Conflict and Its Resolution - Research Paper Example

Conflict and Its Resolution Table of Contents 1- Introduction 2- Categories of Relevant Conflicts 3- Conflicts and their Solutions: a) Resident Halls i) What kinds of problems occur in residence halls? ii) How to solve these problems? b) Student/Faculty Problems i) What kinds of problems occur between students and faculty? ii) How to solve these problems? c) Faculty/Faculty and Faculty/Administration Problems i) What kinds of problems occur within the faculty amongst themselves and with the administration? ii) How to solve these problems? 4- Conclusion 5- References 1- INTRODUCTION Understanding the complexity and types of conflicts that may arise on college campus is essential for dealing with such situations and resolving the conflicts in a systematic and professional manner. College life has become more challenging and mindboggling than ever witnessed historically due to certain reasons including rapid globalization and interconnectivity that has increased the diversity at campuses, awareness pertaining to the rights of the individuals including faculty, students, or other employees, and the legal repercussions associated with these rights has all led to the hike in conflicts emerging at college campuses, thus changing their overall environment (Volpe & Chandler, 1999, p. 3). Simultaneously, the awareness and realization regarding the need to resolve these conflicts has also increased dramatically. Institutions are putting in great effort to devise resolution plans. In this paper, the focus of the discussion is based on an understanding the conflicts initiated by intolerance towards diversity, increased awareness of rights and duties, and contradictory lifestyles in all spheres that could be solved through mediation and training programs imparted by the Human Resource Department. 2- CATEGORIES OF RELEVANT CONFLICTS In order to devise these training programs and mediation services, it must be duly noted that there exist various types of conflicts, which span over all spheres of work life at a college campus including faculty, students, and administration. The dynamics of the conflicting parties can vary, and this report would focus on the resolution of conflicts in the following spheres: Residence Halls Student/Faculty Faculty/Faculty and Faculty/Administration The classification of conflicting parties in the aforementioned categories does not at all entail that these are the only conflicting bodies and the range can be diverse and never ending. However, these are the most important dynamics and so this report would incorporate these only. 3- CONFLICTS AND THEIR SOLUTIONS a) Residence Halls i) What kinds of problems occur in residence halls? According to the classification of conflicts mentioned earlier, the most common type is the conflicts that arise between students associated with the residence halls (McCorkle & Mason, 2009). When a large number of students, belonging to diverse backgrounds, ethnicities, class, race, and culture come together under one roof, they are expected to show tolerance and respect towards people nurturing diametrically opposite opinions or beliefs. In such situations, it is not necessary that every individual would be capable of suppressing their disagreement and respecting others’ opinions thus, resulting in conflicts. Issues such as alcoholism, bulimia, drug usage, hacking, computer pornography, suicide, violence, and even petty issues such as differences in sleeping patterns, intolerable habits, and other interpersonal conflicts can be major problems for a college campus. In the following, ways of handing and resolving these issues are discussed. ii) How to solve these problems? It is important to avoid problems at college campuses, however if such issues arise then they should be resolved with care. Therefore, as a preliminary step, the administrators must focus on assigning students who have the same preferences and lifestyle patterns to the same rooms. In short, the roommate matching process should be rigorous and must not be ignored. Furthermore, residence life activities should be planned to increase interaction between members of the community, and in addition to this, learning communities should be created to increase awareness and build tolerance towards diversity. The campus should also equip residence halls with Resident Assistants who are available at all times to resolve conflicts. Most importantly, student counselors should be available to treat any sort of depression and stress which is mentally affecting a student (McCorkle & Mason, 2009, p. 2). The increased interaction between the residents of the residence halls would build cohesiveness and tolerance between students, and the availability of advisors would provide mediation facility to the residents. However, there are certain problems that could occur between students and faculty and need to be discussed here. b) Student/Faculty Problems i) What kinds of problems occur between students and faculty? Apart from residence halls, another sphere which is deemed significant while putting conflicts into categories is