Проектная работа “Conflicts in our life” («Конфликты в нашей жизни»)

Апастовская средняя общеобразовательная школа

с углубленным изучением отдельных предметов

Апастовского муниципального района Республики Татарстан

«Conflicts in our life»

                               Проектную работу

               выполнили учащиеся 9А класса

                               Закирова Кадрия

                               Самигуллина Илюза

Апастово, 2013 год

The questions we tried to answer:

 1. What is conflict?
2. Why do conflicts happen?
3. Types of conflicts.
4. How to avoid conflicts?
5. How to resolve a conflict?

                                                “Those who can't cook soup, make the porridge”.

                                                                                                    (Valentin Domil)

Conflicts are a part of everyday life. Many people find resolving conflicts a difficult job, as it is a tricky thing to deal with. In our work, we will talk about some simple conflict resolution strategies, which will be useful in resolving ongoing conflicts, or even help in preventing potential conflicts in the future.

We often face conflicts in our personal as well as professional lives. But many times we think, why address a conflict and create one more or make matters more complicated? It is better to keep quiet and just see whatever is going on and go along with the flow of things! However, this strategy may not work for a long period. A time will come in life where we will find it difficult to bear the conflicts, and this would result in frustration and stress. Moreover, it could also spoil one's health and career growth options. Therefore, instead of getting frustrated and ruining precious life moments, it is much better to find a solution to whatever the problem may be. This will not only help in resolving the conflict, but will also help in avoiding such conflicts in the future.

Strategies for Conflict Resolution

Stay Calm

Even before getting to the root cause of the problem and trying to resolve it, one important thing to remember is to remain calm. It goes without saying that there will be negativity if there is a conflict. But this can also be taken as an opportunity to resolve differences and strengthen relationships in the long run. How many times have we ourselves experienced or seen others, who have had a conflict, solve it and then become good buddies. Am not saying it will happen all the time, but the best thing to do at the start is to be calm. Being aggressive or doing something in haste or anger will only worsen the situation even further.

Speak Up

This happens with most people, they isolate themselves from their friends, relatives and family, when they are going through a bad phase or are facing any type of conflicts in their life. However, such a strategy does not work. This is because, the more you keep quiet, the bigger the conflict gets. It is therefore advisable to speak your mind. Speak about your conflicts to your friends, relatives, or whoever else is close to you. Get an expert advice from the elder members of your family. This would help you to resolve the conflict. Apart from speaking with your friends and relatives, keep your ego aside, gather enough courage and speak directly with the person concerned. Discuss the reasons, make a compromise, and reach a mutual settlement, where both of you are happy and contended with whatever is decided. I suppose this is the best strategy to resolve a conflict.

Listen

Speaking gives you the liberty to express your thoughts. But when it comes to conflict resolution, speaking proves to be effective only after listening to something. So if you wish to come up with a good solution to resolve a conflict, develop your listening skills. Listening doesn't mean just hearing the problem and leaving it at that. But here, it means to actually listen and understand the problem, and develop a solution in your mind simultaneously. Listening not only helps in developing a solution, but also makes you understand the point of view of the person in front of you. If you listen to others, they will also listen to you, so that you can express your thoughts. A mutual understanding of the feelings and expectations of both the parties would thus resolve the conflict and strengthen the bond as well.

Be Assertive

Assertiveness plays an important role when it comes to conflict management. Assertiveness is a combination of several different qualities. While being assertive you need to be patient, a good listener, confident, and have a positive approach towards life. Such a communication process resolves most of the conflicts, and is beneficial to both the parties. Avoid using words such as 'I do' or 'I don't do'. Instead, use words like 'I feel' or 'I believe'. Remember the principle, 'I'm OK, You're OK', while being assertive to resolve a conflict. It should be a 'win-win' situation for everyone. Do not be biased, think from all the possible perspectives, and verify all the facts.

Forget It

Time is said to be the best medicine to cure the wounds caused to your mind and heart. If you have tried everything that was possible from your side, and all your negotiation skills and conflict resolution strategies have failed to resolve the conflict, then it is advisable to maintain a distance from that person for some time. Let time heal your wounds, and once that is done, forget everything, meet up once again and speak. But if you think that the conflict would never get resolved, then cut ties forever. It is better to cut ties than bear the conflict for an eternity.

Conflicts can occur not only between individuals but in groups too. Also, you never know, from a conflict, you may learn something new or useful from the other person's point of view. So keep all these things in mind. Use these conflict resolution strategies and you will definitely come up with an effective solution. Life is too short to spend time on petty issues like disputes and conflicts. So see that you avoid conflicts in the future and sort out your differences with anyone, amicably. But yes, also remember to 'think' before you speak, or your words might lead to another conflict. If you have a conflict, get it resolved, instead of stewing over it forever!

