’s internal conflict. Interpersonal conflict occurs between people that
are required to interact but have different styles, goals, values. This type of conflict is often
referred to as personality conflict and usually revolve around personal differences rather than
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Instructor Resources
Denhardt, Managing Human Behavior in Public and Nonprofit Organizations 4th edition
SAGE Publications 2016
at different levels of the organizational hierarchy. Understanding the type and level of conflict is
the first step to managing conflict well.
Slide 15 – Stages of Escalation
•Stage 1: Hardening. The first stage of conflict escalation develops when a difference over some
issue or frustration in a relationship proves to be difficult to resolve. Relationship-related conflict is
emotional in nature and may include tension, annoyance, and animosity. When progress fails,
individuals sometimes cannot just walk away from the situation. Although hostility is created
between the parties, they remain committed to finding a solution. The threshold to Stage 2 is
crossed when one or both parties lose faith in arriving at a resolution through straight and fair
discussions.
•Stage 2: Debates and polemics. Discussions tend to develop into verbal confrontations. The
dispute no longer is confined to a well-defined issue, and the parties start to believe that their
general well-being is at stake. Attention is now diverted to appearances; parties are interested in
being perceived as successful, strong, and skillful rather than compliant, insecure, and
•Stage 7: Limited destructive blows. No longer is it possible to see a solution that includes the
counterpart. The other party is now a pure enemy with no human qualities. There no longer is any
communication, and each party is concerned only with expressing his or her own message. There
is no concern for how the message is received or the response it elicits. The main goals of this
stage are surviving and suffering less damage than the other party suffers. The threshold to
Stage 8 is reached when attacks are directed at the core of the counterpart. These attacks are
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Instructor Resources
Denhardt, Managing Human Behavior in Public and Nonprofit Organizations 4th edition
SAGE Publications 2016
Slide 16 – Dual Concern
•The dual concern model helps us to understand our reaction, and that of others, to conflict.
Slide 17 – Negotiation Strategies
•A first step in managing conflict is understanding the strategies that the parties are employing. A
number of organizational scholars have noted the similarities between conflict management and
negotiation strategies,Negotiation strategies are commonly divided into three types.
Slide 18 – Collaborative Negotiations
•Faerman suggested several specific steps to take in conflict situations that call for collaboration.
Slide 19 – Principled Negotiations
•People. Separate the people from the problem. A basic fact about negotiations, yet not one easily
remembered, is that we are dealing with humans who have emotions, deeply held values, and
different backgrounds and viewpoints. Suggested guidelines: (a) trying to understand how the
other party perceives the dispute and how he or she might feel about it, (b) suspending judgment,
(c) recognizing and legitimizing the emotions at work (yours as well as the other person’s), (d)
allowing people to let off steam without reacting to emotional outbursts, and (e) building a
relationship with an adversary by getting to know the person’s interests, likes, and dislikes and by
not characterizing the other party.
Slide 20 – Common Mistakes
•Even skilled negotiators make mistakes. One of the most common is the fear that we may be
conceding too much either because we appear to give in too easily or because we take a
misstep. These fears distort our judgment and add to a number of other mistakes we make while
negotiating.
Slide 21 – Ethics
•Negotiations may raise a number of dilemmas and being aware of ethical violations is the first
step in avoiding them.
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Instructor Resources
Denhardt, Managing Human Behavior in Public and Nonprofit Organizations 4th edition
SAGE Publications 2016
Slide 22 – Conflict Adaptivity
•Conflict adaptivity does not advocate for a specific conflict resolution technique or behavior, but
rather requires that we use different tactics dependent upon the circumstances.
Slide 23 – Ways of Acting
•Air all viewpoints. Each party should have uninterrupted time to describe the problem. This might
involve some history, but the goal of the process should be to maintain a future-oriented view.
•Clarify the problem and the interests involved. Once all the views have been heard, the parties
may start an “exchange.” Emphasis should be placed on separating the people from the problem
and on formulating a problem statement.
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