Male and Female Conflict-Handling Styles - Research Paper Example

The clash of divergence opinions, aims or demands is an inevitable outcome whenever individuals or groups work together.Conflict is a situation in which people’s concerns appear to be incompatible. In such circumstances, intentions can be described along two independent dimensions; cooperativeness that attempts to satisfy the other person’s interest and assertiveness that attempts to meet an interest. Males and females communicate using different styles of interaction (Stone, 98). Men and women are biologically different and demonstrate a social difference. In addition, the patterns depicted within the cross-sex communication frequently display the mean both men and female engage interpersonally. Regarding conflict conditions, the underlying contrasting behaviors amidst the prevailing sexes is extremely evident. Conflict is a common component of the entire associations and corresponding means of tackling crucially to the basic survival of the associations (Stone, 112). This paper discusses the conflict-handling styles in males and females and the implications of these techniques for supervisors. Male and Female Conflict-Handling Styles Communication is a procedure that entails sharing information amidst personalities via existing conventional system of the prevailing symbols and behavior. In addition, the mean through which populace frequently communicate relies on their gender (Robbins, Deenzo & Wolter, 50). Communication is an element of everyday life in which conflict is cumbersome to eliminate. Conflict is frequently developed when populace shares diverse beliefs concerning particular issues. Numerous factors determine what individuals believe, and they play an influential role in people’s opinions, consequently influencing their course of action. For this reason, there is a discernable difference between the conflict handling styles between males and females. Both genders communicate in diverse means by that making them initiate interpersonal communication in times of disputes. In the book, ‘Men are From Mars and Women are From Venus,’ John Gray (2004) says Men and women expect their men to feel, engage via communication to their actions. People forget that both genders are unique. Thus, their engagement is full of unnecessary misunderstanding and disagreements. The gender differences in conflict management originate from the gender-based tendencies that are rooted in a person’s childhood. Females depict a relational style of engagement, which entails expressing point of views, relations and offering a relatively larger proportion of polite speech, needs, and stage of detail. Nevertheless, the communication is normally vague and apologetic. The males, on the other hand, reflect a more competitive interaction style to resolve problems. It includes increased interruptions and swearing and the providing of more concise information, with less emotional content. While handling conflicts, females are usually worrying regarding the way other populace feel during the duration of interaction while male ideally care solely concerning their underlying social status. Masculine speech communities tend to regard talk as a way to accomplish concrete goals, exert control, preserve independence, entertain, and enhance the status (Robbins, Deenzo & Wolter, 50). In the study, verbal and nonverbal behaviors of males and females during conflicts were observed. The author states, “it appears that men argue and communicate anger more than females” (Stone, 122). According to Stone, the men were engaging in more aggressive interactions than the females. Women learn that belonging and friendship is more important than succeeding and being right. Usually, they expect other women to provide them with nurturing, support and sympathy, and they may take conflict or criticism personally. Mostly, they judge each other more harshly than men judge women. Conflict can tear relationships apart. It is quite important to comprehend the means of communication while handling conflict situations. Comprehension of the divergence amidst the gender conflict communication is fundamental to relationships. For this reason, supervisors have a significant role to play when it comes to handling conflicts within the group Supervisors’ principal roles include managing direct reports, setting and raising standards, providing feedback for substandard performance, and holding people accountable for their actions. Conflict style instruments are used heavily in supervisory training to help supervisors deal assertively and constructively with the conflicts inherent in the processes (Robbins, Deenzo & Wolter, 50). Directors are positional power bases to enable them act independently. However, they need some training in collaborative approaches and firm flexibility. Managers’ work is on the coordination and integration required in an organization. An important developmental challenge in this context is learning to negotiate and solve problems with people over whom they have no formal authority. Training for intra-organizational negotiations for supervisors is necessary and needs to focus on forms of assertiveness that do not damage trust and relationships (Robbins, Deenzo & Wolter, 50). Since a great deal of managerial coordination occurs in cross-functional teams, managers are also frequently exposed to team-building interventions. In this situation, team-building sessions are recommended, specifically those that focus on conflict styles. The manner in which male and female managers handle and react to arguments can affect how workplace conflicts are harmonious. Women need to have their feelings validated while men respond better to approval than disapproval. Male and female managers reflect either knowingly or unknowingly. This feature is a significant difference in how they communicate with one other matters of managing their underlying their subordinates. Awareness of the requirements of the parties involves in the communication and meeting encompasses professional ethics, which is effective in resolving or avoiding arguments. (Stone, 30) Research depicts that on average, female managers were two times as accessible to employees as were male managers. In addition, nearly all women admitted to having difficulty saying no to subordinates while men did not find it difficult to reject workers’ requests. Since the prevailing gender frequent impact on the mean through the administrators tackle conflict, the underlying power locations thus influencing the underlying direction of the status of negotiations. In addition, people in higher ranks of power are usually competitive and demand control to larger cooperation. The perceived divergence of undertaking management of gender stem greatly from the inequalities of status and power. Culture typically influences the underlying stereotypical point of views on how efficiently both gender tackle workplace conflicts. Male administrators are usually efficient in cases where there is the application of the dominating style. Conversely, female executives are more efficient with the use of the obliging style. Nevertheless, both genders administrators who efficiently utilize the best features of both sexes are better suited to managing the complexities that emerge at the workplace. It is hard to generalize all males and females. However, since it is true that men and women are socialized differently based on their sex, their ability to handle conflict situations also differ. Works Cited Gray, J. Men are From Mars and Women are From Venus. 2004. Harper Collins Publishers.  Robbins, S. P., Deenzo, D. A., and Wolter, R. Supervision Today, Seventh Edition. 2013. New Jersey: Pearson. Stone, P. G. The Effects of Gender on Managers’ Resolution of Superior-Subordinate Conflict, 2010. PhD Dissertation, Arizona State University, Phoenix, AZ. Read More