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Emotional Intelligence (EI) is the mental ability that provides emotional sensitivity to an individual. EI plays a vital role in conflict resolution. It enables individuals to perceive rational behind any idea or perspective and, thereby, helps in resolving conflicts.
The paper emphasizes on orienting the conflict resolution practitioners in the principles of EI. Emotional Intelligence (EI) is one’s ability to detect and manage emotional cues and information. People who know their emotions and are good at reading others’ emotions may be more effective in their jobs. It is a relatively new area of psychological research. The definition of EI is constantly changing. EI refers to an assortment of non-cognitive skills, capabilities, and competencies that influence a person’s ability to succeed in coping with environmental demands and pressure.
EI is composed of five dimensions: 1) Self-awareness-being aware of what you are feeling. 2) Self-regulation-the ability to manage your own emotions and impulses 3) Self motivation-the ability to persist in the face of setbacks and failures 4) Empathy-the ability to sense how others are feeling 5) Social skills-the ability to handle the emotions of others Let us see each of these five dimensions in detail: 1. Self Awareness: Self awareness means recognizing a feeling as it happens. The ability to monitor feelings from moment to moment is crucial to psychological insight and self-understanding.
People with greater certainty about their feelings are better pilots of their lives, having a surer sense of how they feel about personal decisions. This is not an easy skill as emotions often appear in disguise. Yet, for all its complexity, self-awareness is the most crucial skill. Emotional Awareness – People with this competence know which emotions they are feeling and why. They realize the links between their feelings and what they think and say they recognize how their feelings affect their performance and have a guiding awareness of their values and goals 2.
Self-Regulation: Self-Regulation the ability to manage your own emotions and impulses. An emotionally self-regulated person can be easily recognized with the following traits-a propensity for reflections and thoughtfulness, comfort with ambiguity and change, and integrity and ability to say no to compulsive urges. Self-regulation has been found important for success. Self-control – People with this competency manage their impulsive feelings and distressing emotions well. They stay composed, positive and unflappable even in trying moments and think clearly and stay focused under pressure.
Trustworthiness – People with this competency act ethically and are above reproach. They build trust through their reliability and authenticity and admit their own mistakes and confront unethical actions in others. They are able to take tough, principled stands even if they are unpopular. Conscientiousness – People with this competency meet commitments and keep promises, hold themselves accountable for meeting their objectives and are organized and careful in their work. 3. Self-Motivation: Marshalling emotions in the service of a goal is essential for paying attention, for self-motivation and mastery, and for creativity.
Self-motivation involves your ability to keep your actions goal-directed even when distracted by emotions. Self-motivation necessarily includes being able to delay gratification, and avoid acting in impulsive ways. Achievement Drive – People with this competency are results-oriented, with a high drive to meet their objectives and standards. They set challenging goals and take calculated risks to pursue information to reduce uncertainty and find ways to do things better. Commitment – People with this competency readily make sacrifices to meet a larger organizational goal.
They find a sense of purpose in the larger mission by using the group’s core values in making decisions and clarifying choices. They actively seek out opportunities to fulfill the group’s mission. 4. Empathy: Empathy involves your ability to notice and correctly interpret the needs and wants of other people. Empathy is the characteristic that leads to altruism, which is your willingness to put the needs of others ahead of your own needs. Understanding Others – People with this competency are attentive to emotional cues and listen well.
They display sensitivity and understand others’ perspectives and help out based on understanding other people’s needs and feelings. Developing Others – People with this competency acknowledge and reward people’s strengths and accomplishments. These people offer useful feedback and identify people’s needs for further growth. They mentor, give timely coaching, and offer assignments that challenge and foster a person’s skills Service Orientation – People with this competency understand customers/clients needs and math them to services of products.
They seek ways to increase customers’ satisfaction and loyalty and gladly offer appropriate assistance. They grasp a customer’s perspective, acting as a trusted advisor Leveraging Diversity – People with this competency respect and relate well to people from varied backgrounds. They understand diverse worldviews and are sensitive to group differences. They see diversity as opportunity, creating an environment where diverse people can thrive. They like to challenge bias and intolerance. Political Awareness – People with this competency accurately read key power relationships and detect crucial social networks.
