The Hindu Business Line : Conflict resolution

The process of management is often seen as an act of jugglery. The manager struggles hard to balance the varying needs of the organisation, the customer and the employee. The ambitions and aspirations of those in an organisation may not be always congruent. Differences in perception are bound to be there, and these may lead to conflicts.

Conflict springs to the surface when a person feels/thinks his interests are being thwarted or foiled by others. It is necessary to work out ways in which conflicts can be managed and resolved.

Acceptance of objectives

Problems arise only when employees decide to ignore the organisational objectives, and pursue their own individual goals. Acceptance of a clear and common framework of objectives by all the employees will enable the manager to confront conflicts with confidence. Reference to the corporate objectives will always help when the fur flies.

The traditional view of a conflict is that it is always bad and dysfunctional. Whereas there are occasions when conflicts may have good effects. For example, there may be a problem lying dormant, undetected and unnoticed. Unless it becomes public, a solution may not be possible; and the occurrence of a conflict may bring the problem to the surface, thereby triggering a much-wanted solution.

Managing conflicts

Conflicts may be managed in a number of ways. Each style of management has its own brand of conflict resolution. Conflicts may be managed by avoiding, defusing, containing or confronting them.

A manager, under pressure to achieve targets , may resort to the avoidance mode so as to buy time. Generally, however, it is better to confront the issues and the people involved for hammering out a solution. An effective manager often accepts the inevitability of conflicts. At times, he even uses them to energise his team and create a climate in which those involved are more than willing to confront risk and uncertainty.

The perfect manager is yet to be born. The ability to manage an organisation is something that an executive must learn, assimilate, refine, and reinvent as he goes through the process of management in the hard and professional way. Conflict resolution is no exception to this rule of the game.

(The author is a freelance writer.)

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