Conflict Resolution Conflict Can Be

Conflict Resolution

Conflict can be taken as a state where two people are having a difference of opinion in the quest of what each one wants. It can be arisen due to the different needs, different interests, different habits and different values. This difference of opinion can be caused between two people, among a group, department or between organizations. There is no boundary or barrier where conflict can arise and cannot. It can happen if one feels that an injustice has been done to him or her, his or her trust is broken or a person suffers a betrayal or some powers have been falsely transferred without consent. So they be interpreted or termed as interpersonal conflicts, intrapsychic conflicts, cultural conflicts or change conflicts.

Conflicts and categories:

There can be two major scenarios to take conflicts and their results, one is considering that a conflict is a bad thing that must be avoided and the second is that the conflict may help in defining or finding new dimensions to work effectively and efficiently. Both the approaches are true. Because if the conflict is long lasting, not getting solved will be a reason for breaking the bonds, stress and make the atmosphere worse. But the healthy conflict is considered as the healthy discussion, which makes you open to the new magnitude of work and productivity. The researchers were of the view that the self-awareness and humor can help in easy resolution of conflict in stressful situations (Segal and Smith, 2013)

2.1. Interpersonal Conflict:

The interpersonal conflict is determined as a disagreement or a clash between the people you are working with, living with or even friends. It is one of the common conflicts we used to have in our daily lives. The researcher Fogg (1985) found that, "the conflicts mainly arise with the difference in opinion and the causes one stand for, these can be avoided by training the people at personal, organizational and on the international level in order to build healthy relations at every level human goes through (p. 330). These trainings will help in the broadening of vision, way of thinking and altering the perception at the individual level.

2.2. Intrapsychic Conflict:

The intrapsychic conflict is the inner fight that is happening in the one individual. It is a state where a human is itself fighting with itself. One can say it can be a clash of thoughts and emotions.

2.3. Cultural Conflict:

The cultural conflict can be determined by having differences among different ethnic groups, race and gender sometimes. There are organizations that do discrimination for women like glass ceiling syndrome where the male bosses does not want the women to get on the higher posts, black or white, Christians and Muslims etc. But with the extent of globalization this type of conflict and discrimination is getting less. Because people today are considered as the important assets of an organization, and no organization wants to lose the hard working person / individual whether it may be a black, woman or a Muslim, Hindu, Jew or Christian. The organizations in U.S. are imbedding the cross cultural trainings in the workplace that will enhance the workplace affiliation among the people of different ethnic groups.

2.4. Change Conflict:

There are people who like the way things are happening, and a little change makes them upset. It is mostly observed in older people who are in the habit of living in one way, they don't like to make changes much in their routine or work related things. This type of conflict also arises in the workplace where the new changes like introduction of Information Technology in the organization is not much appreciated by the older colleges where they are used to of working manually.

3. Dual concern conflict resolution Theory

The theory explains us that a person can have two major concerns, one is he/she loves themselves more and people less is called assertiveness. The other perspective is that he/she loves people more than they, is called empathy. There are all different human beings, and their behavior towards any situation cannot be predicted. It may be possible that a person behaves calmly in the situation but can get angry with the same situation at different interval of time. The dual core theory discusses five different perspectives of conflict resolution and they are: Avoidance, Yielding, competitive, Cooperative and Conciliation. These are the approaches a person can use to resolve the conflict at any instant he faces some problems.

3.1. Avoidance:

There are people who do not want their self to intrude any problem that is occurring among the others. For example some people are having trouble at work place because of the injustice, or inappropriate power distribution. But one of the people with the attitude of avoidance will say to himself, he is not the sufferer, why to intervene. This may lead to avoiding plenty of troubles. But it may happen that someday you are in trouble and there is no one to help you out of that problem. Avoidance is a good strategy to avoid the mishaps, fights or quarrels but one should not get stuck to it always. There are some situations where a person has to step forwards and leave the turtle shell to help, where he can exert the proper efforts.

3.2. Yielding:

The yielding style of conflict resolution is pro-social category, where a person removes all the barriers of inner side and move out of the box to solve the problems of people who are in trouble or need help. The people with having these approaches gain pleasure while helping the needy ones. Their inner satisfaction and contentment make them more vulnerable to outside threats. It may happen while helping the other, one gets into trouble. But they are least pushed by these facts. The things that matters to them are their relationships, the trust, the love and care they share with the people is the utmost goal they have in their lives and in the workplace. The climate of the organization plays an influential part in maintaining trust among the members of the organization and retain them as they are the assets the conflict can be raised in the situations where there is competition, if there is mistrust, where a person is not willing to listen to anything, sharing the workplace, and where the justice or injustice has been done (Duetsch, Coleman, Marcus, 2006)

3.3. Competitive Approach:

The competitive approach is one of those approaches, people are having today. Every individual on this earth even a small baby is having that. The advancements are getting less; there are plenty of unemployment, money issues, work timings and much more. It all makes an individual competitive and there is no alternate to that. This era of competition has increased the assertiveness among people and always trying to hold the powers and disgust the other. In this way they feel superior to others. Whenever there is an argument, they don't see argument as the building block of a new thing rather than see the argument to win. This is the way they feel relaxed and content. If we see an organizational perspective a person who tends to force others to do things rather than persuade is likely to have a hold on others, which makes him / her bossy and sometimes drives away from the people. The bossy attitude may come from the stereotypical background one belongs from, the stereotypical thinking can lead to wrong decision making, and wrong attitude towards people's thinking and can be a source of conflict in the organization (Darley & Gross, 1983, p: 20)

