Dealing with conflict situation

Identifying conflict situation

A conflict is a situation when the interests, needs, goals or values of involved parties interfere with one
another. In the workplace, conflicts are common and inevitable.

Situation in which there are disagreements between the team members on a solution as reflected in
communication or actions taken by the team members.

Since conflict has both positive and negative connotations and consequences, it must be looked into and
managed for useful purposes. The management must survey the situation to decide whether to stimulate
conflict or to resolve it.

There are Five Basic Types of Conflicts Situations. These are:

1. Conflict within the Individual

The conflict within the individual is usually value related, where the role playing expected of the

individual does not conform to the values and beliefs held by the individual. For example, a secretary may

have to lie on instructions that her boss is not in the office to avoid an unwanted visitor or an unwanted
telephone call. This may cause a conflict within the mind of the secretary who may have developed an

ethic of telling the truth.

In addition to these value conflicts, a person may have a role conflict. For example, a telephone operator

may be advised and required to be polite to the customers by her supervisor who may also complain that

she is spending too much time with her customers. This would cause a role conflict in her mind.

2. Interpersonal Conflict

Interpersonal conflict involves conflict between two or more individuals and is probably the most

common and most recognized conflict. This may involve conflict between two managers who are

competing for limited capital and manpower resources.

For example, interpersonal conflicts can develop when there are three equally deserving professors and

they are all up for promotion, but only one of them can be promoted because of budget and positional

constraints. This conflict can become further acute when the scarce resources cannot be shared and must

be obtained.

Another type of interpersonal conflict can relate to disagreements over goals and objectives of the

organization. For example, some members of a board of a school may want to offer courses in sex

education while others may find this proposal morally offensive thus causing conflict.

3. Conflict between the Individual and the Group

All formal groups as well as informal groups have established certain norms of behavior and operational

standards that all members are expected to adhere to. The individual may want to remain within the group

for social needs but may disagree with the group methods. For example, in some restaurants, all tips are
shared by all the waiters and waitresses. Some particular waitress who may be overly polite and efficient

may feel that she deserves more, thus causing a conflict within the group .

4. Inter-group Conflict

An organization is an interlocking network of groups, departments, sections and work teams. These
conflicts are not so much personal in nature, as they are due ‘to factors inherent in the organizational
structure. For example, there is active and continuous conflict between the union and the management.
One of the most common, unfortunate and highlighted conflict is between line and staff. The line
managers may resent their dependence on staff for information and recommendations.

The staff may resent their inability to directly implement their own decisions and recommendations. This
interdependence causes conflict. These conflicts that are caused by task inter-dependencies require that
the relationship between interdependent units be redefined, wherever the values of these interdependent
factors change, otherwise these conflicts will become further pronounced .

These inter-unit conflicts can also be caused by inconsistent rewards and differing performance criteria
for different units and groups. For example, salesmen who depend upon their commission as a reward for
their efforts may promise their customers certain quantity of the product and delivery times that the
manufacturing department may find it impossible to meet, causing conflict between the two units .

5. Inter-organizational Conflict

Conflict also occurs between organizations that in some way are dependent on each other. This conflict
may be between buyer organizations and the supplier organizations about quantity, quality and delivery
times of raw materials and other policy issues, between unions and organizations employing their
members, between government agencies that regulate certain organizations and the organizations that are
affected by them. These conflicts must be adequately resolved or managed properly for the benefit of both
types of organizations.
 Resolve conflict situations

When conflicts have been erupted there are steps which are taken in order to solve the problem.

These steps are to resolve the problem for them not to get out of hand or getting confusing.

These steps are:

1. Define the source of the conflict.

The more information you have about the cause of the problem, the more easily you can help to resolve it.
To get the information you need, use a series of questions to identify the cause, like, “When did you feel
upset?” “Do you see a relationship between that and this incident? “How did this incident begin?” 

As a manager or supervisor, you need to give both parties the chance to share their side of the story. It
will give you a better understanding of the situation, as well as demonstrate your impartiality. As you
listen to each disputant, say, “I see” or “uh huh” to acknowledge the information and encourage them to
continue to open up to you. 

1. Look beyond the incident.

Often, it is not the situation but the point of view of the situation that causes anger to fester and ultimately
leads to a shouting match or other visible and disruptive result. 
The source of the conflict might be a minor issue that occurred months before, but the level of stress has
grown to the point where the two parties have begun attacking each other personally instead of addressing
the real problem. In the calm of your office, you can get them to look beyond the triggering incident to
see the real cause. Once again, probing questions will help, like, “What do you think happened here?” or
“When do you think the problem between you first arose?

2. Request solutions.

After getting each party’s viewpoint, the next step is to get them to identify how the situation could be
changed. Again, question the parties to solicit their ideas: “How can you make things better between you?
“As mediator, you have to be an active listener, aware of every verbal nuance, as well as a good reader of
body language.

