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30 Conflict Resolution Examples

conflict resolution examples and definition, explained below

Conflict resolution refers to the process of bringing a conflict to an end in a fair, equitable, or mutually agreeable way. It’s central in a range of jobs, including social work, counselling, and diplomacy.

There are a range of frameworks, skills, and strategies that can be used to resolve conflict resolution, which I’ll explain below.

In order to demonstrate your conflict resolution skills, it’s useful to use the STAR framework. This framework is especially useful if you’re looking for ways to demonstrate your conflict resolution skills in a job interview. I’ve provided this framework at the end of this piece.

Conflict Resolution Examples

Strategies for resolving conflicts.

Let’s start with come common strategies, before looking at some specific skills for you to develop:

1. Active Listening In this approach, you focus on listening to the other person’s thoughts and feelings. You reflect these sentiments back to ensure understanding. This shows your respect for them and their viewpoint, and it encourages them to do the same for you.

2. Negotiation This is a classic use of the process to find a mutually acceptable solution. Both parties put forward their preferred outcomes, and they work together to find a middle ground that satisfies both. When agreements are built together, they are more likely to be respected.

3. Mediation When two parties fail to find a solution on their own, a neutral third party called a mediator might help. Their role is to facilitate open and efficient communication, helping each person gain a fresh perspective on the dispute.

4. Problem Solving Here, you aim to address an issue head on. You first identify the problem, then brainstorm solutions, and finally choose the best one. It’s an analytical approach where the stress lies not on fighting, but on working together to reach a beneficial result.

5. Strength-Based Approach In this strategy, you emphasize the positive qualities and potential of the people involved. This helps them to work from a position of strength, not weakness, and makes the resolution process a more wholesome experience.

6. Interest-Based Relational Approach This approach places relationships first, focusing on protecting them while still solving the dispute. When both the parties focus on each other’s needs rather than winning the argument, the conflict’s detrimental effects on their relationship can be minimized.

7. Team Building This is an indirect conflict resolution approach that aims to cultivate strong bonds between team members. This can reduce the likelihood of conflicts appearing, as team members become more understanding and patient with each other due to their emotional connection. However, this method requires consistent effort and time.

8. Facilitation This technique involves a neutral person handling the discussion process between people in a dispute. They ensure everyone has a chance to air their grievances, keeps the conversation respectful and inclusive, and guides the group towards a consensus.

9. Arbitration Similar to mediation, arbitration involves a third-party arbitrator. The main difference, however, is the arbitrator makes a decision after hearing all sides of the argument. This decision is usually binding and is often used in legal settings or labor disputes.

10. Avoidance Though this may not seem like a resolution, sometimes avoiding a conflict is a strategic move. This passive approach is best suited when the issue at hand is trivial, or more harm than good would come from addressing it.

11. Smoothing/Tamping This strategy involves minimizing the importance of the conflict in order to preserve relationships and team unity. By downplaying the disagreement and emphasizing common interests, the intensity of the conflict can be reduced.

12. Collaborative Solution This strategy requires both parties to work together closely to devise a solution. It is the more creative approach as it doesn’t involve just picking an existing option, but instead, the two parties build an entirely new one together.

13. Accommodating This is a passive approach where one party agrees to concede to the other. That person yields to the others’ demands for the sake of keeping peace. This approach is mainly used when one party values the relationship more than winning the argument.

14. Competing This strategy involves a head-on approach to the conflict, in which one party attempts to win over the other through force. It’s a win-lose scenario and is mainly utilized when one party feels they have a non-negotiable position.

15. Compromise In this approach, each party agrees to give up something in order to reach a resolution. While this may not lead to a completely satisfying outcome for either side, it does provide a quick solution that can help maintain the overall stability of the relationship or organization.

Conflict Resolution Skills

The above strategies require people with a range of valuable soft skills for resolving conflicts, including the following 15:

16. Respecting Diversity: Conflicts often arise from differences in backgrounds, cultures, or perspectives. Respecting diversity and viewing it as a strength rather than an obstacle can promote mutual understanding and resolution.

17. Communication Skills : As the bedrock of conflict resolution, effective communication involves expressing yourself clearly and listening actively. It also involves interpreting body language and non-verbal cues, which are often conduits of emotional states.

18. Empathy : This skill allows you to see the situation from the other person’s perspective. Understanding their feelings and point of view can foster a sympathetic approach to conflict resolution.

19. Patience : Conflict resolution is often a time-consuming process. It requires patience to listen to others and understand their viewpoints and even more to negotiate a satisfactory agreement.

20. Emotional Intelligence : This entails the ability to manage your emotions and understand those of others. Emotional intelligence can help prevent emotional responses from determining the outcome of conflicts.

21. Decision-Making Abilities: At times, conflict resolution implies making hard choices. Robust decision-making skills help in reaching solutions more efficiently, ensuring all parties’ needs are duly considered.

22. Flexibility: This involves being open to new ideas or ways of thinking. It enables you to adjust your perspective or compromise on certain issues to reach a resolution.

23. Problem-Solving Abilities: This encompasses generating solutions, assessing their potential impact, and implementing the most effective one. It ensures the resolution of the conflict and prevents future similar conflicts from arising.

24. Assertiveness : This skill represents your ability to speak up for your rights while respecting the rights of others. Assertiveness doesn’t mean aggressiveness; rather, it’s about expressing your needs clearly and directly.

25. Active Listening: By really hearing what the other party is saying, you can better understand their perspective. You aren’t merely listening to respond, but to gain a deeper understanding.

26. Resilience : The ability to bounce back from difficult situations and not let conflict deter you from achieving your goals . With resilience, setbacks become stepping stones to success.

27. Creativity : Effective conflict resolution can sometimes require thinking outside the box to find a solution that satisfies all parties involved. This creativity might involve developing unconventional strategies or solutions.

28. Self-Control : Being able to maintain your cool under stress is essential in conflict resolution. The ability to handle your emotions and keep them in check can prevent unnecessary escalation of conflicts.

29. Facilitation Skills: These skills can help guide the conversation toward constructive outcomes. They include ensuring everyone’s views are heard, mediating disputes, and leading the group to a consensus.

30. Adaptability: Conflict can often be volatile and unpredictable. Being able to adapt to new facts, different viewpoints, or shifts in the power dynamic is essential to successfully navigate conflict and find resolution.

Common Frameworks for Conflict Resolution

Common frameworks include:

1. Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument (TKI) TKI is a tool that measures a person’s behavior in conflict situations. It categorizes an individual’s responses into five different styles: Competing, Avoiding, Accommodating, Collaborating, and Compromising (Schaubhut, 2007; Brown, 2012). The aim of the TKI model is to help individuals understand how their behavior in conflict situations affects others and to find more effective conflict resolution strategies (Riasi & Asadzadeh, 2015).

2. Fisher and Ury’s Interest-Based Relational (IBR) Model This model, introduced in the book Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement without Giving In suggests that conflicts should not focus on individuals, but rather on the issue at hand. It is based on methods of negotiation that focus on fairness, seeking mutual benefit, and maintaining relationships (Fisher, Ury & Patton, 2011). The steps in this approach include separating the people from the problem, focusing on interests not positions, inventing options for mutual gain, and insisting on objective criteria.

3. Conflict Resolution Framework by the Harvard Negotiation Project Also developed by Fisher and Ury, this framework extends upon the IBR model by incorporating elements such as “best alternative to a negotiated agreement” (BATNA) and “zone of possible agreement” (ZOPA). It encourages parties to establish their BATNA before negotiations begin, providing a fallback plan and establishing a guideline for acceptable agreements. For more on this project, visit its website .

4. Circle Process This is a powerful conflict resolution model predominantly used in Restorative Justice proceedings (Bohmert, Duwe & Hipple, 2018). It involves creating safe spaces where all participants can share their perspectives and feelings about a conflict, facilitating a communal understanding. It intensely targets communication, respect, and mutual understanding.

5. Bush and Folger’s Transformative Mediation In this model, empowerment and recognition are central to resolving conflicts (Folger & Bush, 2014). It supports parties in conflict to change their views of themselves and others, transforming the very nature of their relationship. The mediator works to foster constructive communication and mutual recognition, leading not just to settlement but also personal growth and social transformation.

These frameworks offer various approaches, each with their own strengths depending on the specific nature and context of the conflict.

How to Answer “Describe your Conflict Resolution Skills” in an Interview

The STAR framework is a method for answering interview questions in a structured, coherent manner. It stands for Situation, Task, Action, and Result.

