Employment Conflict Management

Employment Conflict Management Concepts Worksheet
Concept Application of Concept in Scenario Citation of Concept in Reading Personal Experience in your Organization
Nature and causes of conflict:

Goals perceived as incompatible because parties want the same thing or different things.

Balance of power- there will be times when the participants become aware of discrepancies in their relative power with one another. If one party has more power than the other, the conflict is unbalanced; many of the choices the parties then make are attempts to alter these imbalances.

According to the Coastal County Clerk of Court scenario, Dennis Munger the Department Head and Stan Accord the newly elected County Clerk do not see eye to eye on frequent absences from the office. Dennis has to leave for an hour everyday to attend to his elderly parents. Stan is implementing a new policy that requires every employee to request absences in advance and have them approved by him. Dennis feels like he is being treated like a child and doesn’t understand why he has to change his normal routine just because there is a new Clerk of Court.
Balance of power- there will be times when the participants become aware of discrepancies in their relative power with one another. If one party has more power than the other, the conflict is unbalanced; many of the choices the parties then make are attempts to alter these imbalances.
(Wilmot-Hocker,   p.115) Over the summer, my District Manager chose to act like a tyrant (which is not his style or character) because he was stressed out about a corporate visit with many of our top level managers. Needless to say, he literally upset me and I found myself biting my tongue (which isn’t my usual style or character) and holding back from expressing my concerns. I ended up holding it until January when he was conducting an audit and I was frustrated with some of the items he was taking points off for and I expressed myself. We ended up in the stockroom...