Conflicts are an everyday occurrence in the life of groups; how you deal with them is crucial to the success and failure of the group and its members as well as the future viability of the organization. Seen in this way, conflicts and their handling are a central task and challenge for leadership.

Conflicts in and between groups are part of the social conflicts. They are characterized by irreconcilable tendency to act. Conflicting tensions in groups are often stressful for those involved because they directly affect their own environment. Conflicts can arise from the dynamics of the group itself, but developments from outside often play a triggering role.

Conflict Triggers - Examples:

1. Professional realignment

2. Changed responsibilities

3. Low resources

4. Reorganization or the introduction of new technologies, e.g. new IT solutions that require others to rethink.

 

Conflicts between employees are to be distinguished from conflicts between employees and managers. Conflicts between managers and employees are often related to different demands on the service to be provided, to managerial decisions or the lack of them, communication that is perceived as unsatisfactory, insufficient presence of the manager in the team or insufficient specialist and managerial skills.

Types of conflict:

1. Conflicting goals

2. Method conflicts

3. Conflicts of values

4. Conflicts of roles

5. Distribution conflicts 

 

Approaches to handling conflicts

• Das Machtwort

• Arbitration meeting

• Negotiate based on interests

• mediation

• Conflict moderation as a change process

• Conflict coaching

• Conflict training

• Nonviolent Communication

• Team development

• Action learning

• Critical Action Learning (experiential learning according to Kolb 1984)

Conflicts in groups are very different in terms of triggers, causes, courses and results. They can represent a considerable burden and at the same time offer great learning opportunities with regard to the necessary adaptation and design processes to a dynamically changing environment. In addition, groups are increasingly characterized by diversity, which creates an urgently needed wealth of perspectives, but also increases the number of potential conflicts.

For management, this means not only viewing conflicts as disruptions that need to be avoided, but above all as an indispensable side effect of the service provision that needs to be designed.

 

Dealing with conflicts thus becomes part of the management task, the importance of which is tending to increase.

 

Managers face the task of handling current conflicts productively and emphatically counteracting negative undesirable developments by creating a climate and working environment that gives everyone involved the security to work together on suitable solutions and to grow.