INTRODUCTION Conflict is present within all situations that individuals are involved with, the difference being the styles in which a person deals with and relates to the other party within the conflict. Learning to manage conflict styles and the emotions that are associated with them will help to resolve problems within relationships in all areas of a person’s life. Conflict Style Analysis assignments for this project were carried out in three categories: first, my self-assessment of home and work conflicts, then outside assessments were completed and returned regarding my conflict style according to others in both a home setting and work setting. Upon completion of the three assessments, I was able to see how diametrically opposite my conflict …show more content…
I have recognized that I am within a distributive power relationship in the work place in which I am the party that is forced into a role where my power level is low in comparison to others. I manage this power situation by avoiding conflict and confrontation. “…conflict prevention isn't about preventing issue based disagreements at all. It isn't about keeping our mouths shut if we disagree. What it IS about is reducing conflict that comes from behavior and ways of communicating that create unnecessary, unresolvable conflicts.” ("Is Conflict Prevention The Same As Conflict Avoidance", 2017) • Dominating – This metric was the one that surprised me the most. I had not realized that I was being as dominating at home as I had been. This assessment also helps me to understand that in the workplace in that if I do not assert myself in a positive manner, then it may send the message that I am not committed to issues or view them as important. This is because dominating and competing behaviors inform “the other of one’s degree of commitment to the issue and can be used to demonstrate to the other party the importance of the issue.” (Wilmot & Hocker, 2007, p. …show more content…
This opinion fuels my behaviors to ensure that my family, as a whole, behaves in a way that makes sure our priorities are kept in mind. This assessment has allowed me to see that I promote my priorities in an aggressive manner and am not willing to cooperate with my spouse’s priorities. I am a stubborn person that will use manipulation tactics when I don’t feel like my opinions are valued by others. I will escalate the conflict by adding in elements that weren’t part of the original issue to promote my need for domination. “Domination tends to reduce all conflicts to two options—“either you are against me or with me,” which limits one’s roles to “winning” or “losing.”” (Wilmot & Hocker, 2007, p. 157) • Integration – In my workplace I am more willing to engage in team based conflict resolution because I am in a large company that demands a team approach to all issues. This is a time consuming and frustrating method of problem solving that I am willing to engage in at my workplace because every issue is approached in this method, regardless of severity. I find that I am susceptible to verbal manipulation from others that use this weakness to their advantage and “results in a continued power discrepancy between the parties.” (Wilmot & Hocker, 2007, p.
The purpose of this paper is to explore conflict and ways to manage it. I chose to explore this topic in depth because conflict touches all of our lives. Whether it is at work or in our personal lives. Like most people when you have a bad day at work; I have a tendency to bring the frustration home. Frustration at work causes me to be in a bad mood; hence that makes me argue with my spouse.
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.
Avoidance of conflict has always been a part of my life. I don’t identify with conflict being a means to an end. I strive for harmony in all areas of my life and am overly sensitive to what I identify as negativity. This perspective has resulted in me going to extremes to please another or being exceedingly sensitive to what is meant to be constructive criticism. For example, when I get questioned on my approach on a particular situation, I get instantly defensive because of my heightened sensitivity to keeping everything in accord. I now realize that it is not always black and white when it comes to conflict; there is a grey area. Sometimes there needs to be differences to come to a mutual
Huan, L. & Yazdanifard, R. (2012). The Differences of Conflict Management Styles and Conflict Resolution in Workplaces. Business & Entrepreneurship Journal. 1(1), 141-155.
Although conflicts subsist inevitable, the degree to which individuals react to the conflict stands well-regulated. While some individuals react with negotiations and agreements, others rely on the power of violence and degradation. According to the text, domestic violence reflects “a pattern of abusive behavior in any relationship that is used by one partner to gain or maintain power and control over another intimate partner” (Olson, DeFrain, & Skogrand, 2014, p. 427). When contemplating domestic violence, many individual’s minds wander to physical abuse, but domestic abuse subsists far greater, including physical, sexual, emotional, economic, and psychological abuse. In essence, domestic violence reflects any stable, and regulated, behavior dictated on demonstrating superiority and
(Tost, Gino & Larrick 2013) argues that “when a formal leader experiences a heightened subjective sense of power, he or she tends to dominate group discussions and interactions, which leads other team members to perceive that their views and perspectives are not valued”. This perceived imbalance definitely hampers any attempt at managing workplace conflict. When employees feel that they have no authority or empowerment they tend to be disengaged, and disengaged employees effect productivity. Low productivity can be considered a form of dissatisfaction and thus labelled a conflict that must be addressed by both employee and manager.
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
Domination in a relationship can have serious consequences. A relationship is expected to be between two people, with equal amounts of communication and listening. When one dominates another, this rule is broken. If one person does all the talking and none of the listening, there is a problem in that relationship. This example can be seen in Lucrezia and Septimus’s marriage. The relationship will become affected and can be categorized as different type. There becomes a distinct sender and receiver. Which can be seen in Clarissa’s relationship with party planning. For example is she planning, setting up and inviting all the guests to the party, because the party is very important, and she wants to look good in front of everyone.
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.
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.
Party number one wanted nothing to change; I didn’t want any help from anybody, and I was willing to go to outer space and back to make sure I did not lose anything that I already had. On the other hand my family and friends were deeply concerned about my well-being, and were willing to go to all measures to change my life style even if it meant bending the truth. These conflict goals can be analyzed through many conflict models and theories. The Lens Model of Conflict represents the building blocks of a conflict. We can easily compare my interpersonal conflict with this model. The model consists of the two aspects of a conflict, communication behaviors, and the perception of those behaviors. The communication behaviors that existed within my interpersonal conflict were obviously different between both parties. I felt like my friends went behind my back talking to my parents so when I spoke to them it wasn’t on best terms along with my parents. On the other side of things my family and friends were very supportive and only wanted the best for me. They were very clear with their emotions, even though they knew that I hated what they were saying and hated that they were trying to change me, they still had my best interest in mind. The second aspect of the Lens Model of Conflict is the
Look up the word conflict in the dictionary and you will see several negative responses. Descriptions such as: to come into collision or disagreement; be at variance or in opposition; clash; to contend; do battle; controversy; quarrel; antagonism or opposition between interests or principles Random House (1975). With the negative reputation associated with this word, no wonder people tend to shy away when they start to enter into the area of conflict. D. Jordan (1996) suggests that there are two types of conflict: good, which is defined as cognitive conflict (C-type conflict) and, detrimental, defined as affective conflict (A-type conflict). The C-type conflict allows for creativity, to pull together a group of people with different opinions or ideas, to combine and brain storm all thoughts to develop the best solution for the problem. The A-type conflict is the negative form when you have animosity, hostility, un-resolveable differences, and egos to deal with. The list citing negative conflicts could go on forever. We will be investigating these types of conflicts, what managers can do to recognize conflict early, and what strategies they can use to resolve conflicts once they have advanced.
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
Conflict avoidance is a technique used to deal with conflict. Avoiding conflict is mainly used to disregard the direct issue at hand. Avoiding conflict can be used to temporarily get rid of an issue or it can be used to permanently remove the issue. Avoiding conflict within the workplace most often results in relationship division. Workplace conflict is inevitable, meaning wherever and whenever there is a group working to accomplish similar goals as a whole, conflict will be present. Workplace conflict exists due to various factors. (Graham 2014) The most common seen factors influencing workplace conflict include role understanding, meaning who is responsible for what task, how tasks are to be accomplished, personality difference and poor