Conflicts Management at workplace - Assignment Example

Conflicts Management at workplace Insert Insert Conflicts have a general definition as the relational dispute between two individual or between groups. Conflict is known to be a normal part of human interactions, which presents no unusual characteristics, but highly depends on the move and perception towards its mitigation. They comprise of the opposing actions and ideas of different entities, which gives antagonistic state as the results. Avoiding conflict is inevitable in normal life since each individual has personal ideas, opinions and set of beliefs. People tend to act on their belief hence emanation of compromising scenarios is part of life. Conflict is a crucial component in the influence of individual’s decisions and actions towards a presented situation. Both individuals and groups of people often find themselves in a struggle against particular context within and out of personal levels. This paper covers the issue of workplace conflict as an example alongside the appropriate model effective for resolving this conflict in the best way possible. Proper description of the conflict with the conditions and cognitive behaviour of involved parties is also a part of the conflict analysis. Finally, anticipated outcomes of the conflict at the workplace and the resolution techniques are part of this paper. Introduction Conflict forms an important and inevitable part of human living. It can be either very destructive or even constructive depending on the methodological approach and management involved. Conflict, usually, arises at the point where individual or a group of people disagrees over an important aspect due to variation in opinions. The occurrence of conflicts is mainly on a daily basis, which comprises of disputes within a variable range. These disputes could be small while others are violent and destructive battles. People respond to conflicts with reference to particular cultural background and personality. Different people have different values, beliefs, motivations and goals. Two individuals can analyze and interpret the same situation or event in different perspectives. In the case of an emergency, people from a different environment with a different perception converge to find a solution with a common goal. Contrary to the unity in such a circumstance, two people from the same physical location speaking the same language may respond to the same situation differently in the event of a conflict. The arising conflict makes an individual to discover the difference of other respondents in a similar event. The response to the conflict can be offensive and confusing in one way, or another. Conflicts and problems form the key elements of daily living hence provide the right method to overcome challenges and work productively (Alper, Tjosvold & Law, 2000). In most working places, there is a necessity to combat prejudices and perceptions in order to respect each other’s viewpoint. Proper understanding of personal roles and perception over other people opinions helps in conflict resolution. The most common types of conflict resolution methods include meditation, negotiation, peer mediation, conflict transformation and community conferencing. The nature of the conflict parties influences the approach for conflict mitigation. Proper and peaceful ways of resolving conflicts and taking into consideration each party’s perception is a critical factor (Van Gramberg, 2005). In accordance to underlying causes of the conflict, individual reaction influences the desire to solve the underlying problems and understand the parties involved leads to proper ways to solve conflicts before they turn to be violent. The thesis statement for this essay argues that conflicts can undergo peaceful mitigation if the right management and resolution techniques are set in place. The workplace conflict Working environment is a meeting place for the people who work towards a common organizational goal. Despite the definition giving a peaceful and harmonious definition of a cohesive behavior at the workplace, the situation on the ground is contrary. The presence of different characters in the working grounds attracts some difference hence conflict amongst the workers. In the management literature, workplace conflicts are acceptable but attract cautious and dynamic treatment as they present issues, which require immediate attention lest the conflict distracts the operation of the organization. It is an essential role for the management team to handle any uprising conflict with low up heals and effectively. Irresponsible handling of the conflict at the workplace affects the overall image and performance of the respective organization (Rubin, 1994). Conflict is ever-present in a working environment. It is hence important to seek the right form of resolution not just to forget about any disturbing issue but also to contain it. They can also be damaging hence majority of people avoid involvement with any situation involving conflicts. In various workplaces, conflicts are poorly addressed and handled giving negative outcomes. The probability of people sharing the working environment to be living in the same society is very high. This gives another strong reason as to why work related conflicts should be solved to avoid a tainted society full of enmity. Lose of tampers and emotional action from a frustrated worker can result to loss of temper amongst the management personnel. Curtailing of this prevalent situation is a crucial need. The method in which the temper is handled entails the main issue in workplace conflict resolution (Rohrschneider, Pahl & Richter, 2009). The imperative mistake a manager can afford to make in encountering confrontation is losing temper to attract late regrets. The loss of temper reflects the management weakness to handle diverse workplace challenges. A close look to the real issues is the best step to handle an employee conflict. There are different situations at the workplace, which attract conflicts. A conflict can easily arise when a worker behaves in a negative manner. Skewed perception is also another contributing factor that emanates from rumors and stereotype. In the case of relationship constraints amongst the coworkers, negative cohesion between the individuals is compromised. The result is performance erosion due to eradicated team cohesion. Another form of conflict in the workplace is the value conflict. It develops from dissention of basic moral values between individuals involved in the process of understanding what is good or bad at the work place. When an individual believes that another person’s action would prevent the success of the interests the outcome is interest conflict (Collins & ORourke, 2009). In the workplace context, there is much social differentiation due to the diversity in roles. This raises both interpersonal and intrapersonal role conflicts. An example of interpersonal role conflict in a working environment is where a foreman develops personal social role to face both supervisor and team member’s expectations. The foreman in this case has to be a straight forward person to satisfy respective group of reference. People are bound to accept their societal role with no imposition from the society. The PSDM conflict management model