Conflict Management Styles Myron Harris 09/30/2012 CJA/444 Allen Cole Conflict Management Styles Conflict usually occurs when individuals within a group or organization has differences in opinions. When individuals are in a disagreement about something like policies and procedures or even the overall direction of which an organization or company is heading it can become very frustrating. As we all know conflict the process of conflict usually begins when an individual or party has perceived the other part and it has showed a negative impact or will affect something that another party cares about. According to the readings in Chapter 15 the early approach of conflict saw that all conflict was labeled to be bad. Conflict then had a …show more content…
The Supervisor over our department does not handle conflict well and he tries to avoid any altercations at all costs. With me being next in line he will usually push things of this nature off for me to handle. I often deal with the situations by bringing the employees into the office to see what the problem is in forms of communication and what caused the problem to begin with. I have tried to encourage my Supervisor to deal with situations in the future before they occur and he has taken steps on his own to deal with situations where he sense conflict. He can actually sense when there is a lack of communication and conflict is about to arise so he stops it before it starts by bringing both individuals into the office to try and get to the root of the problem before something major happens. This same occurrence can happen between male and female management personnel that can’t seem to see eye to eye and have issues that lead to conflict. According to (Conflict Management Modes and Leadership Styles) “most individual characteristics have an impact on the instruments analyzed, for example: younger managers are more task-oriented, while older managers are typically relationship- oriented and avoid conflicts, women are more collaborative and avoid conflicts less and men tend to use the accommodating mode more than women. “Rather surprisingly, according to our survey, women appear to be more
There are different conflict management styles, the dictatorial style, which insists that things are addressed their way and the low self -esteem style, which just allows others to have it their way. It is up to the individual to decide which way works for them. Additionally, the abdicator handles conflict by bowing out or walking away. This method is unhealthy because it robs the offended growth opportunity, which results from working through issues (Pegues, 2009, p.49). Another style is the collaborator, which often involves cooperation and pulling together to reach a common purpose and are emotionally balanced.
There are two different types of conflicts that could happen in a work place which would be functional and dysfunctional. A functional conflicts is a healthy, constructive disagreement between a groups or individual. A dysfunctional conflict is an unhealthy disagreement that occurs among an individual or groups of employees. A functional conflict will leave employees on a positive note it would only bring awareness to both sides of the issue, improvement of working conditions due to accomplishing solution together, solving issues together to improve overall morale, and making innovation and improvements with an organization. A functional conflict is something everyone is known as a win-win conflict. A dysfunctional conflict stem from emotions and behavioral origins, will have a negative impact for both parties that are having the conflict and the company. Dysfunctional conflicts are commonly known as win-lose conflict (Lombardo, 2003). It is not good for you to try and avoid a work conflict, it only making problems bigger. Work conflicts often happens from communications errors such as poor information, no information and misinformation. Another reason why a work conflict could happen because of emotions. Work place conflicts could emerge in any number of forms but there are some general variety types of conflicts that are repeated on the basis such as conflicts with the boss, conflicts with peers, and
Conflict can be described as a process that begins when an individual perceives that another person is about to or has negatively affected something that is important to him/her. Therefore, the conflict process consists of various stages with the first one being the existence of situations that create enable conflict to arise. The other stages in this process are cognition and personalization, aims, behavior, and results.
Workplace conflict should be addressed as quickly as possible to ensure a positive outcome for your organization. There are a lot of ways to deal with conflict in the workplace.
