Conflict Management A Project Manager

The coercive style can be summed up in three words: "Just do it!" While this approach has its uses, research has repeatedly shown that the coercive style is best used as part of a balanced blend of at least five other leadership styles: "visionary" or "authoritative," "affiliative," "democratic," "pacesetting" and

Whether you work for a manufacturing facility or the health care system, conflict is unavoidable. As a manager, you must learn to deal with conflict in the workplace. In this paper I will describe the different styles of conflict management. I will also discuss my preferred conflict management style with examples of its use. Lastly, I will describe a situation at work and how a conflict management strategy could have improved that situation.

Conflict results from real or perceived opposition to one’s values, actions, desires or general interests. Conflicts may occur internally or externally between individuals or groups; conflict within a team environment can cause frustration, and occasionally anger. However, conflict resolution can also often generate positive results for the team. Conflict management skills remain in demand; conflict may be managed successfully by reaching an agreement that satisfies the needs of both the individual(s) and the team as a whole

Authoritarian leadership style is where a leader has complete control and power over their team. They demonstrate their 'power' and 'control' by dictating policies and procedures, deciding what goals need to be achieved, and directs all activities to be done by the team. An authoritarian is usually most successful when things are going well or when in a crisis and decisions need to be made quickly.

The concept of leadership by authority is when a focus of power is with the manager. People tend to follow people who are seen as powerful. The manager will make the decisions, oversee policies and procedures for achieving goals, work tasks, control of rewards or hand out the punishments.

Dominance style employees have the chance to give up control and take after authority's directions. D styles have such solid conclusions that they have a tendency to not listen to others thoughts. The chance for the D style would be to quit charging forward and take more opportunity to listen to different employees or colleagues. D style representatives can likewise discover opportunities in requesting assistance from others instead of tackling an excess of work since they don't care for the way other individuals may do the work

Autocratic leadership, is a style which is characterized by the individual control over all the decisions and little input from group members. These type of leaders rarely accept advice from followers. These type of leaders tend to be bossy and controlling. Failing to consult with other team members in such situations hurts the overall success of the group.

The authoritarian approach involves giving directives. It entails the leader instructing the employee that he needs a specific person to form a certain task. This style leaves no room for bargaining, and any non-compliance or objection of this directive will be viewed by management as insubordination.

Authoritarian leaders give clear orders to what should be done and are straight to the point. They settle on choices with no contribution from others. An Authoritarian leader would be for example an Officer as a part of the armed force, they are for the most part bossy,comanding and intimidating to some they think they are constantly right and they're way is the most ideal way. This could be utilized as a part of a circumstance where a group needs to do things quick and successfully e.g in a drugs raid, if the unit is under attack the leader must yell orders and the group must react quick as their life is at stake. This style is like Task Orientated in the way that the leader is the main individual who puts input, this doesn't make a welcoming

Conflict is a fact of life - for individuals, organizations, and societies. The costs of conflict are well-documented - high turnover, grievances and lawsuits, absenteeism, divorce, dysfunctional families, prejudice, fear. What many people don't realize is that well-managed conflict can actually be a force for positive change.

Integrating; this style of conflict management is concerned with identification of joint problem, confrontation of attitude and proposing the possible solution for the conflict. This style of conflict management is more effective for solving complex issues. Additionally, this style of conflict management tends to be more effective in long run. However, this style of conflict management may not be effective in managing the conflicts that surface out of differing values of employees.

In this case study we will be analyzing a conflict between coworkers from "Not on My Sabbath" by Joy Koesten. The situation involves a woman, Joan, who has been highly successful in the agency in which she works. A problem arises between her and her coworker/superior, Sue, who is seemingly jealous of Joan's quick success. Sue ends up making a change to Joan's job description that conflicts with her religious practices. We will be analyzing their goals, styles, tactics, and approaches to this conflict.

Many authors have highlighted the inevitability of conflicts on the other hand it is said that disputes can be prevented or at least can be minimized through proper management. Conflicts are ubiquitous where ever a large number of people are involved i.e. where the human relationships proliferate (Kumaraswamy, 1997). People are the principle resource for any commercial project today. Different project managers, engineers, surveyors belonging to different organizations and having different needs, goals and each of them looking to maximize their benefits are brought together to form a team. Because of these differences in the individuals the conflicts and disputes become inevitable in a project. Conflicts are generally perceived as a negative term but it has both positive and negative sides. Positive conflicts can be helpful to generate new ideas, make innovations, helps people to ‘Be real’ and creative. But this conflict has to be maintained so that it does not get out of control and bring about dysfunctional consequences. There are large numbers of potential sources that makes conflict inevitable in a project. Some of them are explained below: - (scribd)

The third form of Conflict management is Accommodation. When the task at hand is more important than the conflict that has arisen and when relationships may be damaged putting the entire project in jeopardy. With this method a team member may minimize the conflict in order to protect the relationship and ultimately the project. Some of the negative aspects in using this

The Affiliative Style. “If the coercive leader demands, "Do what I say," and the authoritative urges, "Come with me," the affiliative leader says, "People come first." This leadership style revolves around people-its proponent’s value individuals and their emotions more than tasks and goals. The affiliative leader strives to keep employees happy and to create harmony among them. He manages by building strong emotional bonds and then reaping the benefits of such an approach, namely fierce loyalty. The style also has a markedly positive effect on communication. People who like one another a lot talk a lot. They share ideas; they share inspiration. And the style drives up flexibility; friends trust one another, allowing habitual innovation and risk taking. Flexibility also rises because the