They understand the forces that shape views and actions of clients, customers, or competitors and accurately read organizational and external realities. 5. Social Skills: The art of relationship is, in large parts, the skill of managing emotions of others. These are the abilities that upgrade popularity, leadership, and interpersonal effectiveness. People who excel in these skills do well in anything that relies on interacting smoothly with others. In all, these people are social stars. Influence – People with this competency are skilled at winning people over. They fine-tune presentations to appeal to the listener.
They use complex strategies like indirect influence to build consensus and support and orchestrate dramatic events to effectively make a point. Communication – People with this competence are effective in give-and-take, registering emotional cues in attuning their message and deal with difficult issues straightforwardly These people listen well, seek mutual understanding, and welcome sharing of information fully They foster open communication and stay receptive to bad news as well as good Conflict Management – People with this competency handle difficult people and tense situations with diplomacy and tact.
They spot potential conflict, bring disagreements into the open and help to de-escalate and encourage debate and open discussion. In all, these people orchestrate win-win solutions. Leadership – People with this competency articulate and arouse enthusiasm for a shared vision and mission. They step forward to lead as needed, regardless of position. They guide the performance of others while holding them accountable. To sum it all up, these people lead by example. Change Catalyst – People with this competency recognize the need to change and remove barriers.
They often challenge the status quo to acknowledge the need for change. They champion the change and enlist others in its pursuit. They model the change expected of others. Building Bonds – People with this competency cultivate and maintain extensive informal networks. They seek out relationships that are mutually beneficial. They build rapport and keep others in the loop. In the process they make and maintain personal friendships among work associates. Collaboration and Cooperation – People with this competency balance a focus on task with attention to relationships.
They collaborate, sharing plans, information and resources and promote a friendly, cooperative climate. They quickly spot and nurture opportunities for collaboration. These various skills work together form the basis of emotionally intelligent behavior. People come to the challenge of emotional intelligence with different strengths and weaknesses. Where some find it easy to develop self-awareness and empathy, others have a difficult time, or don’t easily recognize the need. Luckily, emotional intelligence (likewise emotional resilience) is something that can be cultivated and developed.
You have the ability to learn how to better work with emotions so as to improve your mental, physical, and social health. In recent years, EQ has become a hot topic in management. A growing number of people believe that EQ has great potential as a predictor of workplace behaviour in organizations. Several studies suggest that EI may play an important role in job performance. The implication from initial evidence on EI is that employers should consider it as a factor of selection, especially in jobs that demand a high degree of social interaction. Conflict
We can define conflict as a process that begins when one party perceives, that another party has negatively affected or is about to negatively affect, something that the first party cares about. Conflict management In the management of conflicts, the styles of the persons involved in a conflict (either as individuals or as groups, especially group leaders) play a critical role. Some styles may promote a search for solutions whereas others may lead to a deadlock. Conflict management styles are related to the theory or approach used to understand conflicts.
Approach and Avoidance modes of Conflict Management The avoidance – approach dimension of conflict management is significant in determining the effectiveness of managerial behavior. Avoidance is based on fear and is dysfunctional, while approach is based on hope and is functional for effectiveness. Avoidance is characterized by a tendency to deny, rationalize or avoid the problem, to displace anger or aggression, or to use emotional appeals; approach-orientation is characterized by making efforts to find the solution by one’s own efforts or with the help of others.
Combining the two aspects of the perception of the out-group with avoidance-approach dimension, we get eight styles or modes of conflict management. Avoidance Modes or Styles Avoidance modes or styles of conflict management aim at avoiding or postponing conflicts in a variety of ways. There are four main avoidance styles. Resignation: The extreme avoidance mode is fatalistic – regarding conflicts with a sense of helplessness. Conflict is seen as a part of reality, arising out of the unreasonable stand of an out-group, usually hostile.
Another form of resignation is to ignore the conflict. It may even take the form of denying the unpleasant situation in the hope that the conflict will get resolved by itself in due course. Withdrawal: Another form of avoidance is to get away from a conflict situation. It may take several forms. The attempt to get away from the conflict may be because the out-group is seen as belligerent but still open to reason. One way to get away from conflicts is to avoid situations of potential conflicts. This may be done by not having any opportunities for the two groups to work together.
