...self- improvement in various fields and strengthen their abilities such as the ability of controlling and using power, politics and conflict resolution to manage and settle conflicts in their working environment. In pursuit of achieving goals, people need to deal with the interpersonal and intergroup conflict or problems caused by different backgrounds, cultures, education and differences in core competencies; in a sense so that they can obtain more power and influences over decision-making opportunities. I experience a landscape that seeks various forms of each element mentioned above. It is necessary to realize how conflict and politics influence our life working in an organization. Additionally, having a clear understanding of the relationships between power, conflict and politics within an organization can contribute to comprehend what roles they are satisfying in the workplace. This brief paper gives an account of power, conflict and politics in various forms of my experience in organizational activity and the impact on performance. Foremost, the first part will demonstrate the definition of conflict and give a detailed description on the sources of conflict I perceive in some cases. It will then go on to illustrate power and politics in the following parts. Finally, it will assess some of the effects of power and politics on life within organization. Conflict is not avoidable and can be managed and reduced by...
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...THE DEFINITION OF CONFLICT This essay we will examine the definition of conflict, its use as a tool in living in community and cooperation with others and how this learner intends to incorporate it. Conflict is a multi-dimensional communication process that takes place between two or more interdependent parties who believe that they have incompatible objectives or agendas (Abigail & Cahn 2011). This type of communication process is termed as an interpersonal encounter (conflict). These encounters are generally the results of direct, indirect and/or perceived relationship difficulties. These difficulties are normally centered on one’s perception of the engagement and are triggered by a rational matter (Wilmot & Hocker, 2011). The Complexities’ of Conflict: Conflict is often viewed by many as a negative act that is argumentative, inflated, redundant, and combative. However, according to Abigail & Cahn (2011) conflict is an inevitable interpersonal function that exists due to the complexities of interdependent relationships. Interdependent relationships are a natural byproduct of family, work, school, community and a host of other close knit relationships. Often these relationships are influenced by one’s social economic status as well as their social cultures and value systems (Wilmot & Hocker, 2011). Furthermore, all conflict is directly related to one’s ability to accept and agree with how an individual or entity is managing their interactions and relationship with...
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...Power Conflict: It is human nature for an individual to crave power and with it, he is more likely to get what he wants. Conflict between people usually arises from power struggle. This battle for influence and superiority is called power conflict. It occurs when each one wishes to maintain or maximize the amount of influence that it exerts in the relationship and the social setting such as in a decision making process. Situational Example: In the matrix type of organization in which I am currently in, there were circumstances that lead to conflicts. As a manager I am responsible for overall India site, engineering samples orders, to be placed to third party vendor in US, which has high cost attached to it being prototypes. Each individual...
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...| | POWER AND CONFLICT Hello Friends! It’s a new week and I give you a new and interesting update. Power and conflict is a sensitive topic at every workplace and I would be glad if you guys can really contract few good things from my update and apply to your daily jobs. Keep up the hardwork! - Yesha Raval | 09 | | | | | “The aim of argument, or of discussion, should not be victory, but progress.” – Joseph Joubert | | do you influence your employees? | Power comes with control and differences raise conflicts. Power comes with control and differences raise conflicts. Power is privilege If you control something that has value then it makes you powerful (Borkowski, 2009). Existence of power is due to unequal relationship and dependency between people. Power can be defined as "the influence over the beliefs, emotions, and behaviors of people"(Borkowski, 2009). If you are able to influence your employees then you are said to have potential power. It depends upon how people behave, how they perceive and how they get motivated (Borkowski, 2009). Sources of power It is possible for an individual to exercise more than one source of power at a time. The four main sources of power are as follows (Borkowski, 2009): (1) Reward power - be able to offer reward, which is valuable, to others. (2) Coercive power - be able to punish others and withhold something that they need. (3) Legitimate power - having authority that is based on the position or your...
