2. 2
Introduction
This report aims to explain what conflict is and how it can be stopped through resolution. In this report,
two strategies are discussed in depth to help support and explain how conflict can be resolved and what
benefits it will have, not only for an individual, but for the peers of the individual and the community. As
an add on to this information, this report will also explain what to do if conflict cannot be resolved and a
step by step guide as to how to resolve conflict based on one of the two strategies this report is based on.
3. 3
Contents Page
Conflict and Resolution
what is conflict?
Examples of conflict in the workplace
What is conflict resolution?
WIN-WIN/WIN-LOSE/LOSE-LOSE/NEGOTIATE
Strategy One- Avoiding conflict
what is it?
How does it work?
Strategy Two- Collaborating
what is it?
How does it work?
Benefits of Conflict Resolution
what is gained?
Non-resolved Conflict
what to do
what can happen
Step by Step Guide to Resolving Conflict using Collaboration
Step 1- Setting the scene
Step 2- Collaborating
Step 3- Agree to what the problem is
Step 4- Brainstorm potential solutions
Step 5- Finalise a solution
4. 4
Conclusion
Reference Page
Conflict and Resolution
What is conflict?
Conflict is the act of a disagreement between two or more parties involved, where there is threat to their
goals or interests by the other. Conflict can cause tension between individuals and parties. This tension
and conflict can drive parties to argue and can leave individuals not talking or feeling uncomfortable in
the situation.
Conflict can also be caused between two or more individual people who do not get along due to their
personal beliefs and values. This often results in racism, sexism, bullying and discomfort. Conflict can be
resolved many ways using different strategies and process. This is referred to as conflict resolution.
Workplace conflict can be caused from; discrimination issues, performance-review issues, conflict
between customers,leadership conflicts and personality clashes. Some examples of conflict in the
workplace are described below.
Example one:
Julie is a new employee at a small retail store. She has an ethnical background and has a strong accent
which can sometimes cause confusion when she talks. One of the other employees, Jenna has been
working at the store for many years and feels she over rules everyone. Jenna begins bossing Julie around
and picking on her accent and cultural background. This causes Julie to feeluncomfortable and causes
conflict between the two of them. Julie starts calling in sick for work and feels unsure what she should do.
Example two:
A writer in a magazine company writes an article which he feels seems one of his best pieces of work. He
takes it to his manager who feels it is not up to standards. The writer and the manager begin arguing and
cause conflict throughout the work area. Everyone feels torn on who is right and who is wrong and makes
everyone feel on edge.
Example three:
5. 5
Phoebe and Ryan are running a camp group. They both feel they are the higher person and being having
personality clashes. This causes they rest of the group to be unsure what to do and makes the camp group
frustrating and causes conflict between Phoebe and Ryan.
What is conflict resolution?
Conflict resolution is when the act of conflict comes to an end. This generally results in all parties coming
to a conclusion to accept and move on. In some circumstance though, one party may have to forfeit to
bring the conflict to ease. The following list explains the four different outcomes from conflict resolution.
WIN-WIN
A win-win outcome works when each party benefit from the resolution and both leave feeling as though
they have won. This result in either groups or individuals having respect for one-another, the conflict
being settled and having no bad feelings toward each other.
WIN-LOSE
The result of a win-lose outcome is when only one side feels the situation is positive. This occurs being
one group or individual is unhappy and the other is happy but the conflict is settled. This can often cause
lack of respect between people or groups.
LOSE-LOSE
In the result of a lose-lose situation, both parties finish the conflict battle worse off. This outcome offer
occurs when a win-win outcome could have been presented but a lack in cooperation causes both parties
to feel defeated instead of both feeling as though they have won. This often occurs because things begin
getting worse than when they started, there is a lack of respect for others and results in the conflict being
unresolved.
NEGOTIATE
Negotiation can help hugely when it comes to conflict. The presents of other ideas can draw ease to the
situation and can uprise better ideas and allow the individuals or groups to work together or agree on a
better tactic. Negotiating
allows both parties to agree to
disagree or agree on a set term for a
win-win outcome.
6. 6
www.linkedin.com
Conflict resolution strategies
There are many conflict strategies which help to resolve conflict which can end in any of the above
outcomes. There a five common strategies, including; accommodating, avoiding, collaborating,
compromising and competing. This section will go into depth about two of these strategies; avoiding and
collaborating.
Avoiding
By avoiding a conflict situation, it puts of the chance of conflict completely. Though, by avoiding
conflict, there avoider is suggested to hope that the issue will resolve itself without any confrontation or
discussion. People who have low self-esteem or have a low position power are more likely to use this
strategy as they do not deputise saying and misguiding their point of view.
This strategy can rebound also and leave the avoider in a win-lose situation. When seen to be avoiding the
issue, it can cause the avoider to seem slack and unwilling to try and can leave them losing the situation.
This strategy works well when needing to put a situation to rest. By avoiding the situation it can let it
disappear and allow time to move on. Though, avoiding it and moving on can make the situation build up
more tension and become worse.
7. 7
Avoiding conflict works well in the process of dismissing an employee whom is popular but
unproductive, and in the process of hiring someone who has better productive potential for the position.
By avoiding conflict in this situation allows the dismisser to do their job without tension on their behalf.
Collaborating
The process of collaborating provides that both parties work together to find a suitable solution. The
outcome of this strategy is win-win where both parties finish feeling as though they have won. This
strategy works by all parties sharing and combining ideas to come up with a suitable and often better idea.
The process of collaboration, though seems the best and suitable strategy, it is also very time consuming
and involves significant time which is not appropriate to all conflict situations. When a conflict situation
needs to be resolved immediately, this strategy would not be suitable.
