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Essay on Managing Conflict

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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

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