Conflict management is the capability to identify conflicts and deal with disputes fairly and in an effective way.
Conflict management is the capability to identify conflicts and deal with disputes fairly and in an effective way.
The conflict situation that I am experiencing is the conflict in a relationship. This can indeed be very stressful; nevertheless, it can act as an eye-opener on issues that need attention and discussion. It may be explained as a disagreement or persistent arguments example, in monetary matters. Conflicts and disagreements, can be as a result of things that might happen elsewhere and find their way at home, an example from the workplace. In comparison to home setting, it can escalate the conflict since people don’t care what they say to one another. in work setting, one can be mindful what to say so as not to offend others and thus, at home one can say things without caring what the partner feels leading to anger and consequently things which one can regret later. In escalated cases, conflicts and disagreements can result to fights, broken relationships and death in some instances which is a sad ending. In my relationship, conflict has been part of life and has had great impact, sometimes threating to bring the relationship to an end but at the same time, it has strengthened the bonds between us. In both scenarios, the end result being determined by how we have approached and resolved these conflicts that come our way.
In conflicts resolution, there are five strategies which can be applied for wins and losses, however a win-win scenario is always considered the best for everyone and thus, some strategies are the best for longer term: Compete or fight, as the words states, is a strategy that will definitely lead to one of us losing if that loser cannot air their grievances. This has not been an effective strategy since there is always one of us who does not get to be heard. Another strategy is collaboration, and this may be a hard one since it requires an investment of time and working through the difficulties in order to come into a consensus. It is one of the best as it has been effective so far because it has led to a win-win. In Compromise or Negotiation, it is both an effective and ineffective strategy since it has resulted to a situation with half solved conflict. Here, we sit and agree to give up something for the benefit of the relationship and thus, the end results leaves no one with the bragging rights. It cannot be described as win/win strategy but yields better results than the win/lose which can as well be referred to as a no-score draw. There is then this other strategy called denial or avoidance. I have employed this in a number of occasions mostly when both of us are aggrieved and we need some time to cool down. It is effective since it gives both of us time to settle before engaging in a conflict resolution. It however needs some measure because it is not to be used when the conflict won’t be brought to rest and in this case, it has always brought up bad feelings because nothing has been solved and consequently resulted to stress which has impacted negatively to the relationship. The last strategy that I have applied in conflict resolution is Smooth over the Problem. This strategy has been good only when one wants to maintain the relationship. To the outside world, all seems well but the reality is opposite of what is seen. This is not an effective strategy since the situation is not very okay with one person and maybe the other person is okay leading to a win/lose scenario in the relationship once again. It can in real sense result to a conflict that is not solved at the end of the day. Generally, it is good to note that some strategies work better than others, however, all conflicts resolution strategies can be applicable in different times and scenarios and all of them have different impacts in a relationship both positive and negative.
There is another style of conflict management which is a different approach from the one above. One being treating the problem as opposed to the people which involves putting myself to another person shoes and analyzing the problem from my point of view instead of criticizing that person. For example, having an employee who is not performing well, before criticizing her, I enquire how things are going. From this I realized that the work environment does not give her all the support that she needs. By criticizing the behavior at work place that makes her not to perform well, made her feel that her character is not criticized and thus improved her relationship at work and improved performance apparently. Another strategy is by knowing how to manage emotions. In this, I let each person to express her emotions. It involves giving each person chance to relieve what they feel and having a chance to listen to them. For example, I adopted a rule of argument prevention which gives each person time to speak at a given time which lead to improved relationship since each one feels that they get time to be heard. There is also trying a positive spin. Here I shifted my focus to the communicating the positivity only, for example, pointing out specific concerns instead of generalizing the complaints. And finally, escaping the cycle of action and reaction. This is ensuring that things are not escalated by not reacting. This gives room to inventing options for mutual gain.