Introduction
Numerous processes, practices, and concepts appear to be important in the workplace, and conflicts are among them. Effective conflict management is a unique skill that increases a manager’s value and makes the working environment healthier and more productive. In the following journal entries, I will summarize my thoughts and ideas after exploring the module’s activities and lectures and discuss some theories and practices in relation to my past and future experiences.
Week 1
The most significant thought of this week is the importance of conflict management and all concepts, practices, steps, and issues related to it. Before studying this module and completing learning activities, I did not perceive conflict management as an integral part of a successful leader and business. It seemed to me that talented leadership and employees, as well as high profits and performance, are the most critical concepts in the organization. Now I think about all the components of a good business and understand that they are equally crucial.
Further, I realized that I have never analyzed my behavior patterns during conflict or decision-making. Completing the Thomas-Kilmann questionnaire was rather useful for me, and the results appeared to be both surprising and accurate. In my opinion, everyone, notwithstanding their profession, should pay attention to this test. It is incredibly helpful to know one’s typical way of dealing with conflicts and be aware of different behaviors more suitable for various situations.
After I completed the test, I realized that my standard modes are Accommodating (11) and Avoiding (9), while the least used mode is Competing (1). Indeed, this is how I usually behave in conflict situations or when I need to make a serious decision. For instance, when my colleagues and I disagree about something, I usually give up my ideas, recognizing other people’s thoughts as more valuable in order to avoid heated discussions and conflicts. Another example is me avoiding making a choice, forgetting about a problem, and ignoring it until the very last moment. However, thanks to the Thomas-Kilmann questionnaire and further explanations, now I see that these two styles may be both beneficial and negative, so I need to develop other conflict management skills and apply each mode in the most appropriate situations.
It is hard to disagree that most people recognize conflicts as exceptionally adverse and harmful situations with unhealthy consequences. However, some researchers, for example, Dean Tjosvold (2008), believe in the possibility of conflicts’ positive effects on organizations. According to the author, “conflict can be highly constructive, indeed, essential to teamwork and organizational effectiveness,” and has great potential (Tjosvold, 2008, p. 19). Considering my experience, I agree with the researcher and can prove that, if managed properly and effectively, such situations may bring the company and its staff various benefits.
In my previous workplace, we had a conflict with new team members who, as it seemed to us at first, were opposed to us and did not want to take part in the decision-making. However, after a heated discussion, it turned out that they thought the same about us, and we were all wrong in our judgments due to tiredness and biases. Thus, the conflict literally introduced us to each other and made it clear that we, as a team, are on the same side against the problem. Therefore, I believe that it was the conflict situation that brought us together; otherwise, if we had not expressed our feelings and concerns, we would have continued to accumulate irritation and be biased.
Week 2
Psychological contracts are the topic that I especially enjoyed studying. It is valuable to know that both employers’ and employees’ interests are protected on several levels, including the law and morals. Indeed, when we find a new job or go to the current workplace, we always have specific expectations from the employer, and these expectations are sometimes unconscious and common for the majority of workers. Managers and leaders want specific behaviors and patterns from their staff, too, and mutual compliance with these expectations has a beneficial effect on the company as a whole, minimizing scandals, grievances, and staff turnover.
In the seminar activity, there was a task to analyze the provided situations and think of an appropriate solution. In my previous workplace, I had a similar situation in which an employee was secretly and severely violating the company’s rules. I still admire the way our boss managed the incident, and I would probably do the same. First of all, he made sure that the assumption was correct in order not to accuse the innocent worker. Then, he talked to the guilty employee and tried to determine whether their workplace crime resulted from bad leadership or other factors. Finally, my boss concluded that the person was a great employee who just had difficult times and allowed them to continue working as if nothing had happened under two conditions. First, the guilty worker had to pay the damages, and second, to promise that nothing like this would happen again. Therefore, our boss managed the situation perfectly, saved his image and psychological contracts’ value, and kept a talented worker who became even more loyal and grateful.
In the future, if I become the leader of a company, I will only give those promises that I can definitely keep. However, if I accidentally make a mistake and promise something beyond my control, I will compensate the employee and make sure that they are still satisfied with the situation. Next, I am going to make trust a core concept when building relationships with the staff, as recommended by Nadin and Williams (2011, p. 112). Further, I will monitor the workers’ satisfaction and attitudes so that I am able to introduce some changes in a timely manner and avert a psychological contract breach.
