Communication in Conflict - Case Study Example

[Your full June 19, Importance of Communication in Conflict Conflict is a situation in which two or more people realize that they have incompatible objectives due to which they think that they are unable to go along with one another (Himes). Humans experience conflict everyday in their personal lives and in the organizational culture. Communication is the best way to resolve a conflict (Cahn and Abigail) at all levels: personal, cultural, political, organizational or international. Proper communication is necessary to resolve conflicts that may happen among employees when job satisfaction decreases (Masters and Albright).

Such conflicts make the employees enter into trouble with the management or higher officials. They may go on strikes or do other sorts of protests. Major conflicts occur when, for example, employees experience gender discrimination, work overload, forced overtime, short deadlines, and no opportunities for promotion, reward or compensation. Communication in conflict is of two kinds, according to Bacal (14): cooperative communication and conflict-provoking communication. Cooperative communication tends to avoid or settle a conflict to “put an end to it in an effective way” (Bacal 15).

On the other hand, in conflict-provoking communication, more energy is spent in resisting to the “form of the communication, rather than the content” (Bacal 15). In short, it is impossible to hold good working relationship at the workplace when there is not a proper communication platform shared by all employees and the management. It is obligatory for the management to solve conflicts like power struggle, gender discrimination and other employees’ issues through effective communication, if the objective is to achieve organizational goals with good productivity and high performance.

Works Cited Cahn, Dudley D., and Ruth Anna Abigail. Managing Conflict through Communication (3rd ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2007. Bacal, Robert. “Cooperative Vs. Conflict-Provoking Communication.” Conflict Prevention in the Workplace: Using Cooperative Communication. USA: Bacal & Associates, 1998. Himes, Joseph S. Conflict and Conflict Management. USA: University of Georgia Press, 2008. Masters, Marick Francis, and Robert R. Albright. The Complete Guide to Conflict Resolution in the Workplace.

USA: AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn, 2002.