Conflict Management in Business Communication Building communication bridges in conflict

Communication barriers and conflict: Gender

Linguistic politeness

Speech styles

Interruption and topic control

Biological structure

Effective conflict resolution communication

Conflict Communication

Control

Options

One of the most important determinants of success in any organization is the relationship between the management and staff. Human relations in business is the process of building a strong workplace culture, training employees and resolving conflicts between different parties in the workplace (Buddhodev Sinha, 2011). Simply put, it is a process that involves taking actions or making decisions that can make employees as comfortable as possible. Understanding the different ways through which human relations can affect sustainability, profitability, competitiveness and revenue can help improve organizational performance. However, it is important to note that there will always be issues where many people are working together. It is how such issues are handled that will determine the success of a business. Furthermore, it has only been several decades since executives started putting efforts into human relations after realizing its significant impact on organizational performance (Putnam, 2015).

2. Building Communication Bridges in Conflict

In organizations where many people are working together conflicts are bound to occur. Even the slightest of actions or utterances can result in destructive behaviors or responses. When such conflicts emerge, it is the responsibility of the management or human relations to handle it properly. When conflicts are left to go on for a long time, relationships between the opposing parties might be damaged. However, well-handled conflicts can contribute to deeper and stronger relationships and can help the opposing sides to work together more effectively towards reaching an organization's objective. Proper communication skills are required if conflicts are to be resolved effectively (Hener, 2010).

One of the most important communication skills is addressing only one concern at a time. Focusing on a single concern and not introducing other concerns even if they are related can help in finding quick resolutions to conflicts in the workplace. Clearly, specifying one issue to be addressed during a certain time segment will also help to avoid confusion during meetings aimed at resolving conflicts. It is also important that the moderators of meetings should caution the opposing sides against making accusations or leveling personal attacks against their opponents as this will only create more distrust and animosity, instead of yielding any solutions (Aula & Siira, 2010; Siira, 2013). Effective listening and making sure that the opponents truly listen to each other in a meeting is important since it helps build trust among the opposing sides. It is also important for one to use both verbal and non-verbal communication skills during reconciliation meetings. The moderators of such meetings should also make it clear that the meeting is being held with the sole objective of finding solutions to concerns and not throwing blame to one's opponents.

3. Communication Barriers and Conflict: Gender

One of the most common sources of conflict in the workplace is gender differences among workmates. There are two major steps to solving gender differences, the first is evaluating the situation and understanding the specific issues involved and then using better communication to improve relationships between workmates.

3.1. Linguistic Politeness

One of the main differences between men and women in terms of communication is that unlike men, women often speak in a manner that suggests politeness. Researchers Finucane, Slovic, Mertz, Flynn & Satterfield (2000) refer to women as the more polite of the two sexes when all the necessary qualifications and reservations are considered. The researchers also contend that women are more advanced than men in almost all verbal communication skills. It is also noted that women and men utilize language differently. Politeness has been defined as a behavior that constantly shows positive concern for others, in addition to non-controlling distancing conduct. Different linguistic and cultural groups express politeness differently. It is important to also use the situational context to assess communicational politeness.

3.2. Speech Styles

Women are more likely than men to talk in a manner that suggests politeness. They often utilize boosters and hedges as tools to convey politeness. Boosters help to show empathy while hedges help to decrease the force of the utterance. The combination of both boosters and hedges helps to convey the message that the speaker is taking the listener's feelings into account. When one speaks this way, they show that wish not to impose themselves on others. Some of the boosting and hedging devices include apologies, fillers, qualifiers, disclaimers, repetition, questions and tag questions (Finucane et al., 2000).

3.3. Interruption and Topic Control

Any reasonable conversationalist knows of the turn-taking rule....

This rule is important to make sure that everyone is given a chance to have their say. Interrupting one's speech and taking their time can be not only annoying, but also very disruptive. There are various types of interruptions including talk-overs, silent interruptions, butting ins, overlaps and simple interruptions. Studies have also proven that men are more likely to interrupt than women, regardless of whether or not the woman they are speaking with is at a higher workstation than them. Researchers have also found that uninterrupted conversations indicate that the speaker is liked or has a high support and/or he is sensitive to the needs of his or her listeners. In contrast, interruptions indicate miscommunication, a face threat, aggression, and dominance (Keyton, 2011). In terms of interruptions, men perceive women who interrupt as being from low SES (Socioeconomic Status) and men who interrupt as being from high SES background. Individuals with a masculine identity were also found to interrupt more than those with a feminine identity (Finucane et al., 2000; Keyton, 2011).
3.4. Biological Structure

Male and female brains are not only structured, but also process information differently. Women process information abstractly whereas men process things analytically. Each sex has a unique pattern of communication and frequently mistakenly presumes that the other sex thinks and acts like them. This is actually where miscommunication occurs since each gender trusts that they are clearly communicating founded on their own patterns of communication. It should be recognized that neither sex is more superior or right, but just different. It has actually been argued that men and women communicate in quite varying ways that they appear to be from differing planets (Finucane et al., 2000). There are several general distinctions, which characterize gender communication. It is essential that men and women not judge, or attempt to alter one another's style of communication, but instead get to know of the distinctions that exist between male and female communication patterns. We should embrace the different linguistic styles, competencies, and abilities as contemporary and utilize the strengths cooperatively to grow, work and succeed.

4. Effective Conflict Resolution Communication

It has been discovered that communication plays an integrative role in conflict and conflict management (Moemeka, 2012; Aula & Siira, 2010). Communication is regarded as the factor with which we are quite concerned in understanding conflict management. Presumptions regarding communication's nature resulted to differing conceptualizations of conflict, which is a main element when individuals make choices regarding the proper means of approaching conflicts. Conflict Management System (CMS) harbors a traditional, mechanistic perspective of human communication. This perspective is based on information theory (Moemeka, 2012). In spite of its undisputed importance to communication study, the model is naturally sender-centred and reductionistic and can be characterized as a derivative of the so-called linear paradigm of human communication: A -> B = X or is simply put, A communicates something to B, resulting in X (Aula & Siira, 2010).

According to the CMS view, information theory-led conflict communication is related to the reinforcement and balancing of the structure of a system. New data is also basically centered on reinforcing the already present communication structures. The process of communication can either be linear, rational, predictable, or associated with positivistic reference frames in organizational studies. The linear approach to communication presumes that conflict is simply a digression from normality and harmony. Conflict is assumed to be a repercussion of an error, blockage, stoppage, or even deterioration in communication. This particular perspective has up-to-date dominated conflict research (Putnam, 2015; Buddhodev Sinha, 2011).

4.1. Conflict Communication

In the CMS perspective of communication, the mechanistic communication conception is remarkably present. Communication concentrates on particular existing facts, whereas the leaders are the main architects of meaning. Additionally, conflicts are handled by sticking to 130 fixed procedures in controlled surrounding. This perspective is actually in accordance to monologic leadership (Buddhodev Sinha, 2011) that forbids the perspective that meaning could be contested. Provided the intricacy of conflict and the function of conflict in an organization's development and renewal, such an idea appears burdened with challenges.

4.2. Purpose

Drawing on the mechanistic communication model, the functioning or an organization relies on a perfect transmission of data that is the primary function of CMS. CMS, hence, treats conflict as a non- useful force, which needs to be systematically eradicated. "Management" basically refers to "determination" or "resolution," instead of addressing challenging and unpleasant concerns. The system responds to a conflict immediately it gets to be quite dangerous to the organization. This normally implies judicial resolution (Moemeka, 2012).

4.3. Control

CMS follows a traditional leadership perspective whereby in a figure-bound arrangement,…