A second way may be to withdraw from a conflict when it takes place. The withdrawal may be from the situation or from the relationship with the out-group. Physical separation may be a third way to withdraw. This would include a separate location and separation of all other arrangements. A fourth form of withdrawal may be to define the boundaries of interaction with the out-group and make arrangements to limit these. Diffusion: The main objective of diffusion mode of conflict resolution is to buy time for dealing with a conflict. It may take several forms.
When people feel that several emotional issues are involved, in a conflict, and that the emotions are too strong, they may decide to let the emotions cool down before taking up the real issues for resolution. Emotional overtones can be defused in several ways. One way to defuse strong emotions in a conflict is to hope that with the passage of time the emotions will settle down and the groups will be ready to deal with the real issues of conflict. Another form of diffusion is to appeal to the good sense of both groups, to the sentiment that both are part of a larger group and have common interests, interdependence, mutuality, etc.
Such appeals may help to defuse the conflicts fraught with emotions. Another way to defuse a situation is to develop a temporary arrangement of interaction with the out-group through a third group. This is like creating a buffer to absorb emotional overtones. Appeasements: The main objective of appeasement is to buy temporary peace. When a group in conflict with an out-group finds the conflict embarrassing and disturbing, it may agree to some of the demands of the out-group, not because it is convinced about them but because it wants to postpone the conflicts.
It therefore provides some concessions in the hope that the out-group will be satisfied and the conflict will be over. Appeasement has the same dynamics as the payment of blackmail. The out-group gets the message that the group is weak and incapable of confronting issues. The result of appeasement is that not only does the conflict remain unsolved, the demands of the out-group increase, its posturing gets stiffer, and the situation deteriorates further. Approach Modes or Styles Approach modes or style may take more aggressive or understanding forms by taking positive steps to confront conflicts and find solutions.
There are four approaches made or styles Confrontation: When the in-group perceives the out-group to be both opposed to its interests and unreasonable, the mode of confrontation may be adopted. Confrontation is fighting out an issue to get a solution in one’s favour, and is often adopted by management or trade unions. It may lead to the win – lose trap. The confrontation mode involves coercion and is likely to fail to reach a solution. Compromise: If the out-group is seen as being interested in peace (and as reasonable), an attempt may be made to seek a compromise.
This is a process of sharing in the gain, without resolving the conflict. This may be done by bargaining. Arbitration: If the out-group is perceived as being belligerent and not interested in peace, and yet not usually unreasonable, arbitration by a third party may be sought to assess the situation objectively, and give a judgment acceptable to both groups. Usually the conflict remains unresolved: it is only postponed for a time. Negotiation: The most satisfactory solution can emerge only when both group jointly confront the problem and explore the solution. This mode is called negotiation. Methodology
Survey Method The survey is a non-experimental, descriptive research method. Surveys can be useful when a researcher wants to collect data on phenomena that cannot be directly observed (such as opinions on library services). Surveys are used extensively in library and information science to assess attitudes and characteristics of a wide range of subjects, from the quality of user-system interfaces to library user reading habits. In a survey, researchers sample a population. Basha and Harter (1980) state that “a population is any set of persons or objects that possesses at least one common characteristic. Examples of populations that might be studied are 1) all the 1999 graduates of GSLIS at the University of Texas, or 2) all the users of UT General Libraries. Since populations can be quite large, researchers directly question only a sample (i. e. a small proportion) of the population. Types of Surveys Data are usually collected through the use of questionnaires, although sometimes researchers directly interview subjects. Surveys can use qualitative (e. g. ask open-ended questions) or quantitative (e. g. use forced-choice questions) measures. There are two basic types of surveys: cross-sectional surveys and longitudinal surveys.
