Leadership and Dealing with Conflict - Essay Example

Conflict (about Leadership and Dealing with Conflict) by Dennis Coon Conflict arises when an individual has to make a choice between needs, desires, wishes, or demands. The conflict can be caused by the availability of negative or positive choices, approach to resolve the conflict or the outcome of the choices. Approach-approach conflicts arise when leaders are faced with two positive choices that require quick responses. This form of conflict is the easiest to resolve even in instances when important decisions are required. For instance a business owner can be faced with investment options that have profitable returns. Conflict arises in determining the option to undertake without jeopardizing the business. This kind of conflict is easily resolved since the scales of decision are easily tipped towards one of the choices. Leaders faced with negative choices experience avoidance-avoidance conflict. Both choices have negative outcomes and the individual has to settle for the less burdening option. Leaders can be attracted to, and repelled by traits present in the same activity or goal. A business opportunity may have huge profits, but involves big risks that can destroy the business. This scenario introduces approach-avoidance conflict where the choices are both attractive and repelling. The huge profits present a positive choice while risks are repelling aspects of the investment opportunity. This creates the need for calculated risks that can provide the most plausible solution to the conflict. The feelings present to the leader can act as an avenue to resolve the conflict. Another form of conflict arises when the choices available are partially negative and partially positive. This form of conflict is referred to as double approach-avoidance conflict due to the partial positive and negative aspects of the choices. A graduate may have to choose between a well paying job with odd working hours and a low paying job with good working conditions. Individuals faced with such conflicts have to weigh the available options and try out important decisions before reaching a conclusion. Leadership as Empowering Others Executives in an organization are better placed as leaders rather than managers. Executives have the responsibility of making strategic decisions that affect the organization in the long term. This involves creating strategies, analysis, policies, evaluation, and planning that determine the future of the organization. These leaders act as visionaries in the organization and are responsible for inspiring their juniors. For instance, the CEO of a company has to inspire junior executives as a way of grooming the next CEO and transforming them to conform to the vision of the organization. Transformational leaders introduce changes to the organization that help the organization achieve the laid out goals. Transformational leaders convert followers into leaders by playing the role of moral agents that provide inspiration. Transactional leaders emphasize teamwork, task accomplishment, and problem solving as a way of working with others for a common goal. Leaders stimulate their subordinates by proposing new directions that the followers have never experienced. This form of empowerment comes in form of new exciting intellectual ideas that energize the followers. For instance a leader can encourage and stimulate subordinates to create new inventions. This empowers subordinates to become creative and participate in decision making processes that lay out future goals for the organization. This helps them climb the leadership ladder and prepares them to make crucial decisions in the organization. Emotional intelligence Emotional intelligence (EI) can be utilized to foster competitive advantage and profitability. Leaders require the ability to perceive and generate emotions in the thought process and regulate their emotions to promote intellectual growth. EI has become a paramount requirement for top executives for effective leadership and performance. Effective use of EI provides leaders with information that assists decision making and conflict resolution. The leader is able to eliminate negative emotions such as disgust and anger brought about by a conflict and channels the emotions to develop constructive ways of solving the conflict. Conflicts evoke disruptive emotions that hinder decision making and the leader requires specific competencies in order to manage emotions towards productive means. The leader requires the ability to harness emotions towards problem solving and creativity in order to solve conflicts. For instance, a manager should understand anxiety among employees due to potential threats such as layoffs. Supervisors can encourage employees to express their emotions openly when the work conditions are unpleasant. Organizational change triggers emotions that cause conflicts. Leaders introducing the changes should perceive negative and positive emotions among employees as a way of managing conflicts caused by the changes. Letter from Birmingham Jail Martin Luther King wrote the letter while imprisoned because of spearheading resistance campaigns against injustices towards African Americans. Religious leaders in Birmingham were resisting changes introduced by Luther King in the resistance amid widespread injustices against the blacks. Luther begins by explaining the reasons why he is in the city and the sudden changes in the resistance movement. Leaders introducing change face resistance form subordinates affected by the change. Giving detailed explanations behind the changes is the first step to addressing resistance from subordinates. King explains the events and promises that had led to the rapid call for nonviolent action. These justifications are made in line with the vision of liberating the black community, which was the goal of the movement. Change in an organization has to remain focused to the overall goal of the institution. For instance, changing the production process should have the effect of increasing the output and reducing expenses to increase profitability. Enacting change happens in