the ‘Student/Faculty problems’. Little research has gone into this area of conflicts, however almost all agree on the ground point that it is an aversive process for both the parties involved (Hazler & Carney, 1993). It has been observed that both the parties have contradictory opinions regarding the issue and their expectation about the outcomes is also different, however it has been reported that students feel they are involved in the conflict/resolution process more personally than the instructors (Jamieson & Thomas, 1974). The usual area of study in student/faculty conflicts has centered upon high school, and the limited range of research about conflicts at college level usually talks about ‘power issues’, certain management styles, or mostly on the method to devise a resolution between the two reconciliatory parties (Hocker, 1986). The major conflict is the perception in the minds of the students that the teachers are authoritative and coercive as the students consider themselves to be adults at this level of their education. They cannot come to terms with the instructors in regards to grading methods, curriculum outlines, and teaching styles. If the instructor perceives themselves as being higher in the hierarchy of authority and therefore is not willing to compromise, then it leads to further dissension between the student body and the instructor. There must be clear understanding and ways of solving the conflicts which takes this discussion to proposing solutions for this purpose. ii) How to solve these problems? The initiative step has to be taken by the faculty members so they must have in-depth knowledge regarding the students’ perceptions, this would be provided through ‘student behavior workshops’. It would sensitize the faculty to the students’ feeling and emotions, and they would become more likely and capable to handle conflicts, prevent them at an earlier stage, or devise a resolution that is acceptable to both parties. According to Dunns and Gokee, the awareness about the different patterns of behavior of students would equip the instructors to understand the complex issues of the students, and help to prevent any conflicts before they surface. Most importantly, if the instructor already has knowledge regarding the students’ preferences then they can propose the resolution in a way that they know is acceptable to the students and this would help the resolution to be successful (Tantleff-Dunn et al., 2009, p. 198). It is better that the faculty should themselves resolve the issues with the students rather than involving intermediaries which would lead to the intensification of the issue at hand, leading to a legal step-by-step resolution process (UNCO, 2011). As both parties espouse opposite sentiments, hence it is necessary that the faculty should understand how to psychologically deal with the students. However, in case a conflict still surfaces then they should make resolution plans in accordance with the students’ behavioral patterns. When the faculty is responsible to resolve the conflicts, it is also necessary to understand the potential conflicts that might arise within the faculty members and the role of administration in resolving these issues. The following section of the report focuses on the issues that might arise among faculty members and how administration can solve them. c) Faculty/Faculty and Faculty/Administration Problems i) What kinds of problems occur within the faculty amongst themselves and with the administration? The third most important category pertaining to conflicts at college campuses of today are the conflicts which involve faculty members and the administrative staff. Conflicts can arise between these two parties, and since both have authority issues, it becomes increasingly difficult to resolve these conflicts. The faculty and administration usually disagree on governance issues; they have different expectations and different plans for the way an institution is being run. They do not support the concept of shared governance once a conflict has been rooted, and hence it is imperative that they must be aware of this notion beforehand. They must know that in a college environment, both authorities are needed for the smooth running of the college and hence, they must have shared governance (Sherman, 2009, p. 1). Furthermore, conflicts between the members of faculty are also a common issue. These conflicts are wide-ranging and may include issues pertaining to the development of curriculums, class allotment, authority issues, and methods of teaching, and the link with the administrative strata of the college campus. Probable solutions to solve these conflicts are described in the following lines. ii) How to solve these problems? It is better to resolve these wide-ranging conflicts between faculty members before they reach the administrative body, since that would lead to an undermining in authority of all the conflicting members of the faculty, and the power would rest with the administration. Application of more administrative resolution processes and fewer consultations could lead to negative behaviors and de-motivation of