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...Role of Conflict and Power Paper Legally Blonde Legally Blonde is a movie which shows little variety in characters as all of the main characters presented are highly stereotypical and all are white males and females, who all are upper-middle class. This movie shows how sexism is rooted into society and it does absolutely nothing to challenge that with its characters. The men are all shown to have some form of a position of power whether in the work life or in their personal lives and relationships and use this power to get what they want. Women in this movie are seen to be there simply for the pleasure of the men, and placed in two categories which are mainly based on their appearance or the way they act. This movie is the story of Elle Woods, a very cute and friendly student who is also the most popular girl in her Los Angeles sorority. Elle has just finished her studies in Fashion and is getting prepared to marry her boyfriend, Warner, who will soon be going to Harvard Law School in Boston. Unfortunately, Warner, who is actually a somewhat superficial jerk, decides to break up with Elle, because he wants to find a more serious looking girlfriend who will help his career in politics after he gets out of law school. Although Legally Blonde does have many outstanding points in which the main character overcomes stereotypes and challenges she faces, there are many faults to the movie. Under any feminist movie list, it can be guaranteed the popular movie, Legally Blonde, will...
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...Danielle Weeks 4/13/15 BSHS/385 Role of Conflict and Power Paper The main character in the movie Rachel Getting Married is that of Kym. Kym is a recovering addict just out of a rehabilitation facility who is returning home for her sister Rachel’s wedding. Though the film begins with Kym getting out of a rehabilitation facility it is clear that there is a long history of conflict with her sister and other members of her family. Kym being an addict, has for many years, taken the attention of those close to her and though she is now sober, old behaviors die hard. Rachel, Kym’s sister, struggles with this fact while trying to celebrate her impending nuptials and Kym seeking forgiveness and attempting to move on, continues to butt heads with her sister and other members of her family. One of the most interesting things about this film that makes it differ from a lot of movies similar to it is that at no point does it show flashbacks of Kym using. It focuses primarily on the relationships Kym has with her family and doesn’t use said flashbacks as an opportunity to increase the drama of it all. It is clear in the first five minutes of the film that Kym has a history of inappropriate relationships with people. For example, when leaving the rehabilitation facility it is clear that Kym had developed a boundary crossing relationship with one of the staff members and asks for the staff member’s cell phone number, which is something that would never be allowed. Working in the field...
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...Role of Conflict and Power BSHS 385 April 27, 2015 Dr. Barbara Hughson Role of Conflict and Power Fifty Shades of Grey is an erotic romance novel released in 2011 written by author E.L. James. The story looks at the deepening relationship between a recent college graduate, Anastasia Steel, and young business tycoon, Christian Grey. The book also explains the relationships of Anastasia and her roommate Kate, Christian and his relationship with his family, and also looks at Christian’s abusive relationship he had with Elena Lincoln who is also his business partner. I am going to look at the communication between the characters of this book and describe the power and conflict issues that have been highlighted. I will also discuss how self- disclosure existed between Ana and Christian. Christian Grey is the male character of the book and the love interest to Anastasia (Ana). To the world, he appears to be a young, very handsome, charming, and business savvy man but he has a secret dark side since he secretly practices BDSM. Christian was abused as a child that he continues to have nightmares about into his adulthood. He was adopted by Dr. Grace and Carrick Grey, who also adopted Mia and Elliot as well. Christian had violent mood swings as an adolescent and eventually took a landscaping job for his mother’s friend Elena Lincoln. Elena seduced Christian and introduced him to the BDSM lifestyle, which he says taught him how to control his emotions and channel his anger. Christian...
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...The Concept of Power The concept of power is present within various realms of all organizations. Power, however, is not something that should necessarily be looked at negatively. There are justifiable types of power that may be important to criminal justice organizations. The main role of power in criminal justice administration should be to gain compliance from subordinates of all types, and turn that power over time into acceptable forms of authority (Stojkovic et al., 2008). It is for this reason that power is an important attribute in criminal justice agencies. It is important as a criminal justice manager, and agency as a whole, to have legitimate power. Power that is not coercive and works for the good of the organization is beneficial in gathering information, resources, and compliance. Legitimate, expert, and referent power can be effective in the attainment of goals (Stojkovic et al., 2008). Legitimate power operates on the assumption that those in traditional authority positions are the power holder and wield their authority over the power recipient because their internalized norms justify the amount of compliance needed (Stojkovic et al., 2008). Legitimate power is most useful within criminal justice agencies because it takes into account the culture, and social structure, and operates within a hierarchy to promote successful delegation of duties. While political power does have some benefits within a criminal justice agency, it is easily corruptible and...
