Technological University of the Philippines

Ayala Blvd., Manila

College of Liberal Arts

Master in Management

Seminar in Industrial Management (MM511)

CONFLICT MANAGEMENT
Dr. Corazon L. Obnamia
Presented by: Presented to:

Fernando G. Macaraig

What is Conflict?
Conflict:
A battle, contest of opposing forces, discord, antagonism existing between primitive desires and instincts and moral, religious, or ethical ideals. Conflict occurs when two or more people oppose one another because their needs, wants, goals, or values are different. Conflict is almost always accompanied by feelings of anger, frustration, hurt, anxiety, or fear.

The Nature of Conflicts

Destructive and Constructive Conflict: In 1969, Deutsch created a view of conflict that remains a usable framework today. Deutsch claimed that the negative or positive nature of conflict really is determined by people's behaviors; it is not an inherent quality of conflict itself. Some behaviors produce dysfunctional, destructive and unproductive responses; other behaviors produce functional, constructive and productive responses.

Destructive conflict:
Behaviors that escalate a conflict until it seems to have a life of its own are dysfunctional and destructive. Destructive conflicts may degenerate sufficiently so the conflict parties forget the substantive issues and transform their purposes to getting even, retaliating or hurting the other person. In destructive conflict, no one is satisfied with the outcome, possible gains are not realized and the negative taste left over at the end of one conflict episode is carried over to the beginning of the next conflict--creating a degenerating or negative spiral. Destructive conflicts are more likely to occur when behaviors come from rigid, competitive systems.

Constructive conflict:
Behaviors that are adaptive to the situation, person and issues of the moment are functional and constructive. Many conflicts are a mixture of competitive and cooperative impulses. Constructive conflicts appropriately balance the interests of both parties to maximize the opportunities for mutual gains. Constructive conflicts contain an element of creative adaptation born from a realization that one must know both one's own and the other's interests and goals to be able to find a road both parties are willing to walk to discover a mutually acceptable outcome. Focusing on the process, not just the outcome one person desires, is key to productive conflict management.

The Nature of Conflicts

Competitive and Cooperative Conflict
In the 1990's, scholars and practitioners identified two approaches or worldviews regarding conflict: competitive and cooperative.

Competitive conflict systems

(sometimes also termed positional, distributive, win/lose, or adversarial) are grounded in a win/lose perspective--for one party to "win" the other party must "lose." Competitive systems often assume a zero-sum or fixedpie view of all resources.

Cooperative conflict systems

(sometimes also termed mutual gains, interest-based, and win/win) are grounded in a win/win or positive mutual outcome perspective--for one party to win the other party's needs and goals must also be considered, with the net result that both parties maximize their outcomes. Cooperative systems often assume that resources can be expanded or traded in creative ways. Instead of the other party being the opponent, the problem or issue becomes the opponent that both parties must join in defeating.

The chart below compares the elements of competitive and cooperative conflict:

Competitive Conflict

Cooperative Conflict

Basic of Conflict Management

Conflict is when two or more values, perspectives and opinions are contradictory in nature and haven't been aligned or agreed about yet, including:

1. Within yourself when you're not living according to your values;

2. When your values and perspectives are threatened; or

3. Discomfort from fear of the unknown or from lack of fulfillment.

Conflict is inevitable and often good, for example, good teams always go through a "form, storm, norm and perform" period. Getting the most out of diversity means often-contradictory values, perspectives and opinions.

What is Conflict Management?

Conflict Management refers to the long-term management of intractable conflicts. It is the label for the variety of ways by which people handle grievancesstanding up for what they consider to be right and against what they consider to be wrong. Those ways include such diverse phenomena as gossip, ridicule, lynching, terrorism, warfare, feuding, genocide, law, mediation, and avoidance. Which forms of conflict management will be used in any given situation can be somewhat predicted and explained by the social structureor social geometryof the case. Conflict Management is often considered to be distinct from conflict resolution. In order for actual conflict to occur, there should be an expression of exclusive patterns, and tell why the conflict was expressed the way it was. Conflict is not just about simple inaptness, but is often connected to a previous issue. The latter refers to resolving the dispute to the approval of one or both parties, whereas the former concerns an ongoing process that may never have a resolution. Neither is it considered the same as conflict transformation, which seeks to reframe the positions of the conflict parties.

