Insights To Conflict Management Strategies You Could Use
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Conflict situation is not a term many people know a great deal about. It may conjure up visions of combat or wartime situations, and can mean these, but usually denotes something on a smaller scale.
Conflict management strategies are ways we can use to effectively deal with situations that can be potentially hurtful or even destructive.
There are many ways people have learned to deal with situations out of their control, because each conflict is unique. There are, however, a few groups that most conflict management strategies fall into – forcing authority into the situation, accommodating the situation, avoiding the situation, compromising for the solution, and collaborating with all parties concerned for a win-win solution.
Most research into this area has determined that people deal with their own situation in one of these five ways or a combination of one or two of them. Because of the nature of the people involved, most parties, and their personalities, will fit into certain categories. For instance, the person you are dealing with may be very reasonable, so you may use ways of compromising or collaborating because they will work the best.
Whereas conflict has always been viewed as a negative in the world of forces, the remedies cannot be so. For victory, we need to enter each conflict with a conflict management strategy that can help us get the energy surrounding all the parties involved, at the very least, to a neutral place. For instance, if the situation is hostile or concerns power, a compromise may be the best solution.
Being able to assess the situation will be important in the realm of conflict management strategies. It will be essential to understand the situation enough to know which avenue to go in order to be of help. If force needs to be used – and remember, it will be a power that will get control without regard to any of the other parties involved, it must be done with complete authority.
Being accommodating, on the other hand, allows the other party’s needs to be taken care of while your own go unfulfilled for the time being. Avoiding the issue is another method often used but, unless the situation warrants it, it is possibly the least desirable route as it neglects everyone’s needs. Attempting to resolve the issue by partially satisfying both parties is a more desirable method and is known as compromise.
Collaborating, on the other hand, calls into play a mutual respect and encourages rapport between all parties. It is possibly the most effective conflict management strategy but does, however, take time. Some situations, such as issue (priority, value or principle) or relational importance cannot withstand that kind of time. When you find yourself trying to fill the shoes of the conflict manager, consider a few steps that have been proven effective.
Gather your information so that your assessments are accurate – they will be essential for getting at the heart of the issue. Next, you need to acknowledge that all parties have a right to be heard – relay the importance. During the next step, defuse all prejudices and acknowledge the value of all sides while remaining objective. This will enable trust to be built and communication to remain open.
For more insight and information into conflict management strategies and conflict resolution techinques, do also read the related articles on this website.
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