Managing Conflict in Your Workplace

The first video is called Managing Conflict at Your Workplace. The speaker is Ruth Knight
who talks about reasons and effects of conflict at work place. According to her, the major effects
of conflicts at work places are

Increased Absenteeism at work.

Higher Turnover rates among the employees.
Physical and Mental Problems such as headaches, depression, aggression etc.
Customer dissatisfaction.
Poor time management of the employees at work.

Ruth Knight classifies conflicts in two ways Destructive Conflict and Constructive Conflict

Ruth Knight says that destructive conflict is bad for the organization and constructive conflict is
good or rather essential for organizations. Without constructive conflict, an organization would
not be able to survive in the long run.
According to her, the main two reasons for conflict are
Needs: Each employee has different needs. The speaker has given us a list which includes
Power, Control, Safety, Recognition etc. Everyones needs are different and when someone puts
ones own need in front of others conflict arises. To resolve the conflict aroused from this, Ruth
Knight suggests, finding a common ground based on common interests and trying to work it out
with each other.
Miscommunication or Lack of Communications: According to the Ms. Knight, most of the
times, the main reason for conflicts is miscommunication. She says that, everyone communicates
in a different way. Based on peoples assertiveness and expressiveness, she has divided

communication styles in four ways Direct (High Assertiveness/Low Expressiveness), Spirited

(High Assertiveness/High Expressiveness), Systematic (Low Assertiveness/Low Expressiveness)
and Considerate (Low Assertiveness/High Expressiveness). To resolve the conflicts due to
miscommunications, Ms. Knight suggests everyone to figure out the communication style of the
person they are talking to and communicate accordingly.

Effective Strategies to Manager Conflict at Work

The speaker is Lorraine Segal. According to her, five important strategies to manage conflict at
work place are
Accept conflict: Conflict is the most natural thing between working people together. Whenever a
group of people get together, there will be conflicts and it is normal. Instead of trying to
overcome it by suppressing, everyone should accept it normally. This will help to resolve the
conflicts faster. Also, conflict can be good when it creates creative tension.
Listen: The most powerful tool to resolve conflict is listening. Listening does not mean
accepting or doing what the other person is saying. Rather, it means understanding the point of
view of the other person and trying to reach a common ground.
Manage your emotions: Feelings are not facts. While resolving conflicts, one should set aside
the feelings and try to do so from a neutral point of view. We should always remember that, just
because someones action or words hurt us, does not mean their intentions were the same.
Look at what is and isnt your part: Many times people get caught up in the blame game.
When people do that, they start blaming each other for conflicts instead of accepting their own
faults. This does not resolve the conflict but increases it. Instead of blaming others, people
should look at their own actions and figure out their own parts in the conflict and try to fix that.
Let go: According to the speaker, the last but most important thing is to let go. People may
accept conflict, listen to others, judge the situation neutrally and figure out the actual reasons of
conflicts but these will never be resolved unless everyone learned to forgive and let go. For
letting go, the speaker suggested -

a) Stop holding on to the past.

b) Let go of bad old stories and resentments.
c) Let go of shoulda, coulda, woulda.
In the end, the speaker says that, to manage conflict, one must have

Willingness
Intention
Persistence
Practice
Support