1. Situation: Begin by describing a specific conflict situation that you dealt with at your previous job. Providers the details necessary for the interviewer to understand the context, such as the type of conflict, the people involved, and the severity or potential impacts of the conflict without breaking any confidentiality rules.

Situation Example: Let’s say I was working as a project manager on a major software development project. Two of my team members had a disagreement on the approach to a complex coding issue. The conflict had begun to delay our progress and other team members were starting to take sides, creating a divide within the team.

2. Task: Clear explanation of your role or responsibility in the conflict is required in this step. Mention whether you were directly involved in the conflict or you intervened as a third party.

Task Example: My role was not only to manage the project timeline, but also to ensure we maintained a collaborative and productive work environment. Therefore, it was my responsibility to resolve the conflict between the two team members in a way that would not only help the project to move forward but also heal the team dynamics.

3. Action: Here, elaborate on the specific steps you took to resolve the conflict. Discuss your implementation of conflict resolution skills, any methodologies or strategies used, and how you approached the issue to find a resolution. Make sure to emphasize actions that typify a conflict-resolving personality, like patience, active listening, and open communication.

Action Example: I organized a meeting with the two concerned team members. I let each of them articulate their viewpoint on the coding issue, ensuring they felt heard, while reiterating the importance of respectful communication. Then, with their input, we developed a list of pros and cons for each approach. I facilitated the discussion focusing on the shared goal of the team , which was to create an effective and reliable software solution.

4. Result: At the close, express what the outcome of your actions was. It’s important to highlight how your intervention led to a beneficial solution for individuals and the organization as a whole. Describe any positive changes in behavior or performance following the conflict resolution, or any feedback that you received from your supervisors or colleagues about your handling of the situation.

Result Example: As a result of the meeting, we agreed to combine elements from both approaches, which, upon review, actually enhanced the functionality of the program. This solution not only fixed the immediate issue, but the two team members also reported feeling more united. Their mutual respect was evident in subsequent collaborations. We successfully completed the project on time, and our supervisor complimented me on handling such an intense situation with acumen.

Remember, the STAR framework is all about painting a clear, concise, and coherent picture of your conflict resolution skills by drawing on specific past experiences.

Conflict resolution is required for a range of jobs, from customer support to leadership roles within large organizations. By developing you soft skills and building-up experiences with resolving difficult situations, you can enter a job interview ready to answer any question about how to resolve conflicts. Practice your STAR method story before your interview, and best of luck!

Bohmert, M. N., Duwe, G., & Hipple, N. K. (2018). Evaluating restorative justice circles of support and accountability: Can social support overcome structural barriers?.  International journal of offender therapy and comparative criminology ,  62 (3), 739-758. doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X16652627

Brown, J. G. (2012). Empowering students to create and claim value through the Thomas–Kilmann conflict mode instrument.  Negotiation Journal ,  28 (1), 79-91. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1571-9979.2011.00327.x

Fisher, R., Ury, W. L., & Patton, B. (2011).  Getting to yes: Negotiating agreement without giving in . New York: Penguin.

Folger, J., & Bush, R. A. B. (2014). Transformative mediation.  International Journal of Conflict Engagement and Resolution ,  2 (1), 20-34.

Riasi, A., & Asadzadeh, N. (2015). The relationship between principals’ reward power and their conflict management styles based on Thomas–Kilmann conflict mode instrument.  Management Science Letters ,  5 (6), 611-618.

Schaubhut, N. A. (2007). Thomas-Kilmann conflict mode instrument.  CPP Research Department .

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Dr. Chris Drew is the founder of the Helpful Professor. He holds a PhD in education and has published over 20 articles in scholarly journals. He is the former editor of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education. [Image Descriptor: Photo of Chris]

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What is Conflict Resolution, and How Does It Work?

How to manage conflict at work through conflict resolution.

By Katie Shonk — on December 19th, 2023 / Conflict Resolution

a conflict resolved essay

If you work with others, sooner or later you will almost inevitably face the need for conflict resolution. You may need to mediate a dispute between two members of your department. Or you may find yourself angered by something a colleague reportedly said about you in a meeting. Or you may need to engage in conflict resolution with a client over a missed deadline. In organizations, conflict is inevitable, and good conflict management tools are essential.

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What is conflict resolution, and how can you use it to settle disputes in your workplace?

Conflict resolution can be defined as the informal or formal process that two or more parties use to find a peaceful solution to their dispute.

A number of common cognitive and emotional traps, many of them unconscious, can exacerbate conflict and contribute to the need for conflict resolution:

• Self-serving fairness interpretations. Rather than deciding what’s fair from a position of neutrality, we interpret what would be most fair to us, then justify this preference on the bases of fairness. For example, department heads are likely to each think they deserve the lion’s share of the annual budget. Disagreements about what’s fairlead to clashes.

• Overconfidence. We tend to be overconfident in our judgments, a tendency that leads us to unrealistic expectations. Disputants are likely to be overconfident about their odds of winning a lawsuit, for instance, an error that can lead them to shun a negotiated settlement that would save them time and money.

• Escalation of commitment. Whether negotiators are dealing with a labor strike, a merger, or an argument with a colleague, they are likely to irrationally escalate their commitment to their chosen course of action, long after it has proven useful. We desperately try to recoup our past investments in a dispute (such as money spent on legal fees), failing to recognize that such “sunk costs” should play no role in our decisions about the future.

• Conflict avoidance. Because negative emotions cause us discomfort and distress, we may try to tamp them down, hoping that our feelings will dissipate with time. In fact, conflict tends to become more entrenched, and parties have a greater need for conflict resolution when they avoid dealing with their strong emotions.

Given these and other pitfalls, how can you set up a constructive conflict resolution process when dealing with conflict at work and other realms? Conflicts can be resolved in a variety of ways, including negotiation, mediation, arbitration, and litigation.

• Negotiation. In conflict resolution, you can and should draw on the same principles of collaborative negotiation that you use in dealmaking. For example, you should aim to explore the interests underlying parties’ positions, such as a desire to resolve a dispute without attracting negative publicity or to repair a damaged business relationship. In addition, determine your best alternative to a negotiated agreement , or BATNA —what you will do if you fail to reach an agreement, such as finding a new partner or filing a lawsuit. By brainstorming options and looking for tradeoffs across issues, you may be able to negotiate a satisfactory outcome to your dispute without the aid of outside parties.

• Mediation. In mediation, disputants enlist a trained, neutral third party to help them come to a consensus. Rather than imposing a solution, a professional mediator encourages disputants to explore the interests underlying their positions. Working with parties both together and separately, mediators seek to help them discover a resolution that is sustainable, voluntary, and nonbinding.

• Arbitration. In arbitration, which can resemble a court trial, a neutral third party serves as a judge who makes decisions to end the dispute. The arbitrator listens to the arguments and evidence presented by each side, then renders a binding and often confidential decision. Although disputants typically cannot appeal an arbitrator’s decision, they can negotiate most aspects of the arbitration process, including whether lawyers will be present and which standards of evidence will be used.

• Litigation. In civil litigation, a defendant and a plaintiff face off before either a judge or a judge and jury, who weigh the evidence and make a ruling. Information presented in hearings and trials usually enters the public record. Lawyers typically dominate litigation, which often ends in a negotiated settlement during the pretrial period.

In general, it makes sense to start off less-expensive, less-formal conflict resolution procedures, such as negotiation and mediation, before making the larger commitments of money and time that arbitration and litigation often demand. Conflict-resolution training can further enhance your ability to negotiate satisfactory resolutions to your disputes.

What conflict resolution methods have you tried before? Leave us a comment.

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No Responses to “What is Conflict Resolution, and How Does It Work?”

4 responses to “what is conflict resolution, and how does it work”.

Conflict resolution arise due to dispute between two parties involved in any trade , it can be solved with fair negotiation or through Mediator or through arbitrator or through litigation.

Wondful work keep up pls.

Conflict resolution is way of settling misundestanding between two or more bodies on a matter through dialog.

Conflict Resolution can also be defined as a strong will and determination to create solution to a misunderstanding between two or more parties

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What is conflict?

Causes of conflict in a relationship, how do you respond to conflict, conflict resolution, stress, and emotions, core skill 1: quick stress relief, core skill 2: emotional awareness, nonverbal communication and conflict resolution, more tips for managing and resolving conflict, conflict resolution skills.

