Conflict Management E-Book

Baden Eunson

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 149

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012

Beschreibung

Conflict Management is an easy-to-read and high-powered tool for understanding and managing conflict situations. Conflict can spiral out of control, but if you understand how the spiral works you may be able to prevent it from even beginning. In this book you will find many options for managing conflict, including: * planning * goal setting * compromise * mediation Expert communicator Baden Eunson also takes an in-depth look at negotiation skills. He offers a visual and fresh approach to the work of strategies and tactics, negotiation styles, the importance of listening and questioning skills, the reasons why the location of negotiation can affect its outcome, and why the phrase 'win-win' is not a cliché but a technique for success.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Cover

Title page

Copyright page

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1 Conflict — the basics

Is conflict always a bad thing?

Resolving and managing conflict

What causes conflict?

Conflict-handling styles

Chapter 2 Conflict development

The conflict spiral

Conflict in organisations

Chapter 3 Approaches to managing conflict

Negotiation

Interpersonal skills

Cultural and gender differences

Group dynamics

Contact and communication

Superordinate goals

Tit for tat

De-escalation thresholds

Apology

Forgiveness

Praise

Sacrifice

New resources

Decoupling and buffering

Formal authority

Planning

Scale

Stalemates

Compromise

Mediation

Do we sometimes need to create conflict?

Chapter 4 Negotiation — the basics

What is negotiation?

Choosing approaches

Chapter 5 Positions, concessions and interests

Positions, fallbacks and bottom lines

Concessions

Positions versus interests

Investing time in uncovering interests

Chapter 6 Getting ready to negotiate

Territory and negotiation

Power and negotiation

Time and negotiation

Publics and negotiation

Stress and negotiation

Packaging and negotiation

Choosing people

Chapter 7 Negotiation styles

Warner’s style model

Aronoff and Wilson’s style model

Chapter 8 Negotiation tools and planning

Choosing tools

Planning

Agreement

Confirming it

Negotiation — not a line but a circle

Conclusion

Glossary

Index

First published in 2007 by

John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd

42 McDougall Street, Milton Qld 4064

Office also in Melbourne

© Baden Eunson 2007

The moral rights of the author have been asserted

National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data:

Eunson, Baden.

Confl ict management.

Includes index.

ISBN 9780731406517 (pbk.).

1. Confl ict management. I. Title. (Series : Business tools series).

658.3145

All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the Australian Copyright Act 1968 (for example, a fair dealing for the purposes of study, research, criticism or review), no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, communicated or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission. All inquiries should be made to the publisher at the address above.

Cover image © Photodisc, Inc

Author photo © David Sheehy

Wiley bicentennial logo: Richard J Pacifico

Disclaimer

The material in this publication is of the nature of general comment only, and does not represent professional advice. It is not intended to provide specifi c guidance for particular circumstances and it should not be relied on as the basis for any decision to take action or not take action on any matter which it covers. Readers should obtain professional advice where appropriate, before making any such decision. To the maximum extent permitted by law, the author and publisher disclaim all responsibility and liability to any person, arising directly or indirectly from any person taking or not taking action based upon the information in this publication.

Preface

Why bother with communication? Sure, communication is a ‘soft skill’ that everyone talks about, but is communication that important when you need to be upgrading your skills and knowledge as you are developing your career?

Well, actually, it is. All varieties of communication are among the best business tools you can have in your career toolkit. A 2006 survey by Graduate Careers Australia, Graduate Outlook 2006, found that when employers were looking for graduates to hire, the technical competence of the graduates in their chosen field ran a poor second to the communication skills the employers were primarily looking for, as shown in figure 1 (overleaf).

Figure 1: 2006 survey by Graduate Careers Australia — factors favoured most by graduate employers

Even if you don’t have a degree, or are already in your first or second career, time and again, those with good or great communication skills seem to have an advantage over those who don’t.

Can such skills be learnt? Of course they can. The book you hold in your hands is part of the Business Tools series, a series that will help you use aspects of communication as tools — to assist your career advancement and possibly your own personal development.

Soft skills, such as communication — in contrast to hard skills, such as number crunching and physical labour — are also known as generic, employability or transferable skills. That means that:

while the technical knowledge you currently have may well be obsolete in five years’ time, the soft skills will still be relevant in twenty or thirty years’ time

the transferable nature of soft skills will help you progress within your organisation out of your current area of specialisation. They can even help you move on to other organisations when the time is right for such moves.

Conflict Management is all about soft skills for hard situations. I begin by looking at some models of conflict, such as the conflict spiral, and consider ways to get off the spiral or stop it from even beginning. Along the way, I will tackle the difficult questions, such as ‘Can conflict be a solution as well as a problem?’ and ‘Might you need to increase conflict in some circumstances rather than reduce or eliminate it?’

Using the general concept of conflict management as a context, I then zoom in on a subset of conflict — negotiation. Here you will find a strange and fascinating world of strategies and tactics, concessions, fallback positions, plan Bs, positions and interests, territory, power and so much more.

I hope you find this book easy to read, and a useful tool and resource in your career as a communicator.

Baden EunsonMelbourneMarch 2007

Introduction

As the title suggests, Conflict Management explores the best ways to manage conflict situations in the workplace and shows that while conflict can be a very destructive force, it can also prove to be a creative and positive one if managed correctly.

In chapters 1, 2 and 3 the multiple causes of conflict, numerous ways of approaching conflicts and different styles of reacting to or managing conflict are explored. It’s useful sometimes to understand conflict as a spiral, or ladder of escalation, with distinct phases. I will pay particular attention to conflict in organisations, where incidents involving conflict can be understood in terms of a number of underlying dynamics and recurring patterns.

There are a number of conflict management solutions, such as interpersonal skills, gender and cultural dynamics, group dynamics, contact and communication, superordinate goals, tit for tat, de-escalation thresholds, apology, forgiveness, praise, sacrifice, creation of new resources, decoupling and buffering, formal authority, planning, appropriate scale, stalemates, compromise and mediation.

These are explored in chapters 4 and 5. I also consider the perhaps unusual idea that sometimes conflict needs to be created to resolve certain situations.

I then turn my attention to a particular type of conflict resolution — negotiation. In chapter 6, I introduce BATNAs (best alternatives to a negotiated agreement), WATNAs (worst alternatives to a negotiated agreement) and Plan Bs. And I explain why the saying ‘win–win outcome’ is not just a cliché. The importance of researching TOS (the other side in the negotiation), as well as clearly identifying your goals, bottom lines and the concessions you are willing to make are also discussed.

In chapters 7 and 8, I explore the differences between positions and interests, the role of territory and time, and of publics or stakeholders in negotiation. I also look at the nature of power in negotiations and how packaging techniques can offer greater flexibility when discussing outcomes, before moving on to negotiation styles in chapter 9.

Finally, in chapter 10, I consider the tools negotiators can use during the negotiation process, which include non-verbal communication, listening, questioning and persuading skills, signalling, strategies and tactics, cultural and gender sensitivity, and different channels of communication. I then consider planning for negotiation, finally arriving at the conclusion that life is a series of negotiations and few of them actually ever finish — and sometimes we are very grateful for that.

Chapter 1

Conflict — the Basics

Conflict strikes most people as being unpleasant and stressful, and it often is. But does conflict have its uses? That is, can conflict be a solution as well as a problem (and perhaps even both at the same time)? Related to this is the apparently trivial matter of whether those involved in conflict want to ‘resolve’ it or ‘manage’ it. To clarify this further, it will help to consider what styles of conflict there may be in the world, and how you can use these to better understand and manage conflict.