Effective School Management

participants in any conflict and these are based on permutations of whether
or not they believe that they can avoid confrontation, and whether or not they
believe that they will be able to reach agreement. The combinations and their
results can be represented in tabular form as in Figure 7.2.
The two central columns are self-explanatory. It is worth noting how many
so-called ‘communication’ problems occur because there exists at the root a
conflict of view which is not brought into the open. Instead, the parties each
‘do their own thing’ in the hope of ‘getting away with it’. They may also
devote a great deal of time to building up support for their point of view and
talking about the person with whom they are in conflict rather than talking to
him or her.

---

102
EFFECTIVE SCHOOL MANAGEMENT
In the first and fourth columns of Figure 7.2, behaviour will depend on
how high or low are the personal  stakes. These ‘stakes’ are not necessarily
those which have the highest monetary value or are of the greatest
importance to the organization, but tend rather to be measured in terms of
the ego of the parties. How strongly have they expressed their opinion on this
point and to how many people? How many battles have they fought for this
principle? Personal stakes may be higher on issues such as car-parking
facilities, book stores and dinner duties than they are on curriculum
development or provision of new teaching facilities. Indeed, any astute local
government official who seeks agreement to a major project will ensure that it
is preceded on the council agenda by some highly controversial, but often
low-cost, subject such as the provision of an extra facility for old-age
pensioners or even an additional public toilet. After a heated debate on such
a topic, a high-cost project may well pass ‘on the nod’.
With conflicts in the first column (Confrontation Inevitable/Agreement
Impossible) the logical approach is to refer the matter to arbitration, i.e. ask
the boss to decide. This may well happen if the ‘personal stakes’ are of
medium weight. However, where personal stakes are really high, it often
happens that neither party will risk ‘losing’. Furthermore, a boss who steps
into such a conflict and passes judgement may completely alienate the party
against whom he or she decides.
If the personal stakes are low, the decision may be left to ‘fate’, or the
conflict may easily pass into one of the other columns.
Within each group
Between groups
Closing of ranks
Others seen as ‘enemy’
Loyalty
Distortion of perception
More task-oriented
Negative stereotyping
Autocratic leadership
Decreased interaction
tolerated
and communication
Structure and
Increased ‘hostility’
organization increase
Poor listening
Conflict
‘Win–lose’ orientation