Basic Negotiation Strategies and Resolution 1

Conflicts are inevitable in human life. Conflict is a situation between two interdependent

parties that entails the perceived differences that both parties claim to be negative. This may

result in negative strong emotions and certain behaviours may prevail. The consequences of

conflict are two-sided that is it can end up causing death and even destruction. On the other hand,

it may also result in a situation whereby relationships are enhanced and strengthened. Goals and

effectiveness can be achieved because of an incident of disagreement among people. Conflict is

an engine of evolution among human beings which enhances us to grow, learn and progress in

our lives, (Kuster, et.al, 2015). Therefore, conflicts should be managed in a skilled manner to

further their practical potential.

At the workplace, there are several types of conflict: Conflict over the decisions and ideas

in business, boss conflicts with staff, personality clashing at work and even organization

mismanagement of the needs of the staff in general. Employees are likely to express conflict

through insults, bullying, anger and being uncooperative with their colleagues, (Field, 2012).

Workplace conflict is not good for productivity in business and it can harm the operations of the

organization through disruptions of tasks assigned, turnover rates and job terminations can be

experienced from the same and high decreased production rates. Workplace conflict can also

create emotional stress among most parties involved.

Since conflict refers to a process in which one party asserts that their interests are being

opposed by the other party or if they are overstepping, we will discuss the five stages of the

process of conflict. First, the potential to express opposition or incompatibility which is

enhanced through communication and it is also based on personal variables. The second stage

which is cognition and personalization entails the perception of the conflict itself from the

different groups that are involved. Third stage; intentions of handling the conflict are another

crucial stage that requires precision during the approach. Fourth stage, behaviour between the

two parties that is overt in the conflict is detrimental to reaching a consensus. Fifth stage;

outcomes of the conflict may result in either increase or decrease group performance once an

agreement is established.

There are several outcomes of conflicts that can manifest regarding finding a conflict

resolution which means if upon the identification of the conflict is not managed well conflict can

escalate. Possible outcomes that may emerge include dominance which may result in resentment

and even damaging consequences on the parties. Avoidance and withdrawal can be another

outcome which means that resentment will escalate hence making them feel underestimated.

Another outcome is the negotiations for a resolution if the conflict is managed well during the

lifecycle of the disagreement. This may result in beneficial consequences being achieved in one

way or the other. Most of the time these outcomes of conflict are a result of the approaches and

strategies employed in managing the conflicts. These strategies may include the following:

Conflict situations can deploy collaboration: this may also refer to a win-win strategy that

is used in problem-solving where both parties' needs and interests are engaged and striving to

meet them can be the goal of the arbitrator. At the workplace employees who conflict is required

to collaborate to strengthen and maintain strong interpersonal relationships. This is done

regarding the interests of the parties. Compromise can either turn out to be a mini-win or a mini-

loss type of situation which may partially satisfy the needs of the parties in the negotiation. This

can result to the effort of attempting to win the compromise and at the same time preserving the

interpersonal relations as much as one can.

Accommodation can be adopted to convince one party or parties to profit the other party by

fighting and using all that there is to preserve the relations that exist between them. Controlling

can either be a win or loss approach basing on the imposition of a favoured solution on the other

party and by doing so this may result into sacrificing the interpersonal relationships or intergroup

to achieve a desired outcome regardless of the impact it will have on the other party involved in

the concession. Avoiding is just a loss or loss strategy involves leaving or withdrawing from the

conflict to achieve a certain outcome and the relationship maintenance of the parties.

A win-win approach of management of conflict facilitates the external aspect of the

problem that the parties had failed to view and tries to bring the opposing parties to collaborate

to seek high-quality solutions to meet their needs which may be mutual. This approach helps in

managing conflicts successfully before they escalate to something serious between the two

parties or more. This can also help in lowering the level of emotional energy in the parties being

handled. Mutual respect and gravity in relationships is enhanced by this strategy. The win-win

approach can overwhelm the evident manifestations of conflicts in the future because they are

likely to be reduced and managed properly and some will be less intense.

Conflict at the workplace can be resolved through the creation and establishment of an

organizational culture that prohibits conflicts at the company as much as possible by the

employer. This helps in identifying where the conflicts emanate in your organization. Employers

are the ones to preclude conflicts by being the main drivers of managing conflicts by doing all

they can to not avoid a conflict because the possibility that it will recur makes it not promising to

reach a substantial resolution. Ensuring that the policies of the company and communication is

consistent and clear all the time to prevent management conflicts with their employees.

Employers should ensure that both managers and employees are able to be accountable for the

resolution of conflicts. Understanding the underlying emotions of your employees during the

conflict and keeping in their mind that any strategy deployed or integrated in conflict resolution

depends on the circumstances of the conflict. By putting all this in mind, the understanding of the

conflict lifecycle can lead to an approach that can lead to finding desirable solutions that if

managed well can benefit organizations.

Reasons why conflict often escalates over time in the workplace

Conflicts can either be latent or manifests if they are not dealt with skilfully and these

conflicts may escalate with time in an organization. The readiness to proceed to violence

between the two parties may grow between the parties because communication is no longer

working. Conflicts in businesses are normal and the conflict escalation model developed by

Fredrich Glasl. The occurrence of these conflicts in companies are as a result of parties not

willing to cooperate in a constructive manner that can leads to escalation. When parties reach a

point where they feel that communicating with each other is not productive they tend to create

actions instead of words.

Hardening; this is the first stage of escalation of conflict that develops when a difference

over a certain issue proves that the resolution efforts are resistant. The problem sticks between

both parties and leads to exasperations. There exist repeated efforts which push hard to

overcome the issue but opinions provided among the conflicting employees become an outlook.

The interactions and arbitration between the two parties becomes a disappointing adventure

because they perceive it as waste of time and energy. The other party may be unreasonable but

effort to try and reason with them is always in place. If the efforts exhibited are not yielding to

anything substantial it provokes doubts in the other party wondering if the other person wants to

solve the problem.

Debates and Polemics happen when the counterparts have failed to provide cooperative

arguments. These negotiations always turn to verbal confrontations between the parties. This

makes it hard to find meaningful and amicable resolutions at the workplace in most of the

organizations. This creates trust issues which creates a sense of insecurity and loss of control.

Creating an impression that can lock out a colleague to boost one’s self-esteem. Competition

prevents them to reach an understanding.

Actions and not words and the colleagues are firm about the fact that the talk will not

resolve anything and always turn to actions because they presume each other as a competitor.

One may block the other party from reaching their goals and it is just a reaction to the other

party’s behaviour in the long run. Images and Coalitions: the conflict at this stage is about

victory and defeat among the parties because they are majorly concerned with defending their

reputations. It aggregates into negative stereotypes which mean that they will not take

responsibility for the escalation of the conflict. Loss of face is the idea of unmasking the

counterpart’s immoral side to the advantage of the other. They are now viewing one another as

angels and devils at this stage which makes most of the escalation of conflicts. These parties are

now on the verge of damaging their public image.

Strategies of threats can make the counterpart to move to a different direction that is

desired because they have refused to be open about certain things. Parties can lose control of the

events leading to violence. Limited destructive blows at the workplace can escalate conflict

because one is poking into the other person’s business to destroy them. Destruction of the enemy

which aims at the destruction of power and vital systems and together into the abyss: nothing

else matters anymore and therefore, the enemy is exterminated.