SBenegaL

Category: Conflict Management

  • Ineffective Conflict Management Techniques

    In the last byte, we began our discussion on conflict management strategies and techniques that could be adopted. In today’s byte, we discuss briefly about ineffective techniques. 

    We begin with listing these ineffective techniques and what they indicate:
    1. Nonaction – doing nothing in hopes that a conflict will disappear
    2. Secrecy – attempting to hide a conflict or an issue that has the potential to create conflict
    3. Administrative Orbiting – delaying action on a conflict by buying time
    4. Due process nonaction – A procedure set up to address conflict that is so costly, time consuming, or personally risky that no one will use it.
    5. Character Assassination – An attempt to label or discredit an opponent.
    Of the above, is has been noticed that nonaction is not a good technique, and that conflicts don’t go away, but the people involved react with frustration. Similarly, administrative orbiting could also lead to frustration and resentment. Secrecy on the other hand could be seen as leading towards political activity by employees who hope to uncover the secret. Character assassination could backfire and make the individual who uses it appear dishonest and cruel.

  • Conflict Management Strategies

    In the last byte, we looked at the withdrawal response as defensive
    mechanism. In today’s byte, begin our discussion on conflict management
    strategies and techniques. 
    To understand let’s begin with two situations to understand the discussion:
    Situation 1: Two departments of an organization let’s assume an insurance
    company – sales department and claims team. If these two departments are in
    conflict with each other over a budget allocation, the claims manager could ask
    for a cut in sales training staff, while the sales department could look for a
    cut in the claims personnel. In such a conflict situation which emerges to be
    dysfunctional it is the organization that looses overall.
    Situation 2: The two departments choose to have a functional approach and
    eventually decide to cut a minimum number of members in each of the departments
    and this could prove to be a better situation for an organization.
    Situation 1 is indicative of a competitive approach to conflict management
    while the second situation is indicative of cooperative approach. The
    competitive approach is based on the assumption of a win-lose situation and
    could include the following – a dishonest communication, mistrust, and a rigid
    position. The cooperative approach is based on the possibility of a win-win situational
    and includes openness, honest communication, trust and most importantly a
    belief that whole might be much greater than the sum of parts.