Effective Conflict Management Techniques for Teams and Team Leaders - Coursework Example

Conflict Management -Effective Conflict Management Techniques for Teams and Team Leaders Introduction Conflict is an issue that no matter where one is, at one point or another they are faced with the problem. Conflict creates a tug of war in the real sense and has been said to stifle productivity for both individuals and organizations as a whole. Having a strategy to manage conflict both at work and in one’s personal life can help one to proactively avoid stress in their lives. Unresolved conflict within an organization can cripple employee’s ability to work and perform the tasks assigned to them completely. How one chooses to handle the conflict is what makes the difference in the end. As managers in an organization, the hardest part of the job has to be resolving conflicts between employees and at the end of it, all the parties leave satisfied with the solution. Workplace conflict can result into a number of problems in the organization for both the employers and the employees. For instance, it may result in a personality clashes, miscommunication and hidden agendas in the organization. All these problems will in the end create a rather hostile working environment in the organization (Jones, 2008). This results in employees losing focus on working towards achieving the organizations goals and objectives. Inevitably, the organizations and employees productivity will severely be affected. A managers ability to manage conflict in the organization the right way is a key skill that any manager or supervisor should be endowed with. The fundamentals of conflict management lie in improving communication within the organization, improved negotiation skills, and in addition, relieving undue stress among the employees that may brew conflict among them. This is generally viewed as an efficient and organized approach to solving conflict in an organization (Raines, 2013). Conflict management requires emotions, self esteem and openness in the way an individual thinks and attends to situations. As a conflict manager, one needs to understand that as humans, we cannot always be on the same page. It takes some compromise in order for people to arrive at any kind of understanding. Current Trends in Conflict Management 1. Adult Education Most managers have taken up the initiative to educate the employees on conflict management. If the employees are empowered with the correct skills required in conflict resolution, there is a low likelihood of conflicts actually occurring within the organization. Most organizations have workshops that run for weeks educating employees. This results to employees having an understanding of how best to react when confronted with a certain kind of conflict within the organization. The management hires a team of specialists who will teach the employees on the positive ways in which to hand themselves in case confronted with any kind of conflict in the organization (Mayer, 2009). 2. New Training Techniques and Programs According to research, organizations are coming up with new techniques and training programs within the organization to help in conflict resolution. It can be noted that managers spend up to nine weeks of their entire working time in a year resolving conflicts in the organization. Clashes within the organization can undermine employee morale, jeopardize teamwork and consequently lead to violent confrontations among the employees having an issue with each other. 3. Enlightenment on the Subject As people become aware of the impact of conflicts on their productivity, they tend to look for other healthier ways through which they can resolve the conflict. Weaknesses and Strengths Conflict management in teams can encourage people to work together as a team towards realizing their goals and objectives. It also saves the organization costs associated with hiring of new employees in the organization as a result of employees leaving the organization because the culture within the organization was not conducive enough for them. Consequently, the decrease in the number of conflicts experienced within the organization will result in a good working environment within which the employees to operate. This will see to it that the employees and organization’s productivity will improve, as employees will have a conducive environment within which to work and have the motivation to perform their duties to the best of their ability (Haynes, 2012). Not all conflicts are the same. Most managers like the idea of copying and pasting a particular conflict resolution technique that helped in one particular matter to all conflicts that will likely to occur in future. However, not all conflicts are the same or stem from the same root. Therefore, a particular strategy may not always be successful in resolving all the conflicts likely to occur in an organization. The main disadvantage of conflict management within an organization is that it takes up too much time. A lot of time is wasted by management is wasted in resolving conflicts among the employees. In addition, employees will feel like the need to involve the management in every little conflict they may have amongst themselves. This will give the management extra work and increase the workload. In case the manager feels that a conflict is too mediocre and puts it aside, an employee may feel dissatisfied and even construe that the team leader is biased in a way. When the team leaders focus so much on resolving conflicts, they forget to work towards realizing the goals and objectives of the organization. However, as much as conflict management may initially subtract on the organization’s productivity, in the long run it actually adds to the organization’s productivity. This could be associated to the fact that by resolving the conflicts that occur in an organization, managers create a conducive environment within which the employees can operate. An effective conflict management strategy should be one, which allows you to quickly do away with the problem and forget about it as fast as possible. This allows one to focus and move on, and leaves the problem or so-called conflict behind (Mayer, 2009). Future Trends In future, it is likely to be expected that conflict management will lead to improved creativity among your team members and employees. During conflict resolutions, the team members having the conflict will interact with each other and get different views on the matter. This will in a way help the employees broaden their thinking. This is a chance for the workforce to learn new information from each other and in future learn new strategies to handle conflicts more expeditiously and creatively in future. It would also be expected that in future more and more people would be empowered with conflict resolution skills such that there would be need for the organizations management to hire a group of specialists to resolve conflicts in an organization. This will cut costs that would have been used to hire a group of experts to help in resolving conflicts within the organization. In addition, time spent making negotiations and coming to agreement on matters relating to the conflict will be reduced. This enables management and the employees to focus more on achieving the goals and objectives of the organization, hence ensuring productivity in the organization (Jones, 2008). Considering the fact that most workplace conflicts are likely just to be repeated under new circumstances, over time, there shall be no need for the management to hire experts to help in resolving the conflicts in the organization. The employees will be empowered to have the required know how that would be helpful in resolving the conflicts among themselves without necessarily involving a mediator. Empowering employees to easily resolve their own issues and differences in opinions reduces the time wasted by the management trying to understand the problem and resolving it for them. In conclusion, managers need to develop ways through which to identify conflicts in the organization and resolve them early. Having unhappy employees may not be so ideal as they will not feel the urge to perform the tasks assigned to them to the best of their ability. In addition, a healthy organization culture and climate will help in ensuring the organization remains competitive in the industry. The only way the organization can realize its goals and objectives in the stipulated time is if the employees work together as a team. In order for any kind of conflict resolution to be a success, the members of the team at conflict need to have an open mind and give a chance to hear out what the other party has to say. Eventually, compromise is all it takes to arrive at a solution that both parties are happy about in the end (Haynes, 2012). References Raines, S. (2013). Conflict management for managers: Resolving workplace, client, and policy disputes. San Francisco, Calif: Jossey-Bass. Haynes, J. M., Haynes, G. L., & Fong, L. S. (2012). Mediation: Positive conflict management. Albany: State University of New York Press. Jones, T. S., & Brinkert, R. (2008). Conflict coaching: Conflict management strategies and skills for the individual. Los Angeles: Sage Publications. Mayer, Bernard. (2009). Staying With Conflict: A Strategic Approach to Ongoing Disputes. John Wiley & Sons Inc. Read More