Handling Conflict

Discuss the issues openly and honestly with all parties...

There are five basic approaches managers can use to try to resolve conflicts. Each has strengths and weaknesses, so choose the one most appropriate to your situation:

• Avoidance: not every conflict requires an assertive action. Avoidance works well for trivial conflicts or if emotions are running high and opposing parties need time to cool down.
• Accommodation: if you need to maintain a harmonious relationship, you may choose to concede your position on an issue that is much more important to the other party.
• Competition: satisfying your own needs at the expense of other parties is appropriate when you need a quick resolution on important issues, or where an unpopular action must be taken.
• Compromise: this works well when the parties are equal in power, or when you need a quick solution or a temporary solution to a complex issue.
• Collaboration: use this when the interests of all parties are too important to be ignored. Discuss the issues openly and honestly with all parties, listen actively, and make careful deliberation over a full range of alternatives.

ACTION POINT: Know when to use avoidance, accommodation, competition, compromise and collaboration to manage conflict.

Understanding the Causes of Conflict

Conflicts can also result when people or groups disagree over goal priorities...

Disagreements frequently arise from semantic difficulties, misunderstanding, poor listening, and noise in the communication channels. Communication breakdowns are inevitable in work settings,, often causing workers to focus on placing blame on others instead of trying to solve problems.

Conflicts can also result when people or groups disagree over goal priorities, decision alternatives, performance criteria, and resource allocations. The things that people want, such as promotions, pay increases, and office space, are scarce resources that must be divided up. Ambiguous rules, regulations, and performance standards can also create conflicts.

Individual idiosyncrasies and differences in personal value systems originating from different cultural backgrounds, education, experience, and training often lead to conflicts. Stereotyping, prejudice, ignorance, and misunderstanding may cause people who are different to be perceived by some to be untrustworthy adversaries.

ACTION POINT: Empathize with the other parties in the conflict, and try to understand their values, personality, feelings, and resources. Make sure you know what is at stake for them.

Managing Conflict

Conflicts exist whenever an action by one party is perceived as preventing or interfering with the goals, needs, or actions of another party.

Conflict is natural to organizations and can never be completely eliminated. If not managed properly, conflict can be dysfunctional and lead to undesirable consequences, such as hostility, lack of cooperation, and even violence. When managed effectively, conflict can stimulate creativity, innovation, and change.

Conflicts exist whenever an action by one party is perceived as preventing or interfering with the goals, needs, or actions of another party. Conflicts have varying causes but are generally rotted in one of three areas: problems in communication; disagreements over work design, policies, and practices; and personal differences.

ACTION POINT: Manage conflict effectively to stimulate creativity and innovation.

Dealing with Conflict

Having a clear understanding of your own personal values will help you to manage these conflict situations.

It can be challenging when your personal values conflict with those of your organization, or when there are conflicting values between individuals or sub-groups. Value differences can exist, for example, about how to perform jobs, the nature of reward systems, or the degree of intimacy in work relationships. Having a clear understanding of your own personal value will help you to manage these conflict situations. If you are clear about your own values, you can act with integrity and practice what you preach regardless of emotional or social pressure.

To address a conflict situation, first make sure you are aware of, understand, and are tolerant of the value differences held by the other parties. This will help you to determine whether the value conflict is, in fact, irresolvable and will require personnel changes, or whether compromises and adjustments can be made to accommodate the different perspectives.

Values can be classified into two types: terminal and instrumental. Terminal values (your “ends” in life) are desirable ends or goals, such as a comfortable, prosperous life, world peace, great wisdom, or salvation. Instrumental values (the “means” to those ends) are beliefs about what behaviors are appropriate in striving for desired goals and ends. Consider a manager who works extra hours to help deliver a customers rush order. The attitude displayed is a willingness to help a customer with a problem. The value that serves as the foundation for this attitude might be that of service to others.

ACTION POINT: Understand the roles that values play in conflicts.