Whatever the cause of disagreements and disputes at home or work, these skills can help you resolve conflict in a constructive way and keep your relationships strong and growing.

a conflict resolved essay

Conflict is a normal part of any healthy relationship. After all, two people can’t be expected to agree on everything, all the time. The key is not to fear or try to avoid conflict but to learn how to resolve it in a healthy way.

When conflict is mismanaged, it can cause great harm to a relationship, but when handled in a respectful, positive way, conflict provides an opportunity to strengthen the bond between two people. Whether you’re experiencing conflict at home, work, or school, learning these skills can help you resolve differences in a healthy way and build stronger, more rewarding relationships.

Conflict 101

  • A conflict is more than just a disagreement. It is a situation in which one or both parties perceive a threat (whether or not the threat is real).
  • Conflicts continue to fester when ignored. Because conflicts involve perceived threats to our well-being and survival, they stay with us until we face and resolve them.
  • We respond to conflicts based on our perceptions of the situation, not necessarily to an objective review of the facts. Our perceptions are influenced by our life experiences, culture, values, and beliefs.
  • Conflicts trigger strong emotions. If you aren't comfortable with your emotions or able to manage them in times of stress, you won't be able to resolve conflict successfully.
  • Conflicts are an opportunity for growth. When you're able to resolve conflict in a relationship, it builds trust. You can feel secure knowing your relationship can survive challenges and disagreements.

Conflict arises from differences, both large and small. It occurs whenever people disagree over their values, motivations, perceptions, ideas, or desires. Sometimes these differences appear trivial, but when a conflict triggers strong feelings, a deep personal need is often at the core of the problem. These needs can range from the need to feel safe and secure or respected and valued, to the need for greater closeness and intimacy.

Think about the opposing needs of a toddler and a parent. The child’s need is to explore, so venturing to the street or the cliff edge meets that need. But the parent's need is to protect the child’s safety, a need that can only be met by limiting the toddler’s exploration. Since these needs are at odds, conflict arises.

The needs of each party play an important role in the long-term success of a relationship. Each deserves respect and consideration. In personal relationships, a lack of understanding about differing needs can result in distance, arguments, and break-ups. In the workplace, differing needs can result in broken deals, decreased profits, and lost jobs.

[Read: Tips for Building a Healthy Relationship]

When you can recognize conflicting needs and are willing to examine them with compassion and understanding, it can lead to creative problem solving, team building, and stronger relationships.

Speak to a Licensed Therapist

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Do you fear conflict or avoid it at all costs? If your perception of conflict comes from painful memories from early childhood or previous unhealthy relationships, you may expect all disagreements to end badly. You may view conflict as demoralizing, humiliating, or something to fear. If your early life experiences left you feeling powerless or out of control, conflict may even be traumatizing for you.

If you're afraid of conflict, it can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. When you enter a conflict situation already feeling threatened, it's tough to deal with the problem at hand in a healthy way. Instead, you're more likely to either shut down or blow up in anger.

Healthy and unhealthy ways of managing and resolving conflict

Conflict triggers strong emotions and can lead to hurt feelings, disappointment, and discomfort. When handled in an unhealthy manner, it can cause irreparable rifts, resentments, and break-ups. But when conflict is resolved in a healthy way, it increases your understanding of the other person, builds trust, and strengthens your relationships.

If you are out of touch with your feelings or so stressed that you can only pay attention to a limited number of emotions, you won't be able to understand your own needs. This will make it hard to communicate with others and establish what's really troubling you. For example, couples often argue about petty differences—the way she hangs the towels, the way he slurps his soup—rather than what is  really bothering them.

The ability to successfully resolve conflict depends on your ability to:

  • Manage stress quickly while remaining alert and calm. By staying calm, you can accurately read and interpret verbal and nonverbal communication.
  • Control your emotions and behavior. When you're in control of your emotions, you can communicate your needs without threatening, intimidating, or punishing others.
  • Pay attention to the  feelings being expressed as well as the spoken words of others.
  • Be aware of and respect differences. By avoiding disrespectful words and actions, you can almost always resolve a problem faster.

To successfully resolve a conflict, you need to learn and practice two core skills:

  • Quick stress relief: the ability to quickly relieve stress in the moment.
  • Emotional awareness: the ability to remain comfortable enough with your emotions to react in constructive ways, even in the midst of a perceived attack.

Being able to manage and relieve stress in the moment is the key to staying balanced, focused, and in control, no matter what challenges you face. If you don't know how to stay centered and in control of yourself, you will become overwhelmed in conflict situations and unable to respond in healthy ways.

Psychologist Connie Lillas uses a driving analogy to describe the three most common ways people respond when they're overwhelmed by stress:

Foot on the gas. An angry or agitated stress response. You're heated, keyed up, overly emotional, and unable to sit still.

Foot on the brake. A withdrawn or depressed stress response. You shut down, space out, and show very little energy or emotion.

Foot on both gas and brake. A tense and frozen stress response. You “freeze” under pressure and can't do anything. You look paralyzed, but under the surface you're extremely agitated.

How stress affects conflict resolution

Stress interferes with the ability to resolve conflict by limiting your ability to:

  • Accurately read another person's body language .
  • Hear what someone is really saying.
  • Be aware of your own feelings.
  • Be in touch with your own, deep-rooted needs.
  • Communicate your needs clearly.

Is stress a problem for you?

You may be so used to feeling stressed that you're not even aware you  are stressed. Stress may pose a problem in your life if you identify with the following:

  • You often feel tense or tight somewhere in your body.
  • You're not aware of movement in your chest or stomach when you breathe.
  • Conflict absorbs your time and attention.

Learn how to manage stress in the moment

One of the most reliable ways to rapidly reduce stress is by engaging one or more of your senses—sight, sound, taste, smell, touch—or through movement. You could squeeze a stress ball, smell a relaxing scent, taste a soothing cup of tea, or look at a treasured photograph. We all tend to respond differently to sensory input, often depending on how we respond to stress, so take some time to find things that are soothing to you. Read: Quick Stress Relief .

Emotional awareness is the key to understanding yourself and others. If you don't know how or why you feel a certain way, you won't be able to communicate effectively or resolve disagreements.

[Read: Improving Emotional Intelligence]

Although knowing your own feelings may sound simple, many people ignore or try to sedate strong emotions like anger, sadness, and fear. Your ability to handle conflict, however, depends on being connected to these feelings. If you're afraid of strong emotions or if you insist on finding solutions that are strictly rational, your ability to face and resolve differences will be limited.

Why emotional awareness is a key factor in resolving conflict

Emotional awareness—the consciousness of your  moment-to-moment emotional experience—and the ability to manage all of your feelings appropriately, is the basis of a communication process that can resolve conflict.

Emotional awareness helps you to:

  • Understand what is really troubling other people
  • Understand yourself, including what is really troubling you
  • Stay motivated until the conflict is resolved
  • Communicate clearly and effectively
  • Interest and influence others

Assessing your level of emotional awareness

The following quiz helps you assess your level of emotional awareness. Answer the following questions with:  almost never, occasionally, often, very often, or  almost always . There are no right or wrong responses, only the opportunity to become better acquainted with your emotional responses.

What kind of relationship do you have with your emotions?

  • Do you experience feelings that flow, encountering one emotion after another as your experiences change from moment to moment?
  • Are your emotions accompanied by physical sensations that you experience in places like your stomach or chest?
  • Do you experience distinct feelings and emotions, such as anger, sadness, fear, and joy, which are evident in different facial expressions?
  • Can you experience intense feelings that are strong enough to capture both your own attention and that of others?
  • Do you pay attention to your emotions? Do they factor into your decision-making?

If any of these experiences are unfamiliar, your emotions may be “turned” down or even off. In either case, you may need help developing your emotional awareness. You can do this by using Helpguide's free Emotional Intelligence Toolkit.

When people are in the middle of a conflict, the words they use rarely convey the issues at the heart of the problem. But by paying close attention to the other person's nonverbal signals or “body language,” such as facial expressions, posture, gestures, and tone of voice, you can better understand what the person is really saying. This will allow you to respond in a way that builds trust, and gets to the root of the problem.

[Read: Nonverbal Communication and Body Language]

Your ability to accurately read another person depends on your own emotional awareness. The more aware you are of your own emotions, the easier it will be for you to pick up on the wordless clues that reveal what others are feeling. Think about what you are transmitting to others during conflict, and if what you say matches your body language. If you say “I'm fine,” but you clench your teeth and look away, then your body is clearly signaling you are anything but “fine.” A calm tone of voice, a reassuring touch, or an interested facial expression can go a long way toward relaxing a tense exchange.

