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Conflict is often necessary for reaching deeper levels of dialogue and for bringing to the surface important issues that effect the team and / or school district. The mindset needs to be "resolving conflict" by working through conflict instead of avoiding it, and the term conflict is not necessarily synonymous with the term problem. Many methods for dealing with conflict include avoiding, accommodating, competing, compromising, and collaborating. Considerations of when to apply certain methods for working with conflict are centered around the importance of issues, the preservation of relationships, the existence of resources, the feasibility of the proposals, and the availability of time. Some conflict is best avoided, especially if there is not learning potential with working through it. Conflict that can provide deeper learning should not be avoided, but instead, worked through in a collaborative effort.
The workplace is a complicated place. Imagine a spider web of people, managers, supervisors and staff members who need to work together, interacting in various ways to fulfil the organization's mandate. Disagreements and conflict are bound to occur; between staff members, between staff and management, and between clients and members of your organization. As a result of working with thousands of government employees to help them acquire and use defusing hostility skills, we have concluded that a good amount of bad feelings, organizational problems, destructive conflict and inefficiency result from a lack of skill in the WAY that people communicate with each other.
This isn't that surprising if we consider that our society tends to glorify the confrontational, John Wayne type heroes. And, that as children learn language, they tend to learn confrontational, negative language before they learn how to get along with others. Cooperative communication, or the skills needed to get along in the workplace, or, for that matter, anywhere else, are in relatively short supply, because we simply don't teach them to children or adults. So we get unnecessary conflict and friction. We get arguments that are more oriented towards winning than solving problems, and we get the so-called personality conflict, a convenient phrase that allows everyone to avoid responsibility for interpersonal problems.
We get teams that don't work well because they lack the skills. We get meetings where the majority of time is wasted because people don't interact effectively. We get clashes with clients and customers that occur as a result of both parties moving into confrontational ways of interacting. When attempting to resolve a conflict by ourselves, it may be necessary to establish a set of ground rules. This becomes important between individuals who share vastly different rules for normal engagement.
Examples include shouting versus quiet speaking, interrupting each other versus one person talking until the statement is completed, monopolizing the conversation versus sharing the floor with one and all. (Raymond) Conflict resolution is a highly sought-after skill. Todays best companies are interested in hiring Development Candidates who have the ability to handle conflict and bring about positive resolutions. Conflicts occur every day in every environment, and it takes truly talented individuals to consistently bring about productive resolutions to these conflicts. 1) Be positive. Rid your vocabulary of negative words. When someone disagrees with you or confronts you on an issue, typically the first words out of your mouth are, "No, that is not right, " or "No, that is not how I see it. " (Raymond) Whatever you might say, the typical response is negative. If you want to resolve conflict rather than worsen it, you must make a conscience effort to stop using negative words.
The first words out of your mouth should be "Yes, I see your point, " or "Yes, I can see how you might have thought that was my understanding of the situation. " (Raymond) Addressing people like this is completely disarming. Immediately the shield comes down and theyre ready to converse with you rather than go to battle. Suddenly youre engaged in a conversation rather than a conflict of interest. 2) Listen and be respectful. Most people are much more interested in being heard than they are in listening during a conflict situation. (Raymond) Your first reaction is to start talking and defending your point of view, which is the quickest way to rise a conflict and start a verbal battle. The result is no one is listening; no one is being respectful; no one is being productive. 3) Dont wait, initiate.
Be practical. Deal with things head-on. If you and another person do not see eye to eye on an issue, dont put off resolving your differences. Differences in viewpoints do not just go away; they usually will fester. (Raymond) Seek out resolution immediately. 4) Find a common ground. Despite the disagreement, there always are issues you can find on which you agree. (Raymond) Usually these are big picture issues or values, such as a company philosophy or purpose, morals, honor, equality. Begin the discussion on common ground and your the chances for a positive resolution will dramatically increase. 5) Remember, the business world is about producing results.
As a leader in the business world, everything you do is directed toward this end. Therefore, in the face of disagreement, do not get mad, get to work! (Raymond) Its not good to become personally obsessed with an issue. Look at both sides objectively and proceed with reason and a commitment to a positive end. A lot of what it takes to bring about positive resolutions we were taught in grade school. Use positive words. Listen and be respectful of others.
Be proactive. Find commonalities. Do not lose your temper. In a world of high expectations, tough competition and strong egos, much of these practices can very easily get lost. (Raymond) Basically, organizational culture is the personality of the organization.
Culture is comprised of the assumptions, values, norms and tangible signs (artifacts) of organization members and their behaviors. Members of an organization soon come to sense the particular culture of an organization. Culture is one of those terms that's difficult to express distinctly, but everyone knows it when they sense it. For example, the culture of a large, for-profit corporation is quite different than that of a hospital which is quite different that that of a university. You can tell the culture of an organization by looking at the arrangement of furniture, what they brag about, what members wear, etc. -- similar to what you can use to get a feeling about someone's personality.
Corporate culture can be looked at as a system. Inputs include feedback from, e. g. , society, professions, laws, stories, heroes, values on competition or service, etc. The process is based on our assumptions, values and norms, e. g. , our values on money, time, facilities, space and people. Outputs or effects of our culture are, e.
g. , organizational behaviors, technologies, strategies, image, products, services, appearance, etc. The concept of culture is particularly important when attempting to manage organization-wide change. Practitioners are coming to realize that, despite the best-laid plans, organizational change must include not only changing structures and processes, but also changing the corporate culture as well. There's been a great deal of literature generated over the past decade about the concept of organizational culture -- particularly in regard to learning how to change organizational culture. Organizational change efforts are rumored to fail the vast majority of the time. Usually, this failure is credited to lack of understanding about the strong role of culture and the role it plays in organiza...
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Research essay sample on Organizational Culture Corporate Culture
