Executive Summary
1.0. Introduction:
Conflict is known to be some means of disagreement, or some kind of disharmony rising within a group or between persons when the beliefs or actions of any one party is offensive to another party. Conflict can take place between two individuals, in small groups and work teams, or between two or more groups (Al-Hamdan, Shukri, and Anthony 2011)which may include violence or some kind of mental pressure on either parties involved in conflicts. Usually conflicts start with some kind of disagreement and gradually gets intense and leads way to Conflict resolution.
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.
Scope of the Literature Review
How and Why Does Conflicts Arise In Organisations
Conflicts in organization scenario arises due to situation where interdependent people express differences...
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Conerly (2004), further states two things attribute to the way conflict is managed. One is the importance of meeting your own goals and the other is the importance you attribute to relationships and wanting to get along with others.
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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
Conflict management styles vary from person to person. The five styles are avoiding, accommodating, forcing, compromising, and collaboration. According to the assessment my primary style is compromising and my back up style is accommodating. I am surprised by these results and I do not feel they are accurate. The inaccuracy is most likely due to my lack of strong answers. I believe that my primary style is collaboration. It is collaboration because I do strive to win but still let the other parties win as well. I would agree that my back up style is compromising because I will give something up if it means an overall resolution.
A conflict is an expressed disagreement between two or more people who have different perceptions of a situation. Therefore, conflict acts as interference for each party to achieve their goals in a situation. Conflict develops as a result of differences among people’s perception of situations and people around them. Diversity in character and nature of human beings brings about differences in likes and dislikes hence the development of conflicts among people. The extent of every conflict is, therefore, based on the extent to which people differ (Picard, 14).
A more modern conflict theorist is Lewis Cosner. Lewis Coser defined conflict as “the struggle over values and claims to scarce status, power and resource in which the aims of the opponents are to neutralize, injure, or eliminate their rivals” (culturalapparatus.com, 2013). According to him, the intensity of social conflict is related to the existence of safety-valve institutions, the tolerance of conflicting parties, levels of social mobility, and the solidarity of the conflicting groups. In his research he focuses a lot on the themes of social order and social conflict together. He showed that they can work together to either increase or diminish conflict.
Before understanding how to deal with conflict, one must understand what conflict is. Conflict can be defined as, “any situation in which incompatible goals, cognitions, or emotions within or between individuals or groups lead to opposition or antagonistic interaction” (Learning Team Toolkit, 2004, pp 242-243). Does the idea of conflict always have to carry a negative connotation? The growth and development of society would be a great deal slower if people never challenged each other’s ideas. The Learning Team Toolkit discusses three different views of conflict: traditiona...
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People work in groups or teams everyday whether in their career, education, political organization, church, or any other social setting. Conflict while working in teams or groups is inevitable. When taking people of different backgrounds, personalities, moral, and ethical beliefs and putting them together in a group, conflict will arise. The key to achieving your team goals is to construct and conquer your goals with keeping the greater good of the team in mind. Conflict as it arises should be combated and abated through swift and thorough resolution techniques. When dealt with properly conflict resolution can give rise to a cohesive and productive team.
A prevailing theme that has shown up persistently in readings, lectures and Core Fridays is that conflict is the catalyst for change. Change is guaranteed to happen in this capricious world however when a predicament presents itself, change transpires at a much faster pace. A conflict is disagreement, argument or an obstacle and change can be described as the act of making or becoming different, these two go hand in hand. When faced with a conflict, we usually look for a solution which includes modifying something, resulting in a change. Throughout this course, we see conflicts which frequently results in a change in culture, priority, or our own way of thinking. For example, Pluto’s size sparks debate and calls for reclassification. Increasing greenhouse gases and rising temperatures resulting in new ways of thinking. Growing human population demands more efficient ways of growing food.
Interpersonal conflict is very common with many relationships. It occurs when two people can not meet in the middle or agree on a discussion. Cooperation is key to maintaining a healthy debate. More frequently; when dealing with members of your own family, issues arise that include conflict and resolution. During this process our true conflict management style appears “out of thin air”. (Steve A. Beebe, 2008, p. 191).
According to McShane and Von Glinow, conflict is “a process in which one party perceives that his or her interests are being opposed or negatively affected by another party” (328). The Conflict Process Model begins with the different sources of conflict; these sources lead one or more parties to perceive that a conflict exists. These perceptions interact with emotions and manifest themselves in the behavior towards other parties. The arrows in the figure illustrate the series of conflict episodes that cycle into conflict escalation (McShane and Von Glinow 331-332).
Conflict management model is propounded effective when the result of conflict is productive or acceptable for all the parties involved. The main motive of any conflict management model is to reduce the impact of conflict on negative note and guide parties towards agreement and strong relationship. This study is to analyze the effectiveness of Rahim’s Meta or Dual concern model for conflict management.