You can ensure that the process of managing and resolving conflict is as positive as possible by sticking to the following guidelines:

Listen for what is felt as well as said. When you really listen, you connect more deeply to your own needs and emotions, and to those of other people. Listening also strengthens, informs, and makes it easier for others to hear you when it's your turn to speak.

Make conflict resolution the priority rather than winning or “being right.” Maintaining and strengthening the relationship, rather than “winning” the argument, should always be your first priority. Be respectful of the other person and their viewpoint.

Focus on the present. If you're holding on to grudges based on past conflicts, your ability to see the reality of the current situation will be impaired. Rather than looking to the past and assigning blame, focus on what you can do in the here-and-now to solve the problem.

Pick your battles. Conflicts can be draining, so it's important to consider whether the issue is really worth your time and energy. Maybe you don't want to surrender a parking space if you've been circling for 15 minutes, but if there are dozens of empty spots, arguing over a single space isn't worth it.

Be willing to forgive. Resolving conflict is impossible if you're unwilling or unable to forgive others. Resolution lies in releasing the urge to punish, which can serve only to deplete and drain your life.

Know when to let something go. If you can't come to an agreement, agree to disagree. It takes two people to keep an argument going. If a conflict is going nowhere, you can choose to disengage and move on.

Using humor in conflict resolution

You can avoid many confrontations and resolve arguments and disagreements by communicating in a humorous way . Humor can help you say things that might otherwise be difficult to express without offending someone. However, it's important that you laugh with the other person, not at them. When humor and play are used to reduce tension and anger, reframe problems, and put the situation into perspective, the conflict can actually become an opportunity for greater connection and intimacy.

More Information

  • CR Kit - Covers causes of conflict, different conflict styles, and fair fighting guidelines to help you positively resolve disagreements. (Conflict Resolution Network)
  • 12 Skills Summary - A 12-step conflict resolution training kit. (Conflict Resolution Network)
  • Effective Communication - The art of listening in conflict resolution. (University of Maryland)
  • 10.3 Causes and Outcomes of Conflict – Organizational Behavior . (n.d.). Retrieved May 25, 2022, from Link
  • Başoğul, C., & Özgür, G. (2016). Role of Emotional Intelligence in Conflict Management Strategies of Nurses. Asian Nursing Research , 10(3), 228–233. Link
  • Corcoran, Kathleen O’Connell, and Brent Mallinckrodt. “Adult Attachment, Self-Efficacy, Perspective Taking, and Conflict Resolution.” Journal of Counseling & Development 78, no. 4 (2000): 473–83. Link
  • Yarnell, Lisa M., and Kristin D. Neff. “Self-Compassion, Interpersonal Conflict Resolutions, and Well-Being.” Self and Identity 12, no. 2 (March 1, 2013): 146–59. Link
  • Tucker, Corinna Jenkins, Susan M. Mchale, and Ann C. Crouter. “Conflict Resolution: Links with Adolescents’ Family Relationships and Individual Well-Being.” Journal of Family Issues 24, no. 6 (September 1, 2003): 715–36. Link

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How to Write an Essay on Conflict

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In both real life and in fiction, conflict describes an enduring struggle between two opposing forces. Whether you're watching a cartoon or reading a serious literary tome, conflict is a key component of plot. Writing an essay on conflict requires a focus, clarity, and an understanding of the different types of conflict presented in a story.

Identify the Type of Conflict

While most people think of conflict as a fight between two characters, it can be categorized as internal or external or both. Conflict can present itself in four primary ways: externally, as man versus man, man versus society, or man versus nature and internally, as man versus self, as exemplified by the tragic struggle of Shakespeare’s Hamlet trying to avenge his father’s murder.

Find Supporting Evidence

Whether you’re analyzing a piece of literature or a clash between two nations, you’ll first need to identity the two opposing forces that comprise your central argument, and then find evidence to support your claim. For example, if your central conflict is man versus nature – think Sebastian Junger’s “The Perfect Storm” – you’ll want to find specific examples of where the sea rises up against the sailors. As with any analytical essay, analyzing conflicts requires you to look for specific quotes, phrases or parts of dialogue that reinforce your position.

Draft Your Thesis

Once you've figured out your protagonist and antagonist and the type of conflict to address in your essay, narrow your focus and write a concise thesis statement that states the central conflict you plan to address. For example, If you’re analyzing “man versus society” in your essay, such as when Atticus Finch fights against a racist society in “To Kill a Mockingbird,” you could state, "In 'To Kill a Mockingbird,' Harper Lee uses Atticus Finch’s defense of Tom Robinson to both illustrate and combat the rampant racism that has infected his Southern town." Your thesis statement will provide you with a road map for the rest of your paper and will help you decide upon the main points of your paper. Your thesis should be the very last sentence in your introduction.

Start Writing

Once you’ve found your examples and written your thesis, write your first draft. Remember to start your essay with a “hook” – a question, a quote, or a statistic, for example that will introduce the conflict you’ll be analyzing. Start each body paragraph with a topic sentence that states a main point, and then support that point with three or four of your examples from your initial research. Repeat this process for each remaining body paragraph. Within the body of the paper, address whether the conflict was resolved, and how. In your conclusion, summarize your main points and restate -- but don’t repeat verbatim -- your thesis.

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Jennifer Brozak earned her state teaching certificate in Secondary English and Communications from St. Vincent College in Latrobe, Pa., and her bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Pittsburgh. A former high school English teacher, Jennifer enjoys writing articles about parenting and education and has contributed to Reader's Digest, Mamapedia, Shmoop and more.

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Essays About Conflict in Life: Top 5 Examples and Prompts

Conflict is a broad and gripping topic, but most struggle to write about it. See our top essays about conflict in life examples and prompts to start your piece.

Conflict occurs when two people with different opinions, feelings, and behaviours disagree. It’s a common occurrence that we can observe wherever and whenever we are. Although conflicts usually imply negative aspects, they also have benefits such as stronger relationships and better communication.

To aid you in your paper, here are five examples to familiarize you with the subject: 

1. Useful Notes On 4 Major Types Of Conflicts (Motivational Conflict) By Raghavendra Pras

2. encountering conflict by julius gregory, 3. complete guide to understanding conflict and conflict resolution by prasanna, 4. analysis of personal conflict experience by anonymous on gradesfixer, 5. personal conflict resolving skills essay by anonymous on ivypanda, 1. conflict: what is and how to avoid it, 2. conflicts in our everyday lives, 3. review on movies or books about conflicts, 4. actions and conflicts , 5. conflicts at home, 6. conflicts that changed my life, 7. my personal experience in covert conflict, 8. cascading conflicts, 9. how does conflict in life benefit you, 10. the importance of conflict management.

“Conflict… results when two or more motives drive behaviour towards incompatible goals.”

Pras regards conflict as a source of frustration with four types. Experimental psychologists identified them as approach-approach, avoidance-avoidance, approach-avoidance, and multiple approach-avoidance. He discusses each through his essay and uses theoretical analysis with real-life examples to make it easier for the readers to understand.

“The nature of conflict shows that conflict can either push people away or bring them into having a closer, more comfortable relationship.”

The main points of Gregory’s essay are the typical causes and effects of conflicts. He talks about how people should not avoid conflicts in their life and instead solve them to learn and grow. However, he’s also aware that no matter if a dispute is big or small, it can lead to severe consequences when it’s wrongly dealt with. He also cites real-life events to prove his points. At the end of the essay, he acknowledges that one can’t wholly avoid conflict because it’s part of human nature.

“…it is important to remember that regardless of the situation, it is always possible to resolve a conflict in some constructive or meaningful way.”

To help the reader understand conflict and resolutions, Prasanna includes the types, causes, difficulties, and people’s reactions to it. She shows how broad conflict is by detailing each section. From simple misunderstandings to bad faith, the conflict has varying results that ultimately depend on the individuals involved in the situation. Prasanna ends the essay by saying that conflict is a part of life that everyone will have to go through, no matter the relationship they have with others. 

“I also now understand that trying to keep someone’s feelings from getting hurt might not always be the best option during a conflict.”

To analyze how conflict impacts lives, the author shares his personal experience. He refers to an ex-friend, Luke, as someone who most of their circle doesn’t like because of his personality. The author shares their arguments, such as when Luke wasn’t invited to a party and how they tried to protect his feelings by not telling Luke people didn’t want him to be there. Instead, they caved, and Luke was allowed to the gathering. However, Luke realized he wasn’t accepted at the party, and many were uncomfortable around him.

