Conflict report

Conflict report

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  Cloe Reichelt Conflict Resolution Strategiesand benefits blog.americanwatercollege.org
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  2 Introduction This report aimsto explain what conflict is and how it can be stopped through resolution. In this report, two strategies are discussed in depth to help support and explain how conflict can be resolved and what benefits it will have, not only for an individual, but for the peers of the individual and the community. As an add on to this information, this report will also explain what to do if conflict cannot be resolved and a step by step guide as to how to resolve conflict based on one of the two strategies this report is based on.
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  3 Contents Page Conflict andResolution what is conflict? Examples of conflict in the workplace What is conflict resolution? WIN-WIN/WIN-LOSE/LOSE-LOSE/NEGOTIATE Strategy One- Avoiding conflict what is it? How does it work? Strategy Two- Collaborating what is it? How does it work? Benefits of Conflict Resolution what is gained? Non-resolved Conflict what to do what can happen Step by Step Guide to Resolving Conflict using Collaboration Step 1- Setting the scene Step 2- Collaborating Step 3- Agree to what the problem is Step 4- Brainstorm potential solutions Step 5- Finalise a solution
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  4 Conclusion Reference Page Conflict andResolution What is conflict? Conflict is the act of a disagreement between two or more parties involved, where there is threat to their goals or interests by the other. Conflict can cause tension between individuals and parties. This tension and conflict can drive parties to argue and can leave individuals not talking or feeling uncomfortable in the situation. Conflict can also be caused between two or more individual people who do not get along due to their personal beliefs and values. This often results in racism, sexism, bullying and discomfort. Conflict can be resolved many ways using different strategies and process. This is referred to as conflict resolution. Workplace conflict can be caused from; discrimination issues, performance-review issues, conflict between customers,leadership conflicts and personality clashes. Some examples of conflict in the workplace are described below. Example one: Julie is a new employee at a small retail store. She has an ethnical background and has a strong accent which can sometimes cause confusion when she talks. One of the other employees, Jenna has been working at the store for many years and feels she over rules everyone. Jenna begins bossing Julie around and picking on her accent and cultural background. This causes Julie to feeluncomfortable and causes conflict between the two of them. Julie starts calling in sick for work and feels unsure what she should do. Example two: A writer in a magazine company writes an article which he feels seems one of his best pieces of work. He takes it to his manager who feels it is not up to standards. The writer and the manager begin arguing and cause conflict throughout the work area. Everyone feels torn on who is right and who is wrong and makes everyone feel on edge. Example three:
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  5 Phoebe and Ryanare running a camp group. They both feel they are the higher person and being having personality clashes. This causes they rest of the group to be unsure what to do and makes the camp group frustrating and causes conflict between Phoebe and Ryan. What is conflict resolution? Conflict resolution is when the act of conflict comes to an end. This generally results in all parties coming to a conclusion to accept and move on. In some circumstance though, one party may have to forfeit to bring the conflict to ease. The following list explains the four different outcomes from conflict resolution. WIN-WIN A win-win outcome works when each party benefit from the resolution and both leave feeling as though they have won. This result in either groups or individuals having respect for one-another, the conflict being settled and having no bad feelings toward each other. WIN-LOSE The result of a win-lose outcome is when only one side feels the situation is positive. This occurs being one group or individual is unhappy and the other is happy but the conflict is settled. This can often cause lack of respect between people or groups. LOSE-LOSE In the result of a lose-lose situation, both parties finish the conflict battle worse off. This outcome offer occurs when a win-win outcome could have been presented but a lack in cooperation causes both parties to feel defeated instead of both feeling as though they have won. This often occurs because things begin getting worse than when they started, there is a lack of respect for others and results in the conflict being unresolved. NEGOTIATE Negotiation can help hugely when it comes to conflict. The presents of other ideas can draw ease to the situation and can uprise better ideas and allow the individuals or groups to work together or agree on a better tactic. Negotiating allows both parties to agree to disagree or agree on a set term for a win-win outcome.
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  6 www.linkedin.com Conflict resolution strategies Thereare many conflict strategies which help to resolve conflict which can end in any of the above outcomes. There a five common strategies, including; accommodating, avoiding, collaborating, compromising and competing. This section will go into depth about two of these strategies; avoiding and collaborating. Avoiding By avoiding a conflict situation, it puts of the chance of conflict completely. Though, by avoiding conflict, there avoider is suggested to hope that the issue will resolve itself without any confrontation or discussion. People who have low self-esteem or have a low position power are more likely to use this strategy as they do not deputise saying and misguiding their point of view. This strategy can rebound also and leave the avoider in a win-lose situation. When seen to be avoiding the issue, it can cause the avoider to seem slack and unwilling to try and can leave them losing the situation. This strategy works well when needing to put a situation to rest. By avoiding the situation it can let it disappear and allow time to move on. Though, avoiding it and moving on can make the situation build up more tension and become worse.