Importance of Conflict Management in an Organization:

For any organization to be effective and efficient in achieving its goals, the people in the organization need to have a shared vision of what they are striving to achieve, as well as clear objectives for each team / department and individual. You also need ways of recognizing and resolving conflict amongst people, so that conflict does not become so serious that co-operation is impossible. All members of any organization need to have ways of keeping conflict to a minimum and of solving problems caused by conflict, before conflict becomes a major obstacle to your work. This could happen to any organization, whether it is an NGO, a CBO, a political party, a business or a government. Conflict management is the process of planning to avoid conflict where possible and organizing to resolve conflict where it does happen, as rapidly and smoothly as possible.

Conflict is often needed. It:

1. Helps to raise and address problems. 2. Energizes work to be on the most appropriate issues. 3. Helps people "be real", for example, it motivates them to participate. 4. Helps people learn how to recognize and benefit from their differences.

Conflict is not the same as discomfort. The conflict isn't the problem - it is when conflict is poorly managed that is the problem.

Conflict is a problem when it:

1. Hampers productivity. 2. Lowers morale. 3. Causes more and continued conflicts. 4. Causes inappropriate behaviors.

Types of Managerial Actions that Cause Workplace Conflicts

1. Poor communications
a. Employees experience continuing surprises, they aren't informed of new decisions, programs, etc.
b. Employees don't understand reasons for decisions, they aren't involved in decision-making. c. As a result, employees trust the "rumor mill" more than management.

2. The alignment or the amount of resources is insufficient. There is:

a. Disagreement about "who does what". b. Stress from working with inadequate resources.

Types of Managerial Actions that Cause Workplace Conflicts

3. "Personal chemistry", including conflicting values or actions among managers and employees, for example:
a. Strong personal natures don't match. b. We often don't like in others what we don't like in ourselves.

4. Leadership problems, including inconsistent, missing, too-strong or uninformed leadership (at any level in the organization), evidenced by:
a. Avoiding conflict, "passing the buck" with little follow-through on decisions. b. Employees see the same continued issues in the workplace. c. Supervisors don't understand the jobs of their subordinates.

Key Managerial Actions / Structures to Minimize Conflicts

1. Regularly review job descriptions. Get your employee's input to them. Write down and date job descriptions. Ensure:
a. Job roles don't conflict.
b. No tasks "fall in a crack".

2. Intentionally build relationships with all subordinates.

a. Meet at least once a month alone with them in office. b. Ask about accomplishments, challenges and issues.

3. Get regular, written status reports and include:

a. Accomplishments. b. Currents issues and needs from management. c. Plans for the upcoming period.

Key Managerial Actions / Structures to Minimize Conflicts

4. Conduct basic training about:
a. Interpersonal communications. b. Conflict management.

c. Delegation.

5. Develop procedures for routine tasks and include the employees' input.
a. Have employees write procedures when possible and appropriate. b. Get employees' review of the procedures.
c. Distribute the procedures. d. Train employees about the procedures.

6. Regularly hold management meetings, for example, every month, to communicate new initiatives and status of current programs. 7. Consider an anonymous suggestion box in which employees can provide suggestions.

Ways to deal with conflicts

It's wise to deal with conflict if the issue is important and causing problems. Sometimes, if it is a minor issue, you could just let it go, but if you are feeling unhappy, see if you can work it out.

The most effective way to deal with conflict is to negotiate with the other person involved. Getting angry or aggressive often makes the situation much worse. Much conflict can be resolved if you use a positive and respectful approach - but sometimes this can be very difficult, especially if you or the other person are used to getting what you want by becoming angry, or used to just giving in.