Much of the following information was taken from an excellent book on the subject, called Survey Research Methods, by Earl R. Babbie. Cross-Sectional Surveys Cross-sectional surveys are used to gather information on a population at a single point in time. An example of a cross sectional survey would be a questionnaire that collects data on how parents feel about Internet filtering, as of March of 1999. A different cross-sectional survey questionnaire might try to determine the relationship between two factors, like religiousness of parents and views on Internet filtering. Longitudinal Surveys
Longitudinal surveys gather data over a period of time. The researcher may then analyze changes in the population and attempt to describe and/or explain them. The three main types of longitudinal surveys are trend studies, cohort studies, and panel studies Trend Studies Trend studies focus on a particular population, which is sampled and scrutinized repeatedly. While samples are of the same population, they are typically not composed of the same people. Trend studies, since they may be conducted over a long period of time, do not have to be conducted by just one researcher or research project.
A researcher may combine data from several studies of the same population in order to show a trend. An example of a trend study would be a yearly survey of librarians asking about the percentage of reference questions answered using the Internet. Cohort Studies Cohort studies also focus on a particular population, sampled and studied more than once. But cohort studies have a different focus. For example, a sample of 1999 graduates of GSLIS at the University of Texas could be questioned regarding their attitudes toward paraprofessionals in libraries.
Five years later, the researcher could question another sample of 1999 graduates, and study any changes in attitude. A cohort study would sample the same class, every time. If the researcher studied the class of 2004 five years later, it would be a trend study, not a cohort study. Panel Studies Panel studies allow the researcher to find out why changes in the population are occurring, since they use the same sample of people every time. That sample is called a panel. A researcher could, for example, select a sample of UT graduate students, and ask them questions on their library usage.
Every year thereafter, the researcher would contact the same people, and ask them similar questions, and ask them the reasons for any changes in their habits. Panel studies, while they can yield extremely specific and useful explanations, can be difficult to conduct. They tend to be expensive, they take a lot of time, and they suffer from high attrition rates. Attrition is what occurs when people drop out of the study. Representative Sampling A sample is representative when it is an accurate proportional representation of the population under study.
If you want to study the attitudes of UT students regarding library services, it would not be enough to interview every 100th person who walked into the library. That technique would only measure the attitudes of UT students who use the library, not those who do not. In addition, it would only measure the attitudes of UT students who happened to use the library during the time you were collecting data. Therefore, the sample would not be very representative of UT students in general. In order to be a truly representative sample, every student at UT would have to have had an equal chance of being chosen to participate in the survey.
This is called randomization. If you stood in front of the student union and walked up to students, asking them questions, you still would not have a random sample. You would only be questioning students who happened to come to campus that day, and further, those that happened to walk past the student union. Those students who never walk that way would have had no chance of being questioned. In addition, you might unintentionally be biased as to who you question. You might unconsciously choose not to question students who look preoccupied or busy, or students who don’t look like friendly people.
This would invalidate your results, since your sample would not be randomly selected. If you took a list of UT students, uploaded it onto a computer, and then instructed the computer to randomly generate a list of 2 percent of all UT students, then your sample still might not be representative. What if, purely by chance, the computer did not include the correct proportion of seniors, or honours students, or graduate students? In order to further ensure that the sample is truly representative of the population, you might want to use a sampling technique called stratification.
In order to stratify a population, you need to decide what sub-categories of the population might be statistically significant. For instance, graduate students as a group probably have different opinions than undergraduates regarding library usage, so they should be recognized as separate strata of the population. Once you have a list of the different strata, along with their respective percentages, you could instruct the computer to again randomly select students, this time taking care that a certain percentage are graduate students, a certain percentage are honours students, and a certain percentage are seniors.
You would then come up with a more truly representative sample. Question Design It is important to design questions very carefully. A poorly designed questionnaire renders results meaningless. There are many factors to consider. Babbie gives the following pointers: • Make items clear (don’t assume the person you are questioning knows the terms you are using). • Avoid double-barreled questions (make sure the question asks only one clear thing). • Respondent must be competent to answer (don’t ask questions that the respondent won’t accurately be able to answer). Questions should be relevant (don’t ask questions on topics that respondents don’t care about or haven’t thought about). • Short items are best (so that they may be read, understood, and answered quickly). • Avoid negative items (if you ask whether librarians should not be paid more, it will confuse respondents). • Avoid biased items and terms (be sensitive to the effect of your wording on respondents). Busha and Harter provide the following list of 10 hints: 1. Unless the nature of a survey definitely warrants their usage, avoid slang, jargon, and technical terms. 2. Whenever possible, develop consistent response methods. . Make questions as impersonal as possible. 4. Do not bias later responses by the wording used in earlier questions. 5. As an ordinary rule, sequence questions from the general to the specific. 6. If closed questions are employed, try to develop exhaustive and mutually exclusive response alternatives. 7. Insofar as possible, place questions with similar content together in the survey instrument. 8. Make the questions as easy to answer as possible. 9. When unique and unusual terms need to be defined in questionnaire items, use very clear definitions. 10. Use an attractive questionnaire format that conveys a professional image.