Conflict resolution in the workplace can be a tricky issue. The problem is that they cannot be ignored and the organization leaders are in a fix as well as things might turn out to be real nasty. Scroll down and see if these strategies for conflict resolution are useful.

They say that as many people there are, there are lines of thinking. So most of the time we beg to differ. In extreme cases this can lead to a really bad argument and conflict. In a workplace, these conflicts are not unheard off. Where there are different individuals, people will argue and sometimes while putting across a point they go overboard. A bitter conflict then takes place in the workplace. Organization leaders then have to intervene at some point lest the things sway totally out of control.

Conflict Resolution Strategies

No Man-to-Man Meet

No, this is not to say that as a leader you should not meet the individuals involved in conflict. What I meant was speak to both the parties together. Let both the parties put across their arguments. While one side is doing that, the other side should not interrupt. If that happens you would need to put your foot down. Never meet the parties separately. This is the cardinal rule in employee management in such a case.

Out With It

Remember that phrase a stitch in time saves nine? Well, use it here for dealing with workplace conflicts. As a person at senior level you need to sense if something is brewing. If you notice anything which might turn into an official hurricane, resolve that problem or rather the conflict there and then. This will save a lot of problems in the future and is a basic thing while handling conflict in the workplace.

View the Point

Try and understand the perspectives of both the sides and what they want the other person to do, which will take you a step closer to sort out the conflict. A single suggestion might not be plausible so there has to be more than 1 option. You being on a higher rung at the same time should also shoulder some responsibility and think whether the work environment is conducive for the other employees. Read more on conflict management.

Avoid Taking Sides

Be clear to yourself and let others know about the fact that you are not going to support a single side. Let them understand the fact that as a neutral person you can just give suggestions and not know the intertwining of the conflict. You expect them to sort out the matter proactively. But simultaneously you would need to be firm on the fact that you may have to take the necessary action for conflict resolution in the workplace.

Four Approaches

One of the best conflict resolution techniques in the workplace is to have a collaborative style. It is good as it combines cooperation as well as assertion. It is best when you have diverse viewpoints and you have to get a solution combining them. There are other approaches to resolving conflict at the workplace or even anywhere else. These are competitive, compromising, accommodating and avoiding. Depending on the person and nature, these styles are adopted by people. All these are, however, sort of extremes of the grid.

End Result

Try and work out the end result which will be the golden mean. Of course that has to be keeping in mind both the perspectives. All you need is to have faith in both the parties and in yourself to solve the issue and carry on with the work of contributing to the organization.

Ultimately it is best to keep in mind even if there are 2 sides who are actively involved in the conflict, the whole organization is going to feel the jitters of a conflict and will be impacted by that. So the root cause behind the conflict, something like dissatisfaction about something related to the organization has to be worked upon.

That's it! Conflict resolution in the workplace is all about keeping cool and being rational! I am sure there is no conflict there!

Handling Conflict

We want to give you some insight into tactfully handling conflicts at the workplace. Workplace conflicts and friction need to be dealt with, if one wants an organization to gel as a team and work together towards a goal.

Where there are people, there are bound to be disagreements, misunderstandings and ego clashes, leading to conflicts. Workplaces can be inherently stressful, if they are converted into an arena, where every employee thinks that he is in a competition. Healthy competition is good, but sometimes it turns nasty and leads to conflicts. There are many other reasons that may lead to conflicts. This article will give you some tips on handling conflict in the work place.

Reasons for Conflict

Only if you get to the root cause of a conflict, can you resolve it, otherwise it stays simmering underneath. Here is a list of some of them:

'I am Always Right' Attitude: This kind of attitude shows a lack of respect and tolerance for the views of other people. Some people refuse to acknowledge that there are many ways to get the same thing done and more than one may be right. This attitude leads to hurt egos at times, which may lead to a conflict later.

Resource Sharing: With limited resources, a conflict may arise due to unequal sharing of resources.

Priorities: In a workplace, the priorities of people are linked to each other's work, as they work in a team. Sometimes, messed up priorities, leading to loss of link in work flow, may lead to conflict.

Misunderstandings: This is the source of most of the conflicts in life and in the workplace.

Power Struggles: The age-old 'struggle for power' syndrome, may lead to conflict most of the time in the workplace.

Values: This is a more deep rooted problem, which arises due to conflicting values. When people with conflicting set of values come together, conflicts are inevitable.

 Handling Conflicts

Workplace conflicts among co-workers can be a cause or product of stress in the work environment. These conflicts should not be ignored, as they may eventually lead to fracturing of an organization, decreased productivity and the loss of valuable employees!      

