Conflict Management and Resolution - Essay Example

Conflict Management and Resolution A conflict is a situation where two people or two parties are not in mutual agreement to a particular thing or situation. A conflict arises when two or more people or parties wish to undertake actions, which are mutually inconsistent causing a conflict of interest. The parties may want to do the same thing, such as carry out the same task, or may want to do different things, which are mutually compatible, such as when they are both wants to stay together but one wants to go to watch a game while the other wants to remain at home. A conflict can only be resolved only when some mutually compatible set of actions are worked out to bring the actions or ideas of the conflicting parties into agreement. The analysis, prevention, management or resolution of conflicts does not aim at eliminating the conflict, but aims at looking for the best ways of solving the conflict without resorting to violence. There are a number of reasons underlying conflicts. Conflicts are caused when people are competing for the same natural or artificial resources, which are distributed unfairly, or which are not enough for everybody to get a share. Conflicts also arise when people are not satisfied with the manner in which they are governed. The major cause of conflict in this case is when a particular group wants to be independent from the central government, which is contrary to the laws governing the central government. Conflicts also arise when there is a clash of people’s beliefs with the most sensitive views being religious and political views, since people use them to show their sense of identity and belonging. Ethnic differences can also cause conflicts since people’s ethnicity give them a source of identity and belonging, and a threat to this is likely to result into violence if the conflict is not addressed early enough. Conflict management plays a big role in strengthening the bond between employees or the conflicting parties and solves close to half of the problems facing the parties. In a working environment, employees need to feel motivated and find work exciting. It is thus advisable for a manager, before implementing any idea that is likely to affect the employees in an organization to conduct employee consultations then take the most appropriate step in solving the problem. Moreover, conflict resolution plays a big role in people’s lives since tussles and fights that are likely to spoil relationships and create enmity are ironed out. Addressing problems at the right time helps to prevent further damage brought about by conflicts. Conflict resolution is very important because it prevents the situation from escalating into a fight and facing the negative consequences of a fight. Conflict resolution also helps to avoid stress that comes along with conflicts and ugly situations caused by stress. There are various instances in life when conflicts arise and need to be effectively managed and resolved to avoid the situation from getting worse. Everybody at one point in life is faced with conflicting situations that require efficient and effective conflict resolution tactics to resolve them. Personally, at one point in my career life, I was faced with a challenging situation, while working as a software engineer in Australia. The work related conflicts were brought about mostly by misunderstanding between my boss and the workers especially with remuneration arrangements. The line of communication between the manager and employees was weak, with the boss being the sole decision maker, choosing not to consult before undertaking any form of decisions in the company. The employees were cowards and showed no intentions of raising their issues to the manager, while the manager on his part assumed that everything was in order (Ursiny, 2003). The manager was an autocratic manager, who expected his decisions to be followed unquestionably. With poor salaries and increased work, the working environment was not conducive for effective and efficient working by the employees. This caused a lot of conflicts between the manager and the employees, yet the issues raised were not addressed. Mostly, the employees, for fear of being sacked were afraid of openly raising the concerns they had to the manager. On his side, the manager was not ready to listen to the issues that affected the employees. The parties in this company involved in the conflict were conflict cowards who were afraid of raising the underlying issue to make work easy. The workers opted to seek for alternative employment while the manager always hired new employees regularly in the company. The quality of work done by the employees was substandard since they rarely gave their best in delivering their services to the company. A number of factors contributed to the worsening of the situation in the company. The employees were not satisfied with their remuneration and felt that the manager was undermining their skills. The number of duties assigned to each employee, when compared to the pay that the employee received was negligible. The employees felt that an increase in the wages would motivate them to work to work harder and improve their output. At times, failure to meet deadlines led to salary deductions demotivating employees even more. The poor salary and the unsatisfied workforce led to poor quality of work which created another conflict between the manager and the employees. Communication channels in the company were so poor that there was almost no communication between the employees and the manager. The bottom-up model of communication was disabled, with only the top-bottom channel being effective. The manager’s expectation was that orders passed from above were supposed to be followed without any negotiations and o arguments whatsoever. Allowing employees’ freedoms of expression especially to raise their issues and concerns would go a long way in improving their job satisfaction and improve their performance. Although little was done to solve the issues, the manger devised methods to ensure that employees could indirectly raise their issues and concerns. The diminishing output by the company affected its performance significantly, giving competitors an upper hand. Revenues swindled with a big margin and it was evident that the company was struggling to stay on its feet. The manager introduced complains and suggestions book that allowed the employees to raise their concerns without having to leave their names. The book was easily accessible to the employees. It came as a relief to the workers who for a long-time had sought for a means of communicating with their managers without compromising their jobs. Although most of the issues raised were rarely addressed, the feeling that somebody was aware of their issues made the employees feel way better than when they had no channel of communicating to the manager. To improve their performance and quality of their work, the manager introduced performance contracting where an employees’ salary would be determined by the general performance. Fringe benefits would be added to an employee’s salary package at the end of the month. The performance standards were put quite high, such that to achieve them looked close to impossibility, but the comfort that the employees had was that they were working to achieve a target and at the end of the day, there would be a reward for it. The introduction of the comments book and the fringe benefits to the employees came as a huge relief to the company, the manager and the employees. The improvements that were witnessed in the company in a few years that followed this development prompted the manager to increase the employees’ salaries and add more fringe benefits to them. The average turnover of the company improved significantly, with its revenues returning to normal. The quality of work that workers produced was way above the previous quality and this won the company more clients. Addressing the various issues facing the employee goes a long way in resolving the issues affecting them (Jeong, 2010). This helped to resolve the big conflict that existed between the employees and the manager of the company. The manager who was also the owner of the company was the biggest gainer of the changes that took place. He learnt how to collaborate with employees in a conflicting situation, as a method of conflict management. According to Eunson (2012), compromise is a conflict resolution technique where the goals that need to be achieved are important to either of the party and should be pressing. The manager chose to compromise with the workers for the benefit of the success of the company. He realized that he had more to gain by choosing to pay workers well, and thus the increased salaries. Contrary to his earlier fears about profits, the company’s profits were not affected in any negative way. In fact he realized that the better he paid his workers, the more the profits he realized from the company. The employees of the company also gained in the changes that took place, with the working conditions being more favourable than before. Apart from learning on the methods of addressing the various conflicts that face them, they were offered a good form of communication and were encouraged to use the bottom-up channel of communication without fear of victimization. Employees were thus learnt how to address their boss directly without having to use the comments book. Their living standards also improved due to the increased salary and they did not have to keep looking for alternative jobs since the company was capable of addressing their issues and needs. References Eunson, B. (2012). Conflict Management. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons. Jeong, H.-W. (2010). Conflict management and resolution: An introduction. London: Routledge Ursiny, T. E. (2003). The coward's guide to conflict: Empowering solutions for those who would rather run than fight. Naperville, Ill: Sourcebooks. Read More