Ideas.Think.Share

This semester I’ve decided to register for four subjects instead of three like I’ve done in previous semester, the main reason for that is I want to accumulate as much credit hours as possible before entering final semester, so that I can be more relax and enjoying my ‘student life’ before rejoining the workforce. One of the subject that I’ve register for this semester is ‘Conflict Management’ which in my opinion offers useful lessons and exposure and closely related to everyone’s daily activities.

Wiki describe Conflict management as the long-term management of intractable conflicts. It is the label for the variety of ways by which people handle grievances—standing 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.

In much simpler words, 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. Causes or sources of organizational conflict can be many and varied. The most common causes are scarcity of resources (finance, equipment, facilities, etc), different attitudes, values or perceptions, disagreements about needs, goals, priorities and interests, poor communication, poor or inadequate organisational structure, lack of teamwork and lack of clarity in roles and responsibilities.

Few types of Conflict:

Conflict between individual
People have differing styles of communication, ambitions, political or religious views and different cultural backgrounds. In our diverse society, the possibility of these differences leading to conflict between individuals is always there, and we must be alert to preventing and resolving situations where conflict arises.

Conflict between groups of people
Whenever people form groups, they tend to emphasise the things that make their group “better than” or “different from” other groups. This happens in the fields of sport, culture, religion and the workplace and can sometimes change from healthy competition to destructive conflict.

Conflict within a group of people
Even within one organisation or team, conflict can arise from the individual differences or ambitions mentioned earlier; or from rivalry between sub-groups or factions. All leaders and members of the organisation need to be alert to group dynamics that can spill over into conflict.

Such an interesting subject, I hope I can benefit much from this course.