Conflict Resolution
CNR 655 Syllabus
COURSE NUMBER: CNR 665
COURSE TITLE: Dispute Systems Design
CREDITS: 3 SEMESTER CREDITS (3:3)
PREREQUISITES: NONE. Permission of the Program Director for non-majors.
FOR WHOM PLANNED: This is an online elective for all residential and online students in the master’s program in Conflict Resolution. May be taken as a general elective.
INSTRUCTOR INFORMATION:
GENERAL INFORMATION
- This is a tentative plan, the instructor reserve the right to make changes
over the semester
PLEASE READ THIS SYLLABUS VERY CAREFULLY. THERE IS INFORMATION WHICH YOU WILL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR KNOWING.
I generally try to answer all email within 24 hours, so if you have not received a response from me within that time frame, one of several things could have occurred, I have died (please send flowers), I am tied up in an arbitration/litigation, or I have not received your email. Nevertheless, if you have not received a response from me within 48 hours, please resend your email or call.
Please feel free to call me anytime with any questions, thoughts, issues, problems, or concerns you may have. I generally in the office and have had my first cup of coffee by 9:00 am and work until 5:00pm or later. If you want to reach me in the evening, please call my home after 7:30pm and before 10:00 pm during the week and basically any reasonable time on the weekends.
DESCRIPTION:
The course begins by discussing how organizations operate, how and where
conflict is built into their structure and methods for diagnosing these
issues. Organizations have been among the most significant creative developments
in human history. By their very nature, organizations involve parties
with different interests, power bases, world views, and goals. More significantly
with such divergent dynamics, combined to aid and facilitate the organizations
to accomplish the main missions for which the organizations have been
created in the first place, conflicts occur. The interaction of parties
with such diverse variables naturally produces social conflicts of various
natures. Conflict may be manifest and visible on the structure and interpersonal
relationships or it may be latent, hidden in the crevices of organizational
culture and unspoken in daily interactional dialogue. Once we can
understand how organizations operate, we can then proceed to redesign
aspects of the existing system to produce more human centered and responsive
organizations.
Designing systems of conflict resolution and management requires some knowledge of organizational behavior and structure. Dispute systems design (DSD) is a combination of psychology, organizational research and analysis, consultation, and an understanding of group behavior and dynamics.
Dispute Systems Design refers to the process of creating an entire routinized system for repetitively handling similar types of disputes. Dispute system design is about putting systems in place to manage potential, emerging and actual conflicts. This system design process involves both theoretical insights and a variety of practice skills.
This course will introduce you to ways in which you can do this in your
organization.
Topics include:
- conflict evaluation
- conflict processes in groups
- conflict intervention
- system implementation
The concept of conflict systems design has been developed to enable organizational leaders and workers to work together through organizational related conflicts. Conflict resolution in organizations requires conceptualization, designing, building or remodeling. In order to under take such efforts successfully, one needs to possess some basic knowledge of how structures function and systems operate. Thus, conflict system design is a mixture of psychology, management, sociology, and simple common sense all mixed in one task.
However, identifying sources of conflict may not be as a simple task when the causes are embedded in an institution’s structure and operating systems. Thus, if the rules, roles or responsibilities are designed to produce conflict (indeed, in industries they are) then resolving these conflicts often requires some structural or systemic alteration which may produce unintended, non-obvious or even non-sensical results. In any intervention, “do no harm” is a cardinal principle (just like the Hippocratic oath). Thus it is very critical that practitioners evaluate/assess how theory and practice work or collide when dealing with complex problems in organizations.
With the above listed issues in mind, this course should be considered as an endeavor, which requires the utilization of all the knowledge gained from the courses in the conflict analysis and resolution, and of course the life long knowledge collected through informal education. It requires that one should be able to synthesize much of the material from previous courses, thoroughly analyze conflict sources and dynamics using a number of theoretical lenses and be able to evaluate the relationship between conflict variables. The idea is then to apply this knowledge in reconstructing or deconstructing a system.