Conflicts are bad but disagreements are good. Disagreements are indicators, that people are thinking independently. So, if there is a disagreement on an issue or decision between you and an employee, you will get a new perspective on things. You need independently thinking minds, but you also need them to obey your final veto power at times. Handling conflicts and motivating your team to do better, is an art which every head of an organization, must master. Here are some tips.

Make Peace

Most of the conflicts in the workplace can be resolved with just reaching out to the other person and communicating frankly. You need to be tactful. Yelling on him/her is not at all advised. Instead, state facts and make him realize how his or her behavior is adversely affecting your work, calmly. Request him/her to do something about it. Make him realize that you are a team and you do not want this to boil into a full scale conflict and that you both are in the same boat. Make him comfortable by saying that you will correct your ways, if your behavior too is affecting him/her in any way.

Get a Mediator, Have a Sit Down

When differences between you and your co-worker go to the point, where even communicating plainly becomes impossible, it's time for a sit down with a mediator. A mediator should be one, whom you both trust for his unbiased opinion on things or the immediate superior of you both. This task of handling conflict between employees is a delicate matter, which needs to be done tactfully. Let him hear you both out and give his opinion on the issue. Listen to whatever he suggests, as it will be in the best interest of the organization. Make a truce. You do not have to like each other, but you should be able to work with each other. Personal differences need to be kept aside sometimes, for the good of the organization.

Think Win/Win

One way of handling conflicts in the workplace is, thinking win/win. There is no reason for conflict when your interests do not conflict. Talk and make each other understand, how both of you may benefit from resolving your differences. Think positively, it helps.

Respect Each Other

Even if you do not approve of their ways, their approach or do not like each other, you can still respect every person who does his job. In the end, we all just want to do our jobs.

Listen to Each Other

A lot of misunderstandings leading to conflicts in workplace could be avoided, if only people listen to each other! Listen completely to what your colleague wants to say, before reacting with preconceived ideas.

Choose Words Carefully

Sometimes, words hurt unnecessarily. Why use strong words when a soft word can get things done easily? Choose your words carefully, as they go far. You can avoid unnecessary verbal clashes and duels by simply putting what you want to say in straightforward and simple words, without any implied barbs! That way, you make your life simpler and save some precious moments of your life, which you would have uselessly spent in arguing.

Let your Work Speak for Itself

Sometimes, the best strategy is to just focus on your work and let it speak for itself. Just don't involve yourself in office politics, which lead to conflicts at workplace. Ultimately, what matters to your organization is your performance. You will automatically command respect for being a guy who does his job. When you focus totally on what you are doing, you do not have time for getting disturbed by anybody!

There will never be a perfect workplace with perfect employees, as we do not live in a perfect world! Besides, we are human and not automatons. We suffer from irrational quirks and sometimes, our emotions override rational logic. So, a workplace is never entirely going to be conflict free. Hope, this article has given you a rough idea of how to handle conflict in the workplace. The key to handling conflict is building a team spirit and bonding, while being tolerant of differences and respecting each other.

It is human to differ from the rest. And when you are working with many individuals, application of conflict management strategies come into significant demand. So, what strategies should one apply to maintain the harmony? Read on...

The one sentence that we tend to hear quite often when working in a team is, "I beg to differ!" When it comes to managing people and working with them to achieve a common goal, conflicts are something that are inevitable! After all, you are dealing with different individuals with different perceptions and ideologies. It is not always necessary that they will follow everything they are asked to, what is perfect for the organization need not be perfect for all employees. Research states that the managers spend almost 20% of their valuable time in managing conflict in the workplace. Not only this, being associated with a conflict in the workplace also deteriorates the efficiency of the individual, thereby affecting the overall productivity of the organization. Therefore, conflict management strategies are of vital importance in an organization. The manager needs to use his/her judgmental skills on what the situation demands for. Before actually applying a particular strategy towards a situation, managers first need to find answers to the following questions.

Handling conflict between parties, either of which being assertive towards their individual point of views, is not an easy task. The manager needs to be sure that his or her decision addresses and responds to the situation in a justified and productive way. There are a few factors that govern the decision of choosing a strategy to manage the conflicts. These factors include - importance of the issue, time pressure, relationship with the parties involved in the conflict, and authority of the manager over the parties. Whenever a situation arises a conflict, the managers need to focus on the following areas and get productive answers to be able to decide on the strategy that needs to be applied to handle the conflict.

What is the root cause of the conflict?

What were the loop holes from the management's side to give rise to such a conflict?

How can the conflict affect the overall productivity?

Do we have time, or does the conflict needs to be addressed immediately?

How will the conflict impact the organization in both, short-term and long-term?