The essay further narrates that it was a mistake not to be honest from the beginning. Ultimately, the writer states that he would immediately tell someone the truth rather than make matters worse.

“To me if life did not have challenges and difficult circumstances we were never going to know the strength that we have in us.”

The essay delves into the writer’s conflicts concerning their personal feelings and professional boundaries. The author narrates how they initially had a good relationship with a senior until they filed for a leave. Naturally, they didn’t expect the coworker to lie and bring the situation to their committee. However, the author handled it instead of showing anger by respecting their relationship with the senior, controlling their emotion, and communicating properly.

10 Helpful Prompts On Essays About Conflict in Life

Below are easy writing prompts to use for your essay:

Define what constitutes a conflict and present cases to make it easier for the readers to imagine. To further engage your audience, give them imaginary situations where they can choose how to react and include the results of these reactions. 

If writing this prompt sounds like a lot of work, make it simple. Write a 5-paragraph essay instead.

There are several types of conflict that a person experiences throughout their life. First, discuss simple conflicts you observe around you. For example, the cashier misunderstands an order, your mom forgets to buy groceries, or you have clashing class schedules. 

Pick a movie or book and summarize its plot. Share your thoughts regarding how the piece tackles the conflicts and if you agree with the characters’ decisions. Try the 1985 movie The Heavenly Kid , directed by Cary Medoway, or Where the Conflict Really Lies: Science, Religion, and Naturalism by philosopher Alvin Plantinga.

In this essay, describe how actions can lead to conflict and how specific actions can make a conflict worse. Make your essay interesting by presenting various characters and letting them react differently to a particular conflict.

For example, Character A responds by being angry and making the situation worse. Meanwhile, Character B immediately solves the discord by respectfully asking others for their reasons. Through your essay, you’ll help your readers realize how actions significantly affect conflicts. You’ll also be able to clearly explain what conflicts are.

Essays about conflict in life: Conflicts at home

Your home is where you first learn how to handle conflicts, making it easier for your readers to relate to you. In your essay, tell a story of when you quarreled with a relative and how you worked it out.  For instance, you may have a petty fight with your sibling because you don’t want to share a toy. Then, share what your parents asked you to do and what you learned from your dispute.

If there are simple conflicts with no serious consequences, there are also severe ones that can impact individuals in the long run. Talk about it through your essay if you’re comfortable sharing a personal experience. For example, if your parents’ conflict ended in divorce, recount what it made you feel and how it affected your life.

Covert conflict occurs when two individuals have differences but do not openly discuss them. Have you experienced living or being with someone who avoids expressing their genuine feelings and emotions towards you or something? Write about it, what happened, and how the both of you resolved it.

Some results of cascading conflict are wars and revolutions. The underlying issues stem from a problem with a simple solution but will affect many aspects of the culture or community. For this prompt, pick a relevant historical happening. For instance, you can talk about King Henry VIII’s demand to divorce his first wife and how it changed the course of England’s royal bloodline and nobles.

People avoid conflict as much as possible because of its harmful effects, such as stress and fights. In this prompt, focus on its positive side. Discuss the pros of engaging in disputes, such as having better communication and developing your listening and people skills.

Explain what conflict management is and expound on its critical uses. Start by relaying a situation and then applying conflict resolution techniques. For example, you can talk about a team with difficulties making a united decision. To solve this conflict, the members should share their ideas and ensure everyone is allowed to speak and be heard.

Here are more essay writing tips to help you with your essay.

a conflict resolved essay

Maria Caballero is a freelance writer who has been writing since high school. She believes that to be a writer doesn't only refer to excellent syntax and semantics but also knowing how to weave words together to communicate to any reader effectively.

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Essay on Resolving Conflicts

Students are often asked to write an essay on Resolving Conflicts in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Resolving Conflicts

Understanding conflicts.

Conflicts are disagreements or fights that happen when people have different ideas or feelings. They can happen between friends, family, or even countries. It’s important to know how to resolve conflicts to keep peace and harmony.

Listening Carefully

The first step in resolving conflicts is to listen carefully. Each person should explain their side of the story without being interrupted. By listening, we can understand the other person’s feelings and point of view.

Expressing Feelings

After listening, it’s important to express your feelings. Use “I” statements, like “I feel upset when…” instead of blaming the other person. This helps avoid more fights.

Finding a Solution

Finally, work together to find a solution. Think of different ways to solve the problem and choose the best one. It’s important to find a solution that is fair to everyone. This way, everyone feels happy at the end.

Practice Patience

Resolving conflicts takes time. Be patient and keep a cool head. Remember, it’s not about winning or losing, but about understanding each other and finding peace.

250 Words Essay on Resolving Conflicts

Conflicts or fights are a part of life. They happen when two or more people have different ideas or beliefs. It can occur at home, school, or even on the playground. It’s important to know how to solve these conflicts in a peaceful way.

Steps to Resolve Conflicts

The first step is to calm down. When we are angry, we often say things we don’t mean. So, take deep breaths and count to ten before you speak.

The second step is to understand the problem. What is the conflict about? Why is it happening? It’s important to know the answers to these questions.

The third step is to listen to each other. Each person should have a chance to speak without being interrupted. This helps everyone feel heard and respected.

Creating Solutions

Once everyone has had a chance to speak, it’s time to think of a solution. This should be something that works for everyone. It may take some time and patience, but it’s worth it in the end.

Learning from Conflicts

Conflicts can be hard, but they can also be a chance to learn and grow. They can teach us how to understand others better and how to solve problems in a peaceful way. So, the next time you find yourself in a conflict, remember these steps and try to resolve it in a peaceful way.

In conclusion, resolving conflicts is an important skill that everyone should learn. It helps us live in peace with others and makes our world a better place.

500 Words Essay on Resolving Conflicts

Understanding conflict.

Conflict is a part of life. It happens when people have different views or opinions about something. For instance, you might want to play football, but your friend wants to play basketball. That’s a conflict. It’s not bad or good; it just is. But, it’s important to know how to solve it.

Why is Conflict Resolution Important?

Think about the football and basketball situation. If you can’t solve the conflict, you might stop playing together. That’s not fun, right? So, learning how to solve conflicts helps us keep our relationships healthy. It also helps us feel better. When we solve conflicts, we feel like we’ve achieved something. We feel good about ourselves.

Now, let’s talk about how to solve conflicts. There are five steps to do this.

Step 1: Calm Down

First, you need to calm down. When we’re upset, we can’t think clearly. So, take deep breaths. If you need to, take a break and come back when you’re calm.

Step 2: Understand the Problem

Next, try to understand the problem. What’s the conflict about? Why are you upset? What does the other person want? Once you understand the problem, you can start thinking about how to solve it.

Step 3: Listen to Each Other

This step is very important. You need to listen to each other. Hear what the other person has to say. Try to understand their point of view. This shows respect and helps you understand the problem better.

Step 4: Find a Solution

Now, it’s time to find a solution. Think about different ways to solve the problem. Maybe you can play football today and basketball tomorrow. Or, maybe you can play a game that you both like. The solution should be fair to both of you.

Step 5: Agree on the Solution

Finally, you need to agree on the solution. This means that both of you are happy with it. If one person isn’t happy, then it’s not a good solution. So, keep talking until you find a solution that works for both of you.

Practice Makes Perfect

Resolving conflicts isn’t easy. It takes practice. But, the more you do it, the better you’ll get at it. And remember, it’s okay to ask for help. If you’re having a hard time solving a conflict, talk to a trusted adult. They can give you advice and help you find a solution.

In conclusion, conflict is a part of life. But, knowing how to solve it can make life a lot easier. So, remember these steps the next time you have a conflict. They can help you keep your relationships healthy and make you feel good about yourself.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

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Conflict Resolution, Essay Example

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Conflict resolution in any work place is a challenge to employees and employers. There are many causes of conflicts that include poor communication which leads to misunderstandings and differing personalities.

According to the Make Talk Work Bookmarks, there are a number of ways that conflicts can be managed and avoided in any work place. For example, in the first concept ‘To Keep an Open Mind’, one is required to listen to other people without interrupting them, to consider their ideas and ask questions in order to understand them better. The ‘try brainstorming’ concepts talks of individuals in an organization listing all ideas in any exercise they are engaged in, avoiding criticizing other people in the same entity, considering all sides(pros and cons) and formulating solutions that can solve the problem at hand. Finally individuals are required to accept personal differences, to acknowledge the feelings of their workmates and to put themselves in the same state as their workmates under the ‘try to understand others’ concept.

