My Groups Presentation On Conflict

What is conflict?

There is a tendency to view conflict as a negative experience caused by abnormally difficult circumstances but conflict can be productive and have positive outcomes. Conflict arises when there is a clash of two or more opposing ideas or needs creating a negative experience 

There are 4 main factors that that stand out:

1.      Disagreement– Conflict can sometimes sprout from misunderstandings rather than actual incidence and therefore exaggerate the perceived disagreement. If the parties can isolate the actual issue then the problem can be solved.

2.      Parties involved - People often "take sides" based upon current perceptions of the issues, past issues, relationships and other factors. These circumstances can complicate the conflict by dragging unnecessary people or instances into the mix. In order to resolve the issue at hand, people need to try to not let their personal feelings intervene. 

3.      Alleged threat–People tend to respond based on how they see a situation and react not knowing the full story. If team members can work to understand the true issues and develop strategies to solve them, then their on their way to constructively managing conflict.

4.      Needs, Interests or Concerns–In order to address and resolve conflict, both parties must accommodate each other’s needs, interests or concerns. Any efforts to resolve conflicts effectively must take these points into account. It’s not surprising that satisfactory resolution of most conflicts can prove so challenging and time consuming to address.

Why Conflict Escalates

So it only takes one person to get the wrong idea to initiate the beginning of conflict.  One person may say or do something that the other person finds unsettling.  The other person may not have meant anything of it but the other person doesn’t know it. Because nothing is confronted both parties read off each other giving off negativity building up conflict until it explodes or one reaches out for a resolution.

Responding to Conflict

There are a number of ways that people respond to conflict.

• Competing is a way in which one's own needs are put over the needs of others.It’s an aggressive style of communication with low regard for future relationships, and the exercise of dominance. Competing tends to result in responses that increase the level of tension.
• Accommodating, also known as smoothing, is the opposite of competing. Persons using this style yield their needs to those of others.

• Avoiding is a common response to the negative perception of conflict. "Perhaps if we don't bring it up, it will blow over". But, generally, all that happens is that feelings get built up, views go unexpressed, and the conflict festers until it becomes too big to ignore.

• Compromising is an approach to conflict in which people gain and give. While satisfactory, compromise is generally not satisfying. We each remain shaped by our individual needs and don't necessarily understand the other side very well. We often retain a lack of trust and avoid risk-taking involved in more collaborative behaviors.

• Collaborating is the combining of individual needs and goals toward a common goal.Collaboration requires communication and cooperation in order to achieve a better solution than either individual could have achieved alone.

·      Confronting is also described as problem solving, integrating, collaborating or win-win style. It involves the conflicting parties meeting face-to-face and collaborating to reach an agreement that satisfies the concerns of both parties. This style involves open and direct communication which should lead the way to solving the problem

Positive Outcomes of Conflict

• ·         Increased Productivity
• ·         Better Decision Making
• ·         Stronger Team

Negative Outcomes of Conflict

• ·         Low Team Morale
• ·         Decreased Productivity
• ·         Biased Decision Making
• ·         Divided team

Types of Conflict

Conflict is a natural and inevitable aspect of working within a group.

Personal Conflict – Is commonly caused when there is a disagreement through which the parties involved perceive a threat to their needs, interests or concerns.

Technical Conflict – Refers to the problems encountered using hardware and software needed to carry out our project.

Personality Clashes– generated from people’s perceptions or emotions toward one another. 

Leadership – Conflict may arise between a project manager and team member due to managerial styles.

Personal Conflict

When working within a group you have to expect problems will arise as different work members have different ethics and ways of doing things than you do. You have to expect that your workmates will have different wants and needs and styles. When a conflict arises within a team setting, it is possible that it may involve more than one member and have more than two sides.

Within our group we have had some minor clashes with work ethic and styles.

When resolving our issues we, as a group sat down and communicated each members concerns and motives. This has enables us to address the problems at hand as well as bringing it to the attention of the members involved, allowing for them to have their say and to resolve the issues.

Technical conflict

Within our group we have had conflict with a program not working how it should or giving the desired results. This is normal when working with new software but not ideal as we don’t have excessive amounts of time to spend fixing problems.

All members of our group experienced frustrating problems with the 3D program 123D Catch which allows you to construct a 3D model from photographs. We experienced numerous errors throughout the upload and render process usually after considerable amounts of time, escalating our frustration. We also had other problems with program congestion due to too many photos and size which was only discovered by trial and error as well as model errors due to photos not matching up correctly.

