Conflict is inevitable. No matter where you work, sooner or later you're going to find yourself in a disagreement with someone. We've all heard of disputes that erupt into expensive and divisive lawsuits. A simple personality conflict between two members of a team can cripple productivity and in the end leave the entire team feeling angry and betrayed. The following strategy describes a successful approach to resolving conflict.

We're taught at an early age to defer to someone else, to take our problems to the teacher, to mom and dad, to the police. At the same time, trying to address potential disputes before they arise with detailed policies of appropriate behavior is ultimately unsatisfying as well. The suggestion is that if we have enough rules, somehow things will be fair and everyone will be treated fairly. Uniformity doesn't necessarily produce fairness, and rules can't address every real situation. For managers to assume they have dealt with an issue in the workplace because they have passed a rule or a policy is, at best, a naive assumption.

The question then, is not "How can we avoid conflict?" but "How can we manage it?" If conflict can't be eliminated, we can at least deal with it constructively.

Conflicts between work employees can spring from any number of sources; miscommunication, unmet expectations, feelings that one's contributions have not been acknowledged. Conflicts and disputes seldom have a simple cause, but they arise when people choose to make their differences into disagreements.

If conflict is the result of individual choices, managers that want to successfully manage and resolve conflicts must create an environment where employees can make the right choices. the optimum strategy depends on building the right group norms in the first place. If a employees are open to differences effectively to reach good decisions, then employees will be able to express differences appropriately and effectively resolve them.

The following items must be addressed and managed to successfully manage conflict.

Be Comfortable Dealing With Conflict

Being open to disagreement is sometimes difficult. Most people are afraid of conflict. That's the reason for rules in the first place. But rules designed to eliminate conflict may allow situations to smolder and then erupt if employees do not have the opportunity to express their concerns. Much of the way you do that is not by trying to squelch the conflict and getting everybody to calm down, but by allowing everybody to voice their concerns. You can generally move people to a place where they are saying, "Okay, now what are we going to do about it?"

Acting quickly to air the issues is better psychologically for all the employees as well. People do not like to be embroiled in conflict or have disputes, so the quicker it's over with, the better for everyone and the faster you can move on.

Find The Source of the Conflict

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