Modern Management: concepts and skills, 14/e

Change and Conflict⁴⁵

Defining Conflict

Managers often encounter conflict as a result of planning and making organizational changes. As used here, conflict is defined as a struggle that results from opposing needs or feelings of two or more people. In the case of organizational change, conflict generally results from managers making changes that threaten employees or create competing views between employees and managers concerning when, how, or if a particular organizational change should be made. Note, however, that conflict sometimes results in a positive outcome for the organization. For example, a manager in conflict with a subordinate regarding how the subordinate’s job will change might garner good suggestions from the subordinate regarding ...