Overall, this lecture has contributed greatly to my understanding of relationships between employees and employers. Even though some obligations and expectations may be more important than others (for example, one worker perceives a decent salary as the primary responsibility of the leader, while another employee most values and expects respectful treatment), meeting them all is vital for the company’s health and success.
Week 3
I have certain experience working in groups, but there was always something that bothered me in this process and made me think I was not fitting. This week’s materials allowed me to analyze the possible reasons and gain a new perspective on challenges, roles, and conflicts in teams. First of all, it was surprising for me that perfect relationships between group members are not always beneficial. On the contrary, in some instances, strong team cohesiveness may lead to groupthink, which in turn results in wrong decisions, ignored outside opinions, and distorted decision-making.
Looking back on my work experience, I realize that the members of a group I once belonged to valued their cohesion and each other’s feelings much more than the need to achieve a common goal. In order not to offend someone from the team, decisions were made almost without discussion, which often led to mistakes. As I wanted to fit into the group, I also used to agree with the correctness of choice, although I understood that it was categorically wrong. Now I realize that functional and optimal level conflicts are vital for every team to have high performance and operate healthily. Such circumstances in which group members have adequate competition and are focused on proving their ideas, finding better solutions, and making their team more productive are the most effective for organizations.
Another helpful piece of information I have learned during this week is related to team roles. After completing the seminar activity, I was able to critically evaluate my typical behavior as a group member and understand in what direction I need to develop. According to Belbin’s (1996) test, I am a Team Worker and a Specialist. Though I did not notice this before, I indeed usually help the parties understand each other without becoming confrontational as I like neither being involved in a conflict nor watching it from the side. Further, I usually contribute to the group project or decision-making by sharing information from my discipline and then try to stay uninvolved and agree with any choice made. To be honest, now I see the problem here and will try to improve my participation in the future. Also, my group roles perfectly match the conflict management patterns I mentioned above. Probably if I work on either of these concepts, the other area will be improved as well.
Finally, another valuable idea from the week’s materials is related to the division between conflicts between and in groups. Apparently, the former is unlikely to be beneficial in any way, while the latter may have positive outcomes. I cannot think of any example from my experience as I do not remember having any out-group conflicts. However, I will definitely use this information in the future, and knowing how to improve intergroup cooperation will allow me to strengthen the corporation and promote unify vision.
Week 4
As mentioned above, I do not have enough experience with conflicts and furious disagreements between different groups. However, I realize that anything can happen in my future workplace, including an intergroup disagreement, so I recognize the necessity of studying this topic in order to be able to apply the mentioned in the module techniques.
Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (2017) has created a helpful and useful guide with practical tips on managing conflicts. According to this guide, there are numerous reasons and causes for a conflict situation to occur in a workplace, and not addressing its early manifestations may be highly damaging (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, 2017). Among other causes, harassment is also stated to be a potential source of an issue.
Despite the fact that I have never been involved in a group conflict, I know that it once arose in another department of our firm. We were later told about this situation as an example. One of the employees (let us call him Mr. Smith) began constantly insulting and humiliating another employee (for example, Mr. Green), who, due to his shyness, could not stand up for himself. They were on different teams, and what started as a harmless joke turned into real bullying in a couple of months. As Mr. Green’s group co-members became unhappy with his reduced performance and began worrying about him, this resulted not in a conflict between individuals but continuous disputes between the two teams.
Finally, the harassment was reported to management, and Mr. Smith’s adverse behavior was investigated using the formal disciplinary procedure. Later, it turned out that he had serious problems in his domestic life and rarely rested between the working days. Still, instead of sleepiness and reduced productivity, his problems turned into aggressiveness. Such a possibility is also mentioned in the guide, which makes me think that these situations are not rare (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, 2017, p. 8).
Overall, it becomes clear to me that preventing an intergroup disagreement is better than addressing it. As for me, among all possible options that may be helpful in reducing the likelihood of a conflict occurring between teams, maintaining healthy and motivating competition and making sure that all groups share the same goals and values is the most effective. Certainly, it may not work in severe cases as a solving measure, but overall, it is an excellent preventing tool that encourages team members to work harder than their colleagues and remember to be on the same side.
Week 5
Workplace harassment and bullying are extremely severe processes that may have entirely negative effects on both the victim and the company. In the example I provided above, it is mentioned that not all employees who experience harassment are able to stand for themselves in either possible way. Unfortunately, numerous workers prefer to remain silent and tolerate bullying from managers or colleagues because they are somehow assured of being punished for reporting the misconduct. Many line managers find addressing and solving conflicts one of the most difficult parts of their job, and due to the fact that they are unaware of effective tools and methods, employees’ conflicts, including harassment, may remain unmanaged.
