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MANAGING PROJECTS

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Projects represent nonroutine business activities that often have long-term strategic ramifications for a firm. In this chapter, we examined how projects differ from routine business activities and discussed the major phases of projects. We noted how environmental changes have resulted in increased attention being paid to projects and project management over the past decade. In the second half of the chapter, we introduced some basic tools that businesses can use when planning for and controlling projects. Both Gantt charts and network diagrams give managers a visual picture of how a project is going. Network diagrams have the added advantage of showing the precedence between activities, as well as the critical path(s). We wrapped up the chapter by showing how these concepts are embedded in inexpensive yet powerful software packages such as Microsoft Project. If you want to learn more about project management, we encourage you to take a look at the Web site for the Proj...
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Managing Conflict and Negotiating Effectively

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Conflict occurs at four different levels within organizations: intrapersonal, interpersonal, intragroup, and intergroup. Intrapersonal conflict occurs within the individual. Interpersonal conflict occurs when someone’s wishes or desires are perceived to be in opposition to another’s. Intragroup conflict occurs between or among group members. Intergroup conflict occurs between groups or teams.
The five styles for handling interpersonal conflict are collaborating, compromising, forcing, accommodating, and avoiding. An individual may have a natural preference for one or two of these styles. Most individuals are likely to use all of them over time when dealing with various interpersonal conflict situations. As a reminder, an instrument for measuring your own conflict-handling style is presented in the Experiential Exercise at the end of this chapter.
Negotiation is a component in conflict management. It is a process by which two or more interdependent individuals or groups who perceive that they have both common and conflicting goals state and discuss proposals and preferences for specific terms of a possible agreement. The four core stages of negotiation include (1) assessing the situation, (2) establishing the process, (3) negotiating the agreement, and (4) implementing the agreement. Table 13.2 provides examples of questions that need to be addressed in each stage. The two major negotiating strategies are distributive (focus is on win–lose outcomes) and integrative (focus is on win–win outcomes). Principled negotiations focus on the how or process of negotiations to increase the likelihood of positive outcomes for all parties. Four of the influences that affect the selection or implementation of each of these strategies are attitudinal structuring, intraorganizational negotiations, the negotiator’s dilemma, and mediation when stalemates occur over particular issues.
Negotiators across cultures may differ with respect to a variety of dimensions of negotiating style, such as those highlighted in Table 13.4. Global negotiators are likely to be more effective if they possess emotional intelligence. It increases their cross-cultural adaptation ability in the components of self-awareness, self-motivation, social empathy, and social skill. Aspects of the negotiation process that may be unique when negotiating across cultures include dealing with people, allowing enough time, managing issues, handling the communication process, and developing relationships over time.

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