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  7 Avoiding conflict workswell in the process of dismissing an employee whom is popular but unproductive, and in the process of hiring someone who has better productive potential for the position. By avoiding conflict in this situation allows the dismisser to do their job without tension on their behalf. Collaborating The process of collaborating provides that both parties work together to find a suitable solution. The outcome of this strategy is win-win where both parties finish feeling as though they have won. This strategy works by all parties sharing and combining ideas to come up with a suitable and often better idea. The process of collaboration, though seems the best and suitable strategy, it is also very time consuming and involves significant time which is not appropriate to all conflict situations. When a conflict situation needs to be resolved immediately, this strategy would not be suitable. Putting this strategy into an example where producers of a magazine company cannot come to a conclusion for an article, using the process of collaborating, they would have time to sit down, discuss and research and collaborate their ideas to produce a suitable article where both ideas are involved and used. www.yourarticlelibrary.com
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  8 Benefits of conflictresolution When resolving conflict, it is important that all parties recognise what the issue is so a better understanding of the situation can be gained. By recognising this, there is a better chance of preventing the same conflict situation in the future. By resolving conflict it promotes that a clear understanding and a fair outcome is reached. If conflict is not resolved, it can cause ongoing tension and future stressors for all parties and the company (this is assuming the conflict is within the workplace). Not only does the conflict continue in the workplace, it can also cause the parties outside lives to become engrossed in the situation and become overly stressed. Not resolving the situation can cause break downs in the workplace and cause work efficiency and team work to fall apart causing awkwardness and failure within the workplace. Resolving conflict also allows for:  New knowledge  Different views  Innovative strategies  New perspectives  Increased understanding  Increased group cohesion  Improved self-knowledge
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  Resolving conflict withinthe workplace and outside of the workplace is an important aspect and arises fairly often in life. Knowing how to resolve conflict situations and its benefits will help to prevent an ongoing argument and issue that all parties are clear on other ideas, goals and interests so everyone can work in a fair and suitable manner. murphycam pbell.com What to do when conflict is not resolved There can often be situation in which a conflict situation cannot be resolved. This can be due to someone not wanting to let go of their own views, parties being misguided or the process of resolution only makes the situation worse. When conflict can’t be resolved, there are a few things groups can do. Providing a third party view to see if they can resolve or mediate the situation to make it fair, or for both teams to let go and avoid the situation. If the conflict becomes worse, leaving the group or party can ensure that the individual will not be continually drawn into the arguments and provide that they can try on their own. When conflict is between two individuals and cannot be resolved, coming to an end and having one individual step down can often be the only way to end the conflict. Conflict can cause a person to feel they need to be seen as the bigger person, but sometimes, being that bigger person involves being seen as the less powered person by the other individual. Note: Conflict should never be resolved by violence or emotional abuse.
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  2 projectmanagementhacks.com Step by StepGuide to Resolving Conflict using Collaboration Step 1- Setting the scene. To begin resolving conflict through the process of collaborating, there a four things to ensure all parties keep in mind:  Using mutual respect and courtesy is important to promoting good relationships.  Only focus on the real issue, don’t separate the problem and make it worse.  Carefully and respectfully pay attention to others interests and ideas.  Don’t be close minded; be open to exploring all options and goals. In this step, paraphrasing statements back to the person who presented the idea ensures that you are actively listening and understanding them clearly. Step 2- Collaborate information.
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  3 Gaining a betterunderstanding of individual’s needs and goals is important when hoping to resolve conflict. When completing this step, it is important that both parties are not personal, rather objective and are willing to view point of views of other people. The following list includes four ways to gain the appropriate information required without going off topic:  Identifying the issue -This means being clear about what issue each party wants to resolve. Solving to many problems at one time can cause conflict that is not necessary.  Listening to each party with empathy - Each party needs to consider putting themselves in the others shoes so they can understand how each problem is affecting the other person.  Using “I” statements -Using “you’ can often make the person feel as though they are being accused. Conveying only how an individual feels helps to show how it affects just that person rather than accusing others and making them feeldefenceless.  Clarifying feelings and emotions - Rather than assuming that someone is angry, consider whether it’s just the conflict issue causing the tension. Step 3- Agree to what the problem is. The only way to resolve conflict to identify the real problem. It is important what everyone agrees with what the issue is so everyone is resolving the same issue. People can have different roles and interests in the discussions, so everyone needs to agree with what is being resolved first. Step 4- Brainstorm potential solutions When brainstorming ideas, everyone must be involved and everyone should be given an equal chance of getting their views across.  Everyone must be open to all ideas.  Avoid clarifying all ideas otherwise it can cause more conflict.  Keep a list of every idea suggested.  Expand on others ideas and ask for others input.
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  4  Be creativeand think outside the box. No idea is wrong; it can lead to other ideas. Step 5- Finalise a solution. Once all ideas are out, reconsider all the different outcomes. Negotiate which idea best suits every party and will have the better outcome. Conclusion In conclusion, conflict causes many arguments in workplaces, but there is always a way to work through it, it’s just a matter of finding the resolution that will work the situation. This report was made in the hope to explain in depth the use of avoiding or collaborating to resolve conflict. It is important to ensure that all parties are willing to resolve the conflict in the same way to gain a positive outcome. Reference Page Beyond Intractability http://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/win-lose Viewed- 17th July 2016 Updated- January 2013 Publican- Heidi Burgess Chron http://smallbusiness.chron.com/examples-conflicts-resolutions-workplace-11230.html
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  5 Viewed- 19th July 2016 Updated-2016 Publican- David Ingram Executive Education University of Florida http://essentialsofbusiness.ufexec.ufl.edu/resources/human-resources/the-conflict-resolution- process/ Viewed- 20th July 2016 Updated- 2016 Publican- University Alliance Chron http://smallbusiness.chron.com/5-conflict-management-strategies-16131.html Viewed- 20th July 2016 Updated- 2016 Publican- Eric Dontigney Creighton University http://online.creighton.edu/msncr/masters-in-negotiation-and-conflict- resolution/resources/benefits-of-conflict-resolution Viewed- 20th July 2016 Updated- 2016 Publican- not present