As may be seen, designing good questions is much more difficult than it seems. One effective way of making sure that questions measure what they are supposed to measure is to test them out first, using small focus groups. Organisations selected for survey IBM International Business Machines Corporation abbreviated as IBM and nicknamed “Big Blue”, is a multinational computer technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, USA. The company is one of the few information technology companies with a continuous history dating back to the 19th century.
IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and offers infrastructure services, hosting services, and consulting services in areas ranging from mainframe computers to nanotechnology. IBM India is the Indian subsidiary of IBM. It has facilities in Bangalore, Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Pune, Gurgaon, Noida and Hyderabad. Between 2003 and 2007, IBM’s head count in India has grown by over 800%, from 9,000 in 2003 to 74,000 at the end of 2007. Since 2006, IBM has been the multinational with the largest number of employees in India.
IBM, in an analyst meeting held at Bangalore on June 6, 2006 stated that IBM’s India plans are for the long term & committed to invest $6 billion in the next three years in India, triple the amount invested in the three years preceding the meeting. IBM world-wide expects its revenues to be around $120 billion by 2010, of which nearly $86 billion (68%) would come from IBM Global Services alone, with an estimate of about 200,000 employees. IBM India would account for 90,000 of these. Roughly translated, IBM’s Indian employees would generate $35 billion of IBM’s revenues in 2010.
IBM Global Services (now split to Business Services & Technical Services) was called the “jewel in the IBM crown” by the Aberdeen group in 2003. For world-wide IBM, this is the group that contributes to more than half its global revenues ($54 billion in 2005) presently and growing at a healthy rate (8% in 2005). With half of global service employees to be located in India, IBM India’s importance for the global corporation can be easily fathomed. Punjab National Bank Punjab National Bank (PNB), was registered on May 19, 1894 under the Indian Companies Act with its office in Anarkali Bazaar Lahore.
The Bank, founded by Dyal Singh Majithia and Lala Harkishen Lal,[1] is the second largest government-owned commercial bank in India with about 4,500 branches across 764 cities. It serves over 37 million customers. The bank has been ranked 248th biggest bank in the world by Bankers Almanac, London. Total Business of the bank for financial year 2007 is estimated to be approximately US$60 billion. It has a banking subsidiary in the UK, as well as branches in Hong Kong and Kabul, and representative offices in Almaty, Shanghai, and Dubai.
With its presence virtually in all the important centres of the country, Punjab National Bank offers a wide variety of banking services which include corporate and personal banking, industrial finance, agricultural finance, financing of trade and international banking. Among the clients of the Bank are Indian conglomerates, medium and small industrial units, exporters, non-resident Indians and multinational companies. The large presence and vast resource base have helped the Bank to build strong links with trade and industry. Punjab National Bank is serving over 3. crore customers through 4540 Offices including 421 extension counters – largest amongst Nationalized Banks. Punjab National Bank with 112 year tradition of sound and prudent banking is one among 300 global companies and seven Indian companies which are expected to emerge as challengers to World’s leading blue chip companies. While among top 1000 world banks, “The Banker”, the leading magazine in London, has placed PNB at the 248th position, the bank features at 1308th position among Forbe’s Global 2000 list of global giants and fast growing companies.
At the same time, the bank has been conscious of its social responsibilities by financing agriculture and allied activities and small scale industries (SSI). Considering the importance of small scale industries bank has established 31 specialised branches to finance exclusively such industries. Reliance Industries Limited The Reliance Group, founded by Dhirubhai H. Ambani (1932-2002), is India’s largest private sector enterprise, with an annual turnover of US$ 35. 9 billion and profit of US$ 4. 85 billion for the fiscal year ending in March 2008.
