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Conflict resolution strategies
Conflict resolution strategies
Conflict resolution strategies
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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 …show more content…
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 …show more content…
Some individuals are stuck especially on this method and it is ok for other employees to engage them in other methods as well. Co workers can assist in the transition from avoidance style to other conflict methods by first reassuring that emotions are stabilized so accurate facts, feelings and detailed goals regarding the conflict can be understood as effectively as possible. Energy infuse nice by strong emotion is the needed factor to implement and action plan. By acting out different roles or writing out a plan can ease the transition from avoidance to mother affective conflict solving methods. The individual being of assistance may need to come of as assertive to take control and have promptness in the transition. By also developing and proving pros and cons of other method besides avoiding can help with an easy transition.(Eilerman 2015) Some people have only used avoidance and never directly approached a conflict so they are either scared or ignorant when it comes to affective communicating
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.
Conflict Resolution: Understand to Achieve. Whenever people unite to work as a team for anything more than a brief duration, some conflict is normal, and should be expected (Engleberg, Wynn & Schutter, 2003). Because of the inevitability of conflict, being able to recognize, address, and ultimately resolve it is vitally important, since unresolved conflict may have undesirable effects, including reduced morale, or increased turnover (De Janasz, Dowd & Schneider, 2001). Just as conflicts within team environments vary, so do methods for resolving them.
Conflicts situation can happen at any time. There are many different ways to handle conflict situations. To strengthen our skills in responding to conflicts situation we must understand the various conflict management style. The five styles of conflict management style include: Competing, Avoiding, Accommodating, Collaborating, and Compromising. The competing style is like a shark, a competitive approach to ensure only your views counts. Avoiding is like a turtle, avoiding every situation and giving up. Accommodating is like a teddy bear, working against your own goals to move forward. Collaborating is like an owl, working together with your partner to achieve both your goals. Compromising is like a fox, negotiating half your goals in order
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.
The article “5 Keys of Dealing with Workplace Conflict” by Mike Myatt discusses how strong leadership and effective conflict resolution is what separates bad leaders from good ones. Mike sets the stage for this article by asking the question “How many times over the years have you witnessed otherwise savvy professionals self-destruct because they wouldn’t engage out of a fear of conflict?” (Myatt, 2012) He discusses how attempting to hide from conflict, while hopping it passes you by is a very ineffective way of conflict resolution, because conflict very rarely resolves itself and escalates if not dealt with proactively. Mike goes on to describe how “every workplace is plagued with manipulative people who use emotion to create conflict in
Interpersonal conflict is very common with many relationships. It occurs when two people can not meet in the middle or agree on a discussion. Cooperation is key to maintaining a healthy debate. More frequently; when dealing with members of your own family, issues arise that include conflict and resolution. During this process our true conflict management style appears “out of thin air”. (Steve A. Beebe, 2008, p. 191).
What do really know about conflict management within an organization? We know that there are issues that almost every manager, leader, or employee will have to deal with at least one time or another within the workplace. Conflict can be defined by Rahim (1986), as an interactive process due to a disagreement between two people (Shabbir, Atta, & Adil., 2014).
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.
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.
Conflict is a basic aspect of teamwork (Levi, 2001), since the number of decisions that a team needs to make often evokes feelings of discomfort and stress. Conflict very often arises from a clash of different working style, ideas, interests, needs, and wants. Team conflicts can be due to high stress level. It has been experienced that in teamwork there can be conflicts and conflicts creates dissatisfaction among the employees. It is important that conflicts be addressed in such a way that it has adverse effect and it is very important to address the conflicts on the spot otherwise it would be difficult to handle the conflicts. (Jehn, 1995).When team member s disagree about the task themselves that how these tasks should be performed then task related conflicts occurs. It is also called task led-conflicts, it occurs when persons disagree over the understanding of tasks and their goals it is a disagreement between two team members in a group over the decisions. They have differences of opinions about a certain issue. (Stewart, Sims & Manz, 1999). Disagreement can be caused by differences in viewpoint and values, differences of opinion about tasks and differences in expectation about the impact of decisions (Levi, 2001).
that may result in a struggle for power or position. Conflict management, therefore, can be
Conflict is unavoidable and connected to a world where different ideas and opinions are challenged. Negative conflict occurs when voices are not expressed appropriately, discussions are not in control or different parties reject moving forward with a solution. There is difficulty resolving disagreements because there are multiple reactions to disputes. However, a positive conflict supports debates without a destructive outcome. They improve communication, introduce principles that are important to others, and reduce chaos. On the other hand, the approach that a person uses to address conflict dictates the outcome they receive. Methods for resolving conflict include avoiding the problem, smoothing out a situation, competing against the ideas
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).