As with most courses in this program, in this course, we will have a multi-disciplinary approach; as such information and knowledge will be borrowed from the following disciplines: sociology, social psychology, organizational behavior and development (OB and OD), labor relations, public administration, law and jurisprudence. The aim will be to integrate theoretical (abstract conceptual thinking) and practical (or tacit) knowledge from these disciplines and fields to construct numerous lenses through which to view conflicts using open and closed systems, external control theory and a variety of other frame of references. It is hoped that from these we can begin the process of assessing how organizations operate, where conflict is built into their structure and system sand then proceed to redesign or alter aspect of the system to produce more “effective” human centered relations.STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES:
Students will be able to:
- Evaluate organization’s and group dynamics
- Analyze the sources, type and intensity of conflicts in groups and organizations
- Apply appropriate intervention techniques and processes to diverse situations, disputes and conflicts
- Perform conflict assessment and multiple issue conflict dynamics analysis for groups and organizations
- Gain knowledge about the general steps in assessing systems, designing and or modifying an organization's structures or systems, and how to ensure the new design can be maintained by those who use it or operate within it.
- Students will demonstrate DSD skills and knowledge by analyzing, and identifying areas of conflict for a large organization.
- Apply a variety of systems theories, including open and closed organizational models, external control theory and casual texture to organizational design work
TEACHING STRATEGIES:
This is a graduate seminar with readings, online discussion and intensive student participation in online discussion boards and organizational research. The course includes an introduction to systems theory, organizational behavior and structure, and group behavior and dynamics; these perspectives are then applied to an organizational analysis and conflict system design project.
This course is multi-disciplinary and uses information and knowledge from the following disciplines: sociology, social psychology, organizational management, labor relations, public administration, law and jurisprudence. Students are mentored through the assessment process in weekly online discussions with the instructor and classmates. The instructor will provide support and assistance by speaking with organizational personnel, clarifying course objectives, verifying course activities, and ensuring the confidentiality of the student’s assessment and design. The final organizational analysis and conflict system design in read only by the instructor; a copy is presented to the host organization for their information.
The system design process involves both theoretical insights and a variety of practice skills. The course will challenge students to combine theoretical and practice based elements of conflict resolution, and analyze the dynamics of conflict in an organization or group using a variety of perspectives. Students will learn how to evaluate the relationships among variables in complex conflict systems and practice applying this knowledge in some exercises designed to deconstruct system problems and construct design solutions.
EVALUATION METHODS AND GUIDELINES FOR ASSIGNMENTS:
Grading is based on your personal performance, class participation and improvement on three sequential written assignments. Technology in this online experience can be a wonderful supportive device that aids the participatory learning process. We will make use of email and online class postings to distribute information and post student outlines of the readings to class colleagues through the Blackboard learning platform. The unit week runs from Monday to Monday.
It is important that you keep up with the readings so you can intelligently participate, ask difficult and challenging questions, and do some integrative thinking in response to the lecture’s discussion questions.
To determine final grades, students will be evaluated on the following:
Class Participation - 20%
(Students must post substantive discussion comments 4 out of 7 days of the week)
The students are expected to keep up with the readings and to actively participate in the class discussions on a weekly basis. Active participation means that when you come to a chat or post on the discussion board, you have COMPLETED THE READINGS FOR THE WEEK, take part in the discussions, share your experiences, raise questions, and help others think about the issues they raise. I understand that not everyone finds it easy to speak in a virtual or ‘actual’ classroom, but I need to “hear” your voice.
Students will not receive weekly participation points or grades. Your overall participation grade will be determined at the end of the course by the professor.
The readings will serve as vehicles for lectures and discussions in the chat room. Class participation should provide some evidence that you are keeping up with the readings and continuing to think about the issues raised in the course. This is a pro-active, hands-on learning approach. Chat room participation will be based on the following criteria:
- Raising and answering questions related to the assigned readings as well as to the theoretical and practice related issues.
- Sharing ideas and insights.
- Sharing personal experiences and observations.
- Pointing out relevant data.
- Relating and synthesizing ideas of others.
- Pointing out relationships to earlier discussions or other readings.
- Helping others develop their ideas and views and providing constructive feedback on the learning process.
