Abstract
It is natural for a conflict to arise with any organization. After all, people have different viewpoints, and certain circumstances escalate those differences into a conflict. The paper looks into the common conflicts that arise within the industry and designs a training program to promote understanding of conflicts on the parties involved. The strategies for conflict and short and long term objectives of the training are summed for both theory and practice. Any organization can work to its optimum efficiency only is the team can handle the interpersonal conflicts efficiently.
Introduction
Conflicts are unavoidable in any origination. The positivism of conflicts is that they provide both a challenge and an opportunity for every leader to grow his potential to handle conflict and how to negotiate with others so as to overcome the differences. When one thinks of conflicts, it is though as a struggle between people and organizations, where opposing forces are pulling the participants in different directions. While conflict can lead to uncomfortable situations, it is not unhealthy and is a good platform for the leadership situations. Common techniques like communications, negotiation or compromise can help to deal with the situation constructively. When people differ in their viewpoints, they need to negotiate with others in authentic ways. A mutual agreement is always possible to deal with any conflict situation.
Conflicts can arise at workplace between workers, employees, employers, supervisors, customers, suppliers, regulatory agencies, etc. Conflicts will arise when people with different viewpoints, experiences and skills come together. One of the key management competency in any organization is how well they can handle the conflicts and maintain a positive workplace environment (SellsFolger et al, 1997). The skill lies in managing conflict and creates a positive change. When the efficiency of problem solving increases, the interpersonal relationships at workplace become stronger, and the stress associated with the conflict fades away. Healthy and constructive conflict is seen as an important component of high-functioning teams.
An important component of high-functioning teams is seen to be healthy and constructive conflict. The key lies in taking advantage of those conflicts and make a combined effort to overcome those differences before they grow into full-blown disputes. A training is essential to understand the psychology and strategy of the opposition and the complexity of the interactions between the tactics associated. The aim is to make the conflict serve as a constructive transformative vehicle (Shonholtz, 1997) with the help of specifically designed programs. The objective of the training is to help understand the different types of conflicts under different scenarios and how to manage those conflicts constructively.
Workshop Design
The design, content and methods, the choice and arrangement of the location, the teaching methods and materials form an important part of the training workshops. These aspects will influence what the participants learn and how they carry the learning to their work environment. The purpose of the training is to help them feel a deeper appreciation for the value of conflict, practice cooperative negotiations, nurture problem-solving methodologies so as to overcome the differences. As each conflict situation is unique and dynamic, it would be difficult to recommend the best conflict resolution approach.
Participants can come from different backgrounds in terms of organizational or national affiliation. Trainers for imparting education on conflict transformation should carry credibility and authenticity (Schmelzle, 2004). It would help to have carefully composed teams from different backgrounds and ethno-political groups to help create a central value of conflict transformation. The transformation training for conflict management should go on for two to three days and even several weeks. The training workshops for one week are the most frequent, and it is essential to offer breaks and free time in-between for regular focus and concentration, as well as provide grounds for a personal encounter.
The location for the training is important, and the remote locations offer the advantage of higher concentrated group-work. Urban locations too offer a good choice for training workshop as they are easier to reach and more exciting.
The training will help the participants to realize that conflict is a part of daily life and it is very imp aorta to learn the art of conflict management strategies. A winning situation would be when the decision is viewed favorably from both perspectives (Saltman et al, 2006). Conflicts solving can lead to constructive and destructive outcome. Growth occurs under constructive conflict when groups are unified, and the problems are resolved. There is an increase in productivity and commitment. On the other hand, unsatisfactorily resolution of conflict can lead to decrease in productivity and satisfaction.
Short and Long Term Objectives
The participants should get trained to understand that conflict cannot be avoided, and focus should be on how to minimize the destructive effects and work on the constructive outcomes. Goal for short term should have the flexibility so as to keep the communication open with the other party (Saltman et al, 2006).
