“Conflict is inevitable in organizations. However, it can be both a positive and negative force.” As a leader of a current team, at your next team meeting, you plan to do a speech where you outline and discuss five strategies used to effectively manage conflicts in the organization.
Answer: “A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” This quote taken from Proverbs in the Bible can be seen as the framework upon which resolving conflict is based. This speech is geared towards outlining and discussing five strategies that can use in effectively resolving conflicts within an organization. The five strategies which will be looked at are; protection, openness, research, mediation, and arbitration.
Proaction can be seen as dealing with a minor conflict before it becomes major. This involves curving a conflict in its very earliest stage so as to not allow any room for such conflict to get to a point where it might be out of control. Another way of effectively dealing with conflict is using the strategy of Openness. Openness when referring to resolving conflict is having the parties involved in the conflict get their feelings out in the open before dealing with the main issues. This will give the parties involve mental relief from what’s on their mind. Seeking factual reasons for a problem before pursuing solutions will help to recognize the underlying issue which might lead to the conflict at hand, this approach used in resolving conflict is called the Research strategy. The next effective strategy which can be used to resolve conflict is mediation. Mediation is having arguing parties brought together and given the chance to have a frank discussion until a mediator arrives at a resolution. Mediation will be more effective when the mediator is not known to any of the parties involved. Arbitration can be effectively used in resolving conflict as this process will have disputing parties agreeing to accept the solution of the mediator which will be the final decision.
In concluding how best an organization can deal with conflict will see how successful it can be, as such effectively resolving conflict should be of great importance for organizations. The various strategies for effectively resolving conflict can be by using the proactive approach, openness approach, research approach, mediation approach, or using arbitration approach. As we go throughout each day let’s all remember that “a soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.”