How Management Teams Can Have a Good Fight
The absence of conflict is not harmony, it's apathy.
How MANAGEMENT TEAMS CAN HAVE A GOOD FIGHT
by Kathleen M. Eisenhardt, Jean L, Kahwajy, and LJ. Bourgeois III Top managers are often stymied by the diffieulties of managing conflict. They know that conflict over issues is natural and even necessary. Reasonable people, making decisions under conditions of uncertainty, are likely to have honest disagreements over the best path for their company's future. Management teams whose members challenge one another's thinking develop a more complete understanding of the choices, create a richer range of options, and ultimately make the kinds of effective decisions necessary in today's competitive environments.
ARTWORK BY ERIC DEVER
77
MANAGING CONFUCT
But, unfortunately, healthy conflict can quickly turn unproductive. A comment meant as a substantive remark can be interpreted as a personal attack. Anxiety and frustration over difficult choices can evolve into anger directed at colleagues. Personalities frequently become intertwined with issues. Because most executives pride themselves on being rational decision makers, they find it difficult even to acknowledge-let alone manage-this emotional, irrational dimension of their hehavior. The challenge - familiar to anyone who has ever been part of a management team - is to keep constructive conflict over issues from degenerating into dysfunctional interpersonal conflict, to encourage managers to argue without destroying their "ability to work as a team. We have heen researching the interplay of conflict, politics, and speed in strategic decision mak-
The challenge is to encourage members of management teams to argue without destroying their ability to work together. ing by top-management teams for the past ten years. In one study, we had the opportunity to observe closely the work of a dozen top-management teams in technology-based companies. All the companies competed in fast changing, competitive global
How MANAGEMENT TEAMS CAN HAVE A GOOD FIGHT
by Kathleen M. Eisenhardt, Jean L, Kahwajy, and LJ. Bourgeois III Top managers are often stymied by the diffieulties of managing conflict. They know that conflict over issues is natural and even necessary. Reasonable people, making decisions under conditions of uncertainty, are likely to have honest disagreements over the best path for their company's future. Management teams whose members challenge one another's thinking develop a more complete understanding of the choices, create a richer range of options, and ultimately make the kinds of effective decisions necessary in today's competitive environments.
ARTWORK BY ERIC DEVER
77
MANAGING CONFUCT
But, unfortunately, healthy conflict can quickly turn unproductive. A comment meant as a substantive remark can be interpreted as a personal attack. Anxiety and frustration over difficult choices can evolve into anger directed at colleagues. Personalities frequently become intertwined with issues. Because most executives pride themselves on being rational decision makers, they find it difficult even to acknowledge-let alone manage-this emotional, irrational dimension of their hehavior. The challenge - familiar to anyone who has ever been part of a management team - is to keep constructive conflict over issues from degenerating into dysfunctional interpersonal conflict, to encourage managers to argue without destroying their "ability to work as a team. We have heen researching the interplay of conflict, politics, and speed in strategic decision mak-
The challenge is to encourage members of management teams to argue without destroying their ability to work together. ing by top-management teams for the past ten years. In one study, we had the opportunity to observe closely the work of a dozen top-management teams in technology-based companies. All the companies competed in fast changing, competitive global