Conflict Resolution

Conflict Resolution

Conflict in the work place is inevitable. People will argue, disagree, or treat another badly for many reasons. Racial prejudice, sexual prejudice, religious prejudice, or simply not liking someone can and will cause conflict.

Conflict resolution can be handled in a one-on-one manner (the boss talking to employees) or can be handled through mediation or negotiation. The one-on-one method will work in a small business setting where there is employee conflict or business conflict. In a larger corporate setting mediation or negotiation is often used to settle conflicts. Union negotiations are a good example of this. Listed below are some methods that may be used for conflict resolution. Many of these can be used in a one-on-one setting or in a larger setting where mediation is being used to settle a conflict.

1. Separate the people from the problem.

One specific technique that can work is to change the shape of the table rather than sitting opposite your 'opponents', arrange the seating so that all the parties are sitting together facing a flip chart or blackboard where the problem is presented. That makes it clear that all the participants are facing the problem together, that instead of it being 'us' against 'them', it is a case of 'all of us' against 'it'.

2. Distinguish between interests and positions.

When preparing for a negotiation, or after it has begun, don't just ask "What do they want?" It is also important to ask, "Why do they want it?" It is equally important - and often more difficult - to ask the same questions about your own views. Many successful negotiators find they will be more successful if they focus on understanding their interests as they enter discussions. If they haven't started out with a perfect package, the ideas of others may actually improve their final result.

Negotiators who arrive with a complete package can create real problems. Modifications to their ideas might be taken personally, they may be stubborn, and reaching a satisfactory resolution is made more difficult.

3. Consider your BATNA (Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement).

If you do not reach an agreement with the other, does that really make things worse for you? When you're selling an antique Rolls Royce and have received an offer of $43,250, you know what another potential buyer has to do to get you...

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...e gains achieved by the other side may prove to be short-term indeed.

6. Only one person can get angry at a time.

This is yet another means to help individuals keep a cool head and pay attention to the process and the strategy, as well as the substance of the negotiation. If it's not your 'turn' to be angry, the exercise of restraint can be turned into a positive opportunity to observe what is going on with a clear eye. No less important, yelling at each other is not negotiation; it is confrontation. In those situations there may possibly be a 'winner'; but it is even more likely there will be a 'loser'.

In times past, when two property owners had a disagreement, they would hire knights and wage war to reach a conclusion. Then somebody invented lawyers, and the problem-solving process became one of waging law. Our society has reached a level of sophistication in which we recognize that the costs of waging war - or waging law - are terribly high. With the use of good negotiation skills, we have the capacity to reach conclusions in a more satisfactory manner: we can wage PEACE (Cohen).

Bibliography:

Cohen, Steven P., Mediate.com, www.mediate.com/articles/tnsc.cfm