You want to get the disputants to stop fighting and start cooperating, and that means steering the
discussion away from finger pointing and toward ways of resolving the conflict.

3. Identify solutions both disputants can support.

You are listening for the most acceptable course of action. Point out the merits of various ideas, not only
from each other’s perspective, but in terms of the benefits to the organization. For instance, you might
suggest the need for greater cooperation and collaboration to effectively address team issues and
departmental problems.

4. Agreement.

The mediator needs to get the two parties to shake hands and accept one of the alternatives identified in
Step 4. The goal is to reach a negotiated agreement. Some mediators go as far as to write up a contract in
which actions and time frames are specified. However, it might be sufficient to meet with the individuals
and allow them to answer these questions: “What action plans will you both put in place to prevent
conflicts from arising in the future?” and “What will you do if problems arise in the future?

This mediation process works between groups as well as individuals.

Respond to customer complains

 A consumer complaint or customer complaint is an expression of dissatisfaction on a consumer's behalf
to a responsible party. It can also be described in a positive sense as a report from a consumer providing
documentation about a problem with a product or service.

Consumer complaints are usually informal complaints directly addressed to a company or public service
provider, and most consumers manage to resolve problems with products and services but it sometimes
requires persistence. An instrumental complaint is a complaint made to a person or organization that
could take some action and bring about a specific remedy

An expressive complaint is a complaint made for the purpose of expressing feelings, without any realistic
chance of anything being done.

When responding to a customer’s complaint you should follow the following steps:

1.  Listen

Whenever you set out to handle a customer complaint the first thing that you must do is listen. Listen to
the customer to figure out why they are upset. Listen to the customer to determine whether any of your
policies were not abided by or if this is something outside or not contemplated by your systems. Listen to
what they want from you to resolve the issue. Such as refund, replacement, or someone else to replace
their current service representative at your company.

All too often we are defensive when dealing with customer complaints. Being defensive, at least at the
onset, can inhibit your ability to truly understand why the customer is not satisfied with your products.
They will tell you the problem, how they think it should be resolved, and give you a critical window into
their thinking on the matter.

2.       Understand

Next, put yourself in the shoes of the customer. Given what you now know try and see their point of view.
Why did they come to you? Is there merit to their complaint? Is their proposed resolution reasonable
given the issue? Until you view the issue from their perspective you cannot have a complete picture of the
reason for the complaint. So always think, if I was in their shoes how would I feel?

3.       Elevate
Once you have heard the complaint and understand the basis for the same, elevate the customer to a
supervisor or manager where possible. If the issue is with the front-line employee this will instantly
remove some if not all of the customer’s acrimony towards their current representative at the company
allowing them to have a more open conversation with someone else. Often this move alone is sufficient to
alleviate some of the customer’s concerns by instilling in them a sense of importance, that their complaint
is significant enough to be elevated to someone higher in the chain of command.

One note of caution, when elevating you should be careful to fully inform the person the issue is being
elevated to of the relevant facts prior to having them speak with the customer. If this is not done the new
representative will be in a position which they must ask the customer to repeat what happened. While
most customers, as part of the venting process, will gladly share their story again with the supervisor they
should not be made to feel that they must do so for the process to continue to run its course.

4.       No Fighting

Defend if you must. But do not fight with the customer. What is the difference you may ask? Often times
it comes down to tone and respect. Recall, whether correct or not your customer believes that they are
correct. As such, they may be 100% wrong but fighting about the issue will only exacerbate their
complaint.

Your job in handling the matter is to listen, understand, and then discuss with the customer their concerns
in a calm and friendly manner while conducting an open discussion regarding the issues complained of
and how they will be responded to. Fighting with the customer will never resolve the issue and will only
lead to heightened aggression and anger on their part. As such, calmly defend your policies or personnel
if you must but do not permit the conversation to erode into a argument at any point.

5.       Resolution

Offer a resolution where possible. Once you have listened and understood the customer’s complaint and
have avoided fighting over the same divert the customer’s focus to how you intend to resolve the matter.
Here it is difficult to include all manners of resolution which can be offered given the nature and scope of
the goods and services which could be offered, but some suggestions include offering a refund or partial
refund of monies paid, if warranted. Discounts on future goods or services are another popular remedy. If
the issue is personnel specific simply offering to change out their representative with another will often
suffice.

 Resolve

In every customer service situation you will ultimately come to a point of what you can and cannot do to
address the issue. Most situations will be able to be addressed and the customer issue resolved to their
satisfaction. Unfortunately, from time-to-time, there will be issues which simply cannot be resolved.
Whether it is because the customer; is requesting something that is outside of your stated policies on such
matters or are simply being unreasonable in their requests. For these customers you must understand that
despite your best reasonable efforts to offer a reasonable resolution they are unwilling to join you in
reality and, accordingly, although our aim is always to please the customer if that which the customer
demands cannot be satisfied you must maintain your best offered solution and no more.

