Managing Conflict Questions

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Managing Conflict Questions

How would you describe the conflict that has arisen between the members of the Web programming department?

The conflict that has arisen between the members who had a great cohesion before is as a result of space. Even though martin who is the team leader decided on the spaces of the new office with the best intentions in mind, it seems that the members do not seem to understand any of this and they are all offended by the decisions made by Martin (Liddle, 2017). Therefore, they change their behavior as a response to the conflict which is happening.

Is the conflict a relational conflict? If so, what type of relational conflict? Is there a content dimension to this conflict?

The conflict is a relational conflict in that the members of the team no longer listen and understand each other. Even though the cause of the conflict is the space and new arrangement it still has effects on the members of the team and their personal feelings towards what is happening makes it very difficult to manage (Liddle, 2017). The type of relational conflict represented by the case presented is an improper communication relational conflict. This is because when martin divides the rooms he does not communicate to the members. The same the members do not communicate of their dissatisfaction with the new offices.

Using Fisher and Ury’s method of principled negotiation, how would you separate the people from the problem? What do you think is really, really going on in this conflict?

With the issue at hand, it is easy to use v Fisher and Ury’s method of principled negotiation. Firstly, the authors state that it is important to separate people from the issues. Therefore, in this case the members and personalities will be separated from the problem which is taking place. However, the issues at hand will be dealt with effectively. The other aspect of the conflict resolution is making sure that the interests are what is being focused on. Therefore, the people are not focused on but the interests of each person and why they have such an interest (Liddle, 2017). The next stage is generating options which can be done to make sure that the situation is better and the final part is using objective criteria in implementing the new methods which will ensure that everything needed is achieved. Separating the problem from the personalities can be difficult but majorly the most important thing is to realize that the problem in this conflict is about the arrangement as well as the state of the new office. Therefore, these issues can be isolated and resolved.

Using the Kilmann and Thomas conflict styles, how would you characterize Sanjay’s conflict style? What about Bradley’s? Do Rosa and Kris have a style as well?

Different people react differently to different conflicts. In this case different people also behave differently, for example Sanjay can be described as using the avoidance style of dealing with conflict because he is feeling irritated and he is in bad mood. When Rosa and Kris try to chat over his room he gets upset and tells them to stop. The style for Bradley is competition. This is because he feels that his needs should be looked after more. He asks for a better room from martin claiming that he is one of the oldest employees.

How could Martin use fractionation and face saving in attempting to resolve this conflict?

Fractionating is the process of cutting and dividing conflicts into smaller ones which are manageable. The first thing which martin can do under this is divide the conflicts into the working space not being likable and second the inter-personal relationships caused by lack of communicating. Further breakdown can help come up with solutions (Liddle, 2017). Face saving means that a person says something or does not say something to save the other person. In this case martin can state that it is not the fault of anyone but rather his own fault that they are divided the way they are. Therefore, he can request the members not to blame each other.

Reference

Liddle, D. (2017). Managing conflict: A practical guide to resolution in the workplace. Kogan Page Publishers.