There will be 18 hours of “live” online role plays, group planning, and/or discussion sessions during this course. A minimum of four (4) substantive log-ins to the discussion board to answer discussion questions from the readings and lectures and respond to the postings of classmates and faculty for a total of four (4) online hours per week, or 20 hours in total. Two (2) hours each week posting analysis of the weeks readings and responding to questions from classmates, for a total of 10 hours.
Undoubtedly the agenda I have set for the class is a formidable one and initially may look a bit daunting. However, I believe that it should be well worth your effort. If you keep up with the readings and discussion postings as well as attend the chats, you should have a theoretically informed understanding of theories of dispute systems design by the end of the seminar.
Class participation is a very important part of the learning process in this course. You will be evaluated on the QUALITY of your contributions and insights. Quality comments possess one or more of the following properties:
- offers a different and unique, but relevant perspective
- contributes to moving the discussion and analysis forward
- builds on other comments
- is reflective and insightful regarding the reading material and strategies
- transcends the “I feel” syndrome, by including evidence, argumentation, or recognition of inherent tradeoffs, demonstrating reflective thinking.
While your participation grade is subjective, it will not be random or arbitrary. More frequent quality comments are better that less frequent quality comments. Quantity on its own, however, is no substitute for quality; as we all know, quantity without content aggravates everyone and waste’s time and as well all know in the business world “time is money”.
Supporting comments are always nice but such postings as “good comment” will not count as participation. However, if all you want to do is send a compliment, use a Private Reply instead of a Reply, so that it goes to the individual’s course email and everyone else does not have to open it and spend unnecessary time to read it. This saves everyone time as well as serving the purpose of encouragement and support. Also, when you are replying to the discussion board, and you want your response read by everyone, use Quote instead of Reply. That means to you which are replying will be displayed along with your response. That helps people keep track of the discussion.
Emailing a week’s posting to me is not helpful and not will it count as participation. The purpose of the postings is that your colleagues have the benefit of your comments, reflections, and insights. Doing the minimum amount of work or postings will not necessarily earn you full credit. No one wants to hire a dispute system designer, mediator, arbitrator, or facilitator who performs the least work possible. The quality of your works is important.
Assessment and Design Project
| Structural, cultural and systems analysis of an organization | 20% |
| Reconstructed and modified design | 30% |
| Final Paper | 30% |
Weekly assignments will build in a cumulative fashion; at the end of the semester you should have a final paper that will constitute the bulk of your grade for the course.
Students will pick and organization you are familiar with and one that you can use throughout this course. You will use this organization as your case study. Each student will conduct an analysis of this chosen organization, institution or group that has a known structure and function; this can be a private or public organization, or NGO. It is important that you think about, locate and make contact with such an organization by no later than May 20, 2005. It will probably be easier if you are already acquainted with the organization you will examine. You will need to determine the culture, structure, function and operating system, and be able to compare it to the sources of conflict that arise
IMPORTANT NOTE
Please, remember that all three papers will be based on the same case study. Thus, it is very critical that you choose the organization you wish to study very carefully.
20% Initial Structural, Cultural and Systems
Analysis
In this initial 4-6 page paper, you should review the roles, rules and
regulations of the organization to determine if they are a source of conflict.
You should begin this process as early in the course as possible, but
by no later than May 29th. In this paper you are to take a case of an
organization (public or private), which has some forms of conflict, and
study its basic structure and systems responsible for the conflict. To
accomplish this you need to use the Ury et al. model, which has been developed
for the purpose of diagnosing organizational conflicts. You may also,
borrow concepts from other sources as appropriate. This paper will
provide the foundation for your design work and will change and improve
as the course and your continued research continue. The paper should address
some basic organizational questions. Which rules are codified and
formal? Which are informal and covert? What policies appear to be a source
of potential conflict? Who is/are a source of conflict? What activities
cause conflict?