One of the most effective ideas is the win-win approach.

This approach is about both people being satisfied with the outcome.

It's about finding out what you both want and where there are
areas that you can both agree on, then working towards them.

It's It's

about working together as partners trying to solve a problem, not as opponents trying to win against each other. about working together on a basis of mutual respect to find a satisfying solution.

How to manage and resolve conflict situations

Collective bargaining
Especially in workplace situations, it is necessary to have agreed mechanisms in place for groups of people who may be antagonistic (e.g. management and workers) to collectively discuss and resolve issues. This process is often called "collective bargaining", because representatives of each group come together with a mandate to work out a solution collectively. Experience has shown that this is far better than avoidance or withdrawal, and puts democratic processes in place to achieve "integrative problem solving", where people or groups who must find ways of co-operating in the same organization, do so within their own agreed rules and procedures.

How to manage and resolve conflict situations

Conciliation
The dictionary defines conciliation as "the act of procuring good will or inducing a friendly feeling". South African labor relations legislation provides for the process of conciliation in the workplace, whereby groups who are in conflict and who have failed to reach agreement, can come together once again to attempt to settle their differences. This is usually attempted before the more serious step of a strike by workers or a lock-out by management is taken; and it has been found useful to involve a facilitator in the conciliation process. Similarly, any other organization (e.g. sports club, youth group or community organization) could try conciliation as a first step.

Three methods of resolving situations that have reached the stage of open conflict are often used by many different organizations. It is important to understand these methods, so that people can decide which methods will work best for them in their specific conflict situation:

Negotiation:
this is the process where mandated representatives of groups in a conflict situation meet together in order to resolve their differences and to reach agreement. It is a deliberate process, conducted by representatives of groups, designed to reconcile differences and to reach agreements by consensus. The outcome is often dependent on the power relationship between the groups. Negotiations often involve compromise - one group may win one of their demands and give in on another. In workplaces Unions and management representative usually sue negotiations to solve conflicts. Political and community groups also often use this method.

Mediation:
when negotiations fail or get stuck, parties often call in and independent mediator. This person or group will try to facilitate settlement of the conflict. The mediator plays an active part in the process, advises both or all groups, acts as intermediary and suggests possible solutions. In contrast to arbitration (see below) mediators act only in an advisory capacity - they have no decision-making powers and cannot impose a settlement on the conflicting parties. Skilled mediators are able to gain trust and confidence from the conflicting groups or individuals.

Arbitration:
means the appointment of an independent person to act as an adjudicator (or judge) in a dispute, to decide on the terms of a settlement. Both parties in a conflict have to agree about who the arbitrator should be, and that the decision of the arbitrator will be binding on them all. Arbitration differs from mediation and negotiation in that it does not promote the continuation of collective bargaining: the arbitrator listens to and investigates the demands and counter-demands and takes over the role of decision-maker. People or organizations can agree on having either a single arbitrator or a panel of arbitrators whom they respect and whose decision they will accept as final, in order to resolve the conflict.

How to be an effective mediator

An effective mediator needs certain skills in order to achieve credibility and results:

preferably a proven record of success in mediation or

negotiation

the ability to gain the trust, acceptance and co-operation

of conflicting parties

clear thinking in identifying the real problems and offering

practical solutions

knowledgeable tactful

about the organizational structures, strategies and attitudes of the conflicting parties; as well as any relevant laws or agreements and diplomatic with the necessary powers of persuasion and strong character to nudge the participants progressively towards an agreement.

How to run a mediation process

The mediation process can be broadly divided into the following three stages:

Stage 1: Introduction and establishment of credibility

During the first stage, the mediator plays a passive role. The main task is to gain the trust and acceptance of the conflicting parties, so that they begin to believe that he/she will be capable of assisting them fairly as a person on whom they can rely at all times. An experienced mediator will leave most of the talking to the disputing parties, but will listen attentively and ask probing questions to pinpoint the causes of the dispute, obstacles to a possible settlement and to identify the issues in order of priority. Once credibility is achieved and sufficient background knowledge gained, the mediator may begin to persuade the parties to resume negotiations, possibly with a fresh perspective.

