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Conflict management

Conflict management is the principle that all conflicts cannot necessarily beresolved, but learning how to manage conflicts can decrease the odds of nonproductive escalation. Conflict management involves acquiring skills relatedto conflict resolution, self-awareness about conflict modes, conflictcommunication skills, and establishing a structure for management of conflict inyour environment.

THE EVOLUTION OF CONFLICT MANAGEMENT

The early approach to conflict management was based on the assumption that allconflict was bad and would always be counterproductive to organizational goals.Conflict management, therefore, was synonymous with conflict avoidance. This left thepeople experiencing the conflict with essentially only one outcome: a win-lose scenario.In such cases, the loser would feel slighted and this, in turn, would lead to renewedbelligerence. Therefore, most managers viewed conflict as something they musteliminate from their organization. This avoidance approach to conflict management wasprevalent during the latter part of the nineteenth century and continued until the mid-1940s.Nevertheless, conflict avoidance is not a satisfactory strategy for dealing with mostconflict. Conflict avoidance usually leaves those people who are being avoided feelingas if they are being neglected. Also, conflict avoidance usually fails to reconcile theperceived differences that originally caused the conflict. As a result, the original basisfor the conflict continues unabated, held in check only temporarily until another confrontation arises to set the same unresolved tensions into motion again. Therefore,conflict avoidance strategies are not especially useful in the long run.The human relations view of conflict management dominated from the late 1940sthrough the mid-1970s. This viewpoint argued that conflict was a natural and inevitableoccurrence in any organizational setting. Because conflict was considered unavoidable,the human relations approach recommended acceptance of conflict. In other words,conflict cannot be eliminated and may even benefit the organization. It was during thistime period that the term "conflict management" was introduced, according to Nurmi andDarling.

Since the mid-1970s a new position on organizational conflict has emerged. Thistheoretical perspective is the interactionist approach. This viewpoint espouses not onlyaccepting conflict, but also encouraging it. Theorists are of the opinion that a conflict-free, harmonious, and cooperative organization tends to become stagnant andnonreponsive to market change and advancement. Therefore, it is necessary for managers to interject a minimum level of conflict to maintain an optimal level of organizational performance. For example, Shelton and Darling suggest conflict is anecessary condition for both individual and organizational progression. They encouragemanagers to "embrace conflict and use it for continuous transformation."

OURCE

OF CONFLICT

According to both Daft and Terry, several factors may create organizational conflict.They are as follows:

carce Resources

. Resources may include money, supplies, people, or information.Often, organizational units are in competition for scarce or declining resources. Thiscreates a situation where conflict is inevitable.

Jurisdictional Ambiguities

. Conflicts may also surface when job boundaries and taskresponsibilities are unclear. Individuals may disagree about who has the responsibilityfor tasks and resources.

Personality Clashes

. A personality conflict emerges when two people simply do notget along or do not view things similarly. Personality tensions are caused by differencesin personality, attitudes, values, and beliefs.

Power and

tatus Differences

. Power and status conflict may occur when oneindividual has questionable influence over another. People might engage in conflict toincrease their power or status in an organization.

Goal Differences

. Conflict may occur because people are pursuing different goals.Goal conflicts in individual work units are a natural part of any organization.

Communication Breakdown

. Communication-based barriers may be derived fromdifferences in speaking styles, writing styles, and nonverbal communication styles.These stylistic differences frequently distort the communication process. Faultycommunication leads to misperceptions and misunderstandings that can lead to long-standing conflict. Additional barriers to communication may emerge from the cross-gender and cross-cultural differences of participants. Such fundamental differences may

affect both the ways in which the parties express themselves and how they are likely tointerpret the communication they receive. These distortions, in turn, frequently result inmis-reading by the parties involved. Moreover, it is common for the parties involved tobe oblivious to these false impressions. The resultant misunderstandings subsequentlylead the parties involved to believe that a conflict based on misunderstood behavior exists when, in fact, no conflict actually does exist. Miller and Steinberg call thismisreading "pseudo-conflict," that is, perceived conflict rather than actual conflict. Muchof what managers take to be an actual conflict is the product of such pseudo-conflict.

Conflict

Conflict may be defined as a struggle or contest between people with opposingneeds, ideas, beliefs, values, or goals. Conflict on teams is inevitable; however,the results of conflict are not predetermined. Conflict might escalate and lead tononproductive results, or conflict can be beneficially resolved and lead to qualityfinal products. Therefore, learning to manage conflict is integral to a high-performance team. Although very few people go looking for conflict, more oftenthan not, conflict results because of miscommunication between people withregard to their needs, ideas, beliefs, goals, or values. Conflict management is theprinciple that all conflicts cannot necessarily be resolved, but learning how tomanage conflicts can decrease the odds of nonproductive escalation.

Conflict handling modes

All people can benefit, both personally and professionally, from learning conflictmanagement skills. Typically we respond to conflict by using one of five modes

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Competing

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Avoiding

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Accommodating

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Compromising

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CollaboratingEach of these modes can be characterized by two scales: assertiveness andcooperation. None of these modes is wrong to use, but there are right and wrong timesto use each. The following sections describe the five modes. The information may helpeach team member to characterize her/his model for conflict management.