In my example discussed in Week 4, the situation would not have become so serious if the company had adopted particular rules related to bullying. For instance, providing the employees with confidential internal helplines, anonymous questionaries, and additional training about their actions in case of harassment would avert the situation (Ayling and Suff, 2021). Unfortunately, such precautions are often ignored by organizations, which may lead to irreversible consequences.
Harassment is clearly defined as unlawful under the Equality Act 2010. Unfortunately, “the UK legal position on bullying is more complex as there’s no single piece of legislation which deals with workplace bullying” (Ayling and Suff, 2021, para. 10). Though the list of legal principles and laws covering bullying is long, there is still a significant likelihood of an incident being unaddressed or addressed in a way that involves ending the employment relationship with the aggrieved worker to protect them. I find this practice inappropriate and unfair; there should be either a unique legal act covering all forms of workplace bullying or no division between this form of violence and harassment at all.
Considering the facts that I have learned, I now see the necessity of paying close attention to providing employees with safe options for reporting any type of misconduct. In the future, I, as a leader, will make sure that my employees trust me and know that if something negative happens in the workplace, I will immediately and fairly address it. The same will be required from my managers. They will need to acquire specific conflict management skills and learn how to deal with uncomfortable conversations so that they can deal with any situation appropriately and promptly. As a result, strong management will be developed so that the staff feels safe and works hard.
Week 6
When it comes to cross-cultural conflicts, those various disagreements and disputes discussed above do not seem so complicated anymore. Indeed, cultural differences can usually make it much more challenging for two companies from different countries to make a business deal. What seems normal and common in one culture may be extremely offensive to another, and being unaware of such differences may lead to an unintentional conflict.
I did not have any experience in managing or being involved in cross-cultural business communication or conflict, and, to be honest, I am thankful for that. Although such situations are a valuable opportunity to develop unique skills and competencies, they are also stressful and require careful preparation. Therefore, if I ever become involved in communication between companies from different countries and cultures, I will make sure that our organization takes specific steps to avoid any conflict situation and approaches the negotiations with sensitivity and awareness. First, a careful analysis of other companies’ cultural features and characteristics will be performed with the main focus on its basic communication signs. It will be necessary to understand how they greet their colleagues and partners at business meetings, where they usually hold them, what they require to make a decision and how they are used to communicating, including the use of names or surnames and specific hand gestures. However, if the cross-cultural conflict does arise for one reason or another, I will know what to do, thanks to the lecture materials and additional readings. Since there are several conflict management models, it will be possible to find the most appropriate one.
Working with people from other cultures may also be complicated and lead to conflict if the parties have conscious or unconscious biases. Though I have never had cross-cultural business communication or conflict experience, I have been to other counties and talked to people from different cultures. Despite the fact that I accept any diversities, I was never completely free of biases, both negative and neutral, as most of them are inherent in the majority of persons through the media, movies, and other sources of information. As mentioned by Zychowicz (2021), there should be unconscious bias training that would make employees free from stereotypical thinking and make it easier and more comfortable for different cultures to communicate and accept each other. Now I realize the necessity of such training and will do my best to provide the workers with it in the future.
Conclusion
To draw a conclusion, I may say that conflict management is an extended, serious, and also interesting topic to study. Various activities and additional sources provided me with vital experience and knowledge about myself and workplace disputes that I will apply in the nearest future. Overall, the diversity of workplace conflicts, their occurrence on all levels of organizations, the inability of the majority of line managers to manage them correctly, and their mostly adverse impact on both the employees and the company are the main facts I have learned during the six weeks.
Reference List
Ayling, L. and Suff, R. (2021) Harassment and bullying at work. Web.
Belbin, R. M. (1996) The coming shape of organisation. London: Butterworth Heinemann.
Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (2017) Managing conflict at work: a guide for line managers. Web.
Nadin, S. J. and Williams, C. C. (2011) ‘Psychological contract violation beyond an employees’ perspective: the perspective of employers’, Employee Relations, 34(2), pp.110-125
Tjosvold, D. (2008) ‘The conflict-positive organisation: it depends upon us,’ Journal of Organizational Behavior, 29, pp. 19-28.
Zychowicz, N. (2021) Should businesses scrap unconscious bias training? Web.