Q&A Hero

Q: Women tend to use the participative leadership style less readily than their male counterparts.

Q: Research indicates that male and female leaders widely differ in their levels of task-oriented and people-oriented leadership.

Q: Cultural values are part of what makes us see some people as leaders.

Q: According to the leadership competencies perspective, leadership competencies identify leadership potential, not leadership performance.

Q: According to the leadership competencies perspective, leadership abilities are something you are born with; you do not develop them during your life.

Q: The competency perspective of leadership assumes that all effective leaders have the same personal characteristics that are equally important in all situations.

Q: The view that effective leaders need to be aware of, feel comfortable with, and act consistently with their values, personality, and self-concept is known as transformational leadership.

Q: Effective leaders are good at expressing emotions, as well as regulating emotions in themselves and others.

Q: Effective leaders should not monitor others' emotions and discriminate among them.

Q: Integrity is ultimately based on the leader's values, which provide an anchor for consistency.

Q: Describe the different third-party conflict resolution interventions. Which of these interventions is most appropriate in organizations? Why?

Q: List the various structural approaches to conflict management.

Q: Write a short note on choosing the best conflict handling style.

Q: Briefly describe the various interpersonal conflict handling styles.

Q: Communication problems could cause conflicts. Explain.

Q: Why should leaders of diverse teams require better conflict management skills than leaders of homogenous teams?

Q: Briefly explain the conflict process model.The conflict process model begins with the sources of conflict. They include incompatible goals, differentiation, interdependence, scarce resources, and communication problems. At some point, the sources of conflict lead one or both parties to perceive that conflict exists.These perceptions usually interact with emotions experienced about the conflict. Conflict perceptions and emotions manifest themselves in the decisions and behaviors of one party toward the other. These conflict episodes may range from subtle nonverbal behaviors to warlike aggression.Manifest conflicts would in turn lead to perceptions and the conflict escalates. This would lead to various conflict outcomes. The outcomes can be positive or negative.

Q: Organizational behavior researchers have discovered that it is difficult to separate constructive conflict from relationship conflict. However, it is possible to minimize relationship conflict during constructive conflict episodes. Describe two strategies that would help a team of employees to reduce the level of relationship conflict while the team is engaging in constructive conflict and briefly explain why each strategy may be effective.

Q: Distinguish between constructive conflicts and relationship conflicts.

Q: Explain the optimal conflict perspective.

Q: What are the major challenges associated with organizational conflicts?

Q: Charlotte International Employees at Charlotte International have been frustrated with the management on just about everything. The conflict episodes are viewed by both sides as personal attacks rather than attempts to resolve problems. Both sides have decided to seek third-party dispute resolution. Management prefers a third-party intervention that has high process and decision control while employees prefer a high level of process control and not decision control. Employees at Charlotte International prefer which of the following types of third-party intervention? A. Inquisitor B. Competitor C. Arbitrator D. Abstainer E. Mediator

Q: Fun, Incorporated Fun, Incorporated, a major gaming software company, is experiencing conflict between the young Internet-savvy employees who design the games and the older, less computer-literate executives who run the company. The company has hired team leaders who could work with the executives and who were also highly computer-literate. By hiring these team leaders as liaisons between the executives and employees, the company will: A. increase conflict between developers and executives by reducing communication. B. reduce conflict by clarifying rules and procedures. C. increase conflict by increasing task interdependence. D. reduce conflict by creating superordinate goals. E. reduce conflict by reducing task interdependence.

Q: XYZ Company As a manager for XYZ Company, you are assigned to resolve a conflict between two departments of your organization, Department A and Department B. Both parties have equal power. Both the parties are under time pressure to resolve the conflict. You also realize that the parties lack trust/openness for problem solving. If instead of equal power, the Department A had considerably more power than Department B, what would Department B's best conflict resolution style be? A. Forcing B. Yielding C. Avoiding D. Compromising E. Problem-solving

Q: NewTel, Inc.NewTel is a telephone company with a policy of filling positions internally through promotions, rather than hiring from outside. Until recently, the company had a strong engineering focus and tended to promote people into senior executive positions from the engineering areas. Consequently, almost all of the company's 14 senior executives joined the company over 20 years ago in junior engineering positions. There is increasing pressure on NewTel to become more marketing and service-oriented. As a result, four people were hired last year from consumer products and retail firms to fill new senior executive positions in marketing and service management. The external hires were necessary because current employees were not sufficiently qualified. Now there are signs of tension among senior executives, particularly during budget deliberations where there is limited discretionary spending on new corporate activities. The four new hires have been frustrated in their attempts to have the company put more money into marketing and customer services instead of technology investment and blame the senior executives for being hard-headed. The conflict episodes are viewed by both sides as personal attacks rather than attempts to resolve the problem.The marketing executives and the other executives operate independently. However, they share the resources and money in the organization. This kind of interdependence is referred to as:A. total interdependence.B. sequential interdependence.C. orderly interdependence.D. pooled interdependence.E. reciprocal interdependence.

