Why is Conflict Resolution Better than Conflict Management?
Conflicts arise in families, organizations or workplace when there is a difference of opinion, when you are not willing to get along with others or when there is an issue or a disagreement between the members of a group. Conflicts arise when there is no consensus on achieving goals, spending money or resources when you are not willing to concede. There is nothing wrong with conflicts arising but it is what you do with them matters –whether you make it worse, manage them or resolve them quickly.
Letting conflicts go unattended can lead to stress building up in you, within the group or organization leading to unhappiness and lower productivity. It may be easier to manage conflicts than to resolve them, but in the long run, it pays to opt for resolution.
Seven reasons why Conflict Resolution is better than Conflict Management
1. Conflict Avoidance Can Backfire
In some organizations, you may have seen managers refusing to acknowledge the existence of a conflict and not interfering with it. This can cause further strife, discontentment and conflict between members and lack of confidence in the leadership. This strategy can disrupt the daily functioning of departments.
2. Conflict Management Focuses on Accommodation and Compromise
Strategy- wise conflict management usually tries to accommodate divergent views and opinions. You may try to compromise your interests, viewpoints, and goals in favor of obtaining a peaceful work atmosphere. Here, views of one group of leaders or members are accommodated at the expense of others'.
3. Competing Attitude Creates Unrest
You may compete with other members thereby creating a zero-sum game. One wins at the expense of the other. The competitive approach can also be detrimental to the long-term goals of the organization or the group. It also creates unrest, strife and non-congenial atmosphere at work.
4. Conflict Resolution is Aimed at Resolving the Conflict
Unlike conflict management, conflict resolution involves analysis, understanding and settlement of disputes between parties. It goes to the root of the problem and tries to solve it at the best interest of the group rather than a few of them.
5. Conflict Resolution Helps in Solving a Recurring Problem
If a problem is related to pay parity or incentives between managers or workers, resolving the disparity will solve the issue on a long-term basis. If it relates to promotion and incremental pay, sometimes a change in policy can address the issue than dealing with it on an ad hoc basis.
6. Conflict Resolution Helps in Segregating Emotions and People
In conflicts, you tend to become emotional and overlook facts or data and the larger picture. In conflict resolution, there is a genuine effort to understand the problem without the people losing respect for each other. So, no ill will or anger persists in the group.
7. Conflict Resolution Helps in Exploring Options Together
Conflict resolution helps in bringing the disputed parties together, hearing them out, understanding the facts and data and keeping the long-term goals and priorities of the organization more than your individual goals. Conflict management, on the other hand only, serves to get along with conflicts still unresolved
Conflicts in an organization should be seen as an opportunity to understand the underlying problems and get them resolved. A group without conflicts is not necessarily functioning well if there is no motive to perform or understand each other to grow. It is the same with relationships and families. Resolving rather than managing issues and conflicts leads to lasting peace and solidarity.
