Executive Summary

This report is an analysis of the ongoing conflict between Paul Collins and Delilah Baker and
proposal of recommendations on how to resolve the conflict. Conflict is a common topic that is
widely discussed and occurs in the context of organization. There are two types of conflicts at
workplace including task conflict and relationship conflict. Relationship conflict is usually more
difficult for the organization to solve, as well as having negative impact on the business and
teams’ performance. The major issues of the conflict between Paul and Delilah lies in their
personal differences, lack of communication and ignorance of the company. Among all conflict
resolving styles, the most suitable and reasonable one is the collaborating style that requires
Delilah and Paul to understand and sympathize with each other for the greater good. There are
two application methods for conflict resolution including effective communication (especially
listening technique) and negotiation skills.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction....................................................................................................................3

2. Conflict in the workplace................................................................................................3

2.1. Types and players.....................................................................................................3

2.2. Major issues.............................................................................................................4

3. Proposed strategies.........................................................................................................6

3.1. Theoretical justification...........................................................................................6

3.2. Application to the case.............................................................................................6

3.3. Methods of implementation......................................................................................7

4. Conclusion......................................................................................................................7

References..............................................................................................................................9

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1. Introduction
Humans are social creatures by nature. We are born into families and grow up to become part of
broader groups such as colleges, communities, and workplaces. It's not shocking, then, that the
nature of one's interpersonal relationships can have a significant impact on one's actions,
influence, and cognitions. Interpersonal relationships can have a positive effect on a person's life,
as shown by research into social inclusion and social assistance, but they can also have certain
disadvantages (Berscheid and Reis, 1998). When working in organizations, it is common to see
interpersonal conflicts between employers and employees, and also among colleagues. There
have been numerous studies on how organizational conflicts can be managed and avoided. In this
conflict between Paul and Delilah, it is crucial for Innevtech to jump in the situation right away
and establish appropriate conflict resolutions. Using relevant concepts and theories, this report
aims to provide an analysis of the conflict, explain the current situation and provide reasonable
and feasible ideas and suggestions to manage and resolve the conflict.

2. Conflict in the workplace

When two or more people interact, a conflict frequently arises. When people think about conflict,
they think about severe concerns and anger being brought up during the dialogue process.
Misinterpretation of one's words or value is the source of conflict. In meetings, inappropriate
information is transmitted poorly, and the wrong channel is used to deliver the information.
There are numerous ways to define conflict. According to Chaudhry and Asif (2015), conflict is
defined as a unified framework of organizational behavior and perception that is caused (or
maintained) by feelings of deprivation combined with a sense of disharmony with others. A
conflict can also be understood as something that occurs when two or more people or groups
believe their values or needs are irreconcilable, regardless of whether they propose to take action
based on those values or needs now or in the future (Tillett and French, 2006). Gaining a better
understanding of the causes, types and players of conflicts at workplace can help people figure
out suitable strategies and methods to manage conflicts more effectively.
2.1. Types and players
It can be said that there are two types of conflict at workplace: task conflict and relationship
conflict (Huan and Yazdanifard, 2012). Task conflict focuses on how to address issues that arise
from differing attitudes, ideas, and beliefs. When task conflict occurs, conflict is considered to

