Research Korner: Conflict Management Assessment Sample

CONFLICT MANAGEMENT BRIEFING REPORT

Conflict Management Briefing Report                 The paper presents a case that concerns conflict and conflict management. The purpose of the paper is to be able to know relevant topics about conflict that would be helpful in preparing the company, or developing an effective conflict resolution plan for the company. In the report, the conflict was defined based on a particular literature. Furthermore, the levels of conflicts and the types of conflicts in the organizational setting were enumerated and defined. Then, different types of conflict resolutions or important factors to consider when it comes to managing conflict were also identified. They include brief resolutions to the types of conflict, as well as some negotiation strategies and a discussion on communication.   Introduction   This paper reports valid and relevant literatures regarding conflict management. The purpose of the paper is to be able to determine relevant topics about conflict that would be helpful in developing an effective conflict resolution plan for the company. Conflict resolution is important because of the fact that conflict is unavoidable. Conflict is inevitable in every organization because the business environment, both external and internal, experience changes constantly. For instance, the rapid development of technology makes other approaches obsolete, as more and more companies accept the change, affecting the standards in business processes. When business processes are affected and an organization is forced to change its ways, the problem with human factors would then take place. Staff and employees are not passive individuals, but rather show reactions to such changes. Change affects many working processes that might have a direct or indirect impact on an employee. The impact might affect the way they work or might determine their attitude in adapting with the changes that took place. Furthermore, most likely there will also be problems on the capabilities of the employees to adapt with the change. For example, the implementation of new information systems or any technology requires the knowledge of the employees to operate. If the employees are unfamiliar or lack the trainings needed, the pace of change will slow and implementation would most likely fail. These are just some of the factors that should be considered from organizational change. Other human factors can also be considered as roots of conflict such as diversity, because employees have differing values and experience differing situations (, 2001). Through interaction, such characteristics are responsible for the development of tension among employees (2001). Changes intensify this reality as employees are obliged to cope with them. Like the others, coping styles differ, making the need for a good management and leadership more essential. However, it can also be said that change could root from conflict. Proper management of conflict fosters understanding and the appreciation of difference (, 2001). Thus, conflict and change should be managed effectively, instead of being eliminated or halted.     Definition of Conflict   Conflict simply means lack of agreement in terms of beliefs, practices and in other human activities. It has different levels, which are: intrapersonal or intrapsychic conflict; interpersonal conflict; intragroup conflict; and intergroup conflict (, 1999).   Levels of Conflict               The four types of conflict are: intrapersonal conflict; interpersonal conflict; intragroup conflict; and intergroup conflict.   Intrapersonal or intrapsychic conflict means conflict occurs within an individual (, 1999). Of course, this is understandable because interpersonal communication means communicating to one’s self. Roots of conflict in this level can be ideas, thoughts, emotions, values, predispositions or drives (1999). The person basically reflects in those roots and creates conflict with how he or she will react. Conflict within self is closely related to psychological and psychiatric field because it is linked with cognitive theories, behavior change theories, motivation theories, etc. (, 1999).             Interpersonal conflict, on the other hand, is the second major level of conflict, which means conflict between two or more individual people (1999). In other definition, it is the interaction between persons expressing opposing interests, views, or opinions (, 1990). Interpersonal conflict is a process that has three main stages (1990). The first stage of interpersonal conflict is when the person is faced with a choice between two or more incompatible options or goals. The conflict manifests in the second stage when interaction reveals that the two persons involved in the process want different things, but they think that these differences can be resolved (, 1990). Then in the third stage, the parties perceive that there is no mutually acceptable outcome and unwanted sacrifices must be made for resolving their differences (1990). Personal interests come first in the third stage. There are winners and losers and exercises of power likely dominate the process (, 1990). Interpersonal conflict has different levels of its own. The different levels of interpersonal conflict include: behavioral conflicts; normative conflicts; and personal conflicts (1990). (1990) mentioned these levels for intimate conflicts, but basically, they can be applied to interpersonal conflicts in general. Behavioral conflicts include conflict over specific behaviors, such as different preferences for management style, leadership, team building, recreational activities, and doing tasks and jobs. Normative conflicts involve conflicts over the unique norms and rules of the relationship. Finally, personal conflicts concern a person’s characteristics, dispositions, and attitudes including life values, selfishness, inconsiderateness, and