As a conflict resolution consultant, I will have to use the concepts presented in the bookmarks to teach the employees conflict management skills. The main objective of the workshop is to create an understanding of each other in order to avoid conflicts in the work place. The objective includes listening to each other’s ideas, eliminating criticism and accepting individual differences. In order to foster these skills, the above mentioned bookmarks will be used in a group within the work environment.

The trainees will have to work in groups that will help them understand each other’s weaknesses. The groups will also help them appreciate the different abilities and individual differences that exist in a work environment. Assignments will be handed out on a weekly basis which requires employees to work in groups and present their findings on the last day of the week. The exercise will run for three weeks. Every week poses a new challenge for employees to tackle. They will be required to research together and come up with a final draft or model of their findings. The findings have to be presented at the end of the week and every member of the group must participate in the presentation. By the end of the three weeks, the employees could have learnt to tolerate each other which reduces criticism that is a source of conflict among them. They would also have learnt to accept the different personalities and abilities that exist in any workplace. They would have understood each other well, which goes along way into improving the way they communicate to each other and will eventually have a positive impact on the productivity levels of the organization.

In order for the employees to fulfill the objectives of the exercise and to learn the intended conflict resolution skills, as the training manager I will have to put them through a number of self driven conflict resolution practices. They will practice on their own the skills imparted through the training exercise. For example, I will have them work on more challenging exercises without my supervision. In order to complete the self driven assignments and to find out whether they met the objectives of the workshop, they will have to work with other people they have not met before within the same work environment. At this stage, as the training manager, I will only observe to see if the employees understood the concepts of the workshop and if they would be able to follow and apply them without any supervision. If they manage to work harmoniously with the new colleagues and manage to accomplish the set tasks within the given time without any misunderstandings or delays related to conflicts, then it will be concluded that the workshop was a success. If they have conflicts and are unable to resolve them and as a result lead to delays in completing the set task, then it will be concluded that the workshop was not a success. They must be able to avoid conflicts, or to resolve any conflict that arises in their midst and still be able to work harmoniously to deliver as required by their employer.

Make Talk Work. Try Brainstorming.

Make Talk Work. Try To Understand Others.

Make Talk Work. To Keep an Open Mind

Masters, M. F., & Albright, R. R. (2002).  The complete guide to conflict resolution in the workplace. New York: AMACOM.

“Emotional Intelligence and Conflict Resolution: Implications for Human Resource Development .”  Advances in Developing Human Resources  . N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Mar. 2013. <http://adh.sagepub.com/content/4/1/62.

“Conflict Resolution in the Culturally Diverse Workplace: Some Data from Hong Kong Employees – Chan – 2003 – Applied Psychology – Wiley Online Library.”  Wiley Online Library . N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Mar. 2013. <http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1464-0597.00143/full>.

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Home — Essay Samples — Sociology — Interpersonal Communication — Conflicts in Relationships

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Conflicts in Relationships

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Abolish the U.N.’s Palestinian Refugee Agency

People walk in front of a cream-colored building with a blue UNRWA sign.

By Bret Stephens

Opinion Columnist

United Nations agencies and officials are no strangers to scandal and infamy.

U.N. peacekeepers caused a cholera epidemic in Haiti and committed horrific sexual abuses in the Democratic Republic of the Congo . The U.N.’s oil-for-food program for Iraq became a multibillion-dollar kickback scheme through which Saddam Hussein all but bribed his way out of international sanctions. In the 1980s, Kurt Waldheim, a former U.N. secretary general, was unmasked as a former Nazi . He was the same secretary general who denounced Israel’s 1976 rescue of Jewish hostages in Entebbe as “ a serious violation ” of Uganda’s national sovereignty.

Now comes the latest scandal of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees, better known as UNRWA.

Last Friday, Israeli officials presented the U.S. government with an intelligence dossier detailing the involvement of 12 UNRWA employees, seven of them schoolteachers, in the massacre of Oct. 7. As reported by The Times’s Ronen Bergman and Patrick Kingsley , the charges range from kidnapping an Israeli woman to storing rocket-propelled grenades to murdering civilians in a kibbutz.

Awful enough — and the U.N. rightly moved swiftly to terminate the employment of nine of those identified by the dossier. But that may be the least of it. “Intelligence estimates shared with the U.S. conclude that around 1,200 of UNRWA’s roughly 12,000 employees in Gaza have links to Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and about half have close relatives who belong to the Islamist militant groups,” The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday .

The figures are worth bearing in mind the next time you weigh the credibility of information about Gaza sourced to the U.N. Also worth bearing in mind is that this has been going on for years. As Bassam Eid of the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group noted over a decade ago , “In order for UNRWA to survive, they accept [Hamas’s] conditions because they want to continue their activities.”

The new revelations were enough for the Biden administration to suspend its funding for the agency — worth nearly $350 million in 2022 — while it investigates the allegations. As of Tuesday, other major funders, including France, Germany and Japan, have followed suit.

That’s a start. But the fundamental problem with the agency isn’t that it appears to be infested with terrorists and their sympathizers, or that their salaries are paid by naïve foreign donors. It’s that UNRWA may be the only agency in the U.N. system whose central purpose is to perpetuate grievance and conflict. It should be abolished.

Think of it this way. The United Nations has two agencies dedicated to the plight of refugees. One, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees , is responsible for the well-being of nearly all the world’s more than 30 million refugees, with a mandate to help them resettle in third countries if they can’t go home.

The other is UNRWA, which theoretically operates under the umbrella of the high commissioner but is really its own organization. No other group except for Palestinians gets its own permanent agency.

Why? In part, because neighboring Arab countries like Lebanon cruelly refused to fully absorb Palestinian refugees, refusing them not only citizenship but also, in many cases, the right to most forms of work. In 1991, Kuwait went further by expelling hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in a matter of days , because the Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat had supported Saddam Hussein during the Persian Gulf war. Think of that the next time Arab governments profess solidarity with the Palestinian people.

As bad as the cruelty is the cynicism. The changing borders and independence movements of the postwar era produced millions of refugees: Germans, Indians, Pakistanis, Palestinians and Jews, including some 800,000 Jews who were kicked out of Arab countries that had been their homes for centuries . Nearly all found new lives in new countries — except for Palestinians. They have been kept as perpetual refugees as a means of both delegitimizing Israel and preserving the irredentist fantasy that someday their descendants will exercise what they believe is their “right of return,” effectively through the elimination of the Jewish state.

It’s upon that alleged right that efforts at a comprehensive Israeli-Palestinian peace deal have foundered . It’s also the right that UNRWA’s very existence keeps alive. Palestinians should be citizens of the countries in which they live — just as some two million Arabs are in Israel. They should not be cudgels in a never-ending struggle, subsidized from one aggrieved generation to the next by international largess.

Defenders of UNRWA insist that without it, Palestinian civilians will suffer even more. But there is no reason other international agencies can’t shoulder the burden of the immediate relief effort for Gazans. In the meantime, the Biden administration and other governments need to ask hard questions of UNRWA’s senior officials, starting with Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini.

To wit: If Lazzarini and his deputies didn’t know that UNRWA in Gaza was employing potentially hundreds of Hamas members or sympathizers, what sort of oversight were they exercising? And if they did know, are they not responsible? In either case — gross negligence or quiet complicity — they need to resign now.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict should not be insoluble. But it can’t be solved so long as millions of Palestinians have been turned into the world’s only permanent refugees. By doing that, UNRWA makes itself an obstacle to peace — reason enough for it to finally go away.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

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Bret Stephens is an Opinion columnist for The Times, writing about foreign policy, domestic politics and cultural issues. Facebook

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You and the Law | Six things not to do if you…

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You and the law | six things not to do if you want to resolve a conflict.

Dennis Beaver (Contributed)

Conflict is part of life. Just ask any divorce attorney, bankruptcy lawyer or lawyer who represents employees in wrongful termination lawsuits, “What is the common denominator that brings clients to your office?” They will tell you that it is more than simply an unresolved conflict, but their clients also do things that stand in the way of a resolution.

