Assignment 6 Analyzing Conflict Management - Essay Example

This essay aims at analyzing such a case of conflict in school and how it should be managed. Description of the Conflict The St. Mary’s Public School, New York has newly admitted a new student Amanda Martinez who has come recently from the country of Brazil to the United States. Amanda is a sincere worker and performs quite well among her peers in school. She has joined school in the last week. She did extremely well in her admission test to the school and therefore the principal has awarded her a scholarship for the entire term of year.

The teachers are also very cooperative in the school and help the new student in every possible way. In her class there are about 30 girls of the same age. Most of them are Americans except for Isabel who is also of a South American descent. The students of the class did not accept her in their group from her initial days. Isabel and Amanda however have become very good friends in a very short span of time. In the forthcoming group task, students in the school had to work in groups of five. Amanda and Isabel are in the same group but along with them 3 other students are present.

Amanda and Isabel find it uncomfortable to work with them. When the work of the group started Amanda wanted to be the team leader as she was the best among them in studies and could allocate the duties better among the five people. However, Joanna another team member wanted to have the leadership role since it was difficult for her and two of her friends to accept that they would be working under Amanda. Thus the work could not be started because of the conflict among the team members. Analysis of the Critical issues of the Conflict: Context of the conflict The main reason why the problem has cropped up in the group is that there is a conflict of interest among the team members.

Both Amanda and Joanna want to be the leader of the team. The reason why Amanda wants to have the leadership role is that she is a sincere worker and would understand the work better. She would be able to distribute the work in a fair manner among the group members. Though Isabel is happy with this decision, Joanna and the remaining two in the group have difficulty in accepting her as they want to have a power in the decision making related to the activities of the group. Apparent and underlying reasons of the conflict The perceptible reason for the conflict is the power distribution among the two groups of people working together for the achievement of the same goal.

Both of the students want to have a power in the group and take interest in the allocation of the duties. The true reason behind this conflict is that Joanna being a resident of New York since her early childhood has a problem accepting the fact that they have to accept the instruction of a newly entered student. Amanda also cannot acknowledge Joanna as their leader because she is not convinced about her abilities and is worried that ignorance on part of Joanna as a leader would affect their grades for the group task.

Thus there is an issue of racial discrimination in this particular case and it needs to be properly redressed. Types of Conflicts in the case This is a form of dysfunctional conflict because the students cannot work in a harmonious way which is hampering the education of the students. This kind of conflict does not lead to any productive end. It is also a form of interpersonal conflict between Amanda and Joanna