Conflict climate, leadership beliefs, and stress management in communication

Communication

Chapter 6 focuses on managing the conflict climate. The climate in this case is defined by the authors as "an atmosphere that makes you feel comfortable or uncomfortable on a psychological level" (p. 103). The authors further explain that there are two kinds of conflict climates: hostile and nurturing. Power is "the ability to influence or control events" (p. 104) and is a key component of the conflict climate. Other concepts in the conflict climate are competition, cooperation, distrust and defensive vs. supportive behaviors.

The chapter contains some excellent insight into how a conflict climate is created. In my experience, I think a lot of these behaviors are subconscious. When the author describes some of the behaviors that contribute to a hostile conflict climate, many of these behaviors originate in the assumptions that people have about their roles in the workplace, particularly people in positions of power. Leadership, therefore, plays a critical role in a nurturing conflict climate. I think the authors say a lot about the types of people who are the most effective leaders with respect to managing conflict. These insights cut to the heart of the matter, the central beliefs that underlie the various negative behaviors associated with abuse of power, competition or defensive behaviors.

For me, the most important thing is to absorb this insight. In the past, I have attempted to manage conflicts more on the basis of the external traits -- the defensiveness or other negative behaviors. These, however, are just an outward manifestations of beliefs and assumptions that drive one's leadership style. If you see yourself as superior, that is what will come out in your behaviors. Even if you train yourself not to behave in certain ways, you may well replace one set of negative behaviors or traits with another, simply because the underlying core of your beliefs and assumptions has not changed. The change, to improve the way one manages conflict, needs to come from a deeper place and that is the most important lesson I take from this chapter. Some of my past conflicts might not have happened had I known about this.

Chapter 7 is about managing stress. The authors note that stress is "experienced subjectively as a biochemical reaction within the body" (p. 121) -- the key being that stress is a reaction, not the cause of a reaction. The author defines four types of stress -- eustress (short-term intense stress), hypostress (underload), hyperstress (being overwhelmed) and distress (lack of control over a situation, or unclear source).

I found this chapter to be very insight, even from the basic definitions of the four types of stress. Just understanding that there are different types of stress helps one to understand where stressful feelings come from, so that the source may be more easily identified. I like the lesson of not taking things in life too seriously. It is easy to forget about that sometimes, especially when one is a student.