8.       Learn

Above all, use customer complaints as a manner to learn about potential flaws in your systems. Maintain
a manner of tracking customer complaints and the resolution thereof such that, over time, trends or
specific issues may be identified to the point that if you see one or more specific situations occurring with
any frequency systems can be amended or put into place to address the same in the future before they
become future complaints

Problem solving skills

Problem solving skills are highly sought after by employers as many companies rely on their employees
to identify and solve problems.

A lot of the work in problem solving involves understanding what the underlying issues of the problem
really are - not the symptoms. Dealing with a customer complaint may be seen as a problem that needs to
be solved, and it's almost certainly a good idea to do so. The employee dealing with the complaint should
be asking what has caused the customer to complain in the first place, if the cause of the complaint can be
eliminated then the problem is solved

In order to be effective at problem solving you are likely to need some other key skills, which include:

 Creativity. Problems are usually solved either intuitively or systematically. Intuition is used when
no new knowledge is needed - you know enough to be able to make a quick decision and solve
the problem, or you use common sense or experience to solve the problem. More complex
problems or problems that you have not experienced before will likely require a more systematic
and logical approach to solve, and for these you will need to use creative thinking.
 Researching Skills. Defining and solving problems often requires you to do some research: this
may be a simple Google search or a more rigorous research project.
 Team Working. Many problems are best defined and solved with the input of other people. Team
working may sound like a 'work thing' but it is just as important at home and school as well as in
the workplace.
 Emotional Intelligence. It is worth considering the impact that a problem and/or its solution has
on you and other people. Emotional intelligence, the ability to recognize the emotions of yourself
and others, will help guide you to an appropriate solution.
 Risk Management. Solving a problem involves a certain amount of risk - this risk needs to be
weighed up against not solving the problem.
 Decision Making. Problem solving and decision making are closely related skills, and making a
decision is an important part of the problem solving process as you will often be faced with
various options and alternatives

We are constantly exposed to opportunities in life, at work, at school and at home. However many
opportunities are missed or not taken full advantage of. Often we are unsure how to take advantage of an
opportunity and create barriers - reasons why we can't take advantage. These barriers can turn a
potentially positive situation into a negative one.
 Identifying the sides of people that are involved in the conflict

Conflicts within a team are normally viewed with a great deal of trepidation as people fear it could be the
start of team failure. However, conflicts are only bad if they create discord within the team. There is the
growing realization that teams can actually excel in the presence of certain types of conflict.

There are two sides of conflict although some might take it into consideration and say the surroundings
have something to do with the conflict

The negative side

Negative Results of Conflict: Often the positive benefits of conflict are overshadowed by harmful
consequences that result when disputing parties attempt to achieve their goals at the expense of others.
Such forcing exchanges often bring about an escalation of the conflict that is difficult to reverse. When
forcing methods are used, any of the following negative consequences can follow:

1. Minor differences can escalate into major conflicts involving actions imposed by a power
person or group on another, resulting in greater loss to the system as a whole.

2. The number of issues in the conflict can increase, resulting in greater complexity and greater
difficulty in managing the situation.

3. Specifics can give way to global concerns, which often cause the person to be equated with
and confused with the issue at stake or the entire relationship between the disputing parties
to be called into question.

4. The intention can shift from getting a specific interest satisfied to beating the other parties
at all costs.

5. The number of parties can increase, making it even more difficulty to de-escalate the
conflict.
 Positive side

Positive Results of Conflict On the positive side, conflict can bring opportunity, drama,
development, and growth to individuals, groups, and organizations, resulting in increased
cohesion and trust. It can lead, as well, to more effective personal and organizational
performance.
Positive consequences for individuals involved in conflict can include:
1. Reconciliation of the interests of the disputing parties: Most conflicts can end with at
least some satisfaction of the legitimate interests of the parties involved, usually through
some integrative agreement of mutual benefit. Rarely do conflicts have to end in clear-cut
win/lose outcomes.

2. A sharpened sense of identity and solidarity: As individuals engage in conflict, their

sense of who they are as persons, with unique needs tends to be sharpened. As they
differentiate themselves from one another, they uncover ways in which they are similar
and different. The similarities enhance rapport and a sense of solidarity, the difference
help to sharpen a sense of identity.

3. Interaction: Conflict tends to promote interaction at an interpersonal level and create a

new system of which all parties are instantly a part. As one party change, all the other
parties must then change to restore the equilibrium.

4. Internal change: As disputing parties experience conflict and engage in dialogue with
others of differing needs and beliefs, they are confronted with the prospect of making
adjustments in their positions. The pressure to explore new ideas and feelings can
challenge an individual to move from rigidity to flexibility, with consequent internal
change.

5. Clarifying the real problem: Conflicts often emerge around different solutions to a
particular problem shared by the disputing parties. As dialogue is conducted and the
parties begin to explore the interests underlying the contrary positions, the real problem
can be identified and addressed.