human relations (, 1990). Intragroup conflict takes place within a small group, basically on teams and committee members within a particular organization. In this level, “conflict is analyzed as it affects the ability of the group to resolve disputes and continue to achieve its goals effectively” (, 1999, p.16). Then, intragroup conflict takes place within a small group, basically on teams and committee members within a particular organization. In this level, “conflict is analyzed as it affects the ability of the group to resolve disputes and continue to achieve its goals effectively” (, 1999, p.16). Finally, intergroup conflict is a level of conflict that involves large number of people - for instance, conflict that takes place between unions and management, warring nations, feuding families, or community action groups and government authorities (, 1999, p.16). Conflicts can occur within groups and between groups simultaneously (, 1999, p.16).   Types of Conflict             In the organizational setting, the types of conflict are: C-type conflict; and A-type conflict. C-type conflict means that employees or members of a particular team “focus on substantive, issue-related differences of opinion that tend to improve team effectiveness”, 1995, p.22). In this type of conflict, different ideas are being taken into consideration through effective communication. (1997) stated: “It allows members to contribute openly and honestly to the team’s decision-making process while maintaining acceptance by team members and creating greater commitment” (pp.90-91).             On the other hand, A-type conflict decreases the effectiveness of the group by allowing personal feelings or someone’s own agenda to deter the members from the team’s objective (, 1997). This type of attitude can basically prevent creativity as ideas of change are barred with personal feelings and agenda. further stated: “Creativity is limited by the members’ reduced ability to contribute input due to the increasing hostility, anger and the elimination of trust” (p.91).   Managing Conflict  (1995) provided certain steps on how to manage this type of conflict effectively. They stated the effectiveness of meetings in resolving both types of conflicts. The first strategy they suggest is to disseminate a full agenda early. The Chief Executive should develop a plan to explain the full agenda of the meeting clearly to the GM and staff. This should be followed by stating the philosophy of the agenda clearly and providing relevant and convincing back-up along it. The Chief Executive should also consider the right environment for the meeting. Also, behavioral strategies should be observed in the meeting to prevent the increase of A-type conflicts. Another approach is keeping a sense to the where the discussion is going. The discussion should also be channeled from A-type conflict to C-type conflict. Finally, the leader should support the team and should be proactive and reactive.  (1999) suggested other integrative sub-strategy in direct negotiation other than presenting the agenda through meeting. The chief should plan the opening moves in the negotiation and should be willing to bargain and discover new options. An emergent agreement strategy can also be used where certain requests of the GM will be considered in order for him to accept the implementation fully (, 1999). On the other hand, if all else fails, one option is to look for another GM who is more comfortable with changes and is willing to improve.             Negotiation strategies can also be the key in managing conflicts. Types of negotiation or bargaining strategies include: soft bargaining strategy; hard bargaining strategy; tit-for-tat bargaining strategy; and principled bargaining strategy (, 1993). Soft bargainers attempts to prevail by being agreeable. Hard bargainers are rigid and agree only on their own argument. On the other hand, tit-for-tats uses motivation of reward and punishment for negotiation. Finally, principled bargainers separate people from the problem, focus on interests, generate options for mutual gains, and use objective standards (, 1993).             In terms of strategies to counter hard bargainers, (1991) suggested negotiation jujitsu. Negotiation jujitsu means not fighting strength with strength but rather, their force should be channeled into exploring interests, options for mutual gain and looking for independent standards. It means that positions of the opposing side should not be attacked but should be used against them by looking into options that would make them accept the proposal without affecting their position. Furthermore, if the person is a hard bargainer, the problem should be attacked instead of the person. When the problem is the one attacked, interests for mutual gain can be developed which could lead to positive results. Communication is also important. Communicators are in different types of relationship contexts. These are important to determine the right content and relationship message to be delivered. (1999) enumerated the types of relationship contexts, and they are: acquaintanceship, friendship, romantic relationships, family relationships, and work relationships. Communications are irreversible and once they are said, they can never be taken back. That is why critical thinking and good control of emotions are needed in communication (, 1999). (1999) stated that critical thinkers do not fall prey to emotional appeals because they examine evidence on which conclusions are based – if they are valid, if they have weaknesses, etc. Finally, communication is personal because every word the communicator says reflects his attitude and behaviors, emotions or beliefs. For instance, emotions such as anger, happiness, surprise, fear, and sadness can affect the message that sender will deliver to the receiver (, 1999). Communication should be enhanced in every company to have better results in resolving conflicts.