How to run a mediation process

Stage 2: Steering the negotiation process

In the second stage, the mediator intervenes more actively in steering the negotiations. He/she may offer advice to the parties, attempt to establish the actual resistance point of each party and to discover areas in which compromises could be reached. The mediator will encourage parties to put forward proposals and counter-proposals and (when a solution appears feasible) will begin to urge or even pressurize the participants towards acceptance of a settlement.

How to run a mediation process

Stage 3: Movement towards a final settlement
An experienced mediator will know when to use diplomacy and when to exert pressure towards final settlement of the dispute. Timing and sensitivity to personalities and strategic positions is important to maintain credibility and avoid rejection by one or more parties in the process. He/she might use bi-lateral discussions with individuals or groups and during the final stages may actually suggest or draft proposals for consideration. In the event of a final settlement being reached, the mediator usually assists the parties in the drafting of their agreement, ensuring that both sides are satisfied with the wording, terms and conditions of the agreement. The process of mediation is dynamic and finely-tuned. A good mediator has to be flexible and inventive, must ensure that his/her personal values are not imposed on the conflicting parties. At most a mediator can advise, persuade or cajole them towards agreement.

Why the study of conflict is important?

Conflicts arise naturally in every arena of daily life

Conflict is a fact of organizational life

Conflict is a fact of personal life

A key skill for all successful long-term relationship

There are good reasons for employing conflict management skills

Advantages to conflict:
While the term conflict generally is associated with negative encounters, conflict itself is neither inherently good nor inherently bad. In fact, engaging in conflict can have positive effects on relationships and organizations.

Consider these benefits:

Conflict fosters an awareness that problems exist. Discussing conflicting views can lead to better solutions. Managing conflicts is quicker and more efficient than letting conflict fester. Challenging old assumptions can lead to changes in outdated practices &
processes.

Conflict requires creativity to find the best outcomes. Conflict raises awareness of what is important to individuals. Managing conflicts appropriately helps build self-esteem. Managing conflicts well is a sign of maturity. Conflicts are challenging. Conflicts are exiting. Conflicts encourage people to grow. Conflicts create opportunity.

The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.

Thomas Paine

References: Adapted from the Field Guide to Leadership and Supervision By: Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD, http://familyrelationships.gov.au/www/agd/familyrelonline.nsf http://www.cios.org/encyclopedia/conflict/Eskills1.htm http://www.articlesbase.com/organizational-articles/conflict-management strategies-in-the-work-place http://www.google.com.ph http://www.wikipedia.org

Ways People Deal With Conflict

There is no one best way to deal with conflict. It depends on the current situation. Here are the major ways that people use to deal with conflict. 1. Avoid it. Pretend it is not there or ignore it. a. Use it when it simply is not worth the effort to argue. Usually this approach tends to worsen the conflict over time. 2. Accommodate it. Give in to others, sometimes to the extent that you compromise yourself. a. Use this approach very sparingly and infrequently, for example, in situations when you know that you will have another more useful approach in the very near future. Usually this approach tends to worsen the conflict over time, and causes conflicts within yourself. 3. Competing. Work to get your way, rather than clarifying and addressing the issue. Competitors love accommodators. a. Use when you have a very strong conviction about your position. 4. Compromising. Mutual give-and-take.

a. Use when the goal is to get past the issue and move on.
5. Collaborating. Focus on working together. a. Use when the goal is to meet as many current needs as possible by using mutual resources. This approach sometimes raises new mutual needs. b. Use when the goal is to cultivate ownership and commitment.

Conflict is when people disagree on an issue, or can't get along well. This is just a part of life. It's natural for people to disagree at times, because we all have different interests, values, goals and needs. Sometimes we don't understand other people and what they really mean, or they dont understand us. Conflict happens in personal relationships, with family, parents, caregivers, friends, partners, teachers and work mates. Conflict also happens in wider society, among groups with different interests and values, different religions, races, countries, political parties and even sporting teams. You can probably think of many other examples.