Harvard anthropologist and negotiation expert William Ury, author of the bestselling Getting to Yes , gives us a road map of how to approach conflict resolution in his new book, Possible: How We Survive (and Thrive) in an Age of Conflict (coming out on Feb. 20). I discussed these issues with Ury and Dr. Luis Vega, social psychologist and interim dean of the School of Social Sciences and Education at California State University, Bakersfield.

Here’s how not to approach a conflict at home, at work or anywhere people disagree.

1. Fall into the ‘three-A trap’ — attack, avoid or appease.

Ury: The best way to not resolve a conflict is to fall straight into the “three-A trap.” Either go on the attack, thinking, “I’m going to win this,” or do the opposite, which is to avoid. Or appease — just give in. But that doesn’t resolve it either, because we’re not happy, and it probably isn’t going to stay resolved for very long.

2. See the world as having only winners and losers.

Vega: An “I win, you lose” attitude robs others of their humanity and feeds the virus of bigotry and vitriol. Self-focus deprives us of the need we all have for connection and community. Conflict becomes circular — they attack us, we attack them, and we all lose. Marriage counselors see this a great deal where one partner insists on always being right and can’t find their way to compromise. The next step is obvious.

3. React out of fear and anger.

Ury: Don’t give in to your initial emotional reactions of fear and anger and then dig in, refusing to budge and thinking, “It’s them vs us.” You will destroy all trust and almost all possibility of agreement if you: Focus on your problem alone, not their needs, just talk at people, or don’t talk with them at all, cut the phone line with your neighbor as a way to deal with your differences, reduce it all to a zero-sum proposition where one side wins, and the other side loses. just keep pushing them to do what you want and treating them with disrespect and make it harder for them in every possible way.

Also, discouraging help from anybody — “stay out of it; it’s none of your business” — won’t resolve anything.

And, if you’re a third party watching this going on, you can ensure nothing works out by doing nothing. Or worse, taking sides and escalating the situation. Or getting discouraged and giving up very quickly.

4. Overly rely on intuition and experience — fail to listen or pause.

Vega: You may know yourself, the other party, even relevant stakeholders, but vigilance of your own emotions is critical. And it is tricky because of tribal impulses imbued and influenced by primal emotions processed in the lower brain. This often funnels myriad factors into negative feelings that add fuel to conflict — anger, fear, distrust, contempt and jealousy. This is why, before reaching a conclusion or speaking out, we need to pause and listen, thereby calming our reactive emotions.

5. Fail to ask, “How can I help?”

Ury: Asking an open-ended question like, “Can you help me understand what happened here? How can I help?” is an essential tool. Suddenly, in that moment, you are putting yourself on the same side as them, searching for a way to resolve the issue instead of coming in as an adversary. This simple question often changes everything.

Vega: Asking, “How can I help?” gets a reflexive, or programmed, response that creates familiarity with a task — or muscle memory. It hardly matters what the issues are: When someone says, “I need your help,” the reflexive answer is, “Sure, how can I help?” This suspends biases — for a moment — creating a focus on common interests and an opening for dialogue. It is a truly powerful tool.

6. React to sarcasm with sarcasm.

Ury: Either in a meeting or in written form, if you meet sarcasm with sarcasm, attack with counterattack, distrust with distrust, you end up getting into a fight that no one comes out winning. When putting things in writing, ask yourself, “Who else will see my sarcastic reply?” and “Can this harm my credibility?” So, just ignore the insults and deal with the issues — you will come out of this looking far better.

The takeaway: Possible makes readers a fly on the wall of Ury’s incredibly accomplished life. Conflict resolution, as readers see, so often comes down to one person who radiates that “we can resolve this together” attitude. It is a terrific read, and he wants the reader to become that person.

Dennis Beaver practices law in Bakersfield and welcomes comments and questions from readers, which may be faxed to 661-323-7993, or e-mailed to [email protected]. And be sure to visit www.dennisbeaver.com.

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Is there a way to achieve peace in Israel and Palestine? I believe there is

Daniel Levin

If the current tragedy offers any hope, it’s a growing clarity on how Palestinians and Israelis could forge a brighter future for their children

I n 1948, my father was severely wounded in the final days of the Arab-Israeli war, referred to by Israelis as the War of Independence , and by Palestinians as the Nakba , or “catastrophe” in Arabic. The left side of his body was blown away, including his left arm. When I was a little boy, he often told me about his friends who had died in battle, and said that he dreamed of the day when there would be peace between Israelis and Palestinians, so that my generation would no longer have to fight these wars. In 1990, during the first intifada, I served in an Israel Defense Forces combat unit in Gaza. And here we are, all these decades later. So much for my father’s dreams.

We are being inundated with commentary about the culpability for this conflict, with biased dissections of history, culture and religion, and with predictable posturing through the use of selective sources of information and disinformation. Despite maximalist demands from the Israeli and Palestinian camps, defended by religious endorsement and amplified at a time of war, neither side is going to self-deport and create another homeland elsewhere. What is missing, tragically, is a serious discussion of a vision and solution that might actually be acceptable to all sides. Before everyone dismisses this idea as naive, let’s take a moment to revisit the prevailing choices.

1 The status quo. For decades, Israel believed that it had the military might and intelligence to manage the situation by systematically undermining and weakening the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank in order to drown any prospects of an independent Palestinian state. It also maintained a tacit understanding with Hamas, interrupted by periodic wars and skirmishes, which Israelis referred to as “mowing the grass” in Gaza. This fallacy was finally shattered on 7 October.

2 A one-state solution. The idea of one binational, secular state for Israelis and Palestinians, with Jerusalem as its capital, is as appealing as it is utopian. Perhaps it might have been at least theoretically possible, had Israel been founded as a state for the Jews, rather than the Jewish state. But there has been too much hate and too much trauma to contemplate anything resembling a joint homeland for both nations.

3 A two-state solution. For decades, the idea of each nation living side by side in its own state was considered the gold standard of Middle Eastern diplomacy. Never mind that it was never really tried – first because no one could agree on the border, and second because neither side wanted to give up its aspirations to the whole land via an irrevocable commitment to peace and coexistence. Never mind that neither side was willing to compromise on Jerusalem, or that each side blamed the other for the breakdowns in the periodic negotiations, and treated those willing to make concessions as traitors. Yitzhak Rabin, the former prime minister of Israel, was murdered in 1995 by a Jewish rightwing zealot for having committed an unforgivable act of treason by signing the Oslo accords and shaking the hand of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat at the White House in 1993.

The only instance in which some form of a two-state solution was in fact implemented, with a hard separation between Israelis and Palestinians, was in Gaza following the 2005 dismantling of Jewish settlements and Israeli disengagement. Now imagine the same hard separation between Israel and the West Bank, with a collapsed economy, mass unemployment and poverty.

But if all these scenarios lead to the same nightmare, is there anything that could work, anything that could end the decades of killing and despair? Turns out, there is.

That something is a confederation of two independent states. This would combine the necessary elements of a two-state solution – the separation of Palestinians and Israelis – with the aspirational ingredients of a one-state solution: freedom of employment, movement and residency in the entire territory, subject to strict security stipulations, and a coordinated fiscal and economic policy. A confederation would acknowledge each nation’s deep connection to the whole land, but also make it clear that neither one could own it all. Citizens of each nation would only vote in their own state, but they could visit, reside, work or study in the other.

It would take time, and many interim steps, to make this future a reality. Right now, Israelis are too traumatised by the 7 October massacre to consider any form of coexistence. Palestinians are too traumatised by decades of occupation and the butchery in Gaza to feel anything other than hatred and revenge. But if the tragedy currently unfolding contains any reason for hope, it lies in the growing clarity of what it would take for Palestinians and Israelis to have a future, next to each other and together.

Initially, there would need to be a hard separation, with a border demarcating each side’s territory, possibly with a demilitarised zone during a transition period. Israeli settlers currently living illegally in the occupied Palestinian territories would be given a choice to move back to Israel with generous housing and relocation packages, or become residents of Palestine and subject to Palestinian law. While each party would be responsible for security in its own territory and on its side of the border, there would be increased security and intelligence cooperation between the two nations – something that has been quietly working surprisingly well for years between the Israeli and Palestinian security services in the occupied territories.

However, unlike with Gaza, this hard separation would be implemented together with measures to support the Palestinian population – not with cash-stuffed suitcases that only enrich corrupt leaders, but with education, employment, investment and trade. Arab states would have a vital role to play in this process. Furthermore, the separation would not last for ever; it would need a sunset target when the conditions for a more integrated form of coexistence between Palestinians and Israelis were ripe.

