{
  "title": "Conflict management: is a shared goal enough to bring two departments together?",
  "url": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog/gestion-du-conflit-objectifs-communs-entre-services-geneve-en",
  "language": "en",
  "datePublished": "2025-06-26",
  "publisher": {
    "name": "SHR — Swiss Human Resources",
    "url": "https://www.shr.swiss",
    "address": "Esplanade de Pont-Rouge 9A, 1212 Lancy, Suisse"
  },
  "summary": "Reminding people that they work for the same organisation seems reasonable. Research suggests distinguishing that statement from genuine interdependence.",
  "section": "Research",
  "topic": "Conflict Management",
  "place": {
    "name": "Geneva",
    "region": "Genève",
    "country": "CH"
  },
  "keyPoints": [
    {
      "heading": "What the literature establishes",
      "point": "Morton Deutsch (1949, Human Relations) proposes a theory of cooperation and competition based on goal interdependence: the relationship changes depending on whether one party's success facilitates or undermines the other's."
    },
    {
      "heading": "A goal that genuinely requires the other party",
      "point": "Muzafer Sherif (1958, American Journal of Sociology) describes field experiments in which superordinate goals, unattainable by either group alone, help reduce hostility between groups."
    },
    {
      "heading": "The premature conclusion",
      "point": "One might infer that adding a shared performance indicator is enough to ease relations."
    },
    {
      "heading": "What the evidence cannot promise",
      "point": "The experiments presented by Sherif involve groups of boys at a summer camp, not professionals subject to regulatory obligations and enduring hierarchical relationships."
    },
    {
      "heading": "A practical check in Genève",
      "point": "Within SHR's « Gestion du conflit » programme, an exercise applicable in Genève would be to select an interdepartmental disagreement: handling a case in private banking, coordinating a project in an international organisation, delivering an order in luxury watchmaking or approving a commodity trading transaction."
    }
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "authors": "Deutsch",
      "year": "1949",
      "source": "Human Relations"
    },
    {
      "authors": "Sherif",
      "year": "1958",
      "source": "American Journal of Sociology"
    }
  ],
  "wordCount": 441,
  "image": "https://www.shr.swiss/img/blog-Training-Conflict-Management-Geneva-gestion-du-conflit-objectifs-communs-entre-services-geneve-en.jpg?v=4",
  "translations": {
    "fr": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog/gestion-du-conflit-objectifs-communs-entre-services-geneve",
    "en": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog/gestion-du-conflit-objectifs-communs-entre-services-geneve-en",
    "de": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog/gestion-du-conflit-objectifs-communs-entre-services-geneve-de",
    "it": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog/gestion-du-conflit-objectifs-communs-entre-services-geneve-it"
  },
  "relatedPages": {
    "programme": "https://www.shr.swiss/formation-gestion-du-conflit-geneve",
    "city": "https://www.shr.swiss/formations-ville/geneve",
    "blog": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog"
  },
  "citationPolicy": "Citation autorisée avec mention « SHR — Swiss Human Resources » et lien vers l'article."
}