Q: NewTel, Inc. NewTel is a telephone company with a policy of filling positions internally through promotions, rather than hiring from outside. Until recently, the company had a strong engineering focus and tended to promote people into senior executive positions from the engineering areas. Consequently, almost all of the company's 14 senior executives joined the company over 20 years ago in junior engineering positions. There is increasing pressure on NewTel to become more marketing and service-oriented. As a result, four people were hired last year from consumer products and retail firms to fill new senior executive positions in marketing and service management. The external hires were necessary because current employees were not sufficiently qualified. Now there are signs of tension among senior executives, particularly during budget deliberations where there is limited discretionary spending on new corporate activities. The four new hires have been frustrated in their attempts to have the company put more money into marketing and customer services instead of technology investment and blame the senior executives for being hard-headed. The conflict episodes are viewed by both sides as personal attacks rather than attempts to resolve the problem. The four new hires' have been attempting to have the company put more money into marketing and customer services instead of technology investment. This is mainly an example of conflict due to: A. role ambiguity. B. lack of communication. C. sequential task interdependence. D. overt behaviors. E. goal incompatibility.

Q: When negotiators have an audience watching their progress in the negotiations, the audience's negotiator: A. is more likely to give in to the other party's demands. B. pays more attention to saving face. C. feels and acts the same as if no one were viewing the negotiation. D. tends to be more willing to make concessions to the other party. E. tends to feel more cooperative and is more willing to make concessions to the other party.

Q: ___________ is the cornerstone of effective value creation. A. Power B. Trust C. Information D. Communication E. Resistance

Q: In approaching a negotiation, skilled negotiators begin by: A. Adopting a hardline stance. B. Adopting a cautious problem-solving style. C. Sharing all their information. D. Explaining their resistance point. E. Staying silent.

Q: A BATNA: A. Represents the estimated cost of walking away from the relationship. B. Is a form of "exploding offer." C. Is a term representing one party's target point. D. Is the difference between your resistance point and your opponent's resistance point. E. Is an abbreviation for the steps in effective negotiation.

Q: Initial offer points, target points, and resistance points represent three elements in: A. the conflict process model. B. the bargaining zone model. C. the types of third-party conflict resolution. D. the sources of conflict. E. the conflict escalation cycle.

Q: In a purely win-lose situation, the bargaining zone states that: A. the parties usually apply a collaborative approach to resolving their differences. B. one should begin negotiations by describing the resistance point for each item on the agenda. C. the two parties rarely know each other's initial point. D. parties tend to move from their target point to their initial point very quickly. E. neither the target nor the resistance point is revealed to the other party.

Q: The bargaining zone model states that: A. the physical space around the negotiations affects the negotiation outcome. B. the negotiation process moves each party along a continuum in opposite directions with an area of potential overlap. C. the best negotiations occur in a neutral territory. D. negotiators must try to move the other party from a win-lose orientation towards a win-win orientation. E. win-lose negotiations typically begin by each party communicating its resistance point.

Q: For everyday disputes between two employees, managers should use _____ as a third-party intervention. A. inquisition B. mediation C. arbitration D. retaliation E. negotiation

Q: Which of the following types of third-party intervention approaches do managers usually adopt? A. Inquisitional B. Competitive C. Mediation-based D. Arbitration-based E. Abstainer

Q: Arbitration has a _________ level of control over the final outcome and a ______ level of control over the process. A. high; low B. high; high C. low; high D. low; low E. moderate; low

Q: Which third-party conflict resolution strategy manages the process and context of interaction between the disputing parties but does not impose a solution on the parties? A. Inquisition B. Arbitration C. Mediation D. Legislation E. Imposition

Q: Which of the following third-party conflict resolution strategies is characterized by high process control and high process control? A. Inquisition B. Arbitration C. Mediation D. Imposition E. Compromise

Q: Which of the following is a third-party conflict resolution strategy with low process control and high decision control? A. Inquisition B. Arbitration C. Mediation D. Imposition E. Compromise

Q: Third-party dispute resolution activities are classified in terms of their:A. arbitrariness and firmness.B. level of process control and level of decision control.C. assertiveness and cooperativeness.D. differentiation and interdependence.E. consequences for the organization.