The flagship company, Reliance Industries Limited, is a Fortune Global 500 company and is the largest private sector company in India. Backward vertical integration has been the cornerstone of the evolution and growth of Reliance. Starting with textiles in the late seventies, Reliance pursued a strategy of backward vertical integration – in polyester, fiber intermediates, plastics, petrochemicals, petroleum refining and oil and gas exploration and production – to be fully integrated along the materials and energy value chain.
The Group’s activities span exploration and production of oil and gas, petroleum refining and marketing, petrochemicals (polyester, fiber intermediates, plastics and chemicals), textiles and retail. Reliance enjoys global leadership in its businesses, being the largest polyester yarn and fiber producer in the world and among the top five to ten producers in the world in major petrochemical products. The Group exports products in excess of US$ 20 billion to 108 countries in the world.
Major Group Companies are Reliance Industries Limited (including main subsidiaries Reliance Petroleum Limited and Reliance Retail Limited) and Reliance Industrial Infrastructure Limited. Voltas Voltas Limited offers engineering solutions for a wide spectrum of industries in areas such as heating, ventilation and air conditioning, refrigeration, electro-mechanical projects, textile machinery, machine tools, mining and construction equipment, materials handling, water management, building management systems, indoor air quality and chemicals.
Major Functioning Areas of VL are Operations: Voltas’ operations have been organized into four independent business-specific clusters. Each of these has its own facilities for market coverage and service to customers. • Electro-Mechanical Projects & Services • Engineering products & Services • Unitary Cooling Products • Others Manufacturing: Voltas possesses total capability in the manufacture of room/split air conditioners, industrial air conditioning and refrigeration equipment, water coolers, commercial refrigerators, visicoolers, freezers and fork-lift trucks.
All these products bear the stamp of state-of-the-art automated manufacturing plants resulting in consistently high quality and reduced costs. Projects: Over the years, Voltas has built up a substantial reputation and is actively engaged in turnkey projects in fields such as electro-mechanical works comprising electrical building services, HVAC, plumbing, public Health, fire fighting, ELV & specialised systems; electrical power projects; environmental and water pollution control; pumping stations and water supply; water & waste water treatment projects.
Marketing: Voltas’ sourcing and marketing operations cover air conditioners, textile machinery, machine tools, mining and construction equipment and industrial chemicals. In these sectors, the company demonstrates its specialised engineering expertise, as well as its extensive network for global sourcing. Sample IT Company: IBM No. of employees: 31 Mean Age: 25. 096 Mean years of experience: 1. 67 Banking Sector: PNB No. of employees: 30 Mean Age: 48. 53 Mean years of experience: 25. 13 Manufacturing Sector: Voltas and RIL No. of employees: 32 Mean Age: 26. 96 Mean years of experience: 4. 85 Data Analysis
The Data Analysis Technique employed in the project is Correlation. In probability theory and statistics, correlation, (often measured as a correlation coefficient), indicates the strength and direction of a linear relationship between two random variables. The summarized results of the survey scores and the correlation coefficients are tabulated in the appendix. Results As per definition, Emotional Intelligence (EI) is one’s ability to detect and manage emotional cues and information. People who know their emotions and are good at reading others’ emotions may be more effective in their jobs.
EI refers to an assortment of non-cognitive skills, capabilities, and competencies that influence a person’s ability to succeed in coping with environmental demands and pressure. It mainly consists of factors like Trustworthiness, Conscientiousness, Self-Motivation, Commitment, Empathy and Social Skills. From the survey done for this study, it can be easily seen that the mean emotional intelligence is highest for Punjab National Bank employees. This can be attributed to the high average age of the population from which this data has been collected.
Since emotional intelligence is something that can be cultivated and developed, it can be inferred that the employees of any organization develop these abilities over a period of time through peers as well as customer interactions. Since the employees of IBM taking this survey are relatively very young, it will probably take them some time to hone their emotional resilience. It has also been found in earlier studies that emotional intelligence is very important especially in jobs that demand a high degree of social interaction and our study hold this true in case of PNB whose performance is highly dependent on customer interaction.
