Conflict Management: The Strategies Of Conflict Management

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Whilst there are various strategies that can be employed to manage conflict, the main objective is to ensure that the end result is a win-win approach, where both parties in the conflict achieve their goals whilst at the same time maintain cordial relationships (Thakore, 2013). Conflict management strategies can either be violence or non-violence. The non – violence strategies include mediation, facilitation, negotiation, dialogue, organizational change and consensual decision making. Mediation Mediation is a term that is very common in nonviolent conflict resolution. It is a cheap and informal alternative to resolving conflict in the workplace (Armstrong, 2012). Traditionally mediation has been viewed as a process that is conducted by a…show more content…
Whilst conciliation is ‘a process whereby a third party, where a third party , will guide , the parties in dispute to try and reach a compromise that suits both parties’(ACAS, 2006 , p. 21). Arbitration is ‘a process in which an impartial third party (after hearing from both sides) makes a final, usually binding, agreement’ (Liebmann, 2000, p. 11). However, mediation is more than that, it is a process that is involved in formulating viable solutions, and convincing the parties to accept the terms agreed in the mediation. According to Smith and Smock (2008), mediation ‘Mediation is an art form, incorporating intuition, subtlety, and vision. Yet it is also a craft with transferable tools, definable tasks, and management challenges ‘(p.5). This is similar to the definition by Coleman, Kugler and Chatman (2017) that posit that mediation is an artful process than a science. Simply stated mediation is assisted negotiation , whose premise are that it is voluntary , confidential , non-adversarial , where conflicting parties have equal bargaining power and whose objective is to reach a mutually satisfying agreement ( Barsky ,…show more content…
This is because human beings are relational and in any relationship give and take crowns our undertakings. The main process underlying the practice of give and take is negotiation. In the process of negotiation the ability of the negotiator to engage, reassure and respond to parties in a manner that not arouse anger and violence is critical Fells (2010) defines negotiation as “a process where two [or more] parties with differences which they need to resolve are trying to reach an agreement through exploring for options and exchanging offers.” (p.3). Negotiation as a process involving; adaptable, distributive and integrative skills, and communication among people, (Fulmer & Barry, 2004; Makhdom and Ghazali, 2013). There are two types of negotiations, the distributive and the integrative negotiations (Coleman et al., 2014). Whilst distributive negotiations entails a process where any gain for one party is an equal loss to the other party , the integrative negotiation is a win- win process for both parties when none of the parties losses ( Armstrong , 2012 ; Phillips & Gully , 2014). In organizations the appropriate process is the integrative negotiation, since at the end of the process, the employer shall need the employee and vice versa hence the need to maintain the

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