Conflict is defined as “a struggle or contest between people with opposing needs, ideas, beliefs, values or goals” (Popovic and Hocenski, 2009, p. 15). As a manager or leader, you take on the responsibility as a problem solver. Thus, knowing how to resolve a conflict that respect each individual that is involved shows the ability to deal with conflict. Conflict management styles is being able to manage conflict in a functional manner (Satterlee, 2013). According to Satterlee (2013) the following are a few conflict management styles:
Lack of communication is one of the main reasons conflicts arise in the workplace. In my current workplace I have witnessed minor conflicts turn into big conflicts due to poor communication and lack of communication. One of the most recent conflicts that occurred in my workplace that I helped my manger resolve was with two employees who were doing the same work. My co-worker called out and his normal backup started doing his work. But my supervisor forgot that she delegated all his tasks when he was out to a new clerk. This caused tension between both clerks. One was upset because she felt that the new clerk shouldn’t have been appointed to doing these tasks since she was fairly new and the other felt it wasn’t a big deal and the old clerk was just being a brat. Both clerks later communicated the issue to me. I spoke to my manager and made her aware of the issue
Conflict is “an expressed struggle between at least two interdependent parties who perceive incompatible goals, scarce resources, and interference from others in achieving their goals” (Hocker, 1991). There are two basic types of conflicts: substantive and emotional. According to Schermerhorn et.al., substantive conflict is a fundamental disagreement over ends or goals to be pursued and the means for their
Most conflicts in the workplace are due to interpersonal power meaning that one influences control on another person because they are in charge. This is one thing I have struggled with in my workplace being in the military because everyone is power hungry making it very stressful and full of conflict. I am always in conflict with my leadership and the ones under me because I want to be in charge and I don't like the thought of having someone be my boss or more powerful than me. Though I don't like having anyone over me I have to manage conflict towards my superiors because I can lose my title and my position. The military is full of conflict but helps me to become more tolerant to it in the work place because I have learned that there is no arguing. I have to do what I am told without question or argument or there are serious
To manage conflict effectively you must be a skilled communicator. That includes creating an open communication environment in your unit by encouraging employees to talk about work issues. Listening to employee concerns will foster an open environment. Make sure you really understand what employees are saying by asking questions and focusing on their perception of the
In order to be successful in almost any workplace, it is important to be able to approach conflicts respectfully and in a professional manner while representing your profession with dignity. When conflict does arise, I find that it is helpful to fully understand the perspective of the other individuals involved. It is important to take time to listen to their point of view and seek to work out a collaborative solution. A key point in this process is to remain calm and attempt to defuse any tension. In addition, when dealing with another person, it is important to keep in mind your relationship with them and adjust your approach to managing the situation appropriately.
I have had a few instances of conflict on the job. One instance of conflict happened between a colleague of mine and myself in regards to the onboarding of a new worker. I typically would not handle this process, however, a number of other workers were out of the office and I was left with the responsibility to introduce a new worker to the office. I gave the worker the welcome book, sat down with the new employee and reviewed the welcome book in its entirety and answered questions they had and introduced them to other people in the organization. The conflict emerged when my colleague who would typically handle this process return back to the office. We had a disagreement with how I handled in-processing of the new employee. We had an interpersonal conflict because my colleague felt that I shared too much information with the new worker when I was going over the welcome book and showing them around. I would classify this as being a conflict that emerged because of personal differences in work styles, hence, this was a personal source of conflict (Nahavandi, Denhardt, Denhardt, & Aristigueta, 2015). The conflict management style that I took in this situation was to accommodate my colleague. I did
We very rarely use formal authority to end conflict. In the type of business we are in there are often times no right or wrong answer to a particular problem and using authority to issue a directive can be a potentially damaging way to deal with a situation. Most of our issues need to be discussed and all parties in agreement in order to provide the best possible service to the client. In this way we are in a win-win situation. We have weekly staff meetings
Numerous questions remain unasked and unanswered: Is there any confirmation that conflict cultures exist at the authoritative level? How do such unmistakable conflict cultures create? How do leaders shape the advancement of conflict cultures? What are the results of conflict cultures for authoritative level results? Answers to these inquiries can 't be found in the psychological literature on conflict, which has for the most part centered around conflict management styles at the individual and little gathering level. In this paper, we begin with the reason that despite the fact that people have particular inclinations for distinctive conflict management methodologies, associations give solid settings (Johns, 2006; O 'Reilly and Chatman, 1996) that serve to characterize socially shared and regularizing approaches to oversee struggle—what we allude to as conflict cultures—which decrease singular variety in conflict managing strategies(De Dreu, van Dierendonck, and Dijkstra, 2004; Gelfand, Leslie, and Keller, 2008). Since standards regularly create around major issues that should be overseen in any social framework (Schein, 1992; Schwartz, 1994), and conflict is a characteristic issue in most if not every authoritative framework (Argyris, 1971), we expect that conflict cultures can create in numerous associations. We suggest that conflict cultures, similar to their individual level and little gathering analogs (De Church and Marks, 2001), take the type of avoidant, commanding,
We deal with conflict on a daily basis, whether it is in our personal lives or professionally. Learning how we, as individuals, best approach conflict resolution will allow us to become better mediators in managerial positions. Also, taking into consideration the different types of conflict resolution styles will help us learn what those individual needs are and gain a better understanding of where the perspective their concerns come from. Managing conflict styles, understanding why conflict occurred, how to move forward, how conflict is perceived, coping with conflict and communication are extremely important in understanding the journey to a positive outcome where conflict is concerned.
Conflict is inevitable; even though some conflict can be good most of the time other times it can be harmful to a team. By definition conflict is any situation in which incompatible goals, cognitions, or emotions within or between individuals or groups that lead to opposition or antagonistic interactions. Conflict can be damaging but with the right skills and the ability to resolve it, it can be beneficial to the team (Bowes, 2008).