**2. Methodology**

outcome such as low performance. The interactionist view proposes that conflict can be a positive force in a group but also necessity for group to perform effectively. This view encourages conflict because it provokes innovation and change. Groups, whose members have different interests and means tend to produce higher quality solutions to a variety of problems than do

The conflict management involves doing things that limit the negative outcomes of conflict and increase the positive ones. When conflicts are constructive, they enhance relationships, create an environment for self-growth, enable individual, group and organization to achieve goals, solve problems and enhance self-esteem. Properly managed conflict also improves learning by increasing the amount of questions asked and encourages people to challenge the status quo. Conflict handling is an essential part of conflict management including five methods: competing, collaborating, avoiding, accommodating and compromising. Groups with collaborative conflict handling styles are usually more effective than groups with a competitive style. Compromise method usually prevent to achieving the best possible outcome,

Conflict handling involves dynamics. When the parties of the conflict interact with each other, the intended conflict handling methods and outcomes may change. From this point of dynamism, there is already a lot of knowledge available. The dynamism has been studied much less in a longer period, that is, how the conflict handling and its outcomes change within the lifecycle of the product or organization. Lifecycle is divided into four main phases: introduction, growth, maturity and decline. To go through the lifecycle can take years or even decades—especially when the product or products are improved incrementally or radically. At that point we can talk about the lifecycle of the community or organization, where the vitality of the whole community in the long run is in focus. Radical product innovation means that new product lifecycle will take place, and causes discontinuity compared to earlier prod-

because it reduces the pressure to create new together [2, 4–7].

The study tries to answer the following questions:

**1.** How conflicts can act as a springboard to create great success?

**2.** How conflicts are handled in a highly successful community during its lifecycle?

To focus on the phenomenon profoundly, the study concentrated on one single community. The band Metallica was chosen as the subject of the study. The criteria were that the band had been innovative in its sector by first creating a new genre, thrash metal, and by later rising to the world's biggest heavy rock band and keeping that position to this day. The band has sold approximately 110 million albums, and it holds a world record in the continuing number one places in Billboard 200. Metallica is like a large enterprise, which operates worldwide and employs a large amount of people, as well as manages its wealth and investments. Metallica has not gone with the rules of the music industry, but nevertheless or because of it, it has succeeded. Running against the wind has not been an easy way. Metallica has gone from one conflict to another. Its 36 year career includes changes in musical style, success and failure and conflicts that have almost led to the breakdown of the band [12–15]. Therefore, Metallica

homogeneous groups [3, 4].

130 Organizational Conflict

uct lifecycle [4, 8–11].

The study was conducted as a qualitative and retrospective longitudinal one case study to understand profoundly how conflicts helped Metallica to achieve "the best in the world" level and sustain it. Longitudinal study is a research design that involves repeated observations of the same variables over long periods of time. This study used existing data about Metallica over the period 1976–2017. The band was formed 1981, but its founders, Ulrich and Hetfield, were examined 5 years before, to understand their motives, backgrounds and intrapersonal conflicts. The study focused on the inner cycle of Metallica that included members of the band and a few outsiders who got inside the band. Conflicts were studied at intrapersonal, interpersonal, intragroup and intergroup level. During its career, Metallica has also had a lot of conflicts with external stakeholders, such as press, fans, record companies, other bands and producers, but these groups were limited out of the scope. This is because, in order to understand external conflicts, one must first understand the conflicts of the core group.

In the study, the narrative method was used that is appropriate when real life problems are examined. The goal of narrative and qualitative study is the understanding of the phenomenon. The study questions are mostly of the kind "what" and "how". The narrative study includes three main phases: narrative inquiry (narrative as data), constructivism (story construction from narrative data) and interpretivism (interpretation of story to understand the studied phenomenon).

The data sources used in the study included almost 3000 pages of text from biographies, newsletter, magazine, Internet articles and Metallica song lyrics, as well as 10 hours of video footage and audio interviews of Metallica. The data gathering concentrated on contents where the following words or expressions were used: conflict, anger, fight, battle, compromise, nervous, tease, pester, accommodate, aggression, hatred, avoid, collaborate, compete, harmony, debate, lose temper, get offended, arbitrate, negotiate, diplomat, challenge, different opinion, collision, disharmony, dispute, disagreement and agreement. In the analysis of the video footage, the attention especially focused on the scenes where emotions emerged. Research data were collected until the saturation point was achieved. This narrative inquiry phase produced 70 pages of narrative data concerning the studied phenomenon. After this, the constructed story presented in Section 4 of this chapter was created. Finally, this story was interpreted to answer research questions.

The conflict management, Big five personality model and product lifecycle were utilized as theoretical knowledge in studying how Metallica has succeeded in turning conflicts as a success factor during its life cycle. These theories helped in outlining, analyzing and interpreting the studied phenomenon.

self-esteem. On contrary if conflicts are destructive, they result in stress, which may lead people to become more close minded and adversarial. Other outcomes are poor communication and information sharing, ignorance of other side's point of view, low trust and performance, fighting and even the destruction of the group. The conflict management involves doing things to limit the negative aspects of conflict and to increase the positive aspects of conflict. The aim is to enhance learning and group outcomes such as performance. Properly managed conflict increases learning by increasing the amount of questions asked and encourage people to challenge the status quo. The best projects and organizations have an invisible power among stakeholders, which helps in conflict situations. In the conflict management, the development of reactive and conciliatory methods is not the most important, but the development of the proactive dialogical culture for the work community. The better the latter succeed,

Conflicts as Springboard for Metallica's Success http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.71579 133

Conflict may be related to task, relationship, process or status. Task conflict relates to the content and goals of the work. Relationship conflict focuses on interpersonal relationships. Process conflict relates to how the work gets done. Status conflicts relate to responsibility and power, and they occur especially in flat organizations. Studies demonstrate that relationship and status conflicts are often dysfunctional. In contrast, low levels of process conflict and low to moderate levels of task conflict can be functional. Moderate levels of task conflict in the early development stage can increase creativity in groups. Task conflict leads to positive outcomes only when all members share the same goals and have high levels of trust. Groups performing routine tasks that do not require creativity do not benefit from task conflict. Task conflicts may escalate into relationship conflicts. Contrary to the task and process conflicts, the relationship and status conflicts are not directly related to performing the group's func-

Conflict handling methods have a central impact on the outcome of the conflict. **Figure 1** represents different methods using two dimensions: cooperativeness (the degree to which one party attempts to satisfy the other party's concerns) and assertiveness (the degree to which one party attempts to satisfy his or her own concerns). There are five conflict-handling meth-

Collaborative conflict handling in group with common goals is more effective than competitive style. In the collaborating style, the pie is expanded so that different parties are satisfied (win-win), while in the competing style a party tries to get as much of the pie as possible (winlose). The collaborating is suitable for long-term relationship while the competing applies to short-term relationship. When both parties are focused on learning and understanding the other side tends to yield higher overall outcomes than situations in which parties are interested in their individual outcomes. An open discussion makes it easier to develop a shared perception of the problems at hand and allows group to work toward a mutually acceptable solution. Shared goals should be emphasized, so people who disagree with each other do not become too entrenched in their points of view and start to take the conflicts personally. Compromise method usually prevent to achieving the best possible outcome from conflict, because it reduces the pressure to create new together. No one gets what they really want. Accommodating is an unselfish way to solve conflicts, and avoiding does not engage participants to solve them [4, 7].

ods: competing, collaborating, avoiding, accommodating and compromising [4, 7].

the less the first one is needed [2, 4–6, 18–20].

tion [4, 21–28].