From the minimum and maximum score across the sample we can see that largely there is not much variation in the emotional intelligence of employees in these organizations since all of these are world class companies and the recruitment departments look for employees with high emotional intelligence. Conflict Management among these organizations: Conflict resolution styles differ from one organization to another based upon the organization’s culture as well as the personal approach of employees to handle conflicts. There are various styles of conflict management which have already been discussed earlier.
The quantified results of these styles as observed through our survey are discussed as follows: Resignation: This style is more preferred in PNB across the three organizations under study. This can mainly be attributed to the senility since people tend to resign to conflicts or ignore them rather than attempting a positive solution to resolve the problem. They try to deny the unpleasant situation in the hope that the conflict will get resolved by itself in due course. Also, since the overall average age of PNB employees must be significantly higher than Voltas, RIL and IBM, this conclusion can be applied to the whole organization as well.
Withdrawal: This style is more preferred in PNB across the three organizations under study. This can mainly be attributed to the old age since people tend to keep themselves away from conflicts to avoid situations of potential conflicts. But this may have negative effect on the organization since lots of conflicts go unresolved and it might develop into bitter relations among employees which will reflect in their work. This may eventually take the form of hostility among the conflicting groups. Diffusion: This style is again most prevalent in PNB.
The main objective of diffusion mode of conflict resolution is to buy time for dealing with a conflict. When people feel that several emotional issues are involved, in a conflict, and that the emotions are too strong, they may decide to let the emotions cool down before taking up the real issues for resolution. This can be a positive approach of conflict management among PNB employees if they have developed a sense of belonging to the organization over the years and understand that they have common interests and interdependence. They may be dopting another method of diffusion where a third party acts as a facilitator to resolve the issues. Appeasements: This style is most prevalent in IBM. The main objective of appeasement is to buy temporary peace. When a group in conflict with an out-group finds the conflict embarrassing and disturbing, it may agree to some of the demands of the out-group, not because it is convinced about them but because it wants to postpone the conflicts. This method may be prevalent as the organization’s policy in case of IBM since it operates in a number of countries and appeasement might be effective in an inter-cultural environment.
But it can lead to problems later since the out-group gets the message that the group is weak and incapable of confronting issues. Confrontation: This style is most prevalent in VL/RIL among the organizations under study. Confrontation is fighting out an issue to get a solution in one’s favour, and is often adopted by management or trade unions. It shows the organization’s incapability to resolve issues among/with the employees. This mostly leads to bitter relations among the groups, reduces idea sharing and affects positive group dynamics. Compromise: This style is most prevalent in IBM.
Compromise is a process of sharing in the gain, without resolving the conflict. This may be done by bargaining. A prerequisite for compromise is that both the groups must be reasonable in approach and must listen to each other. But compromise can only provide a win-win to the groups rather than giving the best solution to the problem. Arbitration: This style is most prevalent in VL/RIL among the organizations under study. Arbitration is seeking a third party’s intervention to assess the situation objectively, and give a judgment acceptable to both groups.
In VL/RIL, due to their hierarchical structure, the disputes are often left to the discretion of higher authorities. But in such cases, usually the conflict remains unresolved and it is only postponed for a time. Negotiation: This is the most preferred style of managing conflicts across all these organizations. This is actually desirable in large organizations where the performance of the company relies highly on constructive approach of conflict solving. The most satisfactory solution can emerge only when both group jointly confront the problem and explore the solution.
Negotiation facilitates sharing of ideas to arrive at the best possible solution to resolve the problem. Negotiation score is highest for PNB which shows that they have developed this style of conflict resolution over a long period of time of their service in the organization. Analysis of Correlation From the correlation analysis of the data collected from the survey, 1. There is fairly strong correlation between emotional intelligence and negotiation for employees across the companies. As the EQ of a person increases, his ability to solve the conflict also increases.
