Evidence-Based Recommendation 1

Practice effective leadership behavior reduces conflict between different levels of management.

Conflict can emerge within the different areas of management and could affect the entire dynamic of a team.  Not to mention, leadership behaviors play a major role in managing people effectively.  Two studies were conducted on the franchise Channel Brand and on The Empirical Quest to Identify the Most Dominant Negotiating Styles Among American Sales Mangers to analyze the leadership behaviors in within management and negotiating styles.  The Channel Brand found that intrachannel conflicts was said to arise when a component or employee perceives the behavior of another to impede the attainment of its goals and effective performance of its instrumental behavior patterns (Schul & Pride & Little 1983, p23).  Intrachannel conflict was found to be functional or dysfunctional among the operations of Channel.  Functional conflict produces Channel efficiency throughout the company, but dysfunctional conflict can impede on Channel’s performance.  The conceptual perspective hypothesis was formed by using Rosbenburg and Stern’s process model of intrachannel model from the Conflict Measurements in the Distribution Channel, Journal of Marketing Research (Schul & Pride & Little 1983, p23).  Intrachannel conflict often enters the cognitive mindset in the affective stage of conflict before exhibiting any conflict related behavior.  During these stages, the Channel members are typically feeling stress and tension toward the offending parties within management. 

Even though, the Channel brand did not use evidence-based management, they used viable research methods.  The review of the organizational behavioral literature concluded the development of Channel’s leadership behavior (Schul & Pride & Little 1983, p25).  The academic study of the Best Practices: How to Evaluate Psychological Science for Use by Organizations  acclaims the approach demonstrated by the Channel franchise as a mean to measure research data.  The similar tactic fell under the Meta- Analysis.  Meta-Analysis is a common method of quantitative literature review that entails a search of extent and consentience for answers that are focused on the empirical questions.  By using research based approaches to measure data, the Channel Brand and 

In fact, both studies were conducted based on interpersonal conflicts with higher levels of managements including negotiation style.  Both studies used the Likert Scale as a form of measurements for the questionnaire.  In the first study, factor analysis was used to identify latent factors with the overall conflict intensity measurements.  “Administrative conflict” and “Product Service Conduct” were the two main conflicts that were identified.  During the data analysis, the canonical correlation was used to test the relationship of the Channel leadership. This leadership was set as a predictor and the intrachannel conflict variables were set as criterion variables (Schul & Pride & Little 1983, p28).  The second study, Empirical Quest to Identify the Most Dominant Negotiating Styles Among American Sales Mangers  methodologies included sample data collection and various statistical analyses (Hagen & Siddiqi & Tootoonchi 2007, p413). 

                                               Photo-Credit: www.select-statistics.com 

                                      

One weakness found in both studies was the way it was conducted. It was a self-administered questionnaire, which can have skewed results because of possible dishonesty within the participants.  One suggestion could be that instead of conducting surveys, they can conduct interviews face to face.  The interview data can give a better sense of the communication among the company.  In Melissa Hunt's presentation is a good example of the importance of communication in team dynamics.  Improving communication among teams, companies, and leaders can reduce conflicts in the work environment. 

References:

Competitive entity. Businessdictonary.com. Retrieved July 14, 2014 from, http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/competitor.html

Hagen, A., Siddiqi, S., & Tootoonchi, A. (2007). An Empirical Quest to Identify the Most Dominant Negotiating Styles Among American Sales Managers. Journal Of Promotion Management, 13(3/4), 413-429.

Hunt, M. Team Dynamics. Retrieved July 14, 2014 from, http://leanin.org/education/team-dynamics

Limbare, S. (2012). Leadership Styles & Conflict Management Styles of Executives. Indian Journal Of Industrial Relations, 48(1), 172-180.

Pfeffer, J., & Sutton, R. I. (2006). Hard facts, dangerous half-truths, and total nonsense: Profiting from evidence-based management. Harvard Business Press.

Schul, P. L., Pride, W. M., & Little, T. L. (1983). The Impact of Channel Leadership Behavior on Intrachannel Conflict. Journal Of Marketing, 47(3), 21.