Strategies for Managing Conflict Successfully
Strategies for Managing Conflict Successfully
Interpersonal Communication
Everyone has dealt some sort of conflict within a relationship. Whether you’ve experienced it with a significant other, family member, friends, or coworkers, it’s all conflict. Managing your conflict appropriately limits the negative aspects while increasing the positive aspects. John Gottman proposed that, “criticizing, showing contempt, becoming defensive, and engaging in stonewalling aren’t productive ways handling conflict.”[1] You cannot escape conflict, so learned other alternatives will help you solve conflict proficiently. Your options for dealing with conflict are based on your concern for your own needs and desires and your concern for the other party’s needs and desires. The five different management strategies we choose between when dealing with conflict are competing, avoiding, accommodating, compromising, and collaborating. From personal experience, and just in my own opinion, collaborating is the most effective management strategy when dealing with intimate relationships. Collaborating is a strategy for managing conflict that involves working toward a solution that meets both parties’ needs. When practicing collaboration you are showing a higher concern for you and your partner’s needs. It is the most time consuming of the five strategies but it is the most effective. Showing that you have a mutual respect and understanding towards the other person makes you both feel at ease. This strategy is also known as the “win-win strategy”.[3] Collaborating is the ideal way of handling conflicts. It requires a great amount of patience, imagination, and energy. Most the time people turn to collaborating when situations are dealing with addressing the interests of multiple parties, when a high-level of trust is present, when a long-term relationship is important, when you need to work through hard feelings/animosity, or when you don’t want to have full responsibility.
Interpersonal Communication
Everyone has dealt some sort of conflict within a relationship. Whether you’ve experienced it with a significant other, family member, friends, or coworkers, it’s all conflict. Managing your conflict appropriately limits the negative aspects while increasing the positive aspects. John Gottman proposed that, “criticizing, showing contempt, becoming defensive, and engaging in stonewalling aren’t productive ways handling conflict.”[1] You cannot escape conflict, so learned other alternatives will help you solve conflict proficiently. Your options for dealing with conflict are based on your concern for your own needs and desires and your concern for the other party’s needs and desires. The five different management strategies we choose between when dealing with conflict are competing, avoiding, accommodating, compromising, and collaborating. From personal experience, and just in my own opinion, collaborating is the most effective management strategy when dealing with intimate relationships. Collaborating is a strategy for managing conflict that involves working toward a solution that meets both parties’ needs. When practicing collaboration you are showing a higher concern for you and your partner’s needs. It is the most time consuming of the five strategies but it is the most effective. Showing that you have a mutual respect and understanding towards the other person makes you both feel at ease. This strategy is also known as the “win-win strategy”.[3] Collaborating is the ideal way of handling conflicts. It requires a great amount of patience, imagination, and energy. Most the time people turn to collaborating when situations are dealing with addressing the interests of multiple parties, when a high-level of trust is present, when a long-term relationship is important, when you need to work through hard feelings/animosity, or when you don’t want to have full responsibility.
References: [1] Spett, Milton. "Gottman 's 7 Principles." Gottman 's 7 Principles. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2013. [2] Williams, Scott, Dr. Conflict Management: Style and Strategy (n.d.): n. pag. Conflict Management: Style and Strategy. Web. 28 Nov. 2013. [3] "Spend Matters." Spend Matters Drive Innovation Using Collaborative Supplier Relationships Part 2 Comments. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2013.