Conflict management involves the identification of a conflict and coming up with ways to settle the conflict while remaining just and effective. This is a vital process in an organization as it plays a massive role in ensuring a peaceful and productive environment. To be able to identify a conflict, one has to be able to know the causes of the conflict within the organization. Some of the common reasons which bring about conflicts are such as structural conflicts, values conflicts, interest conflicts, and information conflicts, among others (Nordby, H.,2018). Structural conflicts are very prominent in an organization’s structure, primarily because of the vertical positional ranking, which influences oppression or imposition of authority, resulting in conflicts.
Values conflicts in an organization are a result of diversity. Members of an organization usually have different beliefs and values, which bring about the disparity in their positions on specific issues or topics that may arise in the organization. This results in a difference in opinions which may lead to each member sticking and backing their opinions based on their values which may result in a conflict amongst the disagreeing members.
Interest conflicts are primarily a result of the competitive nature that comes naturally among an organization’s members. This is because employees mostly seem to have their eyes on similar goals, such as promotion, resources, and time. This sets a very competitive environment whereby each employee seems to believe that any other employee is a competition which sometimes may cause friction among the employees.
Informational conflicts are a result of misinformation or lack of enough information. When dealing with either insufficient or completely wrong information, employees may often argue about what is relevant and what is not. These are just a few causes of conflict in an organization that one must be aware of to implement an effective conflict management strategy since each cause calls for a different strategy.
Conflict management styles are based on individual preferences, whereby individuals opt for whichever style they resonate with the most. The conflict management styles may include; collaboration, competition, compromise, accommodation, and avoidance. Collaboration is the most effective conflict management strategy, which involves both opposing parties presenting their argument by basing facts and criticizing each other’s points to come up with the most effective solution that serves them both in the best way possible. This is very effective in dealing with both structural and information conflicts. Both sides are given enough time to present their arguments, then they are criticized based on the facts presented, and then finally, a resolution that ensures that both sides are satisfied is suggested (Naeem, J., & Ghafoor, L.,2022).
Competition is a conflict management strategy that mostly hopes to solve interest conflicts. This strategy, however, is not inclusive as it mostly requires an individual who can overlook and ignore any opposing opinions. The other members’ reaction does not invoke any reaction in them, but they are keen and focused on achieving a specific target. If pulled out effectively, this style is also very effective in ensuring that members do not engage in any conflicts.
Compromise is a moderately effective conflict management that mostly solves value and interest conflicts. Here, opposing members still hold their opinions or interests high but do not overlook those of the other members, as in the competition strategy. The members look for a way that both teams can settle a conflict at no expense of the opposing team by compromising or, instead, cutting down some of the demands they have set in the hope of achieving a specific goal. For instance, conflict may arise in an organization over salary increments whereby the employees suggest a certain increment percentage. At the same time, the management, on the other hand, has to maintain the salary budget at a specific range to ensure maximum profitability. The two parties can agree to compromise; for instance, if the employees had suggested a 12% increment with bonuses, they may agree to settle for a 7% salary increment and bonuses subject to review based on the profit returns of the company. This way, the employees will work harder to ensure profitability which is the management’s interest, and in return, the employees also get their bonuses.
The accommodation strategy is ineffective as it calls for one party to completely give in to the other party’s demands. This is common if one party is crucial to the other party. In an organization, this may be a result of expertise. If one employee is very crucial to the success of the organization, they may pose adamant requests, which at times may even be expensive for the entire organization. This may be, for instance, requesting huge salaries, unique treatments, or even reduced working hours. While all these requests may be expensive for the management, they may be forced to agree to the demands due to the fear of losing the employee to a competing organization. This style is, however, not very efficient because one party benefits at the expense of the other (Raines, S. S.,2019).
The avoidance strategy of conflict management involves ignoring the existence of a problem. This is very common in people who have a problem with impressing others. They chose not to make the tough calls over the fear that others may dislike them. Similarly, they may be subject to new directions without raising any concerns, even when it affects them. For instance, a manager may increase the workload or the timeline for a project drastically if an employee who has the affiliation trait may go along with it even when it calls for extra work, which takes a toll on them simply because they do not want to question the authority. Just as in the accommodation strategy, one party is oppressed, but in this case, the oppressed party chooses not to take action or ignores that there is a conflict.
In an organization, conflict management may be carried out in several ways, such as considering inclusivity and majority rule. This means that if ideas and opinions presented pose chances of triggering a conflict, members could be asked to vote on the same. The idea or opinion with the most votes is then implemented. This will help prevent structural and interest conflicts that may arise from imposing an idea or opinion on the employees.
Problem-solving is also another way of conflict management. This calls for the use of the collaboration style to come up with the most effective and accommodating solution to a problem. This focuses on the disagreeing parties to the problem and not individuals. This helps ensure that both teams come out satisfied with their suggestions.
Creating a common problem is another way that can be applied to solve a conflict. This involves two warring parties putting their differences apart and coming together to fight a common enemy. This is very common among competing teams or even organizations. The momentary partnership is usually strategic, where both parties join their inputs, such as ideas, time, and capital, to find a solution to a particular problem that poses any conflicts.
Changing the team composition is another way to manage a conflict where an individual or a few team members may be shifted to another area or transferred to other departments. This quickly helps manage a conflict since if two conflicting parties are separated, then definitely they can no longer disagree. In severe cases, complete restructuring may be very effective. When members of an organization’s conflict cost an organization, then a complete change of the structure may be the most effective way to solve the conflict. This may involve laying off one party based on the management’s opinion on who causes the most harm.
In order to effectively manage a conflict, various steps ought to be followed (Russell, K. (2022). Firstly, one has to be aware of the existence of a conflict. This is because a conflict cannot be resolved not unless its existence is realized and acknowledged. Realizing its existence in advance helps ensure that it is resolved before it progresses into mature stages. A rational approach to resolving the conflict is the next step. This calls for the consideration of all the options that one is presented with in order to weigh out them in order to ensure the effectiveness of the strategy to employ.
Investigating the situation so as to identify the source and impact that the conflict has impacted usually comes next. Here, one looks for all the involved parties in the hope of identifying the source of the conflict in order to help them decide on the most effective way to solve the conflict. With all the facts at hand, a definitive strategy is then selected. One has to choose the most effective strategy based on their assessment of the issue at hand.
Engaging both parties is usually the next step, whereby both parties present their opinions, and then a way forward is selected. This is based on the disagreeing parties’ presented opinions. This hopes to find out what both parties aim to achieve and their interests in order to decide on the next course of action. Upon coming to a consensus on the next course of action, the terms are implemented and closely monitored in order to check for their effectiveness. This is then finally followed by coming up with ways and strategies to help prevent any further occurrence of similar cases within the organization (Russell, K. 2022).
Conflict management strategies have opened my eyes and prepared me how to be able to handle any conflicts that may arise involving anyone around me or even affect me. Using the strategies I have learned, I can use the information to solve future conflicts which may arise in whatever profession or even currently in my day-to-day life since the knowledge can be applied on all levels, which involve human interactions since conflicts arise at all levels.
References
Naeem, J., & Ghafoor, L. (2022). Collaborating Style of Conflict Management and its Outcomes.
Nordby, H. (2018). Management and conflict resolution: Conceptual tools for securing cooperation and organizational performance. In Organizational conflict. IntechOpen.
Raines, S. S. (2019). Conflict management for managers: Resolving workplace, client, and policy disputes. Rowman & Littlefield.
Russell, K. (2022). Dealing with conflict. Clinical Leadership in Nursing and Healthcare, 261-285.
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