Conflict Resolution Policy Statement Conflicts arise in all organizations from the small start-up companies to the fortune 500. Whether they range from minor disagreements regarding communication or personal differences between employees, these conflicts are important to all supervisors. Unfortunately, in today’s workplace, these conflicts can escalate to racist or sexist statements, or workplace violent threats or actual violence. These minor conflicts if not resolved, have been known to disrupt employee morale, causing distrust between employees and the company. Conflict resolution is necessary when the conflict becomes a hindrance to work productivity, poor customer service, and can make an unnecessary stressful workplace causing …show more content…
These conflicts should be addressed at the time of conflict, or as soon as possible to not allow the conflict to gain momentum. The following are resolution techniques that employees can use to attempt to defuse of the situation before brining any attention of the supervisor or manager. Avoidance – Not all conflicts should be avoided, however, when tempers are running high and emotions are brought into the conflict, sometimes a little time and distance will assist the employees in coming to their own resolution. Time may clear the air and allow the parties to come together and discuss the situation. However, be aware that avoidance can also be perceived as disinterest and may frustrate employees. Accommodation – In other conflicts, it may be beneficial to focus on what the parties can agree on. From this point, the parties may be able to make accommodations, looking at each person reference points. If the parties involved are not able to come to a resolution themselves, the following alternative processes will be utilized by this company. However, not all conflicts that arise will follow this pathway exactly. Some conflict resolution may be required to start further down the process than …show more content…
This form of resolution is usually given down by supervisors and not the actual parties involved. Although not a popular form of resolution, it works for quick resolutions, and for unpopular decisions. Compromise – Typically used by supervisors and managers, this process would require all parties to forfeit something of value. For instance, working late during the week may lead to leaving early on a Friday or coming in late on a Monday. One Up Interview – This process consists of the parties involved discussing the situation with a supervisor or manager directly above their supervisor. With the company’s best interests, this resolution process may not be utilized often, especially because the resolution may not always work in the favor of the employees. Mediation – Mediation will have all parties appear before an objective third person who will listen to the conflict from both sides, and assist the parties to a resolution. The third party’s decision is not binding, and may lead to further
Look up the word conflict in the dictionary and you will see several negative responses. Descriptions such as: to come into collision or disagreement; be at variance or in opposition; clash; to contend; do battle; controversy; quarrel; antagonism or opposition between interests or principles Random House (1975). With the negative reputation associated with this word, no wonder people tend to shy away when they start to enter into the area of conflict. D. Jordan (1996) suggests that there are two types of conflict: good, which is defined as cognitive conflict (C-type conflict) and, detrimental, defined as affective conflict (A-type conflict). The C-type conflict allows for creativity, to pull together a group of people with different opinions or ideas, to combine and brain storm all thoughts to develop the best solution for the problem. The A-type conflict is the negative form when you have animosity, hostility, un-resolveable differences, and egos to deal with. The list citing negative conflicts could go on forever. We will be investigating these types of conflicts, what managers can do to recognize conflict early, and what strategies they can use to resolve conflicts once they have advanced.
Resolving Conflicts, many causes of conflict arise due to miscommunication; a break down in communication can be due to;
Conflict is part of life: it is an inevitable consequence of interacting with other people. In both our professional lives and in our personal lives we are constantly faced with statements, actions, needs, drives, wishes, demands or positions that are incompatible with or opposed to our own. Conflict can create stress, produce anxiety, adversely affect performance, decrease productivity and disrupt the work (or home) environment. It can be difficult to decide how to respond when faced with conflict. We often react emotionally or reflexively, without thought or conscious decision. Learning to deal effectively with conflict requires that we learn to control our response, choosing the most appropriate strategy for the particular situation.
Conflict is an inevitable part of interpersonal relations within an organization, where the actions of one individual are perceived to have a negative impact upon the state of another individual. A leader must be prepared to institute steps in the conflict management process in order to progress through a given incident for the betterment of the organization. “Conflict management is the principle that all conflicts cannot be resolved, but learning how to manage conflicts can decrease the odds of nonproductive escalation” (Popovich & Hocenski, 2009, p.15). Although conflict, in general, may seem detrimental to a team, functional conflict is necessary for a properly functioning team. Without functional conflict,
Whenever people unite to work as a team for anything more than a brief duration, some conflict is normal, and should be expected (Engleberg, Wynn & Schutter, 2003). Because of the inevitability of conflict, being able to recognize, address, and ultimately resolve it is vitally important, since unresolved conflict may have undesirable effects, including reduced morale, or increased turnover (De Janasz, Dowd & Schneider, 2001). Just as conflicts within team environments vary, so do methods for resolving it. In this paper, conflict, its effects, and some management and resolution strategies as they relate to team dynamics will be discussed. Understanding the various conflict resolution methods, including how and when to apply them, is of utmost importance. In teams, different types of conflict call for different solutions. Conflict resolution is certainly not an area in which one size fits all.
