Essay Sample on Conflict Resolution: How to Handle Disputes Without Violence

Introduction

Conflicts are common for most people because no individual has the same behaviors as the other due to a combination of different views, goals, and interests. Conflicts happen in an individual's personal life, or it might take place in their places of work, which calls for people to have an in-depth knowledge of how to handle conflicts without violent measures. Once a dispute arises, different steps are followed to solve them and ensure that an active communication environment is created either in a personal or professional relationship.

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The major issue that people need to consider when dealing with any conflicts is that communication is the key to confirming climates. The first three minutes of conflict are essential because they prepare the individuals involved to accept and confirm others, respect relationship diversities, and respond well to criticism while avoiding being defensive (Wood, 2015). Before any steps are taken to create a conducive communication climate, the individuals involved must understand that there are three main outcomes to the conflict resolution process.

The results either emerge as a lose-lose situation, a win-lose, or a win-win where both parties emerge happily from the results of the conflict solving. The steps taken can either lead to supportive or defensive communication climates (Wood, 2015). They include; recognition where one party recognizes that the other party exists, acknowledgment of what the other party argues about, endorsement where one party accepts the other party's thoughts and their way of thinking, and message confirmation where the parties recognize that the conflicting party exists and acknowledges that their feelings and thoughts are considered. Confirming or disconfirming these four steps lead to supportive and defensive communication climates, respectively.

When conflicts arise in personal relationships, the conflicting partners need to follow these steps to ensure that they work together to come up with a mutually satisfying solution. The partner in the wrong has to recognize and acknowledge the concerns and feelings of the other person (Wood, 2015). They should avoid abusive or defensive language and work together to create a long-lasting solution. The second step is bracketing, where they both focus on the current issue and avoid bringing back past mistakes to justify their wrongs or to make the other partner be at the wrong too. The last step is contracting, where both individuals should propose different solutions to help deal with the conflict at hand, and both agree on one solution that favors them both. Personal relationships must follow the win-win criteria for both individuals to be satisfied.

When solving professional conflicts, both parties must follow different steps to ensure that the result is mutually satisfying to both of them. The first step is the clarification of the disagreement that leads to conflict (Benjamin, 2013). This step enables both parties to express their views as the other party listens and responds to the claims against them. The second step is to establish a significant goal for the parties in a conflict where they both lay out their thoughts and settle for the best goal tabled.

The third step is both parties discussing how to meet the common goal set. This step involves listening to each other, effective communication, and combining ideas to know how to achieve the goal set. The other step consists in determining the barriers that might make it hard to achieve the common goal and agreeing which resolution is the best to solve the conflict at hand (Benjamin, 2013). The last step is acknowledging the solution and ensuring each party is aware of their responsibilities in making it a success for such conflicts to be avoided in the future.

Conclusion

There are those people who know how to bring up conflicts and search for effective measures to handle them, and there are those who are afraid of conflicts and avoid them at all means because they do not know how to manage them. The use of active communication in either a personal or a professional relationship is a sure guide to building confirming climates that play a huge role in the solving of different conflicts that may arise.

References

Benjamin, K. (2013). 6 Steps to Conflict Resolution in the Workplace. Retrieved 10 December 2019, from https://hrdailyadvisor.blr.com/2013/06/24/6-steps-to-conflict-resolution-in-the-workplace/

Wood, J. (2015). Interpersonal Communication: Everyday Encounters (8th ed.). Boston: Wadsworth Publishing.