Every day people interact with the other persons in the context of their usual daily activity or at the workplaces. The character of communication between different individuals can be positive or negative depending on the effectiveness of their interaction in reaching the goals which can satisfy or not both persons.
Thus, when it is difficult to achieve the effective result of the cooperation and the goals and visions of the means for their reaching are different for the participants of communication, this activity can influence the development of the interpersonal conflict. Conflicts are based on the confrontation of the personal visions of definite situations and phenomena.
They are predominantly destructive in their character and can lead to diminishing the results of communication. However, conflicts can also be discussed as the stimulation for choosing or developing a new approach to the problem solving. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the details and aspects of the personal conflict and to present the features of the possible resolution for it.
The Details of the Conflict
Interpersonal conflicts which occur at the workplaces can be often discussed as the negative consequences of the poor organized group or team work. The typical conflict of distributing the duties and determining the leadership positions within a group was developed during the group work which was organized in order to present the project for one of the major subjects at high school. Groups for completing the projects for the class were determined randomly.
That is why I was appointed to work in the same group with my classmate with whom we had rather tense relations depending on the hidden rivalry in our educational performance. When the group chose the leader, the candidature of the classmate was supported by the members of the group, and the main task was to determine the topic of the project and develop the plan of the effective work for achieving the goal.
The conflict began to become obvious when all my propositions on the possible topic and stages of the work were rejected by the leader of the group without the argumentative explanation. Thus, the classmate as the leader of the group ignored my ideas and made the accents on the other viewpoints while developing emotionally emphasized disputes. However, the part of the group agreed with my opinion and tried to support it while discussing the advantages and disadvantages of the propositions.
The personal conflict between my classmate and me provoked the development of the further conflict within the group because it was divided into those persons who agreed with my ideas and those ones who supported the leader’s position. Thus, the conflict which was based on the issue of the interpersonal competition influenced the general productivity of the group.
The impossibility to resolve the conflict situation in time could affect the failure of the project, and this situation could influence the marks of the whole group, but not only mine and my classmate’s ones.
That is why during one of the group meetings the representatives of the group decided to choose such a topic which could satisfy the majority of the group with references to the participants’ interests and without concentrating on the interpersonal relations, the peculiarities of which could negatively affect the process of the project’s preparing.
The Sources and Nature of the Conflict and Its Assessment
There are a lot of different sources on which the interpersonal conflicts are based. The conflict between my classmate and me which realized during the group work had its origin in the prolonged hidden competition in the educational performance which can be discussed as the conflict of leadership for stating the personal success in the context of the definite group.
The sources of the conflict depended on the inability to discuss objectively the points of view which were proposed by each opponent. Communication problems influenced the development of the conflict in spite of the fact that they could be avoided before the conflict’s progress with concentrating on the search of the compromise while working out the project.
The conflict of interests and goals which is based on determining the leadership positions within the definite group or team often depends on the question of responsibility and accountability of the members of the group which are inclined to hold the leader position.
In this case, the personal values and goals of the opponents were wrongly considered as more significant in comparison with the group’s aims. The classmate who held the leader position was inclined to take responsibility for all the decision-making process while discussing the issues and problematic questions when the other members of the group agreed with such a position allowing the further development of the conflict.
Conflicts always influence the work environment negatively because of the increase of the level of the group members’ stress. Moreover, conflicts between the leader of the group and one of its members often cause the other participants’ lack of motivation. Thus, the development of the conflict situation resulted in lessening the whole group’s tries to present the possible solution to the problem and provide the effective proposition.
The conflict which began as the problem of the personal success within the definite group developed and resulted in the lack of trust which was directed to the leader of the group. The situation could become critical because the confrontation between the opponents affected the group’s productivity and the end results of the work.
Nevertheless, in spite of the fact the leader position accentuates the idea that the members of the group should follow the leader, it can be discussed as a challenge, and those persons who worked at the project and participated in the conflict development finally shared the leader’s responsibility and contributed to the conflict resolution.
The Resolution of the Conflict
The situations when personal conflicts can affect the productivity of the group-work are characteristic for those organizations and teams which fail in the effective conflict management.
The main task of the manager or the leader of the group or team is to avoid the development of the conflict which can be realized within the group, especially when it depends on the causes which are not connected with the aspects of the case. However, it is also possible to resolve the conflict during its development in order to provide the conditions for the successful realization of the project’s task or group work.
When a leader of the group is directly involved in the conflict, and he or she is not able to assess the situation critically, it is possible to refer to the interests and opinions of the majority of the group in order to find the compromise in the problem solving. Thus, there are several strategies which can be discussed as effective ones for resolving the conflict situations. It is important to note that conflicts are mainly based on strong negative emotions which can be expressed by those people who are involved in the conflict.
These emotions prevent people from their critical thinking, realizing the effective solutions to the problematic situation, and increase the level of stress. Conflicts as stressful situations can be managed while decreasing the emotional tension between the opposite sides of the conflict.
Thus, the conflict situation which was associated with the project development was managed when the conflicting sides decided to find the compromise which could satisfy the majority of the group. This intention was realized with references to the other members of the group and without paying attention to the previous personal conflicts of interests and goals between the group leader and the opponent.
In this situation, it was significant to shift the accents from the personal interests of the opponents to the group’s interests, and the realization of the necessity of completing the task successfully helped to reach the goal without emphasizing the group members’ negative emotions.
Conflict situations can be resolved successfully when the participants of the conflict concentrate on the main goal of their communication and do not pay attention to the possible personal misunderstandings. The members of the group should develop their skills in successful determining the priorities of the work and managing their emotions in order to avoid the situations when negative emotions can prevent them from the rational analysis of the problem.