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...Organization conflict resolution Lecture 6 Date: 2 December 2013 1 Learning Objectives 1. 2. 3. 4. Understand the nature and sources of organizational conflict Know the mechanisms to obtain power, influence decision making and resolve conflict Identify sources of organizational power and tactics for playing politics Evaluate the costs and benefits of organizational politics 2 What is Organizational Conflict? • • • • Stakeholders compete for the resources that an organization produces. Shareholders want dividends, employees want raises. An organization must manage both cooperation and competition among stakeholders to grow and survive. All stakeholders have a common goal of organizational survival, but not all goals are identical. 3 What is Organizational Conflict? • The clash that occurs when the goaldirected behavior of one group blocks or hinders the goals of another Some conflict can actually improve organizational effectiveness – Can overcome inertia and lead to learning and change • 4 Cooperation and Competition Among Stakeholders 5 What is Organizational Conflict? • Beyond a certain point, conflict becomes a cause for organizational decline – Conflict leads to inability to reach consensus and indecision – Too much time spent on bargaining rather than acting rapidly to resolve problems • On balance, organizations should be open to conflict and recognize its value 6 Relationship Between Conflict and Organizational Effectiveness ...
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...Conflict Resolution and Mediation The concept of power is relative to the level of control exercised over resources deemed as necessities. Although there are a variety of ways to define power, there are a few elements that constantly appear. One of the constant elements in power is dependence. The next element is influence. Another element is the skill and strength to move resources into action (Blader & Chen, 2012). The power imbalances as it relates to distributive, integrative and designated power can impede one’s ability to manage work-related conflict. This paper will present a synthesized meaning of conflict of power, determine how power can constrain or exacerbate conflict, discuss ways for leaders to integrate conflict mediation into organizational culture, and include examples of scenarios in the analysis (learners.ncu.edu, 2013). Conflict of power comes from both conceptual and perceptive points of view. Conceptually, power is an expression through notions of symbolism as result of the relationship that exists between people (Dahl, 2007). The concept of power has more of an extrospective reference but also includes an introspective approach. The concept of power is exemplified through rank and file. Even if a soldier does not personally know an officer, it is the extrospective approach to power that has the soldier solute the officer. The soldier gives respect to the position a higher rank. The respect of position is called designated power (Wilmot...
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...Subject: Conflict Analysis and Resolution Assignment: Based on conflict theory, discuss why intra and inter party unity in Kenya seems elusive Discussion: Conflict within and between Rural and Urban populations in Kenya. There is no peace within (intra) and between (inter) rural and urban populations in Kenyan. Within the discussions of this paper, rural populations will refer to persons living in geographic areas away from towns and cities with their characteristic lack of social amenities and infrastructural development. The urban population on the contrary refers to persons inhabiting towns and cities with benefits of improved social amenities and developed infrastructure. Conflict refers to a “peaceless” coexistence within a society. Lewis Coser (1913-2003) defines conflict as “a struggle over values and claims to scarce status, power and resources in which the aims of the opponents are to neutralize, injure, or eliminate their rivals.” He argued that intergroups and intragroups conflicts are part of social life defining relationships but not necessarily resulting in instability. Through conflict society can attain social change, come up with outstanding innovations and strengthen central powers in times of war. The conflict theory explains causes of conflict; its containment and potential modes of resolving these conflicts. The human race has experienced different forms of conflict that manifest in both physical and psycho-emotional forms. The conceptual...