CONFLICT MANAGEMENT BRIEFING REPORT

Conflict Management Briefing Report The paper presents a case that concerns conflict and conflict management. The p...

The Impact of Conflict Management Strategies on Organizational Climate

The impact of conflict management strategies on organizational climate     Statement of the problem               In every organization, several conflicts are visible from every essential areas and functions of the organization and that there lacks proper handling of people and the organization is without strategies of conflict management, managing the impact of conflict into the organization. Ideally, the ability to take business control of conflict is important as the purpose of this study is to investigate whether the use of certain conflict management strategies, will predict reductions in into workplace conflict as well as role ambiguity, also work overload and time pressure. Research outcomes will indicate that, such conflict management strategies do significantly predict low scores on several specific conflict examples as tested and on levels of overall conflict management impacts.               There can be issues on conflict management effectiveness and how to achieve them according to the principles of the organization and its climate adaptations. The constructive conflict management is a vital concern for every manager. When conflicts are managed constructively they can help identify and solve problems, develop and maintain strong relationships, and sustain member loyalty and motivation. When conflicts are poorly managed they waste time and resources, damage member loyalty and motivation, undermine teamwork, and distort decision-making and planning. Strong productive teams can be maintained only when their members manage their conflicts well.  The organizations attempt to influence members' beliefs and skills by providing training in conflict management. When team relationships become seriously problematic, some organizations conduct off-site retreats for teambuilding synergy and success, unless the organization's climate promotes constructive conflict management behaviors, training tends to have frustratingly limited impact, and the beneficial effects of teambuilding retreats prove to be both limited and temporary. It is clear, there should address the impact of organizational climate on the conflict management behavior of members.   Background of the study             The ability to successfully minimize and resolve conflict is an important skill for the organization to develop, as faced with the classic confrontation between individual needs and organizational needs, requiring them to spend a major part of their time attempting conflict mediation.  The "appropriate" management strategy in a given situation requires accurate identification of both the conflict origin and participants and their relationships, in order to apply effective resolution technique.  Ideally, this technique must reduce the dysfunctional dimension of conflict so as to capitalize on its functionality for the good of the organization concerned.  Consequently, there is conflict anticipation and detection should always constitute the first two phases of good conflict management, the pro-action rather than reaction of the issues if there is any. Furthermore, strategies for conflict resolution will vary according to philosophical bases of the ones involved and encompasses win-lose, lose-lose and win-win approaches to conflict management, the impact can be overused as strategy for solving conflicts.  Methodology             The methodology will include usage of organization climate influence as well as power to bring about compliance and compromise. The need to realize win-win approach, the method yields solutions satisfactory to organization team to the conflict wins something, and the conflict is resolved in a constructive manner. An important point must be borne in mind when attempting to deal effectively with organizational conflict, for insurance one method will not apply to situations, as given in various approaches to conflict management. The conflict has been effectively managed when it no longer interferes with the ongoing activities of those involved.  Conflict management is therefore the process of removing cognitive barriers to agreement (1986).  Depending on the situation, conflict management techniques often focus on changing structure, changing process or both. Indeed, structural modifications are not very creative, and the response to conflict is simply more rules and hardening of the role structure.                Aside, if the basis of conflict is lack of trust or suspicion of motives, an effective approach is to bring the parties together and let them get to know each other.  However, if the conflict is rooted in differences in principle, increased interaction could exacerbate the situation, the modifying of reward system can be effective if inequity in extrinsic or intrinsic rewards is the cause of conflict.  An approach to conflict management is predicated upon the idea that diagnosis of the situation is necessary as a basis of action.  The contingency view is that there is not one best way of managing conflict under all conditions, but that there are optimal ways of managing it under certain conditions ( 1987).  An important aspect of conflict management is: alternative ways of managing conflict and kinds of situations in which each of these various alternatives might be expected to be the most effective.              The one good step is to assess the influence of an organization's climate on members' conflict management behavior. The Conflict Climate Inventory was designed to assist in this assessment, identified sixteen elements of organizational climate that have been shown to influence the behavior of members when they experience conflict. In interpreting the results of the conflict climate inventory, however, it will be important to bear in mind that "climate" is a holistic concept. Climate acts on individual members as an undifferentiated whole, affecting how they feel, what they notice and think about, and how they behave. Thus, while scores for each of the elements can be very helpful in diagnosing the climate and identifying specific ways to improve it, no score can tell in complete story, the understanding and enhancing of organizational climate remains noted.