line with outlining the expected outcome of the changes and the methods of achieving the outcomes. This helps encourage those affected by the changes and reduce the amount of resistance. The Iliad (Leadership and Dealing with Conflict) Attributed to Homer (9th Century) Conflict emerged between the Greek soldiers in the Trojan War. The conflict between Agamemnon and Achilles made the greek army lose the best field commander. Achilles demanded an apology from Agamemnon who failed to apologize forcing the field commander to abandon the war. Leaders have the responsibility of keeping their workers together for the common good of the organization. In this case, unresolved conflict among the executives can have dire consequences to subordinates and the general organanisation. Negative emotions evoked by the conflict may destroy the relationship between the executives when the emotions are channeled away from problem solving. The misunderstanding and accusations between the leaders made the Greek soldiers lose the war against the Trojans. Nestor tries to mediate the conflict but lacks the intelligent to channel the emotions of both leaders into solving the problem. Leaders involved in a conflict are faced with personal justifications and pride that hamper the mediation process and has negative results in the organization. Executives in an organization can experience disagreements due to differing methods of carrying out activities in the organization. Resolving the conflict by settling for the option beneficial to the organization is necessary for avoiding failure. Allegory of the Cave(Leadership and Dealing with Resistance To Change) The dialogue between Socrates and Glaucon deals with the natural human resistance to change. The dialogue considers people living in a world where fire is the only source of light. The introduction of other sources of the light and energy are faced with resistance due to the changes therein. Socrates tries to convince Glaucon to embrace new sources and abandon the life of the cave by adopting knowledge and changes in the world. An efficient leader has the responsibility of enlightening subordinates and fellow executives of the benefits involved with change. The leaders must be willing to adopt the changes and enlighten others affected by the changes. This ensures a smooth transition with little negative emotions that can hamper the productivity of employees. Taking time to enlighten others on the change process fosters acceptance and reduces conflict. Crash The movie focuses on gender, race, social, and economic inequality in the society. Racial and gender inequalities in the work place are sources of conflict and resistance to change in organizations. Changes introduced by individuals from certain races and gender may face severe resistance compared to others. Inequalities are subject to negative emotions and conflicts caused by discrimination. This has the effect of hampering the employee cooperation and combined problem solving. Leaders in such organizations face resistance when introducing change and achieving organizational goals due to disconnect among employees. This also makes it difficult to empower subordinates to acquire leadership capabilities due to intimidation and negativity caused by discrimination. Creativity and teamwork in an institution requires equality and empowerment that lacks in the presence of discrimination. Norma Rae The movie brings out the concept of teamwork and cooperation required in organizations. Business organizations divide their workers into specialized groups comprising workers with similar skills and abilities to undertake specific tasks. These groups concentrate on improving the business activites and processes in order to increase productivity. Innovation that is necessary for maintaining competitive advantage requires teamwork among executives, managers, and employees. This has the effect of promoting cooperation similar to that between Norma and Reuben who started the Textile Workers Union of America. This allows them to empower other workers in the industry for the sake of improving their working conditions and fostering growth. Cooperation between workers and leaders helps improve the working conditions and reduces conflicts. Corporate Maze The team building exercise was important for improving cooperation between students. This translates to team building exercises in organizations that improve cooperation between employees and helps reduce discrimination. The exercise was important for evaluating the cooperation of the members and helped create team culture among the participants. This is necessary for displaying behaviors necessary for eliminating conflicts and minimizing resistance to change. Team building exercises are necessary for improving cooperation that helps members cope with the effects of change. This reduces resistance and improves the working conditions in the organization. The involvement of managers in the team helps improve empowerment leadership necessary for employee development. Same Again Wine company The scenario illustrates inequality and discrimantion in an organization. The company suffers from racial and gender discrimination that hinders cooperation among employees. Addressing gender and racial differences is necessary for eliminating conflicts and encourages contribution and creativity in the company. Ethnic and gender diversity is necessary for creating a diversified workforce that combines different abilities of the employees. This helps improve the potential of the organization by building teams that have diverse abilities. Employing male accountants and female sales people improves the chances of expanding the market share of the organization. Work Cited Burke, Warner. Leadership as Empowering others. In Srivastva and associates. Executive power: How executives influence People and organizations. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass (1986). Brown, Ben. Emotional Intelligence: Implications for Human Resource Development. Otago Management Graduate Review, 3, (2005). PP 21-36. Luther, Martin King. Letter from Birmingham Jail. (1963) Read More