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Essay / The goals and means of conflict management at work
“Each unresolved conflict wastes about eight hours of company time on gossip and other unproductive activities,” says Joseph Grenny, co-founder of VitalSmarts, a training and organizational development company in Provo, Utah” (Lytle, 2015 ). Conflict is never an ideal or easy situation to manage. Some people avoid it altogether. Whether an individual likes conflict or not, it often occurs regularly in the workplace. This article will discuss one such conflict that occurred in the workplace, how it was handled, and what could have been done differently. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay Sometimes in the workplace, individuals do not like to show others their duties. This is sometimes called being territorial or ensuring their job security. This, however, poses problems when a particular employee is sick and no one else knows how to perform a particular function vital to operations. Company ABC, as this particular company will be referred to throughout this document, runs its operations at a very rapid pace. An employee who had been with the company for a few years at one point didn't like training other employees on her tasks because she was the only one doing those tasks every week for the past year. Other employees had repeatedly asked her how she made the weekly deposit, to which she replied that no one else needed to know except her and the management staff. One day she had an accident and had to miss work for a few hours. weeks. No one could easily step in and take over. This created conflict as everyone blamed someone else for the poor performance of operations after he left. Rumors spread and alliances are formed. The work was not carried out as effectively as it should have been because, rather than resolving the conflict, the majority of employees and management wanted to blame each other. I can't say I chose anyone's side in the conflict. I was disappointed to see the consequences of something that should have been completely avoided if management had intervened to ensure that all employees were cross-trained in the duties of other employees. The underlying problem was clearly the lack of preparation and planning as well as the lack of rapid response to slowed operations and conflicts between employees. Eventually, the management team stepped in to fill the void of unfulfilled tasks and trained the employee's replacement. to take over while she was on leave. Operations resume, but nothing is the same. The blame that took place as well as the hostility that resulted made it more difficult to work for this particular company. Employees were never quite the same towards each other. The main response used in this situation was first avoidance, then denial. Principled negotiation was not used in this conflict, but it would have been more effective and efficient in resolving the issues at hand. If reasoned negotiation had been used, all of the individuals' emotions would not have complicated the issue further. The initial emotions or feelings of the person who did not want to share their tasks with others would not have been so important to completely stop operations in their absence. Keep in mind: this is just a sample. Get a personalized paper now..