As the person with high emotional intelligence can understand his and others’ emotions, he can solve the conflict using negotiations. 2. There is negative correlation between EI and resignation for IBM employees. This shows that as the emotional intelligence of person increases, his tendency to use avoidance methods decreases. The same conclusion can be drawn from the negative correlation between EI and confrontation for IBM employees. 3. The positive correlation between EI and arbitration for IBM employees signifies that as EI increases, a person resorts to approach methods to solve conflicts.
Limitations 1. The sample consists of only 93 people, which do not give a fair idea about the actual EI and Managing conflicts traits of the universe. (The universe consists of all the employees working in organisations selected for survey) 2. Due to workload, the employees might not have been able to devote full attention while responding to the survey. Thus the response might not be the true reflection of their EI and Conflict Management Styles. 3. The sample doesn’t include employees of all the age groups and doesn’t cover all the positions in the organisations. Thus the results can’t be generalised.
Appendix Survey Results: | |VL/RIL | | |Mean |Min |Max | | | | | | |EI |127. 1 |122. 2 |132. 1 | | | | | | |Resignation |7. 8 |6. 5 |9. | |Withdrawal |8. 2 |7. 3 |9. 1 | |Diffusion |8. 7 |7. 6 |9. 8 | |Appeasement |10. 1 |9. 0 |11. 1 | |Confrontation |9. 3 |8. 2 |10. 4 | |Compromise |10. 8 |9. 5 |12. 1 | |Arbitration |10. 2 |9. 2 |11. | |Negotiation |12. 7 |12. 0 |13. 5 | | |IBM | | |Mean |Min |Max | | | | | | |EI |124. 7 |119. 9 |129. 6 | | | | | | |Resignation |7. |6. 5 |8. 5 | |Withdrawal |9. 4 |8. 3 |10. 4 | |Diffusion |10. 1 |9. 2 |11. 0 | |Appeasement |10. 9 |10. 3 |11. 5 | |Confrontation |7. 4 |6. 5 |8. 2 | |Compromise |11. 8 |11. 4 |12. | |Arbitration |9. 8 |8. 6 |11. 0 | |Negotiation |12. 6 |12. 0 |13. 2 | | |PNB | | |Mean |Min |Max | | | | | | |EI |127. 9 |119. |136. 0 | | | | | | |Resignation |8. 0 |6. 7 |9. 2 | |Withdrawal |11. 1 |10. 2 |12. 0 | |Diffusion |10. 3 |9. 0 |11. 6 | |Appeasement |9. 6 |8. 2 |11. 0 | |Confrontation |8. |7. 1 |9. 1 | |Compromise |10. 9 |9. 7 |12. 1 | |Arbitration |9. 9 |8. 9 |10. 9 | |Negotiation |13. 1 |12. 2 |14. 0 | | |All | | |Mean |Min |Max | | | | | |EI |126. 6 |120. 5 |132. 7 | | | | | | |Resignation |7. 7 |6. 6 |8. 9 | |Withdrawal |9. 5 |8. 4 |10. 7 | |Diffusion |9. 7 |8. 5 |10. | |Appeasement |10. 2 |9. 1 |11. 3 | |Confrontation |8. 3 |7. 2 |9. 3 | |Compromise |11. 2 |10. 1 |12. 3 | |Arbitration |10. 0 |8. 9 |11. 0 | |Negotiation |12. 8 |12. 0 |13. 5 | Data analysis: Correlation | |VL/RIL |IBM |PNB |All | | | | | | | | |Correlation between |Resignation |-0. 10 |-0. 76 |0. 29 |-0. 06 | |EI and | | | | | | | |Withdrawal |0. 3 |0. 18 |-0. 22 |-0. 01 | | |Negotiation |0. 78 |0. 31 |0. 78 |0. 68 | | |Confrontation |0. 15 |-0. 52 |0. 21 |0. 04 | | |Compromise |0. 34 |0. 03 |-0. 06 |0. 06 | | |Arbitrator |0. 1 |0. 58 |0. 38 |0. 38 | | |Appeasement |0. 28 |-0. 13 |0. 39 |0. 24 | | |Diffusion |-0. 16 |-0. 45 |-0. 19 |-0. 23 | Reference 1. Training Instruments for Human Resource Development by Udai Pareek 2. Organisational Behaviour by Golman 3. Organisational Behaviour by Stephen Robbins