A cognitive model based approach for organizational conflict resolution

Abstract

As organizations become more complex and diverse, organizational conflicts occur more frequently and managers spend an increasing portion of their time and efforts in handling such conflicts. Besides, an organizational conflict is difficult to identify in advance because it tends to be latent until the balance of interests is destroyed or a radical organizational change takes place. Effectiveness in managing organizational conflicts is based on how well such conflicts are understood by organizational members. By identifying the cause-effect relationships related to organizational conflicts, organizational members can understand each other better and become more willing to transform their ideas into corporate synergy. We propose a method, called Two-phase Cognitive Modeling (TCM), to help organizational members capture organizational conflicts and identify the means to alleviate them. To support the method for real world applications, we developed a computerized modeling tool, called Two-phase Cognitive Modeling Facility (TCMF). Working procedures of the TCM method and the TCMF tool are illustrated with their application to the real case of the cable TV home shopping company. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.