Conflict can also happen within yourself when you learn something new that is different to what you always believed. The conflict inside yourself can make you want to hang on tightly to your old beliefs or it can lead you to change your beliefs.

http://familyrelationships.gov.au/www/agd/familyrelonline.nsf

What is Conflict Management?

Conflict Management refers to the long-term management of intractable conflicts. It is the label for the variety of ways by which people handle grievancesstanding up for what they consider to be right and against what they consider to be wrong. Those ways include such diverse phenomena as gossip, ridicule, lynching, terrorism, warfare, feuding, genocide, law, mediation, and avoidance. Which forms of conflict management will be used in any given situation can be somewhat predicted and explained by the social structureor social geometryof the case. Conflict Management is often considered to be distinct from conflict resolution. In order for actual conflict to occur, there should be an expression of exclusive patterns, and tell why the conflict was expressed the way it was. Conflict is not just about simple inaptness, but is often connected to a previous issue. The latter refers to resolving the dispute to the approval of one or both parties, whereas the former concerns an ongoing process that may never have a resolution. Neither is it considered the same as conflict transformation, which seeks to reframe the positions of the conflict parties.

Importance of Conflict Management in an Organization:

For any organization to be effective and efficient in achieving its goals, the people in the organization need to have a shared vision of what they are striving to achieve, as well as clear objectives for each team / department and individual. You also need ways of recognizing and resolving conflict amongst people, so that conflict does not become so serious that cooperation is impossible. All members of any organization need to have ways of keeping conflict to a minimum - and of solving problems caused by conflict, before conflict becomes a major obstacle to your work. This could happen to any organization, whether it is an NGO, a CBO, a political party, a business or a government. Conflict management is the process of planning to avoid conflict where possible and organizing to resolve conflict where it does happen, as rapidly and smoothly as possible.

Why the study of conflict is important?

Conflicts arise naturally in every arena of daily life;
It happens on the job, between groups in our society, within families, and right in the middle of our most personal relationships. Conflict is ever present and both fascinating and maddening. The challenges of dealing with differences have rarely been greater. When a person arises in the morning at home and greets family or roommates, conflict potential abounds. In educational contexts, differences occur about goals, procedures, or activities. As customers, our hopes and desires sometimes diverge from the stated policies of the stores we visit. As employees, daily work with clients, customers, coworkers, or bosses can be a struggle. On the global scale, nations struggle with one another, both diplomatically and militarily. And with the increased globalization of the world's economy, we are all becoming more interdependent with one another (Brown 1992). War, international negotiation, and ethnic/racial conflict also are important arenas of study.

Conflict is a fact of organizational life;

On the job, "conflict is a stubborn fact of organizational life" (Kolb and Putnam 1992). Rather than seeing conflict as abnormal, Pondy (1992) suggests we view organizations as "arenas for staging conflicts, and managers as both fight promoters who organize bouts and as referees who regulate them". Furthermore, Pondy asserts that in the company, agency, or small business, conflict may be the very essence of what the organization is about, and if "conflict isn't happening then the organization has no reason for being." One study surveyed workers and found that almost 85 percent reported conflicts at work (Volkema and Bergmann 1989). And with an increasing awareness of cultural diversity and gender equity issues, it is imperative that we become familiar with issues surrounding promotions and harassment. In fact, one can see training in organizations as a form of preventive conflict management (Hathaway 1995). The recognition of the prevalence of conflict at work has led to books on mediating conflict in the workplace (Yarbrough and Wilmot 1995), showing how managers can learn conflict management skills to intervene in disputes in their organization.

