Case study on avoiding conflict

[Date (February 21, 2013)]

Julie Jackson
Director of Human Resource
1101 Wesleyan Drive

Fort Worth, Texas 76105

Conflict is a struggle between different people who has different opposing needs, beliefs or goals without arriving at the same agreement.
In every organization there is a conflict either between an employee and employer or between the workers themselves. It is inevitable since it is something experienced every day in every organization. As a Human Resource Manager, it is always good to solve these conflicts which come in various ways.
Here are various ways in which a conflict can be avoided in an organization, showing clearly what is to be done to solve it, what should not be done and how to avoid occurrence of the conflict in various departments of an organization.
In various workplaces, conflicts are inevitable impact of proficient life. Some people are very much attracted to it as if it’s part of their life; born with it. It forms part of their life, practiced daily but to some, it is like a dream and others knows conflict is there but they try their best to avoid it at place of work. Human resource managers devote much of their time about 25-60 percent of their entire working time in an organization to solve employee conflict. Conflict among workers reduces their productivity as they spent much of their time to avoid conflict with other co-workers.
Conflict is always with us, it extends from a simple situation to a major dispute internationally. Conflict may occur in various stages as stated below;
It involves discomfort, where an employee feels not to work together with his/her working mate making him/her being away from the job for a long period of time. Sometimes an incident may occur where the employer promotes one of his employees basing on the relationship between him. It may be a relative, tribe or schooling together without considering the experience and qualifications. Then misunderstand may arise among the employees regarding to job promotion, where someone feels being treated unfairly becoming mistrust in his/her manager.
Where there is tension in job, the interest starts to decline, diminishing the commitment to the job assigned. Also, where there is a crisis, employees should not exchange word and raise their tempers. When the encounter extends to a crisis phase, enough time should be allocated to solve it. When a situation reaches the embarrassment phase quick decision must be employed to solve the problem at hand. But it is advisable to deal with the problem at the earlier stage before reaching at the discomfort stage where most of the managers bury their feelings.
Once there is misunderstanding among the workers, communication must be done to lower the anger among them and this must be done earlier by the manager in the earlier phase preventing it to extend to more complex stages. This should be open to everybody to contribute his/her views to arrive at the solution of the concerned parties.
When there is a complex issue in the working place, involving many parties, there are various stages that should be involves. First of all, the issue should be identified in order to get the origin of the problem, who was involved and what was the main concern of the involved parties that raised this problem. After all these has been analyzed, their needs should be examined and worked accordingly to solve the problem before reaching at the complex stage.
Various areas of the conflict should be discussed to reach the common agreement where areas are to be given first priority to solve the problem. This will help building an action proposal to be used to move the conflict into a more yielding stage and every difference must be valued and respected.
. For the organization to grow, employees must treat their colleague workers as portion of their big family and always must corporate together to achieve the organization’s goals. This can only be achieved if the conflicts are avoided in working place. It’s obvious that when individuals work together, problems are unavoidable to be there and individuals have different working styles and the way they can react toward a situation that has occurred. But these problems should not be left unattended since even a small problem may lead to a major complex problem with time if not solved at the earlier stages. These problems related to various individuals must be invited and be spoken to in a board room or conference room where they are discussed in order to investigate the source and find the solution to them.
Any official communication must not be depended in verbal but also to be communicated through emails where they are copied as CC to every person participating since it is very much reliable and transparent to all without any secret to favour an individual. During communication backbitings and gossips should be circumvented in the place of work since it leads to conflicts among the workers. To avoid this individuals are advised to be straight forward and should be encouraged to express their views in a substantial way and as a manager must not be partial to individuals in the place of work since it will bring division among themselves. Also views from individuals must be considered instead of imposing your ideas to them and as a manager, should understand the strengths and weaknesses of his/her team without leaving behind their specialties and interests.
. To avoid conflict in workplace; communication is so essential and should be precise and clear, never give a presentation at a place which is noisy as people will not understand the information intended to be passed across resulting to misinterpretation. Also one should keep in mind never to criticize their colleagues, but instead to correct him/her when they go wrong. Blame game also should be avoided as it does not yield any good fruits nor provide a solution to the problem but only to add more problems to the existing ones. Workers should be discouraged from carrying their problems from home to their workplace since it will hinder someone from concentrating with in workplace.
The workers should be discouraged from talking about the physical outlook and behaviours of other workmates and different events in the company; instead they should always use a positive language whenever they discuss their co-workers or the company. In case there is a problem concerning work issues, workers should seek help and clearing up from the superiors and some from his/her co-workers. This will save someone’s time, encourages best performance and helps to fight and eliminate conflict.
Workers are advised to think first and listen to the current situations before speaking. According to Manhattan a psychotherapist, one should confront the situation which is ahead, listen and let their workmates speak on his/her mind and later collect the mind and speak out to the situation on hand. Open mind is to be kept when dealing with encounter. This will help to allow other co-workers to air their views that may be a solution to a problem rather than locking them out thinking your mind has the best solution. Working together is the best solution to every worker in a workplace.
As a manager, must be an example to the workers because they will try to copy or imitate whatever he/she will be doing since he will be the mirror to the workers. A manager must be full of respect to his/her co-workers from the senior most to the watchman. This will facilitate a good relationship within and without the work place.
Workers should be advised to choose friends wisely. Friends who are free to chat, whom one can built confidence in them and who can carry one’s burden. The friendship should be across different tribes because the country is filled with different tribes who have freedom to work anywhere within or outside the country in various organizations.
Also record keeping is very essential since it shows the earlier situation affected the organization in terms of conflict solving and it shows the procedures followed to solve a particular problem. Such that once a similar case or a related one occurs again, it will take a minimal time to solve it without it extending to a critical stage.
Workers must always pick their clashes in order to avoid conflict at the work place. This can be done through either addressing it to the concerned person who will assist to come up with the solution to it or let it to go without finding the solution and stay cool if faced with any confrontation. Acceptance is also encourages. Workers should accept other co-workers in work places to avoid conflicts. It does not matter where the co-worker comes from country, tribe or relationship, but accept them as a worker of the same status like that of others.
Workers should understand the way they can work in various situations of workplaces. This can help them to avoid or to know how to solve the conflict which might come across.
When solving a conflict, always for the low-level employees requires employing more style in order to preserve industrious relationship and a conducive working surrounding. It is recommended to understand first the conflict before starting to solve it to get the origin of it.
During a state of confrontation, a manager should not lose the temper since it cannot solve the problem at hand. This can erupt to argument of irritating shouts. The best step to be carried is to relax and look into immediate reactions before responding to the situation. Set emotions aside and have an objective concerning the resettlement of the conflict. To arrive at the objective of solving the conflict, always change the subject if an employee shares the gossip in the communication.
Finally a good manager should be open to fruitful criticism which can turn a conflict into educative state. This can be helpful to prevent or avoid the likely occurrence of the conflict in the future.
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Work cited

” Advanced Conflict Resolution for Human Resources | PCCDR.” PCCDR | Pierce County Center for Dispute Resolution Web. 21 Feb. 2013. http://www. pccdr. org/advanced-conflict-resolution-for-human-resource/
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