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9593C  Conflict Management

Module Purpose

The main focus of the module is to develop skills to facilitate the timely response to conflict and the selection of the most appropriate method of resolution and ongoing management in a variety of workplace situations. The workplace situations studied may be interpersonal or of any nature apart from strictly industrial conflicts.

This module has as a prerequisite completion of Module 8979S Dealing with Conflict or a demonstration that the competencies and outcomes contained in that module have been achieved.

How to use these Resources

These resources will assist you in finding appropriate online material to help broaden your understanding of the concepts involved and to complete the integrated assessment task for the module. They are meant to complement the work done in a classroom with a teacher. If you have not recently completed module 8979S or a similar course in Dealing with Conflict you are strongly recommended to do the following background reading.

Background Reading

The Conflict Resolution Network Australia is an excellent source of local resources. The section called CR Kit is worth reading through in full as a background to this topic (for a quick overview of this section work through the Conflict Checklist).   
 

 Assessment Task

Integrated Assessment 2000 word report -

• Part 1 - Outline the nature of a work-based conflict.
• Part 2 - Justify your decision to intervene to resolve it.
• Part 3 - Map the needs and fears of the stakeholders.
• Part 4 - Discuss the alternative methods of dispute resolution considered
              including:
                • the major benefits and pitfalls of using each method
                • the method most appropriate for the situation
                • the need for ongoing monitoring and management of the situation.

 Part 1

• Outline the nature of a work-based conflict.

Activity 1

Go to Amazon Online Bookshop and do a subject search on"Managing Conflict". Take note of some best selling books that could be useful to you personally. Check the NSW TAFE Library Catalogue and an Australian Bookseller to see if they are locally available.

Activity 2

Go to the Australian Libraries Gateway and check what's available on "Managing Conflict" in a library you can easily access.

Activity 3

Look at some of the different causes of work-based conflict identified by Wilf H. Ratzburg. Think of an examples from your workplace of a conflict which is over communication failure, one which is primarily interpersonal and one which is about competition for scarce resources. Can one conflict have all these elements?

Activity 4

Read the article Some causes and suggested solutions for shiftwork problems. Describe a conflict scenario involving shiftwork which may have elements of organizational issues, racial issues, interpersonal issues as well as communication failure

Activity 5

Read this example of a work-based conflict from the About Management Forum. What are some of the elements of the conflict?

Activity 6

Go to the (American) Conflict Resolution Information Source and browse through examples of different types of conflicts. This is slow to load but worth the wait.

Note: Do not choose a strictly industrial conflict.

 Part 2

• Justify your decision to intervene to resolve it.

Read Stewart Levine's article The Many Costs of Conflict and make notes on the four main kinds of costs he claims are generated by unresolved conflict.

Activity 8

Read Those who Can Do - Those who can't bully - The Typical Costs of Bullying on Tim Field's UK site Bully Online. Consider whether any of those costs would apply to the workplace conflict you are considering writing about.

Activity 9

To what extent is workplace violence a possible outcome of an unresolved conflict? You may find the site Developing and Implementing a Workplace Violence Prevention Program and Policy useful in this regard.

Activity 10

Go to Mediation Training Institute International's site Measuring the Financial Cost of Organizational Conflict. Receive by email a free copy of their instrument in less than one minute. Use it to estimate the cost to your organization of a conflict taking into account: wasted time, reduced decision quality, loss of skilled employees, restructuring to accommodate conflict, sabotage/theft/damage, lowered job motivation, lost work time, health costs.

 Part 3

• Map the needs and fears of the stakeholders.

Activity 11

Go to the Australian Conflict Resolution Network Page on Mapping the Conflict. Print off the page and use it to analyse the conflict you intend to write about.

 Background reading

The Article Conflict Mapping- International Online Training Program On Intractable Conflict by Paul Wehr of the Conflict Research Consortium, University of Colorado, USA.

For ideas for more detailed conflict mapping see the Wehr Conflict Mapping Guide and the Hocker-Wilmot Conflict Assessment Guide.

 Part 4

• Describe conflict management techniques

Activity 12

Read the quote by Abraham Lincoln on The Gromala Mediation Site.
How does mediation differ from litigation and arbitration?

Activity 13

Read (and print out if you wish) the short paper Alternative Dispute Resolution Definitions by The National Alternative Dispute Resolution Advisory Council (Canberra 1997). A summary of it is contained in Overview of Australian Dispute Resolution on University of South Australia's site.

Activity 14

Read through the overview of Alternative Dispute Resolution in The ABCs of ADR - A Dispute Resolution Glossary.

Activity 15

Read through Workplace Violence - An overview and consider what policies your organisation needs to put into place for the management of future conflicts.

 Other useful sites

The (American) Conflict Resolution Information Source is a huge site with excellent links to articles and webpages about workplace conflict, negotiation and mediation and related processes.

The University of Colarado's huge site International Online Training Program on Intractable Conflict has some very useful material particularly on Communication problems in conflict resolution.

Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding: A Selected Bibliography by Catherine Morris. This is an outstanding list of links to books, websites and organisations in twenty different areas of conflict resolution, dispute processing and peace building.

Last updated: 23 August, 2006

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