Steps for Conflict Resolution
Conflict resolution is considered to be a pathway in which two or more parties settles down against a disagreement among the people in the particular company., these disagreements can caused due to any sort of dispute relating to the financial, personal, political. Dispute may arise with the members of the company on any of the common topic, but solving the disputes within the company is considered to be the conflict resolution. It is mainly done by a mediator. A mediator can be anyone from that particular company who can even help in settling down the particular disputes among the staffs or the managers, though the mediators will not be the part of the decision making process but will help in solving the disputes and initiate the process of the making the decision.
In the given case, Samantha is considered to be the mediator of the conflict resolution, who is the Executive Vice President of Finance. The dispute that was created between the director of the HR, Brenda Bennett and the Vice-President of Engineering, Harold Strokes took serious position in the conflict resolution. Harold recruited two intern of engineering without letting the HR department know, as the department currently was not recruiting for any department of the company. Therefore, these two eminent personalities from Levver Corporation came down for seeking help in resolving the conflict to the Executive Vice President, Samantha.
The steps that are being considered for resolution of the conflict are listed below:
- Stabilizing the set up
- Helping both the parties for communicate
- Helping the parties in negotiation
- Clarification of the agreements between the two parties
The set up between the HR executive and the engineering head need to be stabilizing accordingly. Both of them were strong in their feeling sand high in anger. Samantha, need to greet both of them by offering the seats as well. They are being offered drinks, paper, pen, pencil whichever required. Samantha was being appointed as the mediation as he, being Executive Vice President he can be the good in solving the situation with the proper helping hand in the decision making. Samantha must be showing the neutral reaction towards both the parties and need to explain them, about the requirement of the mediation (Bush & Folger, 1994). He needs to give chances to both of them accordingly for explaining and proving their commitments towards their works.
After stabilizing the settlement, Samantha needs for gaining the trust from them regarding his neutrality. Anger can be expressed from either both of them or from any one. Accusations, showing the frustrations can also be exposed in front of the mediator, Samantha.
Conflict Management Concerns
He needs to explain both of their priorities, and accordingly they need to decide the position of their speeches accordingly. Being a mediator, Samantha, need to take notes while listening the voice of the first speaker. He needs to react and respond whenever required. Summarizing the story by eliminating the useless facts is also being done. This entire process is also done in the case of the second speaker as well (Cloke & Goldsmith, 2005).
Samantha even had to ask and clarify the issues regarding any confusion. He needs to define the problems by summarizing and the restating with proper clarification on any doubts or misconceptions. He needs to arrange the meetings in private with both the parties and sort the matter out. The areas of disagreements and agreements need to meet up in a single point of the discussion which can lead for the settlement of the deal. The settlement must be based on the disagreements and the agreements based on the necessity of the requirements. Samantha will need to show the pathways for setting up of the priorities based on the demands and the issues (Sander, 1985).
Negotiations are considered to be one of the major parts in the third party conflictions. It is done based on the conflict that is being raised. It is one of the unprepared parts in the process of mediation. The process that Samantha can take up during negotiations can be listed as (Folberg &Taylor, 1984):
The joint session- It deals with the participation of both the parties along with the mediator. The open exchange views can help in solving the internal matter. If emotions are running especially high, the mediator might bypass the joint session altogether and proceed directly to caucuses for fear of undermining settlement efforts (Kolb, 1984).
Caucuses- Having provided this assurance; the mediator begins collecting information about each side’s interests. Samantha will want to know the underlying needs or concerns implicated in the dispute, as well as the importance you attach to each (Kolb, 1994). Armed with such information, the mediator begins moving back and forth between the teams for a series of conversations, suggestions, proposals, and counterproposals aimed at building a resolution that will satisfy each party’s core interests, a process sometimes called shuttle diplomacy. The mediator will want to know what settlement terms that both the parties will find acceptable – and that is the part of Samantha think the other party might accept. He may also try to identify your non-settlement alternatives.
Strategies for Intervening Conflicts
Depending of the importance and the complexity of the issue of the disputed matter, the time frequency can lasts for more than hours, days, months or even months. Ultimately, mediation leads to resolution approximately more than eighty percent of all mediated disputes (Kressel & Pritt, 1985).
The agreements that have being conducted are summarized as per to the norms which being set up. Rechecking and asking regarding the issues that are discussed and stating the role of the each of the party accordingly. Emphasizing the agreement, that is considered to be the conclusion after several steps of the discussion. Lastly, congratulating and wishing them their success based on the workability of the particular resolution.
The conflict management concern is dependent on procedural attributes and the outcome of the procedural attributes. The procedural attributes is of the following types:
- Fairness: Samantha Phinder is acting as the mediator for solving the conflicts in between Human Resource department and Electrical Engineering division. The fairness approach of the mediator is dependent on perceived fairness, the neutrality and controlling the disputant degree and protecting the rights of individuals (Meryy & Silvey, 1982). Samantha has to maintain the degree of neutrality with high disputant control approach at the time of negotiation in between Brenda Bennect and Harold Stokes. He also took care of the fact that the rights of both of them are been protected to the highest extent.
- Satisfaction of participants: The mediator should look after the fact that participant who took part in the conversation involved in the conflict are been satisfied with the degree of privacy maintained in the conversation while negotiating. He should also look after the fact that both Brenda and Harold are involved in the conversation in order to solve the issue of conflict that has been raised.