The Impact of Conflict Management Strategies on Organizational Climate

The impact of conflict management strategies on organizational climate Statement of the problem In every or...

The Impact Of Conflict And Conflict Management Practices In Organizations In Ghana

THE IMPACT OF CONFLICT AND CONFLICT MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN THE ORGANIZATIONS IN GHANA         There are many records of conflict in history of Ghana; conflicts in ethnicity and religion, industry, socio-political and economic conflicts, health and distribution of wealth and organizational conflicts eventually arise in their country that usually resulted in civil war and clashes, poverty and sufferings but that was in the previous centuries. Today their country has also learned to manage conflicts but the impact of devastation still remain this resulted in crisis in Ghana and their economy suffered too much devastation, famine and hunger when people usually do not care, it seems like the cycle of poverty from their old folks has been inherent to their children to grow in conflict and hopelessness. One of the most historic series of event is the conflict of livestock during 1994 to 1995 resulted in guinea fowl war that has been a war between tribes of different ethnic groups and their livestock industry in Northern region of Ghana most of the villagers has their own livestock production.       However, because of competition and differences the feeds and water has been poisoned so most of theirs tribal fowls has been killed or stolen while some that’s left cannot be traded because of contamination resulting in poverty, unemployment and non productivity. This also resulted in at least 2000 deaths of people and massive destruction of their livelihood. The conflict continues and a series of robbery and poisoning of livestock continues that poultry, sheep, goats, cattle and other animals have been killed and large owners could not perform commercial offering of their livestock. More massive conflicts and more deaths and diseases of animals lessen their commercial value. They also destroyed infrastructure and animal housing facilities that there are only about 23% estimate animal industry has been left. Later in 1995 to early 1996 when the conflict subside the government has initiated conflict management initiative to revive the livestock industry through a relief package worth 0,000 dollars to help bring back the opportunities that their people and the government has once lost. This initial amount should provide enough infrastructures to house their animals and to buy new breed of animals from other regions.            Going back to the current times there are still series of strikes and rallies coming from different industries and labor disputes that created more conflicts when employees demand more for their works. Labor conflicts especially in 2006 includes Teachers and Education Workers Union (TEWU), Allied Health Workers Group (HWG) and Ghana Medical Union has individually conducted their own strikes because of different labor arguments from February to June of 2006 they have different request and grievances to various organizations and government but the conflict still remains to be unresolved within their organizations. In the case of TEWU teachers and education workers has demanded for the mandate to the Conference of Polytechnic Principles (COPP) for their 15% retention premium as well as their arrears and they have pressed their demand through a series of strikes that they have lost their patients to the broken promises and unfulfilled obligations coming from different universities and government agencies.       If the government and universities has not given their cooperation and demand this will result in series of conflicts between employees, universities and government that will definitely impact the education sectors and other industry for there will be a nationwide strikes of teachers and education workers, there will be no public classes in different regions in Ghana and they may even encourage the public to join their rallies. This will result in mistrust and more labor disputes and arguments. The usual unmanaged industry strikes have made laborers suffer while industry less productive they may live in starvation, hunger and unemployment, nobody ever win in a conflicts.       The government has given them the mandate while the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) have already released the funds during May of 2011. Universities and Colleges together with TEWU have resolved their conflict through Collective Bargaining Agreement Management Practices. People and laborers have the rights of claims and unionization, the collective bargaining agreement issues and key purpose is to protect both parties to settle dispute without violent engagement or war for this will protect the interest between employees and employer if they can come up with the most acceptable forms of agreement. Within the case that there is non existence of compromise agreement the intervention of national government is also qualified to give their views to establish suggestion and control measures if they start to brag or create a confusion of threats to settle their legal disputes. This is the usual management response to organizational conflicts in the modern times of Ghana.   References: http://www.ajol.info/index.php/jasr/article/viewFile/2884/32184    http://newspapersghana.com/ghanaiantrust/tewu-demands-payment-retention-premium-arrears?page=5  http://www.crise.ox.ac.uk/pubs/workingpaper68.pdf Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

The Impact Of Conflict And Conflict Management Practices In Organizations In Ghana

THE IMPACT OF CONFLICT AND CONFLICT MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN THE ORGANIZATIONS IN GHANA There are many records of conflict in hi...

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