Conflict Resolution - Managing Workplace Conflict



Learn Management Articles on management-info.biz. Conflict Resolution - Managing Workplace Conflict article will help answer your questions on Management Articles.We at management-info.biz specialize in Management Articles. Management Articles at management-info.biz provides the most up to date news and articles. If you have questions please do not hesitate to contact us.

It goes by many names -- conflict prevention, conflict resolution, conflict management, the names go on. These terms were all created to combat a similar problem. For the most part, people who deal with these issues all agree with the same principle:

Conflict resolution at an early stage is less costly and more manageable than trying to deal with its repercussions later.

First, let’s discuss the types of conflicts we have observed in our years of experience working with organizations.

We have observed 3 major types of workplace conflict:

Task Conflict
Task conflict arises among members of work teams and specifically affects the goals and tasks they are striving to achieve. Differences in vision, intentions and quality expectations often lead to task conflict. Employee relationships may initially appear to survive task conflict but an important project may not. It is essential to channel task conflict so that these differences become collaborative and improve the way the team thinks about accomplishing current and future tasks.

Process Conflict
This form of conflict centers around the steps or methods used by a team to reach a goal. One person might like to plan 100 steps ahead while another might like to dive in head first. These differences in process can lead to communication breakdown and ultimately conflict. But, like task conflict, process conflict can be useful, if managed correctly. Healthy differences in process often will lead to an IMPROVED way of achieving goals.

Relationship Conflict
Often misunderstood, relationship conflict undermines and tears at the fabric of a team’s ability to achieve goals effectively, efficiently and profitably. Relationship conflict penetrates all aspects of an organization. When people in a workplace fail to communicate effectively, entire work teams or even an entire organization will suffer. This type of conflict will quickly consume all the attention and energy of an organization, leaving little time to accomplish profitable tasks.

What can you do to bring conflict to a reasonable resolution? And how can it be beneficial to everyone involved? The goal is to increase the benefits achieved from encouraging task and process conflict while at the same time reducing, managing and understanding the negative effects of relationship conflict.

The benefits of effective conflict resolution are great:

  • Improve organizational decision making
  • Inspire employees to articulate and clarify their ideas and positions
  • Stimulate innovation, creativity and forward thinking
  • Improve individual and group performance
If no resolution is sought for conflict the affects are often devastating:
  • Job stress and burnout rises which typically increases absenteeism and turnover
  • Distrust and suspicion develops often creating an “us versus them” culture
  • Job satisfaction and performance falters
  • Employee loyalty and commitment declines



    • The Good News About Cataracts. - Eyes/Vision: Information on managing cataracts using diet, antioxidant supplements, eyedrops (surgical procedure also detailed)
    Positive Conflicts. - Learn to manage conflicts, even if only You want to work on them. eBook.


    Article Index: | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 74 | 75 | 76 | 77 | 78 | 79 | 80 | 81


More Articles:


1. Identifying Candidates for Leadership By Michael Beitler
A critical task in the succession planning process of any organization is identifying candidates. Traditionally, candidates have been identified based on past performance. While this seems logical, it is problematic in practice.Past performance always measures success in a lower-level position. What is needed in succession planning is a system to identify potential for success in a future higher-level position. The best predictive model I have found is the Leadership Pipeline Model by Charan, …
Horse Insurance
Round Mirrors

2. Employee Motivation: Make Everyone A Cheerleader For Your Company By Marcia Zidle
Do you manage by walking around? What do you see? People excited about their job or people just going through the motions? Here are seven ways, that do not cost much if anything, to turn the “it’s just a job” employee into one that is powered up and willing to give their best every day.Spend time out in the field. Ask your employees how you can help make their jobs easier. Work alongside them and even let them teach you what they do. Southwest Airlines has a mandate that every manager must …

3. Experiences of Management Coaching (Part 2) By Chris Stowell
In our experience, we have found that there are several reasons managers fail to get employees to see and acknowledge that they have a problem.They assume. Many managers bypass the step of getting agreement because they assume that an employee views the problem in the same way that they do. However, that is often not the case, especially when the performance problem is a pattern of behavior rather than a single event. People generally do things that they perceive to be in their own best intere…

4. Inventory Control: Can You Afford Not To? By Leon Chaddock
Inventory control is the most basic form of protection that you should have in your retail establishment. If you have people come into your location, then you need to make sure they are not leaving with anything that they should not be. But, many business owners do not know the right way to handle inventory control. There are various methods that you can use and they all work well in their specialties. If you have had enough with shoplifting, employees stealing or other loss prevention iss…