A good
example of conflict resolution was one that I personally participated in during
my sophomore year in college. In one of my business classes, our group had to
present a term project on the aviation industry. This project counted for 10%
of our final term grade, which added to the pressure of making the perfect term
project. The conflict was over differences of opinion of how the project should
be started. Part of the team wanted to just assign parts of the project to
everyone at random, others wanted to choose their own subjects, and others
wanted to divide into teams to discuss which areas of the industry we should
focus on. I, myself, was part of the team that wanted to discuss which areas of
the aviation industry we should focus on. Our project guidelines were so broad
in themselves that I thought that by narrowing down areas of focus we would
deliver a more solid term project rather than have everyone do what they wanted
to do.
After 3
weeks of disagreement, our team decided to have a meeting to discuss our
differences of opinion. I began the meeting by urging them to come to a
solution before the end of the meeting because our final grades were at risk.
After everyone expressed their opinions on why they felt the project needed to
be started the way they thought it should be, we all reached an agreement. The
agreement was that we should focus on a specific part of the aviation industry,
the airline industry and more specifically the commercial passenger airline
industry. After completing the term project and presenting the project to our
teacher and fellow classmates we received an A on the project. But, we also
realized that another team had fallen on the trap that we almost fell for,
which was having a broad project of the entire aviation industry. The teacher
commented that they should’ve picked a specific aspect of the aviation industry
rather than have such a broad overview of the entire industry.
Overall,
the conflict was a difference of opinions of how the project should be started.
I played the role of the initiator of the negotiation/conversation, while the
rest of the teammates played the roles of responders (Whetten, 2011). At the
end of the negotiation we all reached an agreement on how the project should be
started which was to have a narrower focused approach to the project. The
results of this solution helped us receive an A for the term project.
Understanding
now how we all had differences of opinions on how to start the project, I
realize that it was due to our diverse backgrounds. Our backgrounds were all
completely different from each other. Some of my teammates had private
education while others had public education. Some of us were from the United
States while most of them were from overseas. I have realized that not everyone
was/is brought up the same way I may be or even educated the same way as me. Therefore,
we all believed at one point that we were correct while others were wrong. As
managers we need to understand diversity. Diversity doesn’t just come from a
person’s backgrounds, upbringings, values, ethnicity, beliefs, education, and
so. It also comes from understanding another person’s point of views, their
needs, beliefs, why they believe their decision may be the best one, and so on.
As managers we must be able to listen to our subordinate’s needs, understand
them, and reach a solution or agreement. Securing the other person’s needs and
commitment to a solution is more important than reaching the manager’s
solution. Once the subordinate feels like his/her needs have been met, the
subordinate will be more compliant on the completion of the project (Berman
pt2, 2008).
There’s
always room for improvement. Reflecting back on how the situation was handled I
believe there could’ve been other ways to handle the situation such as in a
timely manner. One way is to confront the situation sooner rather than wait it
out and before the disagreement escalates. Our team confronted the situation
poorly by allowing 3 weeks of “waiting it out” to get the best of all our
talents. Secondly, the negotiation process could’ve been more effectively done
if someone had been assigned as a mediator. The mediator would’ve ensured that
we had pushed the conversations along rather than allowed people to get
sidetrack from the point of the negotiation. Lastly, before setting up the
meeting, the leader should’ve chosen a more private area for the negotiation to
take place. Our negotiation occurred in the library during one of the busiest
time in the library.
Sources:
Berman,
J. (2008, February 10). Conflict Resolution - Part 1 - YouTube. YouTube.
Retrieved April 7, 2013, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2GWmDUKF3o&feature=youtu.be
Berman,
J. (2008, February 10). Conflict Resolution - Part 2 - YouTube. YouTube.
Retrieved April 7, 2013, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vga7bhGd5dI&feature=youtu.be
Whetten,
D. A., & Cameron, K. S. (2011). Developing Self-Awareness. Developing
management skills (8th ed., p. 70). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice
Hall/Pearson.
No comments:
Post a Comment