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Conflict Management

Before reading about conflict from the perspective in Whetten and Cameron's (2016) Management Skills for Leaders I held a rather negative view of conflict in general. Through the lens of the dual concern model of conflict management styles, I took an avoidance style which is uncooperative and unassertive. Basically I thought that conflict was bad and something to avoid at all costs, especially at work. Empowered with new knowledge about the nature of conflict and its benefits to decision-making and problem solving processes I now adopt a more conflict-positive attitude. What caused this shift for me in a big was was the study which described the powerful positive impact that a devil’s advocate can play on improving business outcomes, even though they can cause great stress to a team (Whetten & Cameron, 2016).

Perhaps the reason that I’ve avoided conflict like the plague has something to do with the negative emotions that it can bring up. As a remedy to this Whetten and Cameron (2016) suggest to maintain the focus of conflict on issues rather than people. William Ury’s TED Talk (2010) is an excellent example of maintaining a focus on issues rather than people in an effortless way. When a mediator steps into a conflict they have no skin in the game so to speak. The mediator can see objectively the issues in questions and help move the opposing parties through their difficult emotions to reach a consensus. 

Image From: https://fromtotranslations.com/blog/intercultural-conflict-taking-bull-horns/

This brings me to a mediated conflict that I observed in one of my previous jobs. The conflict began as a discussion about operations and role for a proposed project, but quickly became focused on personal differences (Whetten & Cameron, 2016). I was a newbie to the team at the time, so my role was mostly that of an observer, so I got to experience the whole event mostly from an outsider's perspective. When leadership approached my department about engaging in a project with an external party, our department pushed back that the external party was not prepared to engage in the project. When our department posed the question about our capacity to choose our partners leadership responded in a way that made our department feel that their discretion and capacity to choose our partners was being taken away. Emotions ran high and emails exchanged rapidly with increasing animosity. It got to the point where we had to bring in a 3rd party within the company to resolve the conflict. The 3rd party was a department lead from a different division, and brought us back to our initial discussions. They identified the moment that the conversation shifted away from the question at issue, our choice of partner for the project, and towards personal differences. The mediator reminded us to revisit the question, and our department was told that they misunderstood the original email. Our agency as a department was never taken away. 

Knowing what I know now about conflict resolution, I might have invited this question sooner. Are we in conflict over personal differences? What is the question at issue in this discussion? Has that question been adequately posed and responded to? In retrospect, this whole conflict might have been resolved with a quick clarifying phone call. Email is not always the best means of communication, but in business it is often the default. 



References

TED. (2010 December 1). The walk from "no" to "yes" | William Ury [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hc6yi_FtoNo

Whetten, D. A. & Cameron, K. S. (2016). Developing management skills, 9th ed. Pearson.

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