This became really frustrating and almost nightmarish when trying to complete a simple model, waiting a few hours and then receiving an error.

We managed to partially resolve the issue only by trying different computers as some would work better than others due to capabilities. We have a sound model at the moment but have decided, as a group, to leave this part of the task for the end where we can focus the rest of the time to it.

Management

There are 6 main ways of dealing with conflict.

Be Open Minded:Being open minded involves trying to understand other people’s views, values, beliefs, preferences and differences. This is not about learning to agree with the person or learning to have the same values. It’s about trying to understand why they think like that or what circumstances have led them to do things like this. Or even respecting someone else’s decision (even though you don’t agree) to speak out or try something new for eg.  When the parties can learn to do this, a common ground and understanding can be reached and the path to a resolution can be made.

Focus on the Issue:There is no point focusing on other issues or instances that do not relate to this particular conflict, as this will only aggravate, get people off side and make them feel attacked. By doing this, you are getting further and further away from developing a common ground with the people involved as well as having an even more negative impact on the involved. This is not the way to resolve conflict. For a resolution to occur, the issue that has brought upon the conflict is to be the focus. This allows for both members to speak their opinions and have an even playing field, rather than one party bombarding the other with numerous negative instances where they have done wrong.

Do Not Focus on Personalities: When personalities are brought into conflicts it usually involves emotions and people’s perceptions of one another. For example a team leader lectures a team member for being late. There view of this person is that they are lazy and disrespectful. The team member thinks that the leader is only focusing on them because they dislike them or that they aren’t one of the favoured ones. These types of perceptions and views of people need to be removed from the workplace. They only create problems with members and offset the team from reaching their goals effectively.

Allow for Differences:Everyone has their own styles, preferences and ways of doing things. Leaders can lead their teams any way they see best and this may frustrate or aggravate some project members. For example one leader may be more open and general whilst the other may be more direct, or even they may get you to do something a certain way which doesn’t make sense to you. To avoid conflicts with managers and project leaders, there needs to be a solid work plan detailing principals and values as so consistency is formed and team members aren’t confused and frustrated by erratic decisions.

Resolution Must be with Conflicting Parties:For conflict to be resolved, the conflicted parties must work out the issue at hand, come to an arrangement on which the parties agree on and then move forward as a team. Issues cannot be resolved properly if it isn’t involving the conflicted parties directly. These are personal differences and must be dealt with in person otherwise the issues may not be fully resolved and further conflict may come. If these issues cannot be resolved between the members, then the project manager must be involved. The project manager would have final say on the decision or outcome. In these cases the outcome may not be in their favour as the decision is left to someone else.

Push for Alternatives:When there is conflict within a group, there is a driving force to find an alternative, wether that alternative be a resolution or not, both parties cannot stay in a constant phase of conflict. In the case of a conflict, where both members have reached a disagreement, there are two ways in which they can turn out. The best and most effective way is a resolution. A resolution will allow both parties to reconcile, address the problem and move forward for the better of the team and for themselves. The alternative is that a conflict will force for a change of action, not always being beneficial for both parties, one may lose out from either their opinion or maybe the group they were in. This is a consequence of not working out a resolution.  

Resolution

Influence Factors

There are many different circumstances that can influence or force a person to come to a resolution with the conflicting party.

Importance: Is it a must that you have things your way? Is the friendship one that you want to keep or remain on good terms? These are factors one must consider before starting or resolving conflict.By analysing the importance of an altercation by the outcome or relationship, one can assess wether conflict or a resolution is needed.

Time Constraints: Time can really influence ones decision making when it comes to resolving conflict. Time shortages can expose the importance of certain decisions or situations and then dictate the outcome.

Short Term or Long Term: Consider whether a resolution is needed for the short term or long term. If there is no need for a long term resolution then maybe it isn’t worth working one out.

Benefits

Increased Understanding:

-Team member’s awareness of the situation

-Each member’s insight to achieve individual goal

Increased Group Organization:

-Stronger mutual respect

-Renewed faith to work together as a group

-Reunion teamwork cooperation

Improved Self-Knowledge:

-Team member examine their goals in close detail

-Team member aware of things that are most important to their roles

-Sharpening team member’s focus

-Enhancing team member’s effectiveness