Managing Conflict

Managing Conflict

'Conflict is a normal part of our daily lives and social relations. We often view conflict as a negative experience and respond in counterproductive ways, causing further anger and resentment. Yet conflict, if managed with sensitivity and openness, is an opportunity for personal growth and improvement in our relationships with others.'

Conflicts involve struggles, disagreements, disputes or quarrels. Conflict arises when two or more groups perceive that their needs, interests, views, values or goals are incompatible. The 3 concepts that outline the most conflicts are: 1-Needs (what you want in a conflict), 2-Interests (What you want out of achieving your goals in a conflict), 3- Values (Values are fundamental beliefs that are non-negotiable).

There are also five types of conflicts: 1- Relationship conflicts (Relationship conflicts are caused by poor or miscommunication, stereotyping, strong negative emotions or repetitive negative behavior), 2- Data conflicts (Data-based conflicts are caused by lack of information, misinformation, different views on what are relevant, different interpretations of data and different ways of assessing or processing data), 3- Interest-based conflicts (Interest conflicts are caused by competition over perceived incompatible needs), 4- Structural Conflicts (Structural conflicts are usually caused by forces external to the people in dispute), 5- Value-based conflicts (Value based conflicts are caused by perceived or actual incompatability in values, goals and worldview. Differing values need not cause conflict. It is only when people attempt to force one set of values on others or are intolerant of divergent beliefs that results in conflicts).

However, there are still some positive outcomes of conflict. Conflict improves self-awareness, conflict can strengthen relationships, conflict promotes group cohesion, conflict promotes creativity, conflict helps problem-solving and conflict can be fun and motivating. In conflict, we can have a lot of conflict management styles. They are the avoiding style, competing style, accomodating style, compromising style and the collaborating style. I am most of the time using the collaborating style, because by using this style, we can have a win-win situation by seeking the best solutions for both parties. The Kare Anderson's Model is a good way for conflict resolution. There are 4 steps to it: 1- Tell yourself your main needs, 2- Reach out to find the other person's main needs, 3- Listen to the other person, 4- Propose a solution that supports their main needs and yours as well.

Through the LMS conflict presentation, I have learnt a lot of things about conflict other than what is inside the notes. For example, what are the different kinds of conflict, how do we solve them using the best way, and what other problems can arise out of conflict. For our group, we did the conflict on cultural difference. This led me to understand more about people's culture and I will not look at them in a funny way if i ever meet them in the future. Although our groups face much problems like the doing of the powerpoint slides, we still worked well together, and there were very little conflicts as all of us were involved in the discussions and we knew what we had to do for each of our parts. (: