When it comes to conflict, we often consider it to be wholly negative, however, conflict can be can also positive. Tubbs (2012) says “It has been said that conflict is an inevitable part of people’s relating to one another” (p. 234). With this in mind, it becomes imperative for us to learn to learn how to effectively navigate conflict. In small groups, conflict, when properly channeled, can contribute to thoughts, ideas, creativity, relationship building and increased productivity. In fact, Tubbs (2012) states many people can not make a distinction between a conflict of ideas and feelings, leading to disruptive personal conflict (p. 326). Therefore, if conflict is to be used appropriately, conflicting ideas, can not turn into personality conflicts. …show more content…
Thus, one important task for a mediator is to increase group members ' understandings of the roles, positions, and experiences of other group members (p. 13).
According to the Blake and Mouton’s conflict grid, my co-workers demonstrated a conflict resolution style of, avoidance and competing. The Blake and Mouton’s conflict grid is designed to create win-win situations and promote concern for results and people at the same time (Tubbs, 2012, p. 331). The ideal result using this technique, is to create collaboration. “Here the members attempt to be both person-and results-oriented” (Tubbs, 2012, p. 332). However, my colleagues fell short of the optimum outcome during their conflict of
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Tubbs (2012) describes collaborative conflict management by saying “In other words, group members in a conflict must rally together to solve the conflict, express individual and group viewpoints freely and openly, and take the time to understand the points of view of other group members” (p. 331). By promoting problem solving through objective evaluations against facts, solutions can be generated void of emotion. Thus, promoting my colleagues to avoid emotion and stick to the issues at hand. Once they’ve agreed to refrain from emotional reactions and attacks, they can build on areas of agreement, in order to reach a