Conflicts situation can happen at any time. There are many different ways to handle conflict situations. To strengthen our skills in responding to conflicts situation we must understand the various conflict management style. The five styles of conflict management style include: Competing, Avoiding, Accommodating, Collaborating, and Compromising. The competing style is like a shark, a competitive approach to ensure only your views counts. Avoiding is like a turtle, avoiding every situation and giving up. Accommodating is like a teddy bear, working against your own goals to move forward. Collaborating is like an owl, working together with your partner to achieve both your goals. Compromising is like a fox, negotiating half your goals in order
After attempting the processes of negotiation and mediation and deciding if arbitration or litigation is the better choice, if one person would rather go to court and both parties cannot come to an agreement to pursue arbitration, then the only conclusion is to enter litigation. The alternatives to litigation usually save time and expense. Negotiation is an out-of-court alternative where most matters settle before reaching the trial stage. This requires the cooperation of both parties. However, the parties involved in a dispute may not be able to negotiate a settlement without outside help. Mediation is an effective process in this situation. The parties select a mediator to hear each side's case. The mediator encourages resolution, but does
Most people believe that conflict is something negative. In many cases conflict can be. Whether1 a small dispute between two neighbors or a global conflict that leads to war, conflict is inevitable. Disagreement is a part of human nature. We are a society of individuals working together to achieve common goals. How we handle conflict determines whether the outcome is a negative or a positive one. If properly handled, conflict may lead to growth, maturity, and understanding of one another. If not, conflict at school could lead to broken ties, at home to hurt feelings, and in the workplace to discouragement. These negative outcomes may be avoided when conflict is handled properly. There is no single technique that works best for settling conflicts. What works in a school setting might not work at an office or at home. Regardless where or with whom the conflict is with, a person must examine themselves, his or her intentions and more importantly, core values.
In simple terms conflict resolution means solution to end a conflict by means of sorting the disagreements and disbeliefs between the indulging parties. In recent times conflict resolution has become a part of corporate world where conflict resolution is considered as methods and process which are involved in aiding the peaceful ending of conflict with in organisations. These conflicts revolves between the group members and often dedicated member of the group try to solve the conflicts by keenly communicating information about the reasons or ideologies behind the conflicts. This report aims at highlighting the personal conflicts that are common in organisations and the solutions to resolve those conflicts. This report is confined to personal and inter-personal conflicts in organisations and does not include issues regarding group and intra-group conflicts.
Negotiation process can lead to a speedy and informal resolution of disputes. It also helps protect the confidentiality and avoid publicity of the parties involved. Parties may improve communication between them that will enhance or preserve relationship between parties and hence leads to a speedy resolution of disputes. Parties have high degree control of the negotiation process. If an agreement is reached, parties can craft out their own agreements. Resolutions can be tailored to the needs and underlying concerns of the parties and can address legal and non-legal issues as well as providing for remedies unavailable through adjudicative processes. Legal or other just methods can be used in crafting agreements.
It has been estimated in a study by the American Management Association that managers spend between 20% to as much as 50% of their times dealing with conflict among their employees (American Sentinel, 2012). When workplace conflicts are left unresolved they can lead to dissatisfaction, depression and other problems such as aggression and violence (Whitworth 2008). The negative, sometimes hostile, environment created by unresolved conflict has been recognized to be a hazard not only to staff, but also to patient care (The Joint Commission 2008).
Mediation is essential in the workplace because it affords an opportunity for employees in dispute to communicate their position as well as consider the perspective of the other party ("Mediation in the Workplace – A Proactive Approach to Preventing Litigation and Promoting a Healthier Work Environment," 2011). The mediation process helps improve employee engagement and reduce the number of issues referred to a higher authority. The Employment Practices website (http://www.epspros.com/news-resources/whitepapers/2013-prior/mediation-in-the-workplace.html) provides useful information about the importance of mediation in the
Managers and associates continually face conflict in the workplace. Using the five conflict resolution styles and knowing when to use them makes resolving differences easier.
In several occasions, conflict occurs in the communication of one or two people. Several people have thought of conflict as cases involving pouring of furious anger in a communication process. Nonetheless, conflict is the misinterpretation of an individual’s words or values (Huan & YAzdanifard, 2012). Conflict can also be due to limited resources in an organization (Riaz & Junaid, 2010). Conflict may as well arise due to poor communication or the use of inappropriate communication channel of transmission of information between the involved parties. Management of conflict has various conflict management styles that include avoidance style, forcing style, passive-aggressive style, accommodating style, collaborating style and compromising style. Workplace conflict comes in two different kinds: task involving conflict, which focuses on the approaches used in resolving the problem and blaming conflict that has the aspects of blame and never brings element of resolving problems between the conflicting parties. In the perception of several individuals, relationship conflict is negative.
Conflict avoidance is a technique used to deal with conflict. Avoiding conflict is mainly used to disregard the direct issue at hand. Avoiding conflict can be used to temporarily get rid of an issue or it can be used to permanently remove the issue. Avoiding conflict within the workplace most often results in relationship division. Workplace conflict is inevitable, meaning wherever and whenever there is a group working to accomplish similar goals as a whole, conflict will be present. Workplace conflict exists due to various factors. (Graham 2014) The most common seen factors influencing workplace conflict include role understanding, meaning who is responsible for what task, how tasks are to be accomplished, personality difference and poor