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...you agree that power, unlike authority, should apply only to relationships where there is a conflict of interests?It could be said, that politics is the studyof the locus of power - where power lies, or should lie. This encompasses all the main questions of political theory: Liberty, in to what extent the state should have power over the individual; justice, in looking at in what circumstances power has been used illegitimately; democracy, inthe mechanisms of how state power should be rightly yielded. Even topics such as the communitarian/liberal debate can be seen to boil down to a question of power, in this case, similar to the study of liberty, the balance between individual andcommunity power is at the core of this question.The question above raises a specific point about the actual definition of power, to what extent is the concept of power inherently linked to a 'conflict of interests'. This question requires a close examination of power itself, and the first step in doing this is to look at Steven Lukes' distinction between one-, two-, and three-dimensionalviews of power.In his seminal work, Power: A Radical View, Lukes goes about deriving a definition of power in three stages. The first is the 'one-dimensional' definition of power. This is based on attempts by political scientists such as Dahl to define power in such a way so that it is possible toobserve how power operates in empirical examples. The core of this view of power isthe statement 'A has power over B to the...
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...1. Power and difference b/w power and influence. Ans. According to Robbins and Judge, “Power is a capacity that A has to influence the behavior of B so that B acts in accordance with A’s wishes.”(2015).The most important aspect of the power is that is a function of dependency. The greater the B’s dependence on A, the greater is A’s power in relationship. For example, if you want a college degree and have to pass a certain course to get it, and your current instructor is the only faculty member in the college who teaches that course, he or she has a power over you. Influence: the capacity or power of persons or things to be a compelling force on or produce effects on the actions, behavior, opinions, etc., of others (dictionary.com). 2. What is leadership and how does it differ from management? Ans. Leadership: According to Robbins and Judge,” Leadership is defined as the ability to influence a group toward the achievement of a vision or set of goals.”(2014) the source of this influence may be formal, such as that provided by managerial rank in an organization. But not all leaders are managers, nor are all managers leaders. On the other hand, management is defined as the act or skill of controlling and making decisions about a business, department, sports team, etc.(Robbins &Judge,2014) Difference between leadership and management are: All organizations need strong leadership and strong management for optimal effectiveness. We need leaders to challenge the status...
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...Assignment Employment Conflict Management Concepts Worksheet Concept | Application of Concept in Scenario | Citation of Concept in Reading | Personal Experience in your Organization | ConflictI know this may seem like an elementary concept, but it is the reason for the scenario and for the class. It is not just another concept; it is “the concept”. | There are many conflicts that we can see in the scenario of Coastal County Clerk of Court. We see the conflict between the management styles of the former Clerk, Art Brewer, Stan Accord, the new Clerk, and Dennis Munger, the aspiring Clerk. Through the scenario there is a difference in how elderly employees should be treated, and if employees should work full days or be allowed to be out in the community. The major conflict arose when Accord laid off 15 employees including Munger and Mr. Bodkin. | “The study of conflict is a basic human requirement and the practice of constructive conflict is an essential set of interpersonal skills.”(Wilmot & Hacker, 2007, ch. 1.) | I have experienced many conflicts while in working environments. I remember one time in particular when I had a conflict with a superior of mine who wanted to fire me because I said I couldn’t work on Sundays due to my participation in the local church. He would not work with my schedule and had it out for me. With help from management we worked out our differences. This is one of many examples of conflict in the workplace. | Types of Goals:...
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...“appearances can be deceiving.” Chapter 13 discusses power and its contrast to leadership. The reading further talks about the five bases of power and the dependence of power in relationships. The chapter also identifies the nine power and influence tactics along with their contingencies and the connection between sexual harassment and the abuse of power. Lastly the section emphasizes on the causes and consequences of political power and whether political action is ethical. The difference between power and leadership is power doesn’t require goal compatibility, merely dependence as where leadership does require some congruence between the goals of the leader and those being led. Despite how some may feel about power or leadership neither are bad. If you represent the bases of power that you will most likely fall into one of these categories: coercive, formal, legitimate, expert, or referent. The most important aspect of power is that it is a function of dependence. Chapter 14 topics are about conflict and the differences between traditional, interactionist, and managed-conflict views. The chapter also discussed the conflict process while defining negotiation and applying the five steps of the negotiation process. Conflict is defined as the process begins when one party perceives another party has or is about to negatively affect something the first party cares about. There has always been conflict over the view of conflict, some believe it should be avoided- that it indicates...
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