The trainees rehearse the negotiating process so as to check out all the possibilities of confrontation and get aware of the worst and best case scenarios. It also helps to understand the background of the conflict, and why and how it happened. The trainers formulate short and long term objectives and responsibilities, regarding conflict, explain its pros and cons. These include to how to plan ahead to handle conflict and analyze the sources and intensity of conflict, as well as recognize the type of conflicts. The objective is to analyze the situation and recognize the key players and their personalities. Open communication is very essential, and the objective is to maintain flexibility so as to keep the doors open for communication. The two approaches that don’t work with conflict are ignoring it or attacking it. The objective here is to learn the healthy approach to conflict and promote a mutual exchange of ideas. The democratic context of Conflict management between disputing parties enhances communication and promotes a constructive interaction. Communication in a positive environment motivates the parties to seek some common grounds of the resolution and clarify differences.
Theory and Practice The training should include identification of specific situations, role definition of participants, implementation design strategies and how to manage difficult situations (Shonholtz, 1997). It is found that there is limited understanding of democratic mechanisms, poor communications and lack of trust often work as a breeding ground for conflicts.
The training involves a group decision-making exercise and a sequential role-play. The day's activities should end what summary discussion, reviewing the events from the exercises. The objective is to get to the underlying dimensions of the situations that lead to conflicts. There are different kinds of conflicts, and the training focuses on personal, intragroup and intergroup conflicts that are quite common in any industry. According to Conflict management training for today's engineering managers, (1992), the conflicts can occur between two individuals and in groups. There are separate exercises to simulate these types of conflict during the training. There is a list of programs to exercise both interpersonal conflicts between groups and individual that cover conflicts under broad categories. These are conflicts that involve unrealistic demands and those conflicts that involve supervisory decisions. Then there are conflicts arising from real differences between employees and outside forces. Different hypothetical scenarios were written and enacted by the participants. Some examples of realistic situations for training are how $20,000 funds for management should be used, monetary rewards for deserving the employee, or creating performance appraisal, etc.
There are role-play exercises for the participants in one of the different scenarios. Both participants and observers are actively involved in these exercises, thus commanding full focus and complete involvement. The participants get a firsthand experience of the impact of their behavior son others and how they would feel when faced with conflicts in the future. By keeping small groups of eight to ten participants, the training ensures higher effectiveness. They are also provided literature and articles related to conflict management.
Summary
The conflict-management session starts with lectures on understanding the meaning of conflict, the different types of conflict, sources of conflict and outcomes of conflict. The next session deals with different strategies to deal with conflict based on different approaches. The participants should realize that in order to understand conflicts, it is essential to understand emotions. The participants are placed in a conflicting position and time pressure in the group exercise, and encouraged to defend a position.
It is seen that the functionality of the conflict handling behaviors can only be understood when the outcome criteria are understood. The potential duality of the personal and organizational criteria offers useful insights. The literature related to conflict management are grouped into the content categories of concept and cause of the conflicts, understand the root causes and how to develop conflict management strategies (Shockley-Zalabak, 1984). The training program is suitable for general level employees. Conflict can be productive as long as it is dealt with directly, quickly and transparently. It is essential to respect emotions and maintain a healthy atmosphere. It is essential to remain open to other people's ideas, beliefs, and be flexible to new ways of thinking.
References
Conflict management training for today's engineering managers. (1992). Journal of Management in Engineering,8(3), 298-305.
Pamela S Shockley-Zalabak. (1984). Current conflict management training: An examination of practices in ten large american organizations. Group & Organization Studies (Pre-1986), 9(4), 491.
Shonholtz, R. (1997). Conflict management training: A transformative vehicle for transitional democracies.International Negotiation, 2(3), 437-450.
SellsFolger, J., Poole, M., & Stutman, R. (1997). Working through Conflict, Business & Economics.
Saltman, D. C., O'Dea, N. A., & Kidd, M. R. (2006). Conflict management: A primer for doctors in training. Postgraduate Medical Journal, 82(963), 9-12.
Schmelzle, B. (2004). Training for Conflict Transformation – An Overview of Approaches and Resources. Research Centre for Constructive Conflict Management.
