Managing Conflict
The ability to manage conflict is undoubtedly one of the most important skills a manager needs to possess A study of middle- and top-level executives revealed that the manager spends approximately
20% of his or her time dealing with conflict. In most management development programmes; conflict management was being more important than decision making, leadership or communication.
DEALING WITH CONFLICT
Concept
Definition
Want
Desire for something
Goal
Desired ideal state of future affairs
Need
Universal necessity for survival
Interests
potential benefits to be gained by achieving goals
Conflict of interests
The actions taken by person A to achieve goals prevent, block or interfere with the
…show more content…
As a manager
- Be aware of your underlying conflict-handling style
- Be judicious in selecting the conflicts that you want to handle
- Not every conflict is worth your time and effort to resolve. While avoidance might appear to be a ‘cop-out’, it can sometimes be the most appropriate response. You can improve your overall management effectiveness, and your conflict-management skills in particular by avoiding trivial conflicts. Choose your battles judiciously, saving your efforts for the ones that count.
- Evaluate the conflict players
If you choose to manage a conflict situation, it’s important that you take the time to get to know the players. Who is involved in the conflict? What interests does each party represent? What are each player’s values, personality, feelings and resources? Your chances of success in managing a conflict will be greatly enhanced if you can view the conflict through the eyes of the conflicting parties.
- Assess the source of conflict
Conflicts have causes. Since your approach to resolving a conflict is likely to be determined largely by its causes, you need to determine the source of the conflict. Research indicates that conflicts have varying causes, they can generally be separated into three categories: communication differences, structural differences and personal differences - Communication differences
Communication differences are
Have you ever been a part of a conflict? Perhaps the conflict existed in your home because you want your children to do chores, but your spouse disagrees, or perhaps you have had a conflict in the workplace where a co-worker, no matter what you said was always in disagreement with you. Whether at home or work, it is best to resolve conflict as both instances, the conflict could create an uneasy situation at home or in the workplace and could result in people being hurt, work not be accomplished or even a physical altercation. Therefore, it is recommended that instead of allowing conflict to remain, that instead the conflict is resolved For that reason I will describe a conflict within an organization or team which I am familiar with, identify and describe the source(s) and level of the conflict and supporting evidence, describe the steps taken to resolve the conflict, describe a minimum of three conflict outcomes that could reasonably occur as a result of the resolution and the support for my reasoning for each possible outcome. First I will begin with a basic description of conflict.
When dealing with conflict I believe it is highly important to understand and to be understood. Furthermore, when dealing with conflict, not taking things personal is highly valued. When discussing my current conflict, I realized that most of the problems are stemmed from a lack of communication. Therefore, having a sense of what my needs are will then help me form healthy strategies.
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.
In resolving conflict, ask the question, “How do we keep this from happening again?” The first thing is to be objective. This helps in managing conflict by keeping team members focused on the problem at hand (Huber, 2007)
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
By understanding the types of conflict resolution styles, managers can use appropriate conflict resolution styles to promote and generate healthy conflicts, increase productivity of all team members, increase employee morale and increase overall customer service.
Conflicts can happen in everyday life with people and in organizations. Conflicts need to be handled so that the situation does not escalate further. Most people look at conflicts as a bad situation, but not all conflicts are bad, some are good, especially when discussing an idea within a group. In an organization there are times when a conflict may need to happen for an issue to be resolved, but when this happens the people involved need to look at if this conflict is really necessary to resolve the issue. How to address conflicts in a group and how a manager can bring up the conflict without making them worse is what will be discussed next.
What is conflict? Even something as basic as a universal definition for the word conflict seems to vary from source to source. A literature review focusing on conflict defined it as “the interaction of interdependent people who perceive incompatibility and the possibility of interference from others as a result of this incompatibility” (Brinkert 2010). Often times the disagreement results not from a concrete difference, but rather a difference in perception (Ellis & Abbott 2012). One of the most important factors effecting conflict management is the resolution style used. The most often used tool for classifying how conflict is managed is the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument (Iglesias & Vallejo 2012).
Humans face conflict on a day to day basis, but sometimes it can be a challenge to resolve it. What truly is the best way to respond to conflict? This age-old question has many different answers, but three may prove to be the most efficient. People can best respond to conflict by fully understanding the situation, weighing in on the negatives and positives associated with it, and avoiding all possible impulsive actions.
Ranging from small quarrels between a couple to a full blown war, conflicts can have many different levels and can have massive impacts. That is why it is necessary need to evaluate the dispute at hand and understand the individual the need to keep one's values in place throughout finding resolution in the
Throughout life, one encounters many social situations. The way a person processes these situations says a lot about his or her general outlook on life. While there are many theories, there are three primary Theoretical Perspectives: Functionalist Theory, Conflict Theory, and Symbolic Interaction Theory. Personally, I struggled in choosing a single perspective. I believe that if one perspective had a perfect explanation, there would probably be only one perspective. Since this is not the case however, it must be admitted that no single theory base perfectly explains every social situation. I have found that for me, the Conflict Theory explains situations around the world most consistently.
With over 7.5 billion humans on Earth, people’s dissimilar views stir up disagreements amongst one another. While arguing for your view can be constructive, it is equally important to regard the drawbacks caused by arguing. As conflict becomes more and more intense, those same people begin forgetting to express basic ethics towards others. As a result, one must cling onto their humanity, even throughout dire times, to make the situation better. To begin with, during the morning that the Commandant visits the camp, Chaya bravely rescues an infant that was left unattended and hides with the baby in a heap of garbage without hesitance. Garbage slips along her bare legs as she barely makes it to the pile, yet she still decides to risk her life, even
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.
Conflict is inescapable, having the ability to recognize, understand, and resolve conflicts are important in both personal and professional lives. Myatt (2012) states that conflict in the workplace is unavoidable; if left unresolved, workplace conflict may result in loss of productivity and the creation of barriers that can inhibit creativity, cooperation, and collaboration. It is vital to embrace conflict and address problems through effective conflict-resolution tactics because if not handled appropriately, conflict will escalate. “If not handled properly, conflict may significantly affect employee morale, increase turnover, and even result in litigation, ultimately affecting the overall well-being of
The article “Managing conflict: Third-party interventions for managers” delineates the essential steps followed by a manager in effectively and efficiently managing organizational conflict and the various approaches adopted for its resolution. It identifies certain key variables to consider for each step of the decision process concerning intervention and presents guidelines for making appropriate choices. It also describes a variety of pitfalls that a manager must beware of when intervening as third party in managing conflict. Third-party intervention by the manager assumes greater significance in the light of increasing use of teams and participatory management approaches used by organizations wherein timely