- Effectiveness: The effectiveness of Samantha is dependent on the implementation of conceptual framework of conflict resolution. The conceptual framework is very much associated with the effectiveness of the resolution of conflict. The effectiveness also depends on quantity as well as quality of the intervention strategies. It also depends on the dispute surfaces degree that is how much the situation of conflict is disruptive and it also affects the effectiveness (Moore, 1996).
- Efficiency: Samantha Phinder being a mediator has to be efficient enough in solving the conflict with great effectiveness. The factors like cost of hassle and the time involved in solving the conflict has to be taken into account. The hassle cost and time required in solving the conflict is very much important for the successful operation of the organisation. The disruptiveness in between Brenda and Harold has to be solved efficiently by mediator.
The outcome of the procedural attributes are been discussed on the perspectives of the procedural attributes.
- Fairness: The outcome of the attribute of fairness procedure depends on the equity and the consistency of the decision taken by applying this approach. The equity will be depending on the approach taken by Samantha which will serve equal rights for the decision taken in regards to Brenda and Harold. The decision that will be taken by Samantha should serve the rights of both Brenda and Harold. The decision taken by the mediator may become a bias one as mediator acts like third party resolving the conflict. The view received by third party that is by Samantha should be impartial and not favouring any one department. This approach of fairness is significant as the process will determine the smooth running of the organisation.
- Satisfaction of Participants: Samantha has to mediate the conflict in such a way that the solution to the conflict can be taken by the respective department without any further rise in conflicts. He has to see that the conflicts raiser are been benefited by the decision and the outcome will be that no conflicts among them should persists. The animosity level has to be maintained so that participant are been well explained about their wrong approach.
- Effectiveness: The outcome of effectiveness procedure will depend on resolution level. Samantha has to resolute the manner in such a way that it can benefit for them. For instant he can resolute the matter like including the intern for the job that will serve the interest of the electrical engineering division and on the hand the salary that is to be paid to the interns should be fixed in such a way that it will serve the benefits to the HR department so that they are not overburdened with the budgetary issues (Shepard, 1984). This approach could be taken by Samantha that will serve as benefit for HR and Electrical engineering department. The impact of the decision on participants will have an optimistic effect on both Brenda and Harold.
- Efficiency: The problems of the given conflicts should be solved at hand. This procedure is practical and therefore it will be easy for both the participants to know about their mistakes. The mistake done by HR department is that after been requested for recruiting intern candidates for a specified project. As it is well known the cost of internship rather that recruiting a full time employee is very low therefore the HR department could have given a thought on recruiting two interns rather than rejecting the proposals. On the other hand Electrical engineering division should have communicated before recruiting the interns. They should at-least maintains the professional manner within the organisation. The efficiency procedural outcome will give the conflict to be met on time and the process of resolving the conflict will be smooth and it will not be a hassle for the mediator (Sheppard, 1983).
The strategies for intervening conflicts are comprised of the following steps:
Judge: Samantha will acts as a judge when he will undergo procedure of judging the matter that has taken place. This process is important as it will decide the necessary upcoming decisions that will be taken by him.
Inquisition: Inquisitors are the people who search or inquire about the matter. Samantha needs to inquire the matter from the respective department Third party controls both the processes as well as decisions by Samantha who acts as a third party in this case (Lewiciki & Sheppard, 1985).
Mediation: The strategy of mediation process can be control by the third party but the decision cannot be controlled by the third party. Thus mediator that is Samantha can control the process but he may not control the decision.
Conclusion
The process of controlling the resolution by the mediator is one of the significant matters in resolving the conflict. The mediator selected in solving the process should have the power of judging, inquisition, meditation and delegation. This power is essential for the mediator in solving the problem efficiently.
Reference List
Bush, R.A.B. and Folger, J. (1994). The promise of mediation. San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass.
Cloke ,K. & Goldsmith, J. (2005) Resolving Conflict at Work. Revised Edition. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
Folberg, J. and Taylor, A. (1984) Mediation. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
Goldberg, S., Green, E. and Sander, F. (1985) Dispute Resolution. Boston: Little Brown.
Kolb, D.M. (1984) The Mediators. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Kolb, D.M. (1994). When talk works: Profiles of mediators. San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass.
Kressel, K. and Pruitt, D. G. (1985) “The Mediation of Social Conflict,” Journal of Social Issues. 41(2).
Lewicki, R. J. & Sheppard, B. (1985) “Choosing How to Intervene: Factors Affecting the Use of Process and Outcome Control in Third Party Dispute Resolution,” Journal of Occupational Behavior 6, pp. 49-64.
Merry, S. E. & Silbey, S. (1982) Mediator Settlement Strategies: Authority and Manipulation in Alternative Dispute Resolution. Paper presented at the American Anthropological Association meetings.
Moore, C.W. (1996). The mediation process: Practical strategies for resolving conflict. Second Edition. San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass.
Sheppard, B. (1983) “Managers as Inquisitors: Some Lessons from the Law,” In M. Bazerman and R. J. Lewicki (eds.) Negotiation in Organizations. Beverly Hills: Sage Publications.
Sheppard, B. (1984) “Third Party Conflict Intervention: A Procedural Frame-work,” In B. Staw and L. L. Cummings (eds.) Research in Organizational Behavior. Greenwich, CT: JAI Publishing Co
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