Conflict Management Theory and The Role of Manager - Assignment Example

Conflict Management Theory And The Role Of Manager Introduction It is emphasized by various leaders in the market that, customer satisfaction is the goal to success. The absolute fundamental aim is to make money out of satisfying customers(John,2006). Yes that is the only way to make profits for all the businesses and there is no other shortcut for getting profits. Deriving from the quotation, the next issue is how to satisfy your customer. Customer satisfaction can be attained through better products, quality, price, etc, etc, but if we analyze all these factors, it ultimately points to one factor that is the human resource in that organization. When people work in teams clashes of opinions are likely to occur and every management has to deal with the conflicts in a positive way. A qualified manager can intellectually appreciate that conflicts are the necessary ingredient of a free – enterprise system( Abraham, 1965). He also should take appropriate steps to resolve the conflicts and draw meaningful implications from them. The following essay attempts to explore the role played by the manager as a leader and a mediator in resolving conflicts. What causes conflict? The major sources of conflict in an organization are personal differences, informational deficiencies, role incompatibility and environmental stress(David and Kim, 2005). According to him, personal differences are a common source of conflicts as individuals come together to play certain defined roles in an organization. The people who form the team for the completion of a specific task come from various cultures, family traditions and extent of socialization, etc. Hence, it is very common that conflicts will arise when they work together to achieve a common objective. They differ in their perceptions about the challenges ahead of them and they also differ in their expectations about the outcomes from specified situations. When there is a mismatch between the perceptions and expectations, the situation can take a personal overtone which may be the major source of organizational conflicts. Secondly, informational deficiencies can also be major source of conflict. There may be lapses in the information flow between various functional units or individuals. These lapses may be due to technological disabilities or psychological barriers. Technological barriers can be caused through dysfunction of technical equipments used for communication and psychological barriers can be caused by various factors such as lack of knowledge and understanding, presumptions of the person receiving the message. Next, role incompatibility is another major source of conflict. Most often this factor causes more conflicts, because when it is combined with the above two factors, it causes more deep conflicts. When the team members operate with different types of people, systems, processes and procedures and report to various team leaders, the overlapping of the roles played by the personnel can cause conflict. Lastly, environmentally induced stress caused by change in economic conditions. Family relationships, changes in the organization, etc can be major triggers for conflicts. Especially during the times of economic slowdown as in recent times, it is very stressful for the employees. Stress due to insecurity due to change in environmentally conditions can cause deep mistrust on each other and can cause team work more difficult. When the employees are subject to uncertainty about their job status it can cause frustration and conflicts are more certain to occur. When these types of factors influence the behavior of employees, it is the duty of the manager to take up the role of mediator and facilitator to establish smooth working relationships and achieve organizational objectives. Role of the manager There can be various conflict management approaches and one approach is just forcing the decision on the subordinates. When there is a conflicting situation, the manager can plainly use his power and authority to force a decision and compel his subordinates to follow his decisions. This approach is suitable when the quality of the employees is very low and who cannot understand the expectations from the management (Ruble and Thomas, 1976). Also there are a number of other approaches to solve the conflict through compromising, where an agreement is reached quickly by making compromises and the accommodative approach, where the focus is not to upset the person involved. But this may sometimes result in emotional exploitation by the other person. In addition to the approaches that are adopted as mentioned above, the manager should also undertake the role of a mediator to solve the conflict. He can adopt negotiation strategies as a mediator. He can use either of two broad perspectives, integrative or distributive. (David and Kim, 2007). Mediators who focus on dividing up a “fixed –pie” reflect a distributive bargaining perspective, whereas parties using an integrative perspective search for collaborative ways of expanding the pie” by avoiding fixed, incompatible solutions.(Bazerman and Neale, 1992, Murnighan, 1992, Thompson, 2001). The former approach is undertaken upon the premise that one party can compromise their stand and it can pay the price for the conflict resolution. But the latter approach is more of win-win situation, where the possible solution is extended to make the situation good for both the parties involved.(de Dreu, Koole and Steinel, 2000, Fisher and brown, 1988). When the manager is adopting the role of a mediator the important to note that, he should first acknowledge the problem. It is best if the manager can claim personal ownership of the problem. The advantage of acknowledging ownership of a problem when registering a complaint is that it reduces the defensiveness. (Alder, Resonfield and Proctor, 2001, Adler and Rodman, 2003). The mediator should also avoid drawing evaluative conclusions and attributing motives to the respondents. When two parties get together to solve a conflict, each party tries to explain their actions and the reason for being vengeful. In international conflicts, opposing nations often believe they are acting defensively rather than offensively. Similarly, in smaller scale conflicts, each side may have distorted views of its own hurt and motives of the offender. (Kim and Smith, 1993). Conclusion. When the manager is a mediator, he should avoid using body language that create an impression that he is tired, facing only one group when communicating, suggesting that both parties are wrong, discouraging the expression of emotion, minimizing the magnitude of the problem and changing the topic that is under discussion. (Morris and Shashkin, 1976). In an organization to move forward, the manager is very crucial in his role as a mediator. To make the members of the team think beyond the differences among themselves and to achieve a common goal, the manager should be able to motivate and lead others towards positive change and he should be able to build good teams to carry out the changes. References 1. Egan, John (2006) “Sidelined? the future of marketing in the contemporary organization.” Irish Journal of Management; Vol. 27 Issue 2, p99-118, 20p 2. Maslow, Abraham (1965) Eupsychian Management, Homeweed, Irwin 3. Whetton, A. David and Cameron, S. Kim (2005) DEVELOPING MANAGEMENT SKILLS, New Jersey, Prentice Hall 4. Ruble, Thompson and Ken, Thomas (1976) “Support for a two dimensional model for conflict behavior”, Organizational behavior and human performance, 16, 145 5. Bazerman, H. Max and Neale, A. Margaret (1992) NEGOTIATING RATIONALLY, New York: Free press 6. Murnighan, J. Keith (1992) BARGAINING GAMES: A NEW APPROACH TO STRATEGIC THINKING IN NEGOTIATIONS, New York, William Morrow 7. L. Thompson (2001) THE MIND AND HEART OF THE NEGOTIATOR (2nd Ed), NJ, Prentice hall 8. de Dreu, K. Carsten., S. L. Koole, and W. Steinel (2000) “Unfixing the fixed pie: A motivated information processing approach to integrative Negotiation”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 975 – 87 9. R. B. Adler, L.B. Rosenfield, R. F. Proctor (2001) INTERPLAY: THE PROCESS OF INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION, Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt, Inc 10. R.B. Alder, and G. Rodman (2003) UNDERSTANDING HUMAN COMMUNICATION (8th Ed). 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