According to Online training Academic Leadership Support; they define conflict as a disagreement through which the parties involved perceive a threat to their needs, interest or concerns. These can be from a mere disagreement, wherein there is some level of difference in the positions of two or more parties involved in the conflict.
Conflict tends to be accompanied by significant levels of misunderstanding that exaggerate the perceived disagreement considerably. If we can understand the true areas of disagreement, this will help us solve the right problems and manage the true needs of the parties.
Effective conflict resolution can make the difference between positive and negative outcomes. An issue at school is there is a large population of students who arrived after long bus rides without breakfast, which tended arrive at school ready to fight. The school identified 10 minutes at the start of the day to give these students a healthy snack, and worked with teachers to pull students who were not ready for school before they became disruptive. After food and a little counseling, students entered their classrooms in a better frame of mind and body to participate.
Conflict in the workplace can be incredibly destructive to good teamwork managed in the wrong way, can quickly spiral out of control, resulted in situations where co-operation breaks down and the team’s mission is threatened. To calm these situations, it helps take a positive approach, be courteous, non – confrontational and focus on the issues as the goal of any conflict resolution should be to reach a functional settlement. Three desired outcomes of conflict resolution are (1) agreement, (2) stronger relationships, and (3) organizational learning. Agreement has been achieved when both sides believe a settlement was fair or equitable. Stronger relationships emerge when both parties try to build trust goodwill for the future. Organizational learning takes place