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Conflict management theory
Theory of conflict management
Conflict management
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Conflict is defined as the perception of incompatible goals or actions between two people (McCornack, 2013). How you approach these tense situations greatly affects the outcome of the conflict and your interpersonal relationships. Everyone experiences disagreement at some point in their lives and it is important to know what you bring to conflict situations in order to become a more competent communicator. Therefore, I completed the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Questionnaire and asked my sister and boyfriend to do the same regarding my conflict style (Introduction to Interpersonal Communication Course Workbook, 2013, p.29-31). I chose these two people to fill out the questionnaire because they both know me very well in two different types of relationships which gave me well-rounded and accurate findings. After gathering and analyzing the data about my personal conflict style, it is obvious that I tend to avoid conflict whenever possible through the utilization of a series of tactics. As you can see in the data table above, I received the highest average score in the avoidant category. Someone with an avoidant conflict style tends to deny, ignore, or communicate indirectly about a problem (McCornack, 2013). I believe a person’s approach to conflict has much to do with their personality, but it can also be learned. My father and sister seem to be very competitive in conflict situations. I always knew growing up in my household that my father or sister would win any argument so I tended to avoid conflict with them altogether. My mother and I have similar personalities and competitiveness is not in our nature. That being said, she seems to be very conflict-avoidant as well, and I believe I learned this approach from her through observ... ... middle of paper ... ...voidance across all varieties of relationships and situations. I do this through the frequent utilization of the direct denial, topic shift, and noncommittal questions tactics. Although I rarely carry out my goals in conflict settings, avoidance does allow me to save many relationships from immediate failure. However, I am going to take the proper measures to become more collaborative in my conflict situations by using the qualifying statements tactic in order to express my concerns to others rather than keeping them to myself. Works Cited Introduction to Interpersonal Communication Course Workbook. (2013). Athens GA: Department of Communication Studies. McCornack, S. (2013). Reflect & Relate: An Introduction to Interpersonal Communication. (3rd ed.). Boston; New York: Bedford/St. Martin's. Seung, S. (2014, March 21). Conflict Styles, COMM 1500, Athens, GA.
Hocker & Wilmot, 2007, Poole, & Stutman, 2005 Folger and 2007 Cahn& Abigail. "Interpersonal Conflict and Conflict Management." Devito, Joseph A. The Interpersonal Communication Book. Boston: Pearson, Allyn & Bacon, 2009. 276.
Conerly (2004), further states two things attribute to the way conflict is managed. One is the importance of meeting your own goals and the other is the importance you attribute to relationships and wanting to get along with others.
In several occasions, conflict occurs in the communication of one or two people. Several people have thought of conflict as cases involving pouring of furious anger in a communication process. Nonetheless, conflict is the misinterpretation of an individual’s words or values (Huan & YAzdanifard, 2012). Conflict can also be due to limited resources in an organization (Riaz & Junaid, 2010). Conflict may as well arise due to poor communication or the use of inappropriate communication channel of transmission of information between the involved parties. Management of conflict has various conflict management styles that include avoidance style, forcing style, passive-aggressive style, accommodating style, collaborating style and compromising style. Workplace conflict comes in two different kinds: task involving conflict, which focuses on the approaches used in resolving the problem and blaming conflict that has the aspects of blame and never brings element of resolving problems between the conflicting parties. In the perception of several individuals, relationship conflict is negative.
From gathering information from a variety of research articles, conflict can be collectively defined as an argument between individuals while conflict recovery is a self-regulatory process, which is the ability to put aside interpersonal conflict in order to achieve other goals. Conflict can occur between romantic partners from a variety of sources such as stress, money, sex, jealousy, values, beliefs, etc. During conflict recovery and while self-regulating, there are consequences that will help the quality and satisfaction of the relationship after conflict (Salvatore, Kuo, Steele, Simpson, & Collins, 2011). Research has shown that the use of conflict styles are much more important rather than the actual content of the argument itself (Bertoni & Bodenmann, 2010). According to Thomas Kilmann, there are five various types of conflict styles that people partake in; accommodating, avoiding, collaborating, competing, and compromising (Riasi & Asadzadeh, 2015). Thomas Kilmann discovered these different conflict styles to describe how each individual handles conflict. Bertoni and Bodenmann’s (2010) research has shown that the satisfaction and/or dissatisfaction between couples stems from the styles of conflict that one uses when in an argument. Conflict, conflict recovery, and conflict styles can all factor in together to help
Conflict is something everyone experiences in their daily lives; it can happen amongst person’s and their friends, family, and coworkers. Conflict occurs when individuals have a disagreement on a person’s values and beliefs, which could relate to religious or political views. Each person handles conflict differently depending on their personal values, interpretation, and the environment
We all go thru different phases and life changes in our lives creating more needs and solutions to our problems. Many of us handle conflict negatively and think conflict is bad. Therefore, the best way to resolve conflict is learning how to handle things in a better way. This means understanding the person and understanding what has created the conflict and miscommunication. The book, “Difficult Conversations,” helps us learn different perspectives and needs to our conflicts and learning how to resolve conflict and what has created people to have different standards in their personal culture.
Managing conflict is a difficult task that we all face, but becoming aware of your own characteristic style could help determine why conflicts result exactly the way they do. It helps determine what is a healthy outcome. Each circumstance is different.