 Conflict is a fact of personal life;

In your personal relationships, the study of conflict also can pay big dividends. If you are an adolescent or parent of an adolescent, it will come as no surprise to you that it takes about ten years for parents and children to renegotiate roles closer to equality than their earlier parent-child relationship (Comstock 1994), and at the heart of this renegotiation is the conflict process. The study of conflict can assist in this renegotiation process, letting you see which styles backfire, which ones work best, and how much productive power you have available. We all know that romantic relationships provide a rigorous test of our skills. Siegert and Stamp (1994) studied the effects of the "First Big Fight" in dating relationships, noting that some couples survive and prosper, whereas others break up. These communication researchers tell us quite clearly that "the big difference between the nonsurvivors and survivors was the way they perceived and handled conflict". As Wilmot (1995) wrote, "What determines the course of a relationship . . . is in a large measure determined by how successfully the participants move through conflict episodes". One of the ultimate testing grounds for romantic relationships is marriage. Almost all spouses report "occasional marital disagreement" (Bolger et al. 1989; Metz, Rosser, and Strapko 1994). For many spouses the disagreements may be only once or twice a month, yet for others they may continue over many days (Bolger et al. 1989). It is common and normal for partners to have conflicts or disagreements, and in fact, managing conflict is one of the central tasks of maintaining a marriage (Gottman 1994). As you might guess, learning to constructively resolve conflict is clearly and directly linked to marital satisfaction. "Findings regarding the link between conflict resolution styles and marital satisfaction have been consistent in indicating that each spouse's marital satisfaction is positively related to the frequency with which each spouse uses constructive strategies to resolve conflict" (Kurdek 1995).

 A key skill for all successful long-term relationship:

It may well be that the key skill in all long-term committed relationships is conflict management--certainly the data on marriages suggest this is true (Gottman 1994). The presence of conflict does not determine the quality of a marriage; rather, how the couple handles conflict situations determines the quality of the relationship (Comstock and Strzyzewski 1990). Even beliefs about conflict are more important to marital, happiness than whether or not the two partners actually agree with one another (Crohan 1992). How you handle conflict spreads to other members of your family. For example, it has been noted that adult children who are taking care of their parents usually have high levels of conflict with siblings (Merrill 1996). Learning effective skills for dealing with your younger brother or sister is far better than engaging in a family dispute that will affect your children and subsequent generations as well.

Immediate impact of unresolved conflict;

Unresolved conflict has tremendous negative impact. It directly affects the parties themselves--the two vice presidents are so absorbed with their conflict that they cannot carry out their normal job duties. In relationships, unresolved conflict leads to drifting away from one another and sometimes jettisoning the relationship entirely. One study even found that the relapse of compulsive gamblers was related to erupting interpersonal conflicts (Lorenz 1989). Family research is quite clear about the system wide effects of destructive marital conflict. First, negative conflict between the parents reduces the family's network of friends and creates more loneliness (Jones 1992). Second, conflict between the parents tends to both change the mood of household interactions and also to shift the parents' attention to the negative behaviors of their children (Jouriles and Farris 1992). For example, inter-parental conflict leads to fathers issuing confusing and threatening commands to their sons (Jouriles and Farris 1992). Third, parental conflict has direct negative impacts on the children (Comstock and Strzyzewski 1990).

Conflict between parents predicts well-being of the children, with more conflict associated with maladaptive behavior on the part of the kids (Dunn and Tucker 1993; Garber 1991; Grych and Fincham 1990; Jouriles, Bourg, and Farris 1991). For example, children of conflicting parents see conflict as aggressive and have behavior problems and lower academic performance (Buehler et al. 1994). Families with delinquent teenagers are found to be more defensive and less supportive than families without delinquents (Prager 1991). Finally, the effects of destructive conflict patterns suggest that "ongoing conflict at home has a greater impact on adolescent distress and symptoms than does parental divorce" (Jaycox and Repetti 1993, 344).

