Gender Based Conflict Management - Essay Example

Gender Based Conflict Gender Based Conflict Conflict Management Strategy that may Work for Men According to Valentine (2001), on his journal, "A gender perspective on conflict management strategies for nurses," women bring many different conflict resolution approaches to the workplace than men (Valentine, 2001). There are differences in orientation and normative expectation that result between men and women who perceive and handle conflict differently, as shown by research. The research result showed that women were more likely to help in expressive ways as men were ready to use instrumental methods.

Women are also perceived to believe in relationships to bring cohesion, other than rules. In his research, Valentine identified and analyzed five conflict resolution strategies that were used by nurses at their workplace. The five strategies included avoiding, compromising, competing, collaborating and accommodating. From her analysis, she realized that gender may influence the extent by which nurses choose their conflict management strategies. From the perspective of gender, women are perceived to be more concerned about interpersonal aspects of the relationship than it is to men.

In this effort, female nurses are seen to view conflict management as a way they use while seeking confirmation and support in their effort to maintaining harmony. The results found out that male nurses resorted to using competing method of conflict resolution. This conflict resolution strategy at workplace is associated with the application of power by the competing nurses. This is as a result of the perceived differences in power between male and female genders and lack of self-confidence in the male nurses.

Male nurses, unlike female nurses, fail to realize that differences in opinions can be used as opportunities to learn and solve their differences. Conflict Management Strategies at Work Place that can Work for ChinaIn another study carried out by Friedman, Shu-Cheng, and Liu on "An expectancy model of Chinese-American differences in conflict-avoiding," the authors put it clear that Chinese have higher tendencies to avoid conflicts than Americans (Friedman, et al., 2006). The results of this expectancy model found out that Chinese use avoiding strategy of conflict control due to various reasons alienated to them, which cannot be applied by the Americans.

Chinese realize that direct conflicts are capable of hurting their relationships with the other party. They have greater concern for the other parties. Therefore, they tend to apply the avoiding strategy to uphold this fact. Chinese are also regarded as a people who show great respect and sensitivity to hierarchy. Because of this, any confrontations or possible conflicts that might involve someone of a higher status is always avoided. Americans, on the other hand, are perceived to be less sensitive to hierarchy.

According to a separate study on, “Conflict management style: accounting for cross-national differences,” by Morris, M., Williams Katherine, Leung Kwok and Larrick Richard, cultural differences come into the way during resolution of conflicts that occur in joint ventures between the Americans and the Asians (Morris, et al., 1998). In this research, young managers from China, U.S, Philippines and India were surveyed. The results, however, indicated that the Asian managers rely more on the avoiding style of conflict resolution as they highly value conformity and tradition.

On the other hand, the U.S managers tend to rely much on competing styles of conflict resolution due to the fact that they uphold their individual achievement so much. Conclusion In a nutshell, gender-based conflict resolution is something that has seen each gender take its way of solving conflicts. The females are associated with the soft ways of solving issues even though the results of the solutions may not favor them. They care most about their relationships and bringing harmony. This is unlike men who would like to resort to more aggressive conflict resolution strategies.

Similarly, countries are just like different genders. Some chose to solve their issues the female ways, such as China while others choose to do it the male way, such as America.BibliographyFriedman, R., Shu-Cheng, C. & Liu, L. A., 2006. An expectancy model of Chinese-American differences in conflict-avoiding. Journal of International Business Studies, 37(1), pp. 76-91.Morris, M., Williams, K. Y., Leung, K. & Larrick, R., 1998. Conflict management style: Accounting for cross-national differences.

Journal of International Business Studies, 29(4), pp. 729-747.Valentine, P., 2001. A gender perspective on conflict managemen strategies of nurses. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 33(1), pp. 69-74.