Conflict Management
“The absence of conflict is not harmony its apathy.”
Conflict Management
Managers are often frustrated by the challenge of manageing conflict. They know that disagreement or conflict over issues is normal and necessary. When making decisions under conditions of uncertainty, we are probably going to have disagreements about what is best for the company or for that matter for our child’s education or where to have to take the family vacation.
Management Teams
When members of management teams challenge each other’s thinking, they develop a better understanding of the choices, create a broader set of options and eventually make more effective decisions in today’s competitive environment.
Conflict can turn Unproductive
A comment made as a substantive remark can easily be taken as a personal attack. What started out as a creative meeting can turn into anger at colleagues. Substantive issues become confused with personality issues. Executives who pride themselves on being rational decision makers find it difficult to manage such irrational emotional behaviour.
The Challenge
How to keep creative conflict over issues from becoming dysfunctional interpersonal conflict? How to encourage managers to disagree without harming their ability to work together as a team?
Linking Conflict with Performance
There exists a body of evidence that conflict over issues is probable in top-management teams but also valuable. Where there is little conflict over issues it is more likely that poor decisions are made. “Groupthink” has caused major public and corporate failures. Teams that engage in healthy conflict over issues make better decisions and move forward faster. The key to successful teams is to minimize interpersonal conflict.
Not only conflict Resolution
There are two general views of conflict. One assumes that conflict is dysfunctional and harmful to organizations. It holds that disagreement over incompatible goals prevents people and organizations from being productive and reaching their potential. The second view holds that conflict is a natural part of organizational life that can improve the quality of decision-making and increase effectiveness (Schwenk, 1990).
Conflict management skills
Conflict management skills are important if individuals are to function effectively at any level within organizations. The ability to resolve conflicts successfully is a vital skill which has two sub skills: the cognitive (Do I understand how conflict can be resolved?), and the behavioural (Can I resolve specific conflicts?). It is essential that a manager understands how he/she resolves conflict him/herself.
The five styles of conflict management:
- Integrating or Collaborating: This style has both, a high concern for self and for others. People with this style focus on collaboration, openness, and exchange of information. They prefer to analyze conflict issues thoroughly and openly with all parties. Those with integrative styles focus on problem solving and finding a win-win solution.
- Avoiding: This style has both low concern for self and for others. People with the avoiding style approach conflict by suppressing and ignoring the issues. By avoiding conflict, they do not address their own nor other people's goals. They avoid conflict and deny its existence and refuse to deal with issues.
- Obliging or accommodating: This style involves a low concern for self and a high concern for others. People with this style focus on the needs of others while sacrificing their own. Those with this style resolve conflict by focusing on similarities, playing down differences, and setting aside their own goals.
- Dominating or forcing. This style shows a high concern for self and a low concern for others. The style is also known as competing because people who use it see conflict as a competition to win. Dominating people resolve conflict by imposing their will through any means. This approach creates a win-lose situation that can exacerbate conflicts.
- Compromising: This style has an intermediate concern for both self and others. This style tries to achieve a middle ground. It moves to a give-take position where there are no clear losers or winners. Everybody ends up with something, but not everything they want. Compromising focuses on diplomacy. It satisfies rather than optimizes. Managers who use this style can be successful in reaching an agreement. However, because the goal is agreement not results, it can lead to negative results on certain occasions.