Long-term impact of unresolved conflict;

It isn't just the people who call one another names who have relationship difficulties deriving from conflict. It has been clearly demonstrated that "couples who never engage in conflict are at long-term risk" (McGonagle, Kessler, and Gotlib 1993). There is evidence that parents who either avoid conflict or engage in negative cycles of mutual damage directly influence the children's subsequent lives. For instance, if your parents avoided conflict, you may be at risk in romantic relationships (Martin 1990). A modest relationship exists between mothers who avoid conflict and their daughters' marital satisfaction (VanLear 1992). On the other end of the continuum, children who are exposed to harsh discipline practices at home (which coincide with a negative and hostile relationship between the parents) are more at risk for aggression, hyperactivity, and internalizing by withdrawing, having somatic complaints, and experiencing depressive symptoms (Jaycox and Repetti 1993). The family effects also reach beyond the immediate environment. One study demonstrated that children from high-conflict homes had much stronger negative reactions while watching a video of angry adults than children from low-conflict homes (El-Sheikh 1994).

Children's own favorableness toward marriage is directly affected by the conflict between their parents. If their parents have frequent conflict, the children have a much less favorable attitude toward marriage (Jennings, Salts, and Smith 1991). A child's general feelings of self-worth are directly affected by interparental conflict (Garber 1991). Finally, it has been fairly well demonstrated that parental conflict has long-term effects on children regardless of family structure (Garber 1991). This means that it isn't primarily the question of whether parents divorce or not that affects the kids but it is the level of conflict present in either the intact family or the restructured family that impacts the children.

Good reasons for employing conflict management skills:

In organizational relationships. Conflict management in organizational settings is important for many reasons. As an employee, you can learn how to get along with: o o o As a o o o o o Fellow employees Your manager The public supervisor, you can begin to: See conflicts coming Learn productive responses Get more cooperation from employees Help employees resolve their disputes with one another Keep interpersonal conflicts from spreading to other parts of the organization

In personal relationships. Conflict management in personal relationships is important for the following reasons: o How you engage in conflict will directly affect your romantic relationship. o How long-term satisfaction of your marriage may hinge on how well you manage conflict. o Your skill at conflict management directly affects your family of origin and your children.

You might study conflict so you can be of help to others experiencing interpersonal conflict. To be of most help you will need specific intervention skills, but understanding conflict dynamics is an absolute prerequisite for being an effective helper to others--children, friends, family, and work associates.

Finally, learning effective approaches for dealing with interpersonal conflict contributes to overall mental health. The National Institute of Mental Health funded a decade of studies of depression as one of the major public health problems. Depression affects one's personal relationships and results in millions of dollars lost in the workplace due to missed days, medical and counseling costs. Effective conflict management is one aspect of interpersonal therapy, one of the chosen techniques for dealing with depression. Conflict is unavoidable. Why study conflict? Because if we don't, we are more likely to repeat the damaging patterns we see on the job and in our homes. Examining the dynamics of conflict will allow us to unpack those dynamics, see what brings on destructive moves, and build more productive options for ourselves both at work and at home. Since the first edition of Interpersonal Conflict was published in 1978, much more interest in the process of conflict as a natural, inevitable part of communication has been apparent in research and the popular press. Most writers now know that conflict is not different from "regular" communication but is a part of the ongoing flow of the communication between human beings. We might define ourselves as being "in conflict," of varying intensities, many times a day or week. Even people who vastly prefer peace, harmony, and calm interaction find themselves involved in situations that are tense, escalating, and uncomfortable. Truly, we do not have the option of staying out of conflict unless we stay out of relationships, families, work, and community. Conflict happens so we would be wise to prepare for it. Recognizing that there are advantages to conflict is the first step to preparing for it.

TON: The Other Negotiator Bargaining: Win Lose | Zero Sum | Distributive Negotiation: Win Win | non-Zero Sum | Integrative BATNA: Best Alternative To A Negotiated Agreement Mutual Adjustment: Give to Get Concession: Trade Off Intra Group Conflict: Conflict in a group Inter Group Conflict: Conflict among Groups SMART Specific Measurable Achievable Reliable Trackable / Time