Ch. 12 Mrs. Curry

  Conflict: a struggle between two or more parties who sense interference in achieving their goals. Understanding Conflict

  Benefits: The frustration of a conflict situation often motivates people to confront and solve problems that face their relationships or working environment. By working through conflict, you are likely to learn something about yourself and the others around you. Sometimes the process of conflict can provide a solution to the initial problem. Understanding Conflict

  Destruction: If a conflict is not managed effectively, it can damage or destroy relationships Understanding Conflict

  Conflict can occur on any of the five levels of communication:  Intrapersonal  Group  Environmental  Interpersonal  Organizational Determine the Level of Conflict

  Hockey team example  Long term group of friends v the new guy  Interpersonal conflict: one person v another person  Group conflict: one person v whole group Group Conflict

  Example: Employees v. Management/policies  Unsafe, outdated, crowded, or otherwise ineffective conditions at a work site.  Changes in policy- causes retraining, etc. Organizational Conflict

  Example: work space in biology lab  Conflict doesn’t result from the person you are working with, but rather the lack of work space you have. Environmental Conflict

  Fact: disagreement over something that can be proven to be true or false.  Easiest to resolve  Values: disagreement over priorities; deeply personal and rooted in what someone believes  Most difficult to resolve  Policies: disagreement that deals with differences over how to best complete a task  Usually requires a third-party Types of Conflict

  Roles : Some conflicts may be caused by roles. The role you play in a particular situation tends to give you a perspective that is different from that of someone in another role. Ex: employees v employer; ex: teacher v student; ex: coach v athlete  Power Struggle : Competition  Unclear Guidelines  Personal Style  External Stress Sources of Conflict

  Strategies:  Avoidance  Accommodation  Coercion  Compromise  Negotiation  Collaboration Resolution

  Keeping away from or withdrawing from something. Avoidance can be physical or psychological.  Physical: You actually stay away from the person you might have conflict with; if you can’t then you choose to “live with” the situation at hand  Psychological: Deny that there is conflict; ignore the topic of conflict Avoidance

  Maintaining harmony with others by giving in to their wishes. This is a variation of avoidance.  Positive effect: If you made a mistake, you admit your error and move on, rather than trying to cover it up. Accommodation

  Trying to force others to go along with your wishes.  Negative: When people are forced into an agreement, they won’t like it and may eventually retaliate or rebel against you.  You might “win” now, but it’ll come back to bite you. Coercion

  Settling differences by having each party give up something.  Each person makes small sacrifices Compromise

  Bargaining with others to gain what you want.  You determine what you are willing to give up and what you are not willing to give up in the final solution. Negotiation

  Working together to achieve some result.  Does not involve competition/conflict Collaboration