You will also consider if the actions (or reactions) of the organization cause not only internal conflict, but create external issues as well. At a minimum, you should include and clearly identify 1) the sources, types and relative number of disputes and conflicts that results within the system, and 2) between who, about what and where they tend to occur. You might find it easy to do this by developing a set of categories. In the course of conflict intra-personal as in one’s disposition and behaviors toward conflict? Is it inter-personal and involve how people act, behave, think and feel toward one another? Does the interpersonal conflict also involve structural or systemic concerns? Are some of the conflicts inter-organizational and at odds with economic, social and/or political environments? Does the organization “fit” into the larger social fabric or is it fundamentally at odds with external forces? Answers to these questions will require some interviews with employees and key organizational personnel.
30% Altered or Reconstructed Design of the
Organization
The main task in this paper is a follow-up to the first one. The main
goal of this work is to recommend an alternative design to the organization
so that the conflict identified in the first paper will be resolved. This
effort must include the information gathered for the first paper and knowledge,
insights gained from course reading and class discussions. This 4-6 page
paper you are to present, in both text and graphic form (and be able to
present in a short power point format), the alterations you would recommend
for the organization. This means that you should not recommend changes
in a structure of system if there is no evidence to do so.
For this you should use either the model by Ury et al., or the model by Costantino & Merchant, or a combination of the two. You may incorporate concepts from other sources as appropriate. Do not take this assignment to be one that produces an ideal state, but one that is based on the realities of the organization. The following questions may help focus you thinking: Does anything in the structure of the organization influence the development of conflict? Does a policy need to be altered, a rule changed or abolished or a series of formal relationships need to be redefined? Do job descriptions match actual work tasks? Are people in the right positions to exploit their talents? Do positions need to be created or abolished? Does the way the units within the organization communicate and rely on one another cause conflict? Can these arrangements be altered systematically to reduce inter-unit conflict?
30% Final Paper
This paper should be 18-20 pages and double-spaced. You are to use
APA Edition 5 writing style. The paper should include an introduction,
literature review, description of the case study, the methodology, and
the organizational analysis, and references; this should be followed by
a section with your recommendations for change related to:
- Any systemic or structural modifications that are directly linked to your data analysis; this includes any alteration in the function of the organization and how you would reorganize what people do to get things done more effectively
- Suggestions on how to alter interpersonal interactions and relationships among actors that you have identified from your data analysis
- Any new policy recommendations that can go toward solving the source(s) of conflict
- What questions were not answered? What new questions arose? Suggest an improved research direction that we should consider in light of your project.
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REQUIRED READING
BOOKS
Lipsky, D.B., Seeber, R.L., and Fincher, R.D. (2003). Emerging systems for managing workplace conflict. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
Ury, W.I., Brett, J.M. and Goldberg, S.B. (1988). Getting disputes resolved: Designing systems to cut the costs of conflict. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
Costantino, C. A. and Merchant, C.S. (1996). Designing conflict management Systems: A guide to creating productive and healthy organizations, San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
JOURNAL ARTICLES
Cloke, K.,(Summer, 1991). Conflict resolution systems design, the United Nations, and the new world order, Mediation Quarterly, 8(4), 343.
Manring, N.J., (1993). Dispute System Design and the U.S. Forest Service, Negotiation Journal, 9(1), 13-21.
Rowe, Mary P. (October, 1991). The Ombudsman's role in a dispute resolution system. Negotiation Journal 7(4), 53-61.
Slaikeu, K.A.,(1989) Designing dispute resolution systems in the health care industry, Negotiation Journal, 5(4), 1989, 395-400.
Ury, William L. (October 1995). Conflict resolution among the Bushmen: Lessons in dispute systems design, Negotiation Journal 11(4), 379-389.
SUPPLEMENTAL AND RECOMMENDED READING:
William L. Ury, (July 1990) Dispute resolution notes from the Kalahari. Negotiation Journal 6, 229-238.
Blake, R. R. and Mouton, J. S. (1985).Solving costly organizational conflict. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Fritz. R. (1996). Corporate tides: The inescapable laws of organizational structure. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
Bolman, L.G. and Deal, T.E. (1997). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership (2nd Ed.) San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
Oshery, B. (1996). Seeing systems: Unlocking the mysteries of organizational life. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
Additional readings noted in the weekly outline are available online via Blackboard and the Jackson Library e-reserve system.