the faculty members; hence conciliation between the members at personal level is necessary in order to maintain a healthy environment (Campus-ADR, 2011). Training workshops for conflict management and resolution devising at same levels of authority would also be arranged for the faculty members to prevent such issues from arising, and thus the higher levels of autonomy would be maintained. More steps could be taken such as the development of faculty clubs, reconciliatory bodies which may include professional counselors etc., regular interaction sessions, and joint research work etc., these would also lead to better resolution of issues and create a healthy and friendly atmosphere at college campuses by maintaining cohesiveness and effective communication. It is the duty of the Human Resource Department to device reconciliatory plans between the employees at the college campus. 4- CONCLUSION With respect to all the issues highlighted in this report, it would be right to state that the conflicts arising between different factions of the college campus could be resolved through processes of mediation, reconciliatory services, and counseling; plus the training programs initiated by the HR department would increase awareness about behavioral patterns which would help in conflict prevention. However, if the conflicts become intensified, then step-by-step processes involving administration and legal parties would become inevitable, and thus it is the responsibility of all members to avoid such a conclusion. The conflicts were put into different categories and their specific solutions were provided in this report: the residence halls should have proper screening procedures and match roommates in accordance with their lifestyles and preferences, and provide counseling services in case of conflicts; the faculty should undertake training programs pertaining to student behaviors and develop their teaching patterns in light of their learning, and they should also take workshops to resolve conflicts occurring at the same level of authority; and lastly, counseling and mediation services at higher levels would help solve conflicts between campus employees. These solutions are important because it is imperative that the faculty, administration, and the student body should work hand-in-hand to make the college campus a better environment for studying and working. Hence, it is a duty on part of all the members of a college campus to actively take part in conflict resolution training, and attend workshops imparted by the HR department for the facilitation of the campus community to either prevent any conflicts from surfacing, or devising the resolution of conflicts in a proper manner which is acceptable to all the parties. References Campus-ADR. (2011). Why mediation and conflict resolution services matter for faculty. Retrieved October 30, 2011, from http://www.campus-adr.org/Faculty_Club/content/rationales_faculty/ Hazler, R., & Carney, J. (1993). Student-faculty Interactions: An underemphasized dimension of counselor education. Counselor Education & Supervision , 33 (2), p. 80. Retrieved on October 30th 2011, from http://coe.nau.edu/part_time_fr/principle5-article3.pdf Hocker, J. (1986). Teacher–student confrontations. New directions for teaching and learning, 26, 71–82. Jamieson, D. W., & Thomas, K. W. (1974). Power and conflict in the student–teacher relationship. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 10, 321–336. Retrieved October 30, 2011, from http://neves.paginas.sapo.pt/Jamieson_Thomas_esquema_conflito.pdf McCorkle, S. & Mason, S. G. (2009). Conflict in residence halls: A preliminary study of the efficacy of roommate negotiations to reduce roommate conflict. Retrieved October 30, 2011 from http://scholarworks.boisestate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1001&context=pubadmin_facpubs&sei-redir=1&referer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com.pk%2Furl%3Fsa%3Dt%26rct%3Dj%26q%3Dconflicts%2520at%2520residence%2520halls%26source%3Dweb%26cd%3D1%26ved%3D0CBgQFjAA%26url%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fscholarworks.boisestate.edu%252Fcgi%252Fviewcontent.cgi%253Farticle%253D1001%2526context%253Dpubadmin_facpubs%26ei%3D95CsTuX6OMyIrAez3M3RDA%26usg%3DAFQjCNEajB5kUNQ5xEtpKSPBjD26BrN6sQ#search=%22conflicts%20residence%20halls%22 Sherman, P (2009). Ringeisen says faculty-administration conflict was factor in recent vote. Retrieved October 30, 2011, from http://www.uis.edu/newsbureau/inthenews/20090427-SJR-facultyadminconflict.pdf Tantleff-Dunn, S; Dunn, M. E. & Gokee, J. L. (2009). Understanding faculty-student conflict: student perceptions of precipitating events and faculty response. Teaching of Psychology, 29, 3, 197-202 UNCO (2011). Procedure for resolving student faculty conflict. Retrieved October 30, 2011, from http://www.unco.edu/dos/communityStandards/policies/resolving_student-faculty_conflict.html Volpe, M. R. & Chandler, D. (1999) Resolving conflicts in institutions of higher education: challenges for pracademics. Retrieved on October 30th 2011, from http://law.gsu.edu/cncr/pdf/papers/99-2Volpepap.pdf Read More