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contribute to greater creativity and better decision-making. It's another way of describing conflict
in a favorable light. Relationship conflict is the second type of conflict. Disagreements regarding
principles, personal or familial norms, or personal taste are causes of relationship conflict.
Relationship conflict is commonly referred to as a negative term. This type of conflict is often
attached to negative terms as relationship conflict has been shown to reduce team productivity
and motivation (Riaz and Juniad, 2014). Inadequate communication between team members
might result in fewer options and poor decisions. Furthermore, team members may agree to a
choice without considering the consequences or quality of implementation. In this situation, the
type of organizational conflict that we are trying to solve here is the relationship conflict type,
specifically resolving the relationship conflict between Paul Collins and Delilah Baker.
In organizational conflicts, there are several roles that people can play. The Circle of Conflict by
Moore (2014) suggests that there are four roles that people can take in a conflict situation
including (1) Primary parties, (2) Secondary parties, (3) Experts and (4) Third parties. Primary
parties are people that are directly involved in the conflict, while secondary parties are
individuals or groups that are not actively involved in the conflict, but share an interest in the
process and outcome of the conflict resolution. Experts are people or groups that possess or can
acquire valuable information that can be helpful for the process of resolving the conflict, and
third parties are people or groups that can provide procedural, substantive or relationship support
to the parties involved in the conflict. As it can be seen in this conflict situation, the primary
parties are Delilah and Paul as they are directly involved in this relationship conflict. Secondary
parties are Bill Burns and other members in the Department of Corporate Sales Division as they
can enjoy some benefits from the positive outcome of the conflict including better decision-
making process, not having to waste too much time and energy for the conflict, improving the
team’s performance and productivity, and increasing job satisfaction. Experts in this situation
can be other managers in the organization as they can provide Alex with helpful advices to
resolve the conflict. Lastly, third parties are the colleagues that are close to Delilah and Paul such
as Penny and Jonno, because they can offer useful insights and information for Alex in terms of
Delilah and Paul’s personalities and preferences, so that I can understand more about them, their
personal differences and come up with conflict management methods that are suitable for both of
them.

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2.2. Major issues
There can be numerous causes of relationship conflicts. In this situation, the relationship conflict
between Delilah and Paul started 3 years ago when Delilah received a promotion to the position
of Team Leader, a position that Paul had applied for several times but failed. As a result of the
conflict, there have been multiple times when Delilah and Paul had loudly arguments in the
office. According to Salolomo and Don-Solomon (2016), there are four main sources of conflict
including (1) Personal differences, (2) Information deficiencies, (3) Role incompatibility and (4)
Environmental stress. In this case, the main source of Delilah and Paul’s relationship conflict is
personal differences between the two people. Kapoor and Solomon (2011) define personal
differences as characteristics that differentiate one individual from another and are consistent
over time and in different circumstances. Intellect, intuitive, psychological, and/or genetic
features ascribed to people or animals have generally been included among these characteristics.
Personal differences also refer to the situation where two individuals have had an argument about
something, but they are refusing to cooperate. Personal differences between Delilah and Paul lie
in their conflicting perspectives and opinions when it comes to resolving organizational issues
and in the decision-making process.
On the other hand, one of the most serious issues is the fact that Paul is extremely jealous of the
fact that Delilah received the promotion that he has always wanted, and he thinks that she does
not deserve that position because of her lack of leadership skills and other professional skills.
However, Paul has not spent time to reflect on himself and his capabilities. Instead of being
jealous of Delilah, he could have spent three years working on himself, improving his
knowledge, profession and skills in order to take over the Delilah’s position with his own efforts,
capacity and hard work, but in fact he did not.
It was also the lack of effective communication, interference and conflict management coming
from the organization and Head of the Sales Division’s side that allowed this conflict to continue
for a long time (continuously about 3 years) and escalate, which makes it even more difficult for
me to resolve this conflict at this point. There are five stages of escalation or intensity of
conflicts in the workplace including Discomfort, Incident, Misunderstanding, Tension and Crisis.
Each stage of conflict escalation is related to various contentious tactics including aggressive
requests, complaints, angry statements, threats and harassment (Friedman and Currall, 2003).
One of the most popular reasons for conflict escalation is when each party reciprocates the

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other’s offensive behavior and there is serious lack of communication between the two parties
(Baudains et al., 2016). The conflict between Delilah and Paul is currently in the Tension stage,
which requires the organization and managers to take action quickly to resolve the conflict.

