The Five Stages Of Conflict In The Workplace

“We can define conflict, then, as a process that begins when one party perceives that another party has negatively affected, or is about to negatively affect, something the first party cares about” (Robbins and Judge, 2009). When people sense disagreement they tend to feel uncomfortable. Discomfort, that is, a slightly negative emotion, can alert you to the reality that a situation of conflict is occurring. This discussion will focus on perception of conflict, negotiations for handling conflicts, and how to do win-win problem-solving instead of avoiding discussions about differences or resorting to arguments. Perceived Conflict versus Felt Conflict The “perceived stage” is when the people involved in a conflict become fully aware that there is a conflict, so the table has now been made aware and complained to management. Management will now go over to speak with the employee about it. During the “felt stage” stress and anxiety are felt by one or more of the participants due to the conflict, the manager does not enjoy causing conflict and the

At my current job, there is a generational gap between our supervisor and the employee with the longest tenure in our department. The employee has expressed her disdain for not being selected for the position of supervisor and believes she was entitled to it. The current supervisor entered both the perceived and felt stages simultaneously. Several meetings between employee and leader have been conducted and upper management has been consulted, however, the employee continues to act out. Through it all, the supervisor has exhibited great patience and humility without trying to ‘get even’ with the disgruntle employee. During one of our recent talks, I gave her Philippians 2:3 to hold on to during her transition season “Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves”