In the previous weeks, you explored communication, leadership, motivation, conflict management,

Conflict Management Strategy

Amy Fjeld

HR Project Management

MPM468-1503B-01

Unit 4 – Individual Project

Introduction

Conflicts are common issues in most of the workplaces because they are avoided so as to maintain artificial harmony or because they are poorly dealt with. They are a common reality that cannot be avoided or ignored. In any situation that involves more than one person such as the recruitment process, conflicts are bound to arise (Black, 2001). We have seen the various causes of conflicts in a recruitment plan. Conflicts that are poorly managed or unmanaged lead to a breakdown of trust and loss of productivity. They can also lead to loss of revenue in the organization. These are the reasons the knowledge of effectively dealing with conflicts is required so as to improve profits and increase performance.

Strategies to deal with conflict

It is important to understand the basic conflict management strategies to deal with conflicts appropriately before they blow out of proportion. There are five strategies that are useful in dealing with conflicts. The first strategy is avoiding the conflict. The avoidance strategy aims at putting off the conflict indefinitely. When a conflict is ignored or delayed, the person who is avoiding the conflict hopes that the conflict will resolve itself without any confrontations. Individuals who always avoid power in most cases hold low positions of power or have low esteem (Black, 2001). There are situations where avoiding a conflict serves as a profitable strategy for managing conflicts. An example of such a situation is when the conflict was due to recruiting an unproductive employee, but the employee ends up being dismissed. When a more productive replacement is hired for that position, much of the conflict ends up being soothed. We can conclude that this strategy is most effective in unimportant issues, and the risk of the issue surfacing goes beyond the benefits of finding a solution (Isard, & Smith, 2000).

The second strategy of conflict resolution is accommodating. This strategy involves allowing the opposite side to have what it wants. Accommodation is mostly used in situations where it is the wish of one party to maintain peace or finds the issue as being minor. For instance, a panelist who is against the recruitment of a particular candidate for their reasons can choose to overlook the reasons because the candidate is qualified for the position. This is a low-stakes means of keeping peace with the rest of the members of the panel. This strategy is useful in situations where the issue is more important to others as compared to how it is to one person. The disadvantage of this conflict resolution strategy is that those employees who apply it keep track and end up developing resentment towards others. This strategy is also not appropriate in situations that require an individual’s commitment or their input, but they cannot give it.

The third conflict management strategy is collaboration. This works by integrating the different ideas that are brought out by people. The objective of this strategy is to get a single and creative solution that everyone will accept. An example is when the members of the recruitment panel have to work together collaboratively to come up with recruitment policies. Though collaboration is useful, it requires a significant time commitment that does not apply in all conflicts. It means that when the time is not an issue, working through conflicts and different perspectives can yield better solutions as well as a strong commitment towards the solution (Black, 2001).

The fourth conflict management strategy is compromising. This strategy requires that both sides of a conflict give up some elements of the position they hold so as to establish a solution that can be accepted if not agreeable. The strategy is appropriate in conflicting situations that involve people with approximately equal power. Business owners mostly apply compromise when negotiating contracts with other businesses when all the parties stand a chance of losing something values like necessary service or customers. Giving everyone what they want is quite difficult to achieve and not a guarantee of a satisfactory outcome. However, compromising works best in situations where the goals are mutually exclusive.

The fifth conflict management strategy is competing. This strategy works like a zero-sum game whereby one party wins while the other loses. Conflicts that involve highly assertive personalities often use this strategy to manage the conflict. It works best in situations that has a limited number of conflicts like emergency situations. People benefit from holding the competitive strategy in decisions that lead to ill will or as the reserve for a crisis (Isard, & Smith, 2000). This strategy is useful when a decisive and quick action is required or when an unpopular decision needs to be implemented.

Overall conflict management process

The overall conflict management is a five-step process. The first step is the identification of the source of conflict. The more information available about the source of conflict, the easier it is to resolve it. Information can be got by listening from both parties involved in the conflict hence a better understanding of the situation. The second step is looking beyond the incident. In many cases, it is not the situation that leads to a conflict, but the perspective about the situation. The reason of the conflict might be a small problem, but the stress levels end up growing with time making the parties attack each other as opposed to dealing with the problem. This step calls for making the parties get beyond the incident that triggered the conflict so as to see the real cause. The third step is requesting solutions. After getting the viewpoints of the conflicting parties, the next step is to get them to propose how the situation to be changed. The fourth step is identifying the solution that is supported by the conflicting parties. The step involves looking for the most acceptable course of action. The advantages of different ideas that are not only of benefit to the conflicting parties but to the organization as a whole should be identified. The fifth step is an agreement whereby the conflicting parties agree on the alternatives that have been identified in step four.

Conflict mediation process

There are situations where the conflicting parties may fail to get an internal solution to the conflict. Such situations require a neutral third-party to act as a facilitator who will help in resolving the conflict. This is a non-adversarial approach to resolving conflicts that involve direct communication between the parties (Isard, & Smith, 2000). The conflict mediator’s role is to facilitate the communication between the parties that are conflicting and help them focus on the real issues in the disputes and coming up with options to deal with the issues.

The conflict mediation process entails various steps. The first step is opening remarks made by the mediator that include setting the agenda for the meeting and its timeframe. The next step is the definition of ground rules that all parties are required to abide by during the meeting. The next step is stamen of the problem by the conflicting parties (Eunson, 2007). Here, the conflicting parties have the opportunity to give their version of the situation. The next step involves the mediator gathering information about the conflict. The next step is identifying the problem and agreeing on issues that need to be settled. The next step is generation of options or negotiations of the conflicting parties. The last step is reaching an agreement on the solution to be implemented. All parties have to agree before the implementation is done.

References

Black, C. (2001). Conflict management. Princeton, NJ: Univ. Press.

Eunson, B. (2007). Conflict management. Milton, Australia: John Wiley & Sons.

Isard, W., & Smith, C. (2000). Matching Conflict Situations and Conflict Management Procedures. Conflict Management and Peace Science, 1-26.