3.4. Cooperative Approach:

This is one of the best approaches where a person is not turning to be a self obsessed or people's lover. it's a 50/50 agreement between the choices of self and others. This kind of conflict resolution style helps a person to understand your own interests and the people's interest at the same time. It is being pure selfish that a person is only concerned with the happenings that are occurring to it. One should always try to avoid the conflict by taking out the middle way so that no one gets offended or get upset. The conflict is a state where both the parties are angry, frustrated and no one cares to listen to the other. But the cooperative approach makes a person to hold the nerves, control the anger, listen to the other person carefully, try to understand and then try to take a decision. This will help a person to maintain a good reputation among the people he is working, living or having some business with. This approach will lead a man to the state of emotional intelligence where a person has to behave wisely and intelligently especially in the pressure oriented situations. The amicable resolution of problems always helps to create a new path to work and delegate. It is very easy to snub a person and make him force to work. No one is going to respect you. The other person will feel inferior; the complex will increase from having a feeling of injustice. In this way you will turn to be a hard task master than a cooperative Boss who tends to understand the people and their abilities.

3.5. Conciliatory Approach:

This is the approach that helps in retaining the long-term relations where sometimes you agree with people and sometimes make them agree with you. Human behavior has the tendency to void every situation and rule. If a person is moving with the approach of conciliation, that is known as the state of compromise in other words. Then one can have long lasting and content relationships. Trust is the important factor that will eliminate control and autonomous behavior at home and at the workplace, even it helps to build a strong relationship. Compromise is also a two way cycle. Sometimes one does and sometimes the other. But if only on the individual is doing compromise and the other is always on the imposing end. This situation may lead to stress, anxiety, frustration, unhappiness and sorrow. Conciliation does happen when both the parties are ready to compromise and forgive for one and the other. The researchers Takada and Ohbuchi (2013) found that, "the people who tend to forgive are the individuals who try every possible way to resolve the conflict" (p. 184). Where ever the injustice happens, it is a cause of conflict and may end up to a stressful condition if not been solved in time with amicable effect.

4. Conflict Resolution and Stress Management:

Conflict and stress are part and participles. If conflict prolongs to a longer time period it becomes stressed and eventually turn into depression. It is always advised that the conflict if arise between the parties must be resolved immediately and amicably so it does not result in the breakage of bonds and relationships. There are people who stop talking to each other when they have a difference of opinions. This is the worst scenario because in that span of not talking many things got intrude. It might be a person's own thinking pattern or it might be some people who want the difference to exploit. That is why, whenever is the conflict, and a person is near and dear to that. They must talk to each other by removing your egos. They need to discuss the issues and try to resolve them by themselves, or make a mediator or take an arbitrator between them. The mediator will listen to both the parties and do suggest the solution for removal of conflict. The role of an arbitrator is to listen to both the parties and he is the one who can give the judgement and both have to admit the decision of the arbitrator. All the conditions are helpful in the conflict resolution. The researcher Skinner (1957) found that" the verbal behavior is an effective way of communication and an alternate to the language which once used as an influential source." He was of the view that good communication and good use of words and sentences will make the other person listens to what he or she is saying, hence will resolve the conflict by making other attentive and listen to you in a persuading way.

5. Conflict Avoidance Techniques:

There are several emotional intelligence techniques which can be a helpful resource in personality building in avoiding conflicts and difference of opinions. The humor plays a vital role in removing the conflicts. Conflict always leads to the feeling of impaired rifts that hurt disappointments and sometimes disgusted. But when you use your humor to tackle the hard situations. The humor helps to melt the hard rock easily and quickly. If a person is getting angry the other must get relax and there is no need to fight back, he/she needs to use its nonverbal skills to avoid the situations. When the other gets to relax after yelling and scolding, then show your perspective. If the person is on the wrong perspective, he/she will only understand when he/she will be calm. In anger no one is in the condition to listen to anything. Every person has its own stimulus to stress and happiness. A person is required to figure the appropriate key to make stress relief. Food, Juices, music, lively conversations, jokes, atmosphere of the surrounding etc. can be a help in the stress relieving techniques.

6. Human Behavior and its predicament / Conclusion:

The human being is an unpredictable living being and the most vulnerable too. There are millions of dimensions in which it has been studied. But every dimension has its own sub-dimensions. Conflict is one part of it which is a deep rooted discussion which may lead a person in a state of anger, sadness, coma, anxiety, frustration, madness, depression, tension and much more. One can think how a person gets sad and angry at one moment. It is human, when he is not able doing something he/she becomes sad and get angry why he/she cannot be able to do. The feeling of helplessness is the factor that plays a part here. Resolving a conflict is not much difficult task. But it needs to lower down the egos and not mixing the prestige with it. People used to mix prestige with the ego. Prestige comes when you don't want to work below dignity. But ego is when you have the power to do but you don't do because of the grudges you have about the particular person. Conflicts that lead to the destruction of relationships, whether at work place between subordinates, bosses, peers, clients or at home with wife, mother, brother, sisters or children is bad. One must avoid it. There is a need to set the priorities and timings for work and relationships. One should avoid being a robot in this competitive era. The book written by Joyce & Wilmot (1985) has explained that the conflict can be raised between anyone, there is no hard and fast rule in it, but there is a need to manage them every time they arise.