The Conflict Management Grid: A Selection and Development Tool to Resolve the Conflict between the Marketing and Sales Organizations

Abstract

The rapid globalization of modern business and the challenges to reach sales objectives within tough selling conditions pose major issues for human resource management. One important area that has yet to be fully explored is the management of conflict between sales and marketing functional areas in tough selling conditions. We hypothesize that: 1) marketing and sales task conflict is more likely to involve distributive (win-lose) issues and 2) when win-win (integrative) potential exists, the disputants are more likely to approach conflict from a fixed-pie perspective. Our analysis of data collected from food manufacturing industry supports this hypothesis. The application of different conflict management strategies varies depending on whether they are applied to sales or marketing task conflict. The importance of aligning conflict management strategies with the integrative potential of sales and marketing tasks is presented to managers.

Conflicts and management styles in the Sri Lankan commercial building sector

“…The two dimensions used by Blake and Mouton are slightly changed in the other theories yet the ultimate concept given with regard to conflict management is almost the same (Lee, 2008). Some of these other theories are Mary Parker Follett Model (1940), Hall's Win-Lose approach (1969), Thomas Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument (1977) and Devito Model (1995) (Atteya, 2012;Giritli et al, 2009;Lee, 2008;Ozkalp et al, 2009;Vu and Carmichael, 2009;Zhang et al, 2015). Mary Parker Follett Model (1940) suggested that the conflicts occur due to the differences in thoughts and ideas of individuals, thus these differences can be used to manage the conflicts (Giritli et al, 2009).…”

“…Hall believed that conflicts can be well managed by considering two dimensions; concern for personal goals and concern for relationships (Vu and Carmichael, 2009). Accordingly, he introduced approaches based on winning and losing (Atteya, 2012). Thomas Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument (1977) suggested that conflicts can be well managed by considering assertiveness and cooperativeness and introduced five conflict management styles, namely; competing, collaborating, avoiding, compromising and accommodating (Trippe and Baumoel, 2015).…”

The relationship between human resource management practices and organisational citizenship behaviour

“…The demographic questions consist of six items (items 1-6). The HRMS used in this study was developed by Khatri (2000), Tsaur and Lin (2004) and Atteya (2012). This scale consists of 36 items, with the format of a typical five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree), which divided into four sub-dimensions -RS, CS, TD and PA -with a Cronbach's alpha score of 0.850.…”

“…The OCS used in this study was developed by Porter, Steers, Mowday and Boulian (1974) and Atteya (2012). This scale consists of 10 items (İtems 43-52), with the format of a typical five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).…”

“…Some sample questions from the OCS are as follows: 'I can get ahead in this university if I make the effort'. The OCBS used in this study was developed by Atteya (2012). This scale consists of 19 items (items 53-71), with the format of a typical five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).…”