WK5 Conflict Resolution

Conflict to me is such a negative term, though I feel it doesn’t have to be.  I believe conflict resolution means to find common ground in compromise, though it has been my experience that it is generally one party involved in the conflict that does most of the compromising.  I personally do not like conflict.  I do not avoid conflict, however I put a great deal of effort into preventing conflict by addressing tension before it spirals into outright conflict. 

            About a year ago I had a family in my care that was truly unhappy with the care of their child in our facility.  A couple of the teachers had come to me with how disrespectful this child’s parents had been to them verbally.  In light of this information, I had made several attempts to address their individual needs as a family and multiple offers to talk with them personally by phone, in private, and with a parent teacher conference.  None of which they accepted yet they continually accused teachers in person of the inadequate care of their child.  Despite their concerns they continued to drop their child off in our care.  The situation ended with the father of this child aggressively attacking two teachers verbally when picking up his child and was physically escorted out by a security guard followed by the discontinuation of care for their child.  For a while I felt personally responsible in that I had not been able to resolve this conflict before it became an incident, though I had reached out to them on several occasions.  I have to remind myself that there is no pleasing some people.  However, as a result of this incident I stress the importance of open lines of communication to all new families coming into the program and periodically check in with each family about satisfaction and quality of care.  Looking back, I am not sure I could have avoided this conflict with any measure or that any compromise in care could have been made, especially without their direct input to me as the director of the program.  This example shows that when conflict is not managed effectively the result can be damaging to one or more parties involved (Mind Tools, n.d.).  The Mind Tools website also provides information on conflict resolution styles that I found very interesting.

            One strategy I think is important in conflict resolution is having a mediator to maintain a nonviolent solution.  I believe mediation is important because when something has reached conflict status the parties involved are sometimes unreceptive to each other’s views in the conflict and are beyond cooperation and compromise making a viable solution difficult to reach. The Third Side Conflict Resolution (n.d.) stresses the importance of cooperation and compromise as necessary components of conflict resolution and that it is important to contain, resolve, and prevent future conflict by identifying tension.  I believe another strategy in conflict resolution (like communication and communication style) is knowing the conflict resolution style of all parties involved including yourself, like whether a person’s conflict resolution style is competitive, collaborative, compromising, accommodating, or avoidance and how that affects your conflict resolution style in turn (Mind Tools, n.d.).  

References

Mind Tools (n.d.). Conflict Resolution - Resolving conflict rationally and effectively –

Leadership training from MindTools.com. Mind Tools - Management Training, Leadership Training and Career Training. Retrieved February 6, 2013, from http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_81.htm

The Third Side (n.d.). The Third Side - Conflict Resolution. Retrieved February 6, 2013, from

http://www.thirdside.org/