Putting this strategy into an example where producers of a magazine company cannot come to a
conclusion for an article, using the process of collaborating, they would have time to sit down, discuss and
research and collaborate their ideas to produce a suitable article where both ideas are involved and used.
www.yourarticlelibrary.com
8. 8
Benefits of conflict resolution
When resolving conflict, it is important that all parties recognise what the issue is so a better
understanding of the situation can be gained. By recognising this, there is a better chance of preventing
the same conflict situation in the future.
By resolving conflict it promotes that a clear understanding and a fair outcome is reached. If conflict is
not resolved, it can cause ongoing tension and future stressors for all parties and the company (this is
assuming the conflict is within the workplace). Not only does the conflict continue in the workplace, it
can also cause the parties outside lives to become engrossed in the situation and become overly stressed.
Not resolving the situation can cause break downs in the workplace and cause work efficiency and team
work to fall apart causing awkwardness and failure within the workplace.
Resolving conflict also allows for:
New knowledge
Different views
Innovative strategies
New perspectives
Increased understanding
Increased group cohesion
Improved self-knowledge
9. Resolving conflict within the workplace and outside of the workplace is an important aspect and arises
fairly often in life. Knowing how to resolve conflict situations and its benefits will help to prevent an
ongoing argument and issue that all parties are clear on other ideas, goals and interests so everyone can
work in a fair and suitable manner.
murphycam
pbell.com
What to do when conflict is not resolved
There can often be situation in which a conflict situation cannot be resolved. This can be due to someone
not wanting to let go of their own views, parties being misguided or the process of resolution only makes
the situation worse.
When conflict can’t be resolved, there are a few things groups can do. Providing a third party view to see
if they can resolve or mediate the situation to make it fair, or for both teams to let go and avoid the
situation. If the conflict becomes worse, leaving the group or party can ensure that the individual will not
be continually drawn into the arguments and provide that they can try on their own.
When conflict is between two individuals and cannot be resolved, coming to an end and having one
individual step down can often be the only way to end the conflict. Conflict can cause a person to feel
they need to be seen as the bigger person, but sometimes, being that bigger person involves being seen as
the less powered person by the other individual.
Note: Conflict should never be resolved by violence or emotional abuse.
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projectmanagementhacks.com
Step by Step Guide to Resolving Conflict using Collaboration
Step 1- Setting the scene.
To begin resolving conflict through the process of collaborating, there a four things to ensure all parties
keep in mind:
Using mutual respect and courtesy is important to promoting good relationships.
Only focus on the real issue, don’t separate the problem and make it worse.
Carefully and respectfully pay attention to others interests and ideas.
Don’t be close minded; be open to exploring all options and goals.
In this step, paraphrasing statements back to the person who presented the idea ensures that you are
actively listening and understanding them clearly.
Step 2- Collaborate information.
11. 3
Gaining a better understanding of individual’s needs and goals is important when hoping to resolve
conflict. When completing this step, it is important that both parties are not personal, rather objective and
are willing to view point of views of other people.
The following list includes four ways to gain the appropriate information required without going off
topic:
Identifying the issue
-This means being clear about what issue each party wants to resolve. Solving to many problems
at one time can cause conflict that is not necessary.
Listening to each party with empathy
- Each party needs to consider putting themselves in the others shoes so they can understand how
each problem is affecting the other person.
Using “I” statements
-Using “you’ can often make the person feel as though they are being accused. Conveying only
how an individual feels helps to show how it affects just that person rather than accusing others
and making them feeldefenceless.
Clarifying feelings and emotions
- Rather than assuming that someone is angry, consider whether it’s just the conflict issue causing
the tension.
Step 3- Agree to what the problem is.
The only way to resolve conflict to identify the real problem. It is important what everyone agrees with
what the issue is so everyone is resolving the same issue. People can have different roles and interests in
the discussions, so everyone needs to agree with what is being resolved first.
Step 4- Brainstorm potential solutions
When brainstorming ideas, everyone must be involved and everyone should be given an equal chance of
getting their views across.
Everyone must be open to all ideas.
Avoid clarifying all ideas otherwise it can cause more conflict.
Keep a list of every idea suggested.
Expand on others ideas and ask for others input.
12. 4
Be creative and think outside the box. No idea is wrong; it can lead to other ideas.
Step 5- Finalise a solution.
Once all ideas are out, reconsider all the different outcomes. Negotiate which idea best suits every party
and will have the better outcome.
Conclusion
In conclusion, conflict causes many arguments in workplaces, but there is always a way to work through
it, it’s just a matter of finding the resolution that will work the situation. This report was made in the hope
to explain in depth the use of avoiding or collaborating to resolve conflict. It is important to ensure that all
parties are willing to resolve the conflict in the same way to gain a positive outcome.
Reference Page
Beyond Intractability
http://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/win-lose
Viewed- 17th
July 2016
Updated- January 2013
Publican- Heidi Burgess
Chron
http://smallbusiness.chron.com/examples-conflicts-resolutions-workplace-11230.html
13. 5
Viewed- 19th
July 2016
Updated- 2016
Publican- David Ingram
Executive Education University of Florida
http://essentialsofbusiness.ufexec.ufl.edu/resources/human-resources/the-conflict-resolution-
process/
Viewed- 20th
July 2016
Updated- 2016
Publican- University Alliance
Chron
http://smallbusiness.chron.com/5-conflict-management-strategies-16131.html
Viewed- 20th
July 2016
Updated- 2016
Publican- Eric Dontigney
Creighton University
http://online.creighton.edu/msncr/masters-in-negotiation-and-conflict-
resolution/resources/benefits-of-conflict-resolution
Viewed- 20th
July 2016
Updated- 2016
Publican- not present