3. Proposed strategies
3.1. Theoretical justification
Researchers have come up with numerous ways and techniques for people to deal with conflict.
According to Robinson (2010) and Zia and Syed (2013), there are 6 styles of resolving conflicts.
The first one is the passive-aggressive style, in which people can go from being passive to hostile
in a matter of seconds. They act powerless to develop hatred and then complain to others or act
out in subversive ways, such as forgetting to deliver critical data to a meeting when it has been
promised. Secondly, people adopting the avoidance style are likely to stay away from conflict,
which is usually common in East Asian cultures (Huang, 2016). Next, the Compromising style
involves a situation where both individuals or groups give up something to finally reach an
agreement after negotiation, when they have enough reasons to compromise or want to avoid
further conflict (Morris, 2016). On the other hand, the collaborating style is considered the best
solution to all parties, where the parties can communicate openly, neutrally and honestly to solve
the issue together. This style can lead to people’s increasing satisfaction with their jobs,
organization and managers in general (Saundry et al., 2014). In the meantime, people adopting
the forcing style tend to solve problems using aggressive behavior including making other people
and authorities help them attain their objectives using threats and intimidation tactics. Lastly, the
accommodating style involves people trying to resolve the conflict with the help and
interventions of others. Each conflict resolving style has different advantages and disadvantages,
requiring the organization to consider thoroughly all options to choose the most suitable tactic.
3.2. Application to the case
In this case, the collaborating style will be applied. While the advantage of this style is making
all parties satisfied with the final decision, it would take much more time and efforts to reach the
final decision. However, in order to keep both capable employees in the organization and
increase the division’s performance eventually, it is necessary to adopt this style. The
collaborating style requires the me stepping in to create space where Delilah and Paul can
communicate effectively with each other, so that they can understand what each other wants and
how they want this conflict to be resolved. At the same time, open and honest communication

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will make sure that there would be no talking behind one’s back or backstabbing between the
two parties.
3.3. Methods of implementation
The first method of implementing the collaborating conflict resolving style is adopting the
listening technique. Alex – the main meditator in this conflict situation will have to apply
effective communication skills, especially the listening technique. There would be personal
meetings between Delilah, Paul and me where the three of them would be discussing the possible
ways to resolve the conflict. Effective listening requires me to actually listen and understand
what the two parties are saying, attending the meeting (eye contact, body gestures, and non-
distracting environments), following (saying encouraging statements, attentive silence and open
questions), reflective listening and staying focused on the topic. It is important to hold these
meetings privately and consistently (probably weekly), so that the parties can comfortably share
their feelings and thoughts with each other and result in real progress in the resolving process. At
the same time, I would have to have private conversations with Paul regarding his envy issues.
First of all, it is important to explain the reasons why he failed to acquire the Leader position in
the past 3 years by listing out the criteria, his behavior and capabilities, to show how he was
incompatible for the position’s requirements and the organization’s expectations. On the other
hand, I should encourage him to go to therapy as psychological treatment can be extremely
helpful to help him release all the work stress, and a qualified therapist can help him find suitable
ways to improve his mental well-being. Meanwhile, I and other colleagues need to convince him
to realize the importance and benefits of focusing on himself instead of being jealous of others.
By working on himself and improving his abilities, he can be more self-confident and can use his
competitive advantage to properly acquire the Leader position, which will also make his
colleagues feel like he deserves this position. Moreover, I will be using soft negotiation style to
deal with situation to reach an agreement. The mutual interests that Delilah and Paul can obtain
after the resolved conflict can be bonuses for the whole division, a healthier working
environment and reducing environmental stress. In general, managers and colleagues have to be
gentle and soft when dealing with this conflict because this situation has been intense for a long
time, and they have to make careful considerations before taking any actions.

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4. Conclusion
To summarize the whole report, this conflict between Delilah and Paul is extremely serious and
requires resolution immediately. However, this complex situation needs help and support from
relevant managers and colleagues in the division, especially mental encouragement and support
for Paul. The organization should also be aware that it may take a long time and much effort to
completely resolve this conflict, but it is vital to be patient, consistent and calm during the entire
process.

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