Q: _____ are employees who coordinate the activities of differentiated work units toward the completion of a common task. A. Inquisitors B. Arbitrators C. Mediators D. Integrators E. Moderators

Q: What is the major function of integrators in an organization? A. Reducing interdependence B. Clarifying rules and procedures C. Increasing resources D. Reducing differentiation E. Improving understanding

Q: Increasing inventories between sequential work units tends to reduce potential conflict by: A. reducing resource scarcity. B. reducing differentiation. C. increasing the required level of communication between employees in sequential units. D. reducing ambiguity in resource allocation. E. reducing task interdependence.

Q: Direct communication minimizes conflict by:A. reducing task interdependence.B. reducing reliance on stereotypes about the other party.C. creating organizational buffers.D. reducing the differentiation in the work force.E. increasing the available resources.

Q: The yielding conflict management style should be used if:A. the parties have equal power.B. the issue is much less important to you than to the other party.C. the other party has much less power than you do.D. the issue is important to both parties.E. you have a deep conviction about your position.

Q: You are assigned to resolve a conflict between two departments of an organization. Both parties have equal power. Both the parties are under time pressure to resolve the conflict. You also realize that the parties lack trust/openness for problem solving. You are actively searching for a middle ground between the interests of the two parties. Which of the following conflict resolution styles would you use in this situation?A. ForcingB. YieldingC. CompromisingD. AvoidingE. Problem-solving

Q: Which of the following conflict management styles may be necessary when it is apparent that the other party will take advantage of information sharing and other cooperative strategies? A. Forcing B. Yielding C. Avoiding D. Problem-solving E. Compromising

Q: You have resolved a conflict with another department by offsetting your losses by equally valued gains. Which of the following conflict handling styles is used here? A. Forcing B. Yielding C. Avoiding D. Compromising E. Problem-solving

Q: Which of the following conflict management styles is associated with low cooperativeness and low assertiveness?A. ForcingB. InquisitionC. CompromisingD. ArbitrationE. Avoiding

Q: Which of the following interpersonal conflict management styles represents a purely win-win orientation? A. Forcing B. Yielding C. Avoiding D. Problem solving E. Compromising

Q: The problem-solving interpersonal style of conflict has:A. high assertiveness and low cooperativeness.B. high assertiveness and high cooperativeness.C. low assertiveness and high cooperativeness.D. low assertiveness and low cooperativeness.E. medium assertiveness and medium cooperativeness.

Q: Which of the following factors leads to relationship conflicts in teams? A. Low levels of communication B. Low levels of interdependence C. Abundant resources D. Homogeneous workforce E. Common goal

Q: The potential for conflict between two employees would be highest under conditions of _____ interdependence. A. pooled B. total C. reciprocal D. anticipatory E. sequential

Q: Situations with both _______________ produce the highest risk of conflict. A. Ambiguous rules and low task interdependence B. Precise rules and resource scarcity C. Plentiful resources and high goal compatibility D. Scarce resources and high task interdependence E. Strict rules and high task interdependence

Q: Which of the following sources of conflict is typically associated with mergers and acquisitions, where everyone wants the company to succeed, but they fight over the "right way" to do things because of their unique experiences in the separate companies? A. Task interdependence B. Differentiation C. Goal incompatibility D. Scarce resources E. Disintermediation

Q: Employees in engineering and marketing often disagree with each other in how to achieve a target mainly because they have unique backgrounds, experiences, and training. The most apparent source of conflict here is: A. task interdependence. B. differentiation. C. goal incompatibility. D. scarce resources. E. ambiguity.

Q: Salespeople at Widget Co. complain that they lose sales bonuses when the production department is out of stock of a particular item. This sometimes causes customers to buy from elsewhere rather than wait for the next production run. Meanwhile, production employees complain that salespeople don't appreciate the need to minimize inventory costs, for which production staff is rewarded. This instance is an example of conflict due to: A. ambiguity. B. technical incompetence of the production team. C. pooled task interdependence. D. differentiation. E. goal incompatibility.

Q: Which of the following immediately follows conflict perceptions and emotions in the conflict process?A. Sources of conflictB. Manifest conflictC. Conflict outcomesD. Conflict managementE. Conflict beliefs

Q: Which of the following precedes conflict outcomes in the conflict process?A. Manifest conflictB. Conflict emotionsC. Conflict beliefsD. Conflict perceptionsE. Conflict sources

Q: When team norms encourage _____, team members learn to appreciate honest dialogue without personally reacting to any emotional display during the disagreements. A. conscientiousness B. introversion C. neuroticism D. openness E. agreeableness

Q: Which of the following statements is true of the relationship conflicts in a highly cohesive team? A. Relationship conflicts tend to be more frequent because of the high cohesion. B. Mediation is needed to resolve relationship conflicts among team members. C. Relationship conflict is absent in such teams. D. Conflicts tend to be more in such teams if it has a large number of members. E. Relationship conflict is suppressed when the conflict occurs.