Management of conflicts in the workplace can be very challenging if the involved management is not ready to employ the right, harmonious and peaceful mechanism. Various organizations uphold the struggle for non-disruptive methods of unifying workforce. Conflict management team does not solve the problem in such a way that one party loses as the other wins but must benefit both parties. The cause of problem identification, searching for the alternative solutions and implementation of the ideas in mitigation of a conflict is the way forward. In the workplace conflicts mitigation and management Problem Solving and Decision Making Model (PSDM) applies. This model consists of three main stages. It starts with the most important step of problem identification. This stage revolves around data collection as its main role. The data obtained is applicable in the reflection of the involved party objectives. It is the mandate of the leaders to scrutinize the behaviors and perspective of involved parties in a conflict. The viewpoints in the involved individuals can also be obtained through questioning to resolve any communication breakdown in the conflict. Identification, selection and implementation of the solution is another key step in solving the workplace conflict. At this stage, mutual agreement to move forward to obtain the right solution is mandatory. The stage gives a crucial success point in the conflict management with any future success entirely dependent on the performance of the primary solution (Lefevre, Colot & Vannoorenberghe, 2002). The stage of selecting the solution can present several alternatives. Once the identification is through, a joint consensus gives the solution to the existing conflict. Through the open dialogues, the team considers and understands strategies and maintain an open mind to find a lasting solution. Other important approaches in conflict management PSDM model includes the winning approach where the conflicting parties strike a common succession point. Creative response on the other hand converts the conflict into positive opportunities. There is also some involvement in appropriate belligerence to protect both parties. Empathy revolves around communication (Furlong, 2005). Different forms of communication create rapport hence free expression of ideas to reduce conflict chances. Emotional management and willingness to serve are the basic leadership qualities of conflict resolutions. Other important factors to consider at this stage include limitation of conflict where it becomes controllable, private and limited in the boundaries of the important participants. The purposeful conflict expansion of the conflict helps in ending the dispute through pressure. The broad perspective gives the meaning, and the setting of the right time for the goals to avoid any insults and threatening behaviour. At this stage, a perfect team leader can make use of humor to diffuse any tension in the atmosphere while looking for the right solution. Resolution implementation is the final stage in PSDM model of conflict resolution techniques. Review and reconfirmation of common point of agreement at this stage involves the two parties’ approval to solidify the consensus promise. The concealing of the final agreement is done at this stage with low frustration level. Improved relationship, team cohesion and relaxed working atmosphere form part of qualities of a well-managed conflict. It brings a sense of achievement in both management team and the parties at conflict. The level of productivity increases leading to thriving of the organization. Contrary, poor conflict handling results to resentment, ill health and sour forms of relationship. The organization on the light undergoes strong problems hence low productivity (Cuppens, Cuppens-Boulahia & Ghorbel, 2007). Conclusion The common simple technique to deal with the conflict is avoiding it. Instead of mitigating the conflict, it offers pushes the conflict beyond the recognition of any of the parties. The probability of the shallowly buried conflict to resurface in a new form is very high. Development of the right solution to any working environment is the key to the performance of every worker in a company. As leaders and other workers learn ideas and methods of handling conflicts in an appropriate manner, the ability to disagree positively with other people is highly enhanced. A properly tackled conflict can smoothly lead to healthy sharing of opinions and ideas hence promoting the acquisition of new ideas and concepts in each day of work. Conflicts constitute core concepts in everyday life. Most forms of conflicts emerge from disagreements on the way of actions, thoughts, feelings and overall behaviour. As a natural part of living, conflicts help people to challenge each other and improve on the positive trend. The amnesty to acquire development from conflicts comes along if and only if the right method and model is perfectly used. In most cases, it is not a conflict, which is seen as a problem, but the choice people make in mitigating these conflicts is what matters. Individual’s attitude and power to make the required choice brings both harmony and destruction in dependant to the nature of the involved parties. Majority of the human race have the perception of the negativity in conflicts. However, the conflict is the demonstration of how people behave and think according to the difference in social histories and personality. Conflicts can also emanate from frustration due to aggressive expressions of competitive instincts. Personal inner concepts of conflicts will determine the difficulties an individual undergoes to come into terms with real life challenges. The energy generated from the conflict is the uttermost and valuable aspect. The management of conflict is not a gesture of only suppressing this energy, but also utilizing it to reap positive benefits. It is the mandate of each party to play a part in revealing the right perception of conflict management as a problem-solving attempt rather than a battle to be won. References Alper, S., Tjosvold, D., & Law, K. (2000). Conflict management, efficacy, and performance in organizational teams. Personnel Psychology, 53(3), 625--642. Collins, S., & ORourke, J. (2009). Managing conflict and workplace relationships (1st ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning. Cuppens, F., Cuppens-Boulahia, N., & Ghorbel, M. (2007). High level conflict management strategies in advanced access control models. Electronic Notes In Theoretical Computer Science, 186, 3--26. DOosterlinck, F., & Broekaert, E. (2003). Integrating School-Based and Therapeutic Conflict Management Models at Schools. Journal Of School Health, 73(6), 222--225. Furlong, G. (2005). The conflict resolution toolbox (1st ed.). Mississauga, Ont.: J. Wiley & Sons Canada. Lefevre, E., Colot, O., & Vannoorenberghe, P. (2002). Belief function combination and conflict management. Information Fusion, 3(2), 149--162. Rohrschneider, I., Pahl, N., & Richter, A. (2009). Why and How to Use Conflict Management in Organisations (1st ed.). München: GRIN Verlag GmbH. Rubin, J. (1994). Models of conflict management. Journal Of Social Issues, 50(1), 33--45. Van Gramberg, B. (2005). Managing workplace conflict (1st ed.). Annandale, N.S. W.: Federation Press. Read More