Conflict Management Styles Essay Example for Free

Conflict Management Styles Essay Conflict usually occurs when individuals within a group or organization has differences in opinions. When individuals are in a disagreement about something like policies and procedures or even the overall direction of which an organization or company is heading it can become very frustrating. As we all know conflict the process of conflict usually begins when an individual or party has perceived the other part and it has showed a negative impact or will affect something that another party cares about. According to the readings in Chapter 15 the early approach of conflict saw that all conflict was labeled to be bad. Conflict then had a negative vibe and was used often to be linked with such terms as violence, destruction, or irrationality as reinforcement to its negative association. There are several types of conflict from the integrationist point of view that includes functional and dysfunctional conflict. Functional conflict usually arises during when the goals of a group are supported and the performance rises. On the other hand dysfunctional conflict is conflicts that hinder the performance of the group as a whole. The conflict process consists of five stages that include potential opposition, incompatibility, cognition and personalization, intentions, behaviors, and outcomes. In my workplace the most common form of conflict management is potential opposition and incompatibility. I have worked for Viking Range Corporation for 10 years now and I enjoy my work there. My Supervisor is always open for communication but this is one of the most vital parts that bring about conflict in my organization. Most of the times communication plays a huge role in the effectiveness of the company. Communication is the biggest problem that we have as a whole throughout the facility because there always seem to be conflict that arises between departments on part outages, and department personnel. Conflict is something we can’t avoid whether at home or at the workplace. Conflict will be present in just about every human interaction that we come across and this can make the strategies that we use for conflict management very important. According to (Conflict Management Home-versus-work) â€Å"Conflict management strategies vitally increase the performance and effectiveness of an individual and in turn the effectiveness of the organization as a whole. † I am an individual that can’t handle or try to avoid conflict. I have been a part of a lot of confrontations and I try to avoid them at all costs. â€Å"In the same article Rahim and Bonama’s (1979) categorization of the styles of settling interpersonal conflict is based on two facades, first when a person considers himself and his own concerns and the second when a person considers others and the concerns of others. Their styles for handling conflict include an integrating style in which a person considers his style and the styles of others. Secondly would be the avoiding style in which the individual has no concerns for their self as well as others. Thirdly would be obliging in which the individual posses a concern for others but not himself. The next one is the dominating style in which the individual has high concerns for himself for low concerns for others. Lastly we have the compromising style in which the individual possess some consideration for himself and some for others. I can relate more to the dominating style because in my organization every department is usually out for themselves meaning they like to maintain a high standard by any means. However, one thing that I have learned that is being a part of the business world there will always be some form of conflict and differences of opinions will arise so it is best to handle the situation immediately. By acknowledging that there is conflict present and communication has come to a standstill we can decrease the problems that unsolved conflict can bring about in any organization. One way that we deal with conflict in our organization is by acknowledging the goals of each department as well as the employees. The Supervisor over our department does not handle conflict well and he tries to avoid any altercations at all costs. With me being next in line he will usually push things of this nature off for me to handle. I often deal with the situations by bringing the employees into the office to see what the problem is in forms of communication and what caused the problem to begin with. I have tried to encourage my Supervisor to deal with situations in the future before they occur and he has taken steps on his own to deal with situations where he sense conflict. He can actually sense when there is a lack of communication and conflict is about to arise so he stops it before it starts by bringing both individuals into the office to try and get to the root of the problem before something major happens. This same occurrence can happen between male and female management personnel that can’t seem to see eye to eye and have issues that lead to conflict. According to (Conflict Management Modes and Leadership Styles) â€Å"most individual characteristics have an impact on the instruments analyzed, for example: younger managers are more task-oriented, while older managers are typically relationship- oriented and avoid conflicts, women are more collaborative and avoid conflicts less and men tend to use the accommodating mode more than women. â€Å"Rather surprisingly, according to our survey, women appear to be more competitive than men. The compromising style of conflict matches my personal preference tremendously, because I can relate to this style in my organization on a day to day basis. Being in my field of work there will always be a competition between the male and female employees as well as male and female management personnel. I look at this as something that will be unavoidable because there will always be a power struggle between the genders. So I try to look at things from a bigger perspective and consider both parties involved because there will always be differences in opinions.