Conflict Management

Conflict
• Conflict is a natural part of any workplace, especially
in those with many people of varying responsibilities
and personalities who must work together. You can
find conflict between groups, individual employees
and even between members of management. It's
important to manage conflict so the workplace can
continue to be a positive and collaborative
environment where employees are happy and
productive at work.
 What’s conflict?
• A conflict is a struggle and a clash of interest, opinion, or even
principles. Conflict will always be found in society; as the basis
of conflict may vary to be personal, racial, class, caste, political
and international.

• For example, if the protagonist is fighting against his or her

government, or is accused of a crime he or she didn't
commit, these would be examples of Man vs. Society as
conflict.
Although there are many reasons people disagree,
many conflicts revolve around:

1. Personal values (real or perceived)

2. Perceptions
3. Conflicting goals
4. Power dynamics
5. Communication style
• Definition of Conflict Management
• Conflict management is the practice of being able to identify
and handle conflicts sensibly, fairly, and efficiently. Since
conflicts in a business are a natural part of the workplace, it is
important that there are people who understand conflicts and
know how to resolve them. This is important in today's
market more than ever. Everyone is striving to show how
valuable they are to the company they work for and at times,
this can lead to disputes with other members of the team.
 Examples of conflict management skills
What are conflict management skills?

• There are skills you can build to become successful at

managing conflict in the workplace. The most effective
conflict management combines many of these skills.
Here are six conflict management skills you can use to
keep all conflict from negatively affecting the
workplace:
1. Effective communication
• One of the most important skills you can have for
conflict management is the communication skills to
resolve conflict effectively. Effective communication
may involve having a friendly yet straightforward way
of speaking to others during a conflict.
2. Active listening
• When you practice active listening, you are letting others
know that you want to hear what they have to say and that
it's important to you to understand their thoughts.
3. Practicing empathy
• Empathy means you understand how another person feels
because you consciously take the time to see their
perspective. With empathy you can also understand more
what your counterpart's needs, wants, motivations and goals
are, but you're also able to consider their pain points.
4. Problem-solving
• A lot of conflicts occur, or become worse, because of the lack
of a viable solution. With great problem-solving skills, you can
come up with a creative solution that will work well for the
parties involved in the conflict.
5. Positive attitude
• Maintaining a positive attitude can help you process and work
through conflict so that the result is a more cohesive
workplace. Positivity helps you realize that mistakes happen
and, therefore, you can figure out how to avoid conflict over it
and move on.
6. Level-headedness
• When you are level-headed, you're able to control your
emotions in the workplace. This level of emotional
intelligence can help keep a conflict from getting
unnecessarily worse.
 Conflict management skills in the workplace

1. Have patience
• Managing conflict requires that you're able to have patience with
everyone you're communicating with about a current or potential
conflict. You need to have the patience to be able to hear
everyone's point of view, and the patience to take the necessary
time to manage the conflict moving forward.

2. Understand body language

• You can pick up on cues from others through their body language.
You may be able to understand if they are frustrated, mad, upset or
happy just by viewing if they cross their arms, roll their eyes or
display any other movements that indicate how they are feeling.
Also, be sure to understand how others may perceive your body
language.
3. Be impartial
• One of the best ways to manage conflict is by staying impartial,
even if the conflict is between a close friend and a new
employee you don't know well. If you don't feel you can be
impartial, then consider asking someone else to step in and
manage the conflict instead.
4. Be open to discussion
• To manage conflict, you must be willing to discuss the
circumstances and situation you're in. Discussion is a valuable
part of managing a conflict so that the workplace doesn't feel
negative effects from the conflict.
5. Respect the company values
• Everyone gets hired has to understand the company values,
and importance of adhering to them when working through a
conflict.
1. Accommodating

• An accommodating mode of conflict management tends to be

high in cooperation but low in assertiveness. When you use
this style, you resolve the disagreement by sacrificing your
own needs and desires for those of the other party.

• This management style might benefit your work when

conflicts are trivial and you need to move on quickly. At home,
this style works when your relationship with your roommate,
partner, or child is more important than being right. Although
accommodation might be optimal for some conflicts, others
require a more assertive style.
2. Avoiding

• When avoiding, you try to dodge or bypass a conflict. This style

of managing conflicts is low in assertiveness and
cooperativeness. Avoidance is unproductive for handling most
disputes because it may leave the other party feeling like you
don't care. Also, if left unresolved, some conflicts become much
more troublesome.

• However, an avoiding management style works in situations

where:
• You need time to think through a disagreement.
• You have more pressing problems to deal with first.
• The risks of confronting a problem outweigh the benefits.
3. Collaborating

• A collaborating conflict management style demands a high

level of cooperation from all parties involved.
• Individuals in a dispute come together to find a respectful
resolution that benefits everyone.
• Collaborating works best if you have plenty of time and are on
the same power level as the other parties involved. If not, you
may be better off choosing another style.
4. Competing

• When you use a competitive conflict management style

(sometimes called 'forcing'), you put your own needs and
desires over those of others. This style is high in assertiveness
and low in cooperation.
• In other words, it's the opposite of accommodating. While
you might think this style would never be acceptable, it's
sometimes needed when you are in a higher position of
power than other parties and need to resolve a dispute
quickly.
5. Compromising

• Compromising demands moderate assertiveness and

cooperation from all parties involved. With this type
of resolution, everyone gets something they want or
need. This style of managing conflict works well
when time is limited.
• Because of time constraints, compromising isn't
always as creative as collaborating, and some parties
may come away less satisfied than others.
• Case Example:
• You are a management consultant specialized in organizational behavior, and you receive
a call from a new client, John. John is the Chief Innovation Officer at G Box, a video game
company.
• John: "I am calling you because I am having a very hard time dealing with one of my
employees, Eva. Eva is one of our leading software engineers, and she just joined the
company from Ubisoft. I have a lot of respect for Eva, and I'm actually the one that hired
her. She is the only engineer who has a Ph.D., and her experience at Ubisoft is
exceptionally precious to the company. She is by far our most talented engineer. She even
had higher grades than myself in College.

• Consultant: "Sounds great, so why are you fighting?"

• John: "When asking her to create a video game based on the blueprint I created, instead
of building the game, she built a new blueprint instead! This upset me tremendously
because we have deadlines to maintain, and I don't think an employee should ever
challenge her manager. Even if her blueprint was better (though I'd never tell her that, I
have too much pride), she has no business trying to step on my turf. In response to this, I
decided to build the video game myself at night after work using my blueprint. I did not
even discuss the issue with her since I knew it would lead to nothing getting done my way.
The problem is that I am so exhausted now, I cannot keep on doing this going forward."
• Required:

• Next page
Case study Requirement:

What Conflict Management style is John currently using?

Explain.
• What Conflict Management do you recommend John to use?
Explain.
• Solution.
• 1.
• The student should identify this Conflict Management style
as Competing with some degree of Avoidance as well.
• 2.
• The student should form an answer that considers Eva's
superior expertise and is more cooperative, such as
the Collaborative, Compromising, or Accommodating style.