A group can only be called a team if the members are actively working together toward a common goal. A team must have the capability to set goals, make decisions, solve problems, and share responsibilities. For a team to be successful, trust must be earned between its members by being consistent and reliable (Temme & Katzel, 2005). When more than one person is working on a particular task, inconsistent views or opinions commonly arise. People come from different backgrounds and live through different life experiences therefore, even when working towards a common goal, they will not always see eye to eye. Major conflict that is not dealt with can devastate a team or organization (Make Conflict Work, 2008). In some situations, conflict can be more constructive than destructive. Recognizing the difference between conflict that is constructive to the team and conflict that is destructive to the team is important. Trying to prevent the conflict is not always the best way to manage conflict when working within a team setting. Understanding conflict, what causes it, and how to resolve conflict effectively, should consume full concentration.
Many people enjoy working or participating in a group or team, but when a group of people work together chances are that conflicts will occur. Hazleton describes conflict as the discrepancy between what is the perceived reality and what is seen as ideal (2007). “We enter into conflicts reluctantly, cautiously, angrily, nervously, confidently- and emerge from them battered, exhausted, sad, satisfied, triumphant. And still many of us underestimate or overlook the merits of conflict- the opportunity conflict offers every time it occurs” (Schilling, nd.). Conflict does not have to lead to a hostile environment or to broken relationships. Conflict if resolved effectively can lead to a positive experience for everyone involved. First, there must be an understanding of the reasons why conflicts occur. The conflict must be approached with an open mind. Using specific strategies can lead to a successful resolution for all parties involved. The Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument states “there are five general approaches to dealing with conflict. The five approaches are avoidance, accommodation, competition, compromise, and collaboration. Conflict resolution is situational and no one approach provides the best or right approach for all circumstances” (Thomas, 2000).
workplace include greater total resources, greater knowledge band and a greater source of ideas. However, these advantages can also bring on conflict within teams and the entire workplace. Varney (1989) reported that conflict remained the number one problem within a large company. This was after several attempts were made to train management in conflict resolutions and procedures. However, the conflict remained. The conflict possibly remains because the managers and leaders did not pay attention to the seriousness of the issue. In order to maintain an effective team, leaders and team members must know and be proactive in the conflict resolution techniques and procedures.
The situation will continue to worsen and the relationship will be strained. Avoidance is “ignoring the conflict, pretending it isn’t really happening, or communicating indirectly about the situation.” (McCornack, 2015, pg 184) Avoidance of conflict can sometimes be appropriate to the situation you are in. If the relationship is a short term one, sometimes avoiding the issues you have with this person is better than addressing them and possibly creating worse conflict. It can be effective, but is usually not. You can accomplish the goal of getting through the day, pleasing a client at work or maintaining happiness throughout a customer situation. However, when using avoidance in a long term relationship, it is possible it could be detrimental. The longer you avoid the issues you are having with a person, the more feelings you bottle up. At some point, you will hit your limit and will blow up like a balloon. All of your past frustrations will spew out left and right, hitting the other person all at once. This can cause extreme conflict and could even lead to the end of the relationship itself. It is possible that it can show your respect for the other person by keeping emotions out of a possible business only relationship. I am a huge avoider with conflict. I have always known this to be true and now because of this class it has brought to my attention even more. I am trying to improve upon this issue by
This elasticity in your approach to choosing which conflict style is best for the current situation is a key to managing conflict. No one style of conflict resolution will work all the time when addressing issues. You must remain flexible to other people’s wants, needs, direction, criticism, schedules, moods, temperament, and a myriad of other things in life. If there is one thing in life that will never change it is the fact that everything is going to change! There is nothing you can do to stop it, so the quicker you learn how to adapt to the changes the better off you will be. The ability to change your approach to dealing with conflict better prepares you to face the interpersonal challenges that will eventually come your way. I believe it is important to also remember that you cannot win every battle with every person you encounter. Knowing that you cannot fix or solve every problem with everyone is very helpful in reducing stress and managing difficult situations with others. My father dislikes when I use this cliché but sometimes, it is what it
The importance of relationships may differ based on cultures or individuals. Compared to Chinese, Americans as children are more influenced by peers who exude their character through jokes and games while Chinese find enthusiasm in harmonious relationships. ( Friedman 2006) Also, the working position of the individuals involved in the conflict determines whether to avoid or be direct. Those who are considered of higher authority or have more power than others have an increased chance of being involved in conflict avoidance. People of lower status would rather avoid a conflict that involves a higher authority because of respect, and the power of decision making is primarily in the hands of the individual of bigger
According to McShane and Von Glinow, conflict is “a process in which one party perceives that his or her interests are being opposed or negatively affected by another party” (328). The Conflict Process Model begins with the different sources of conflict; these sources lead one or more parties to perceive that a conflict exists. These perceptions interact with emotions and manifest themselves in the behavior towards other parties. The arrows in the figure illustrate the series of conflict episodes that cycle into conflict escalation (McShane and Von Glinow 331-332).
After reading the conflict strategy I realized I could have done a lot more things to have that conflict to move more smoothly. Knowing the information about the conflict management strategies I could have taken the situation in numerous ways. I could have let the person say what he wanted to say and