Conflict is a state of discord caused by the actual or perceived opposition of needs, values and interests. Conflict as a concept can help explain many aspects of social life such as social disagreement, conflicts of interests, and fights between individuals, groups, or organizations. Without proper social arrangement or resolution, conflicts in social settings can result in stress or tensions among stakeholders.
A clash of interests, values, actions or directions often sparks a conflict. Conflicts refer to the existence of that clash. Psychologically, a conflict exists when the reduction of one motivating stimulus involves an increase in another, so that a new adjustment is demanded. The word is applicable from the instant that the clash occurs. Even when we say that there is a potential conflict we are implying that there is already a conflict of direction even though a clash may not yet have occurred.
Firstly it is important to remember that conflict is normal and a part of our daily lives. It is how we react to it and deal with it that is important. When people are asked the question "what is conflict" they come up with many ideas. If you were asked, "what is conflict", what would your answer be?These answers around the fistare true because conflict can be a very bad thing and cause a lot of pain. However, is conflict always a bad thing? And does it always hurt people?
The conflict cycle can be broken when you and/or the other person or group of people are willing to change ideas and the way you view each other. Both of you have to start to look for positive things in one-another. If you do not change the way you see that person you will forever be locked into the conflict cycle.
The process of collaborative design is relatively complex, and often results in various conflicts due to technical and social factors. Therefore, to understand the relationships between design process and design conflict is critical to improve the collaborative design productivity. The methodology can identify the interdependencies among design tasks, and manipulate the evolution of various design perspectives to facilitate the management of design conflicts. An initial computer implementation of this methodology is presented and its features are discussed.
We do everything we can to avoid conflict, perhaps because past experiences have been unpleasant or we don’t know how to respond to confrontations.
There are two types of conflict in organizations: destructive and constructive. Destructive conflict is manifested by behaviours such as yelling at co-workers or customers, withdrawal from others, or even destruction of property. Anger, fear, or frustration might motivate this type of behaviour. The results from destructive conflict usually are far reaching – more people than the two or three involved are directly or indirectly affected. Typical results from destructive conflict are co-workers avoiding one another, people taking sides and subtly or overtly harassing “the bad guy”, and lower productivity.
On the other hand, constructive conflict can result in increased communication across the organization, enhanced productivity, and less absenteeism and turnover.
As managers and leaders within organizations, there focus clearly must revolve around modelling and coaching for constructive conflict. To effectively coach there team through disagreement, they need to be aware of four typical responses to conflict that they might encounter. These responses are avoidance; rationalization; “yes means no”; and refusal.
Another response to conflict is rationalization. “I won’t confront my co-worker about her constant interruptions during meetings because it’ll get better.” “Someone else will tell Bob he’s doing the monthly reports wrong.” Without constructive criticism, co-workers or direct reports may not even be aware of their offending behaviours or work deficiencies….and there’s little chance of improvement if that’s the case.
Yet another approach to potential conflict is for someone to say “yes” to a request or statement when they really mean “no”. I’ve encountered this when, as a customer, I’ve requested a solution or fix to a situation or unsatisfactory purchase. The sales rep may tell me (in person) whatever I want to hear to get me out the door, only to leave a voicemail later with a different story. This certainly doesn't build a level of trust or open communication!
The final response I’ve observed is outright refusal to engage in dialogue. When this occurs, a person may simply walk away from a discussion that begins to get uncomfortable. When one or more parties decide to disengage, there’s no chance of collaboration and the situation will eventually spiral downward.
We’re accustomed to win-lose confrontations in our society; however, I believe we shouldn’t accept a “one winner, one loser” outcome.
Characteristics of win-win confrontations are: common goals are sought; compromises occur; and everyone wins. To pursue common goals, both parties involved in a disagreement must be willing to divulge what they really want, as opposed to simply staking out a position.
The key to success is that both sides find shared concerns and then move together towards addressing those concerns. You may not always get what you want, but I’ll bet that you get what you need.
http://www.e-hresources.com/Articles/Oct2001.htm
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