CONFLICT MANAGEMENT STRATEGY
Conflict Management Questionnaire
_5___ 1. It is easier to refrain than to retreat from a quarrel.
_3___ 2. If you cannot make a person think as you do, make him/her do as you think.
_4___ 3. Soft words win hard hearts.
_1___ 4. You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.
_5___ 5. Come now and let us reason together.
_4___ 6. When two quarrel, the person who keeps silent is the most praiseworthy.
_3___ 7. Might overcome right.
_4__ 8. Smooth words make smooth ways.
_4___ 9. Better half a loaf than no bread at all.
_4___ 10. Truth lies in knowledge, not in majority opinion.
_3___ 11. He who fights and runs away lives to fight another day.
_3___ 12. He hath conquered well that hath made his enemies flee.
_4___ 13. Kill your enemies with kindness.
_5__ 14. A fair exchange brings no quarrel.
_5__ 15. No person has the final answer, but every person has a piece to contribute.
_3___ 16. Stay away from people who disagree with you.
_4___ 17. Fields are won by those who believe in winning.
_4___ 18. Kind words are worth much and cost little.
_1___ 19. Tit for tat is fair play.
_4__ 20. Only the person who is willing to give up his or her monopoly on truth can ever profit from the truths that other hold.
_4___ 21. Avoid quarrelsome people, as they will only make your life miserable.
_3__ 22. A person who will not flee will make other flee.
_4___ 23. Soft words ensure harmony.
_3__ 24.One gift for another makes good friends.
_3___ 25. Bring your conflicts into the open and face them directly; only then will the best solution be discovered.
_3___ 26. The bet way of handling conflict is to avoid them.
_3___ 27. Put your foot down where you mean to stand.
_4___ 28. Gentleness will triumph over anger.
_4___ 29. Getting part of what you want is better than not getting anything at all.
_5___ 30. Frankness, honesty, and trust will move mountains.
_3___ 31. There is nothing so important you have to fight for it.
_3___ 32. There are two kinds of people in the world, the winners and the losers.
_4___ 33. When one hits you with a stone, hit him or her with a piece of cotton.
_4___ 34. When both give in halfway a fair settlement is achieved.
_4___ 35. By digging and digging, the truth is discovered.
Conflict Management Scoring Table
Withdrawal Forcing Smoothing Compromising Problem Solving
_10_ 1 __4_ 2 __8 3 _ 3__ 4 _10_ 5
_10_ 6 __3_ 7 __8_ 8 _10_ 9 _10_ 10
_3__ 11 __4_ 12 __5_ 13 _10__ 14 _10_ 15
_6__ 16 _ 4_ 17 __9_ 18 __1_ 19 _ 9_ 20
_9_ 21 __3_ 22 _10_ 23 __7 24 _ 8_ 25
_4_ 26 __4_ 27 _10_ 28 _10_ 29 _10_ 30
_6__ 31 __5_ 32 _10_ 33 _ 8__ 34 _10_ 35
48 Total __27_ Total _60_ Total _49__ Total _67_ Total
Conflict Management Strategy that Best Explains my Approach to Conflict Situations
It must be noted that for all the conflict management strategies, each of them can be used depending on the type of conflict that occur. But for the purpose of this context, I chose to use the Collaborative Conflict Management Strategy.
Collaborative Conflict Management Strategy
Collaboration conflict management strategy works by incorporating the ideas set out by different individuals. The focus is to derive an inventive solution adequate to everybody. Collaboration, though helpful, requires a significant time responsibility that is not proper to all conflicts. It is obvious that this strategy is synonymous to my conflict management answers to the questionnaire. I try to use this strategy to achieve team goals and maintain cordial relationship among everyone. I have observed that this strategy has helped in solving differences amongst a team-leading to extensive creativity in proffering solutions to complex problems and satisfying both parties concerned.
This strategy is better employed in cases when there is a high level of trust, less responsibility of the leader, others having ownership of solutions, parties involved are ready to change their thinking as a large span of information is found and new ideas are suggested, and the necessity to work through enmity and hard feelings.
A Conflict in a Personal or Professional Setting
A setting I was opportune to witness was one in which a certain group of individuals decided to embark on a project.They had prepared their plans, developed their feasibility studies, created the system design meant for the operation, and it was time to implement the project. The group was divided into three subgroups that specialize in different aspect in developing the project. The project was going to entail a large funding from an organization.
However, the conflict came in; the team that was to implement the project would definitely have a greater share of the funds got from the organization. The subgroups got into a conflict of which subgroup to implement the project. Eventually, I came into the scene as I was working pass their office hearing their argument about which subgroup should carry out the implementation. Though, I was supposed to lead another department in that organization to carry out a different task. But I had to interfere since we were all working for the organization. They explained the situation at hand to me, I asked for their individual suggestions; they all came up with wanting to implement the project themselves as separate subgroup. I gave them a better suggestion to carry out their task amicably. Consequently, they were all satisfied with my suggestion and they eventually worked together.
Applying my Conflict Strategy to the Situation
Collaborative conflict management strategy was the best technique I have always employed in past times, though it takes a lot of time to achieve and high level of trust for all the individuals involved but it involves a fair play and a high level of wisdom.
A way of applying collaborative conflict strategy to this situation is trying to see the level of the subgroups and understanding which of them is best to carry out the implementation. Once all the subgroups are capable of carrying out the implementation, theneach subgroup members would choose randomly one or two members to represent their subgroup. With this, other members of each subgroup would entrust their totality in the member(s) they had chosen knowing too well that they will all have equal share from the funds got to implement this project.