III. Read and translate the text

Conflict may well be productive in some cases. In any business situation, there are often a number of different ideas about the way to proceed. Usually only one way can be chosen, so conflict is inevitable. Ideally, airing the different ideas in discussion will lead to the best one's being chosen. But the process may become political, with an idea being defended by the person or group putting it forward after it has become apparent that it is not the best way to go, and unwillingness to 'lose face' by abandoning a long-cherished idea. There may be conflict between different levels in an organisation’s hierarchy or between different departments, with hostility to ideas from elsewhere - the not-invented-here syndrome.

Examples of unproductive conflict include disputes between colleagues or between managers and subordinates that go beyond ideas and become personal. Companies can spend a lot of time and energy resolving these disputes. In countries with high levels of employee protection, dismissing troublesome employees can lead to a long process of consultation with the authorities and even litigation, for example where an employee sues their company for unfair dismissal. Defending an action like this is of course costly and a distraction from a company's normal business.

Labour-management conflict in the form of tactics such as strikes and go-slows can also be very expensive and time-consuming. The goodwill of a company's customers, built up over years, can be lost very quickly when they are hurt by such a dispute. But there are sometimes cases where the public sympathise with the employees and don't mind the disruption. Both sides may put a lot of effort into presenting their case and gaining public sympathy with the use of advertising, public relations firms, and so on. Many countries have legislation with compulsory cooling-off periods before strikes can begin, official procedures for arbitration between the two sides, and so on.

In dealings between companies, supplier-customer relationships can degenerate into conflict. Conflict seems to be endemic in some industries, for example construction, where contractors are often in dispute about whether the work has been performed properly or whose responsibility a particular problem is. This can lead to protracted legal proceedings.

More and more companies in the US are specifying in contracts that any disputes should be settled using alternative dispute resolution (ADR), avoiding expensive legal wrangling. Specialised organisations have been set up to facilitate this.

 

IV. Answer the following questions on the text

1. Why may conflict be productive in some cases?

2. What are the examples of unproductive conflict?

3. How do people solve conflicts in countries with high level of employee protection?

4. How are conflicts between companies solved?

 

V. Read the definitions. Then put the anagrams in the correct order. The first letter of each word is in bold

1. An active disagreement between people with opposing opinions or principles	nlocticf
2. An argument or disagreement, especially an official one between, for example, workers and employers	ptedsui
3. The process of taking a case to a law court so that an official decision can be made:	tagnotliii
4. When an employer officially makes someone leave their job:	simdsials
5. A planned way of doing something:	catisct
6. An argument, especially one which continues for a long period of time:	ranglwngi
7. An agreement in an argument in which the people involved reduce their demands or change their opinion in order to agree:	opmriosemc

VI. Before reading the article from “The Economist” answer the question:Have you ever sent an e-mail message that you later regretted?