Unit 4 - Admission/Application Essay Example

Conflict Resolution and Management of Affiliation: Conflict Resolution and Management Conflicts remain the greatest challenge that organizations face today. Conflicts refer to situations of disagreements between individuals or parties over certain issues or activities. Ideally, conflicts in projects are inevitable considering that projects involve the participation of individuals with varied backgrounds, cultures, ideologies, and orientations in the completion of a particular task. Conflicts in organizations lead to both personal growths of individuals and professional growth of the organization as opposing groups are energized into action while the top management can identify problems within the organization for appropriate resolutions (Miall, Ramsbotham & Woodhouse, 1999).

There are numerous approaches for managing and resolving conflict in an organization; however, the three major approaches used in the effective management and resolution of conflicts are avoidance, defusion, and confrontation (Fred, 2011). Avoidance is an approach to management and conflict resolution in which conflict is evaded entirely by the concerned parties. Despite being a major approach to management and resolution of conflicts, avoidance, involves delegation of controversial decisions, acceptance of default decisions, and the restraint from hurting of individuals feelings (Miall, Ramsbotham & Woodhouse, 1999).

In most instances, avoidance is used to resolve conflicts in instances in which there is a lack of direct victory from either party. Regardless of the situation involved, avoidance is always a weak and effective means of conflict resolution. An example is an instance in which an organizations management remains silent despite employees crying for low salaries.Confrontation is another major approach to conflict resolution and management involving one party placing the desires higher than those of others also involved in the conflict.

Additionally, confrontation is an approach in which conflict is addressed head-on, in an authoritative manner involving high emotions with an establishment of hostile communications (Miall, Ramsbotham & Woodhouse, 1999). An example is an instance in which an organizations management reduces salaries to minimize costs, giving the option of those unsatisfied with such a position to exit the organization without any dialogue. Defusion is also a major conflict management and resolution approach, which involves the postponement or delaying of a decision involving a conflict until temperatures cool down, in order to evade any escalation of hostility (Miall, Ramsbotham & Woodhouse, 1999).

A good example is in instances in which two opposing parties never come to an agreement, with each taking a strong stand without compromise.Divisional organizational structure has both advantages and disadvantages, considering the situations involved. Divisional structure is organized into different ways including by product, customer, product, and geographical area. The major advantages of divisional organizational structure include promotion of the delegation of authority, clarity of accountability, enhancement of internal competitive climate.

Others are the creation of career development chances, ease of adding new production into new regions, and the local control of local situations. Divisional organizational structure also allows for strict control of products and critical attention given to both the customers and the products (Fred, 2011). On the other hand, divisional organizational structure also has certain disadvantages associated with it. Such disadvantages include high costs involvement, requirement of skilled management and elaborate control system, limited sharing of ideas and opinions among members of the different levels and sections.

Other disadvantages include the replication of certain functional activities, high competition among divisions and biasness to certain sections and regions (Fred, 2011).References Fred David, 2011. Strategic Management: Concepts & Cases, 13th Edition. Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall Miall, H., Ramsbotham, O., & Woodhouse, T. (1999). Contemporary conflict resolution: the prevention, management and transformation of deadly conflicts. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press