How will the conflict impact the organization's reputation and relationship with all the related parties?

Once you have analyzed the above questions, it will be easy for you to decide and choose appropriate conflict management strategy among the 5 most famous and universally applied strategies mentioned below.

There are many strategies in this context that one can choose from, but depending on what the situation demands for, it is better to be flexible in your approach when it comes to managing conflict. There is no hard and fast rule to follow a particular type of strategy at a specific situation. Which is why, it is more or less the responsibility of the manager to accurately judge what the situation demands. Nevertheless, coming back to the effective strategies for handling conflict, according to the research of Kenneth W. Thomas and Ralph H. Kilmann, the following five workplace conflict management strategies can help deal with conflicts among teams, people, or opponents. Have a look!Collaboration: This strategy can also be called the "win-win strategy". Collaboration proves to be helpful when the parties holding the conflict are of valued importance. Hence, this strategy requires a lot of cooperation and assertiveness from all the people involved. Teamwork needs to be at its best at this point of time, and a creative solution is required to be formed to resolve the conflict. When this strategy is applied, one needs to have a lot of time and patience in hand, as the entire process is very time-consuming, but totally worth it!

Competition: Also known as the "I win, You lose" strategy, selecting this conflict resolution is apt only when the conflict is not more important than the overall goals and objectives, and therefore, democratic actions and decisions must be taken to protect the interest of the organization. Most of the time this conflict management strategy is used when there is time pressure, and decisions need to be made as quickly as possible.

Compromise: Compromise is a situation where, "I sacrifice a little, and so do you!" Choosing this strategy is best suited when the issue is a little less than very important, or to put it in plain words, "moderately important". This is a situation wherein you don't mind giving up a little to make things work out in peace. Or, if you are in a situation where, in the future, the conflict may lead to a damage so big, that it's better to bend a little to make things work now itself. Many times, compromise is a strategy to settle things down temporarily while it gives us some time to figure out what needs to be done later on.

Accommodation: Accommodating comes when you don't mind losing at your end. This strategy accounts for maximum cooperation and minimum or negligible assertiveness. When you choose this conflict management strategy, you must be willing to let go your desires and focus on the expectations of the other party in conflict. This is the reason why this strategy is also known as "I Lose, You Win" strategy. Therefore, if a situation comes wherein your prime focus is on creating goodwill and building relationships, but the time factor doesn't allow you to collaborate, then this strategy will prove to be of help in handling the conflict. However, you must be willing to accept the fact that you might end up getting less attention and credibility, depending on whatever the situation is.

Avoidance: Last, and should be used the least, is the strategy of avoidance, also known as the "No Winners, No Losers" strategy! When to use it? Well, on a situation which is best dealt when "avoided"! If the matter of conflict isn't worth the time and energy to be put at stake, or, when the time and place is just not right to address the issue, then it is best to avoid the conflict instead of investing time and efforts which will ultimately not prove to be productive at this point in time. However, the thing to be kept in mind while applying this strategy, is to make sure that the issue doesn't create a larger conflict later on, which tends to become unmanageable in the future. Therefore, it is best advised to take care of a situation before it blows out of proportion!

Skills Required to Handle Conflict

Managing conflict isn't something which you can read in theory and successfully implement in practical situations. One needs to keep in mind that the root cause of a conflict is the fact that we are dealing with different human minds. Therefore, there is nothing known as "one-size-fits-all" in this case. What one requires is the skill to be able to handle these conflicting minds and bring a mutual harmony between all the parties, so that all the individual efforts eventually turn out to be productive and satisfactory. The skills required to be efficient in dealing with conflicts are -

Decision-Making Skills

Management Skills

Negotiation Skills

Leadership Skills

Workplace Communication Skills

Time Management Skills

Observing Skills

Studies have shown that people tend to use only one or two strategies most of the time. Therefore, one must be analytical and judgmental towards the conflicting situation and carefully scrutinize all the options before applying a strategy to resolve the conflict. Management must remember the famous saying, "Just because there are no complaints, doesn't mean everyone is happy." Therefore, as responsible managers, be comfortable in managing conflict and try to address the needs and concerns of all the parties involved. And once you are able to judge the kind of attention the conflict requires, it won't be difficult for you to choose among the various strategies to manage conflict, which best fulfills the need of the hour.

Conclusion

We are all people. We have emotions that sometimes are hard to control. We make mistakes that hurt people. To understand reasons and sources of conflicts any person should use advice of older and more experienced people. But the main thing is not to hurry to make a conflict public so that everybody knows about it. This can only make the situation worse.

Resources

http://oim.ru

http://www.webtran.ru/ 

http://www.your-mind.ru/

http://images.yandex.ru/