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Personalities
Organizational strife is sometimes
traced to "personalities." This is one person
differing with another based simply on how he
or she feels about that person.
Solution: Train
everyone to recognize the personality types
along with their inherent strengths and
weaknesses so that they understand each
other.
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Sensitivity/hurt
This occurs when a person, because of
low self-esteem, insecurity, or other factors
in his or her personal life, sometimes feels
attacked by perceived criticism or other
interpersonal directness.
Solution: Adopt the
empowering belief that even negative behaviours
have a positive intention. Use active listening
and questioning techniques to understand the
root cause of the problem. Adjust your
communication to match the needs of the other
person.
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Differences in percentions and
values
Most conflict results from the varying
ways different people view the world. These
incongruent views are traceable to differences
in upbringing, culture, race, experience,
education, occupation, socio-economic class,
and other environmental factors.
Solution: Management
must set and communicate the values hierarchy
for the organization.
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Differences over facts
A fact is a piece of data that can be
quantified or an event that can be documented.
Arguments over facts typically need not last
very long since they are verifiable. But a
statement like,’ It is a fact that you are
insensitive to my feelings," is neither
documentable nor quantifiable, and so is
actually a difference in perception.
Solution: Have
a neutral third party or expert arbitrate the
dispute.
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Differences over goals and priorities
An argument about whether a bank
should focus more resources on international
banking or on community banking is a
disagreement over goals. Another example would
be whether or not to increase the amount of
advanced professional training given to
tellers.
Solution: Management
must set, communicate, and enforce the values
hierarchy for the
organization.
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Differences over methods
Two sides may have similar goals but
disagree on how to achieve them. For example,
how should advanced teller training be
conducted?
Solution: Have a
neutral third party or expert arbitrate the
dispute.
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Competition for scarce resources
Two managers might argue over who has
the greater need for an assistant, whose budget
should be in- creased more, or how to allocate
recently purchased computers.
Solution: Management
must set and communicate the values hierarchy
for the organization.
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Competition for supremacy
This occurs when one person seeks to
outdo or out- shine another person. You might
see it when two employees compete for a
promotion or for comparative power in your
organization. Depending on personalities, this
type of conflict can be very subtle
sometimes.
Solution: Management
must set and communicate the values hierarchy
for the organization.
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Misunderstanding
The majority of what looks like
interpersonal conflict is actually
communication breakdown. Communication, if not
attended to with care, is as likely to fail as
to succeed. And when it does, a listener's
incorrect inferences about a speaker's intent
often create inter- personal conflict.
Solution: Ask the
question “what else could this
mean?”
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Unfulfilled expectations
Many of the causes listed above
contribute to one person not fulfilling the
expectations of another. Unfulfilled
expectations are the ultimate cause of divorce,
firings, and other forms of relational
breakdown. The major reason that expectations
go unfulfilled is that they are unreasonable,
inappropriate, too numerous, or unstated.
Solution: Use active
listening and questioning techniques to set and
clarify expectations.
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