Understanding conflict management in the workplace Essay

Understanding conflict management in the workplace - Essay Example Understanding conflict management in the workplace Causes of conflicts at work Conflicts in the work places arise from various factors. First are the personality clashes. Based on the fact that each of the employees has his or her own personality, their ideas may differ thus resulting to a crash. Secondly is the dominance issue. During their daily duties, employees are engaged with their managers while in a meeting or other social activities. In the process some employees tend to be authoritative to their colleagues while actually they are not in a management level as a result other employees feel discriminated resulting to a conflict. One of the issues that caused a conflict at Peytons General Supplies, my place of work was the failure to communicate openly and honestly. One of our sales executive took a client who belonged to another sales representative without communicating it and started selling our brands to him. After the two learnt they are dealing with the same client a conflict emerged that called for the intervention of th e director. Another cause of conflict in my organization is stressful situations. Based on our busy schedule, I have noticed that some of my colleagues have been engaged in conflicts and when we intervene in our efforts to solve the issue, we realize that they are mostly stressed. Climate of mistrust and competition among the employees is another cause of conflicts in both at small and large firms.... Within an organization, it is vital for individual to identify the basis stages of conflict in order to handle it effectively. Conflicts happen in eight stages. The first one is the situation where there is no conflict. During this stage, employees are working normally. Secondly is the latent conflict. This implies that there is small but hidden conflict among the individuals or teams. The third stage is the emergence. During this stage, the actual conflicts occur. However, only the subjects involved in the conflicts are aware of it. During escalation which is the fourth stage, the conflicts grow and it is possible for any one around to see that there is a conflict between the parties. The fifth stage is the stalemate. During this stage, each of the parties involved blames the other and becomes hard for anyone to settle the conflict. Stalemate may stay for a long time thus individuals intervening to solve the conflict must use effective tactics to bring together the parties involved in the conflict. The sixth stage is the De-escalation. This means that the conflicts starts to decrease and the parties involved can now meet and try to settle their differences. The seventh stage is settlement or resolution. This entails coming up with the solution to the cause of the conflict. The last stage is peace building and reconciliation. After the conflict, it is fundamental that the parties engage in regular meetings and discuss issue that affects them as a way of creating peace. Effects of conflict on individual and team performance at work Conflict is one of the key issues that can cause reduction in the productivity of the employees as well as the profitability of a firm. At the