Conflict Management

1. Introduction:

Conflict has been defined as the difference of interests between managers and the owners with respect to goal divergence, scarce resources and frustration (Pondy, 1967). Conflict management is a very important thing in today’s life because if the conflicts are not managed constructively, the organization could suffer huge losses not only in terms of money but also in terms of cultural and other aspects. Both these articles are based on how to manage conflicts constructively and how the managers do it effectively. The first article is a review of the literature available up till now and the second article argues two methods which can be useful in managing conflict.

1. Key arguments of article 1:

The first article is a review on the topic of managing conflicts constructively in organizations. The research gives the basic framework of how to manage conflicts with open mindedness. The author has used mutual benefit relationships as the independent variable which helps the managers to discuss ideas with open minds. In the end, the author has shown how the open minded discussions are helpful in conflicts constructivism.

The article is divided into seven sections which pretty much present the whole review. The first section compares different definitions of conflict. The second section argues that open mindedness practices are positively associated to the constructive conflict management. The third section shows how mutual benefit relationships are positively influencers for open-minded discussions and the fourth section identifies the skills and norms needed by managers to manage conflicts constructively. The fifth section identifies ways through which mutual relationships can be developed. The sixth section shows the practical implications of these constructs and the seventh section shows the future research implications.

1. Key arguments of article 2:

The second article is based on how the managers and leaders manage and negotiate conflicts. The second article provides us with the approach which should be used by the organizations to manage conflicts. The author has very accurately shown a managing – negotiating cycle which consists of 4 phases. The first phase is about identifying / clarifying in which different tests and instruments are given. The second phase is about affirming / understanding which shows ways through which understanding can be improved. The third phase is about optimizing / integrating which shows ways to optimize or integrate the ideas. The fourth phase is about measuring / evaluating which gives how to assess and evaluate the results and ways for evaluation.

The second article also gives an approach which should be used by the organizations to effectively manage conflicts. The approach which is given in this article is the coaching approach which consists of seven steps; step 1 is position and orient to the process, step 2 is identify and clarify the conflict management profile, steps 3 is affirm and understand the conflict management profile, step 4 is developing behaviorally specific examples, step 5 is developing conflict management plan, step 6 is to design a performance profile, step 7 is to execute a high performance culture. A very interesting thing about this article is that it gives a practical example of how to implement this approach is given in this article.