Conflict Analysis



Conflict Analysis

[Name of the Writer]

[Name of the Institution]

Conflict Analysis

Introduction

We encounter different types of conflicts in our daily lives. Now and then, we are faced by situations, in which there are issues, and the other party or the person involved has contradicting opinions as compared to ours. From family to our educational institutes, from the canteen to classrooms, from parents to peers, different kinds of situations arise in our daily routine life in which we face contradictory opinions to the others. The term conflict can be defined as an expressed struggle between at least two interdependent parties who perceive incompatible goals, scarce resources, and interference from other parties in achieving their goals.

Discussion

Whenever a conflict arises, it comes with a solution. It is said that the answer to the conflict is within it, a person just has to see it carefully. The timeline of the resolution of the conflict depends upon the nature of the conflict. Sometimes the disputes are complex and may take time to get resolved, at other times; they are simple and can be solved in no time. Usually, the international, national, state-level conflicts take a much longer time, even years, to get resolved. Same is the case with political conflicts because these types of conflicts are complex in nature and can take months or years to get processed. On the other hand, the conflicts of domestic life are not that much complex in nature and can be solved easily. These types of conflicts also take very less time to get settled, sometimes less than a day (Rodman, & Adler, 2003).

Conflict Resolution

Conflict resolution is an art, which everyone cannot master. A person has to play very tactfully to get the right result. A person, who is in charge of the conflict resolution should be mature and experienced enough to make the situation favorable for all the parties involved in the conflict. The approach should be to create a win-win situation for all. Here the skills of a mediator or a conflict resolving person are tested because all the parties involved are usually not ready to compromise or give up anything. Out of many styles of conflict resolution, he or she can apply any kind of conflict management styles they deem appropriate as per the situation and the nature of both the parties. A mediator also has to keep a close look at the nature of both the parties, whether they are aggressive or can listen to the arguments and discussions peacefully. Conflict resolution is all about understanding, communication, compromise and respect for each other.

My Personal Experience of Conflict

I have also encountered many conflicts in my life. They were both personal and academic in nature. Being a student of communications, I have almost always been successful at peacefully resolving the conflicts and getting out of the disputes with 100 percent success ratio, but sometimes, even the best conflict resolver can fail and has to involve other people to assist them or take them out of the situation. The type of conflict that I came across, or more appropriately me along with my group came across was of an n interpersonal and interdependence in nature.

Details of the Conflict

As the incident goes, we were a group of five people who were jointly working on a project of IT. We had to develop software and present the final project to our instructor in a couple of days. We had divided our roles over different participants. One of our teammates, gathered all the resources and information, the second member developed the initials or the basis of the software, on the basis of the data provided after analyzing it, then came the third member, who did all the coding and programming, I was the in charge for graphi9c designing and the look if the software and then it went to the last member who checked the whole software, and told us if there was any room for improvement, or there were any flaws or glitches anywhere in the design. It was a sort of final quality check.

I noticed that the person responsible for coding and programming was not performing his duties properly; he was not taking his timelines seriously and making delays in the whole process. As my work wholly depended on the completion of his task, I was the one who was facing most difficulty due to his attitude. The whole team was noticing his behavior, but all were giving him time so that he may look over his own behavior, and rectify it, but his casual behavior never changed. We were all surprised he was a very brilliant student and never showed this kind of non-serious behavior in his academics. We also considered talking to our supervisor regarding this issue, but first, we decided to handle things on our own.

The Resolution Process

Now I had two choices, either to talk to him directly or talk to the whole team to confront him. I decided to speak to him directly first so that I can get to the root of his changed attitude. I invited him over coffee and asked politely whether he was facing any kind of issue regarding the project. His answer was no. I further inquired that if everything was ok in his personal life. After much hesitancy, he opened up and informed that he had been facing some serious family issues as his parents were going for a divorce. Under these circumstances, he and his little sister were very disturbed; I was shocked to hear this. The immediate resolution I provided to him was consulting the college psychologist. Further, I offered him that until when this phase passes, we will divide his burden of the project in the team. And ultimately, he completed his part of the project, with a little help from the whole team, which divided his responsibility of coding and programming along with him.

In such a way, we successfully resolved our conflict and completed the project, which was very important for all of us. The lesson that we all learned throw this little incident was that proper communication and understanding can solve almost any issue, you just need to analyze the situations carefully.

References

Rodman, G. R., & Adler, R. B. (2003). Understanding human communication. Oxford University Press, New York.