Conflict management

Conflict management although this is only an indirect fimction of a mentor, being able to talk about conflicts with external parties during a mentoring meeting can help to calm down and facilitate conflicts. 

R.L. Laurence and G. Vasudevan. Behef function combination and conflict management. Ik.EC Process Design and Development, 7(3) 427-433, 1968. 

E. Lefevre, O. Colot, and P. Vaimoorenberghe. Belief function combination and conflict management. Information Fusion, 3(2) 149-162, 2002. 

Before beginning to study the nature of conflict management, it is important to understand the primary goal. Note that the title of the chapter is... 

Not all people are adept at conflict management. It requires skills on the part of fhe parfy handling fhe situation. Fortunately, these skills can be learned. Remember FILS — perception, integrity, listening skill. 

On the opposite end of the feedback spectrum is a personal attack. A personal attack is negative and destructive. The only positives that may be gained from this type of feedback are to know the attacker s stance and improve your conflict management skills by diffusing the situation. The information given in a personal attack is based on emotion, personality, and communication style rather than any performance-related issue. There may or may not be facts present in the attack, which may be perpetrated in public or in private. 

Not only do you need to examine your own feelings and motivations, but you also need to examine those of fhe ofher person. Determining where a person is coming from is an invaluable assef in conflict management. Toropov (1997) suggests that Maslow s hierarchy of needs may be used to determine a person s reference poinf in conflict. Maslow outlines seven levels... 

Conflict models are helpful tools to deal with conflict in specific ways. Every author wrihng about conflict management has a different set of conflict models. A common model divides conflict into behavioral types and per-sonalihes. A personality is first defined by its method of operahon. Once a personality is idenhfied, a sculptured method of dealing with the personality is given. 

As in the third step of the conflict management pathway, find commonalities. Emphasize that even though there are differences among people, everyone contributes to the great whole. The teamwork mentality is more emotionally neutral than competition. 

To be an effective conflict manager, you must enter each situation with the same mind set. You have to be confident and project that confidence to those with whom you are in conflict. A sure way to fake confidence you do not feel is to maintain good posture and eye contact. Along with confidence, you must be enthusiastic. Apathy will get you nowhere if you are trying to resolve differences. Be a skilled listener. Practice discriminative listening at every opportunity. Make yourself understood. Use clear and concise communication. Know your influence. 

The following sections analyze the conflict scenarios in Table 8.1 using the steps of the conflict management pathway. 

Remember that conflict does not have to be a win-lose situation. There are many layers to every problem and many ways to manage every problem. Hopefully, this chapter has provided a framework to accomplish conflict management. Good luck ... 

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