Q: What is the relationship between emotional intelligence and relationship conflicts? A. Emotional intelligence is unrelated to relationship conflicts. B. Emotional intelligence tends to increase the likelihood of relationship conflicts. C. Relationship conflict is less likely to occur if emotional intelligence is high. D. With emotional intelligence, conflicts tend to stay relationship-based. E. With emotional intelligence, the conversion of relationship conflicts to constructive conflicts is slow.

Q: Effective managers should: A. increase the amount of conflict among employees. B. remove all forms of conflict from the organization, because it saps productivity. C. remove manifest conflict as well as negative conflict outcomes even though the sources of conflict remain in place. D. convince employees to engage in relationship conflict rather than the other forms of conflict. E. minimize the relationship conflicts that exist in the organization.

Q: Relationship conflict usually causes people to: A. use logical analysis in organizational decision making. B. reduce communication and information sharing with the other party. C. rethink their assumptions and beliefs about the issue that is the source of conflict. D. stay away from organizational politics and related activities. E. concentrate on the issue rather than the people involved in the issue.

Q: Which of the following best describes relationship conflict? A. One party perceives that another party might oppose its interests. B. The conflict is between two individuals rather than departments or organizations. C. The conflict episodes are viewed as personal attacks rather than attempts to resolve the problem. D. Two people adopt a win-win rather than a win-lose orientation. E. The conflict is between two departments rather than individuals in the organization.

Q: Based on the characteristics of constructive conflicts, which of the following would help a manager create constructive conflicts during a debate? A. Support the weaker members during the debate B. Explain conflict in terms of interpersonal incompatibilities C. Support the stronger members during the debate D. Keep the debate focused on the issue E. Maintain competitive orientation in the debate

Q: Constructive conflict: A. is the opposite of task-related conflict and often involves verbal attacks. B. encourages employees to re-examine their basic assumptions about a problem and its possible solutions. C. is apparent when the conflict is explained in terms of interpersonal incompatibilities. D. is more likely to trigger defense mechanisms and a competitive orientation among team members. E. sometimes replaces manifest conflict in the conflict escalation process.

Q: According to the literature on organizational conflict, constructive conflict: A. is a positive application of conflict in organizations. B. is one of the most common outcomes of organizational conflict. C. is the only conflict management style that has high assertiveness and low cooperativeness. D. is the main source of conflict in organizations. E. should not be used as a conflict management strategy in organizations.

Q: According to the emerging view on organizational conflict, there are two types of conflict. They are: A. Task conflict and constructive conflict B. Task conflict and optimal conflict C. Task conflict and relationship conflict D. Relationship conflict and optimal conflict E. Relationship conflict and process conflict

Q: Which of the following is a major advantage of having moderate levels of organizational conflicts? A. More responsiveness to changing business environment B. Reduced attrition in the organization C. Reduced stress and job dissatisfaction among employees D. Increased information sharing E. Less wastage of time because of reduced communication among employees

Q: The "optimal conflict" perspective on organizational conflict is that: A. conflict should be minimized across all departments. B. conflicts could be promoted in some functions and discouraged in some others. C. conflict is an inevitable result of increased technology and globalization. D. use of technology and virtual teams could minimize organizational conflicts. E. moderate levels of conflict are necessary and produce favorable outcomes.

Q: Which of the following is an advantage of having moderate levels of organizational conflicts? A. It helps reduce organizational politics. B. It boosts employee motivation. C. It promotes organizational cohesion. D. It energizes people to evaluate alternatives. E. It reduces distorted perceptions and stereotypes.

Q: Conflict is ultimately based on:A. people's perceptions.B. actual intentions.C. organizational structure.D. technical competence.E. skills and abilities of individuals.

Q: The process in which one party perceives that its interests are being opposed or negatively affected by another party is called:A. mediation.B. conflict.C. negotiation.D. dialogue.E. arbitration.

Q: Conflict is best defined as: A. any event where two parties demonstrate their dislike of each other. B. any occasion where both parties perceive each other as a threat to achieving the other party's goals. C. a process in which one party perceives that its interests are being opposed or negatively affected by another party. D. any event where one party acts in a way that prevents another party from achieving its goals. E. a process in which each party tries to learn the resistance point of the other party.

Q: Negotiators tend to avoid "hardline" behaviors when they know an audience is watching them.

Q: Negotiators tend to be more competitive and less willing to give concessions when their audience directly observes the negotiations.

Q: Skilled negotiators prefer using e-mail, videoconferences, and other forms of electronic communication when negotiating, rather than meeting face-to-face.

Q: One way to reduce the win-lose mentality in a negotiation is to deliberately seat the parties face-to-face, so as to increase eye contact.

Q: It is easier to negotiate on your own turf. Therefore, many negotiators agree to meet in neutral territory.