When those in power excel at ruling but fail at governing, their incentives are hardwired to escalate and perpetuate the conflict, rather than end it. Our support needs to go to those who understand the necessity of a livable, dignified and peaceful coexistence for future generations. We should support organisations that back the confederation vision, such as A Land for All , with Palestinians and Israelis tirelessly working together, even as they are being attacked, ridiculed and ostracised by their own communities.

Finally, countries with power and influence in the region – the US, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and European nations – should abandon their biased and self-interested support and instead promote a solution that could, in fact, be acceptable to Israelis and Palestinians. Stop being part of the problem, and start being part of the solution. No one will have everything. But at least no one will have nothing.

Daniel Levin is a member of the board of the Liechtenstein Foundation for State Governance, which is engaged in track 3 mediation initiatives in the Middle East, including hostage negotiations

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here .

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Sexual violence is an ancient and often unseen war crime. Is it inevitable?

Jill Langlois

Illustration for story on conflict-related sexual violence.

The use of sexual violence as a weapon in conflict is as old as the Bible – Deuteronomy 21 states that a victor in battle who "hast a desire" for a "beautiful woman" among the captives can "bring her home to thine house."

And it is as timely as the current conflicts raging around the globe in 2024: In the Middle East, in Ukraine, in Ethiopia, in Haiti and in many other countries.

Yet despite its long history as part of conflicts, sexual violence is often not reported because of the trauma and shame it brings to survivors, their families and their wider communities.

There has also been reticence among various authorities to speak out. Only in modern times, in the 1990s when wars broke out in Rwanda and Yugoslavia, did the United Nations begin to recognize sexual violence as more than just an unfortunate byproduct of conflict but a category of war crime, leading to more prosecutions in international criminal tribunals for each war .

The specific term "conflict-related sexual violence," or CRSV, was first introduced in 2000 when the United Nations Security Council issued a resolution that launched the Women, Peace and Security Agenda.

The U.N. defined the term as "rape, sexual slavery, forced prostitution, forced pregnancy, forced abortion, enforced sterilization, forced marriage and any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity perpetrated against women, men, girls or boys that is directly or indirectly linked to a conflict."

Last week, a U.N. team arrived in Israel to investigate reports of widespread sexual violence during the Hamas led assault on southern Israel on Oct. 7, attacking people in the streets, in their homes and at an outdoor music festival. Some critics have cast doubt on these allegations.

NPR spoke about the issue of conflict-related sexual violence with Cochav Elkayam-Levy, an Israeli human rights lawyer who established and heads the Commission on Oct. 7 Crimes by Hamas Against Women and Children; Dr. Ranit Mishori, senior medical adviser for Physicians for Human Rights, and Kathleen Kuehnast, director of women, peace and security at the United States Institute of Peace. Here are the key points they made in their interviews.

Conflict-related sexual violence is widespread and is used as a tactic of war to assert dominance and power.

CRSV is used to terrorize, intimidate and humiliate certain groups or populations.

"We've seen it as a means of displacing populations because of the fear and terror it instills," says Mishori. "We see it used as a way of stigmatizing certain populations in terms of the cultural acceptance of being survivors."

As a tactic meant to control and dominate, it's far from new.

"Sexual violence in conflict zones is very common," says Mishori. "When a new conflict arises, we know we'd better get our toolkit together because we're going to be seeing sexual and gender-based violence."

But that doesn't mean it's inevitable.

Those who study CRSV believe that leadership can either encourage it ... or stop it. Kuehnast points to the work of Elisabeth Jean Wood, a political scientist at Yale University and expert on CRSV. Her research has found that if the leader of a group condemns sexual violence and orders their armed actors not to carry out such crimes, they don't. It didn't matter whether it was an official government group or an outside force, like Sri Lanka 's secessionist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. But if leaders approve of the use of sexual violence as a weapon or even turn a blind eye to what their troops are doing, that's when it becomes a widespread tactic of war.

"This is an intentional act," says Kuehnast. "It's not accidental. You might shoot somebody by mistake if a gun goes off, but this is not an accidental act. It takes some sort of premeditation."

Women and girls continue to be the majority of CRSV survivors and victims, but men, boys and LGBTQIA+ people are targeted too.

Women and girls are the survivors and victims of CRSV we most often hear about, but others, including men, boys and members of the LGBTQIA+ community, are also targeted.

Men in particular rarely speak out about the crimes committed against them, generally due to the societal stigmas these types of crimes carry for them.

"The level of incidents in wars against men is just beginning to come forward," says Kuehnast. "In many ways, to be a male victim of sexual violence is even more of a taboo than to be a female victim.

"Whether it be in Serbia, Croatia, Uganda, Chad or the DRC, many of the victims are also humiliated both during and after the violence. It's not that women don't have this same humiliation, but men's places in society can be dramatically diminished [following sexual violence]. These are often more traditional societies where gendered norms are defined by a binary — what males can do and what females can do. And so to be a victim of sexual violence, you're considered dead, basically. These are individuals who often keep what happened to them private, even with physical repercussions from the crime."

CRSV is underreported and many survivors don't realize what happened to them is a crime, making it unlikely for them to seek help.

Much of conflict-relate sexual violence is underreported because of the shame, humiliation and trauma that follows. But some CRSV, like forced nudity and forced witnessing, often goes unreported because the people it happened to don't realize it's a crime.

"It can be just as traumatizing to see your daughter, your sister or your parents being raped in front of you," says Mishori. "Or you're forced to strip naked in front of soldiers or in the city square. It's not rape, but it is sexual violence. People often carry this trauma without knowing it's an international crime and minimize what happened to them."

Bringing up this subject it in the media can help spread awareness about what is considered CRSV, the experts say — and in turn provide survivors with the information they need to understand a crime was committed against them.

"[Talking about conflict-related sexual violence] often makes some lightbulbs go off," says Mishori. "'Oh, that's what happened to me. That's CRSV.'

"It can lead people to seek care, to acknowledge what they thought only they had suffered and was nothing because nobody talks about it as a crime. In many cases it can help people with legal processes or seeking justice and accountability. In some situations it can also help people seeking reparations. Discussing it in general and also very specifically can be very reassuring to survivors. It gives a name to what happened to them."

Open discussions can also create pathways for collective healing.

"It's not something you can ignore because, as we see even today, Korea and Japan have a very icy relationship as a result of the "comfort women" the Japanese took during World War II," says Kuehnast. "I think we realize now that these forms of criminal activity last a generation, maybe two generations, but the memory is not forgotten." [These are women in Korea, the Philippines and other places who were forced to engage in sexual relations with soldiers from the invading army.]

But legal processes do not always provide closure. In 2016, the International Criminal Council issued its first conviction for sexual violence, sentencing former Congolese Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo to 18 years in prison for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including rape, during the war his country waged in the Central African Republic. He was acquitted two years later when the ICC ruled that he could not be held responsible for crimes committed by others, including his own fighters.

What happened in Israel happens in other conflict zones

While international organizations are still collecting evidence of the crimes committed in Israel on Oct. 7, what's already been unearthed shows similar patterns to CRSV in other conflict zones.

"What we see in one conflict we see in other conflicts," says Mishori. "The horrifying nature of these acts are not unique to one place or another. We see them in lots of places and lots of conflicts."

The collection of that evidence, Kuehnast notes, is another shared characteristic of CRSV across conflicts.

"A number of the victims' bodies [in Israel] were burned and disintegrated, so the evidence is difficult to collect," says Kuehnast, who cites the ongoing conflict in Tigray, Ethiopia, which started in 2020, as having similar difficulties with lost evidence. "That doesn't diminish what has been assumed to have happened on Oct. 7. It just takes time."

Involving women in conflict resolution and peace building is crucial for success.

For conflict resolution and peace building to be successful, survivors need to be included in the process.

Elkayam-Levy, who drafted the national report on Gender Mainstreaming During Emergencies for Israel's National Security Council following the COVID-19 pandemic, points out that women tend to lack representation in national conflicts. In turn, their needs are not met and there is a lack of understanding of the impacts of crises on women.

When she first heard about the attack on Oct. 7, she knew she wanted to make sure women were part of the response team.

"[I wanted] to make sure that, in the first weeks, women had a role in the emergency teams that were being formed," she says. "I sent a list of more than 50 prominent women in national security to the national security council to make sure women would be, this time, involved in solving this crisis."

For some countries this method has already started to work.

"[In Colombia], they have built women into the peace process," says Kuehnast. "And since the majority of the victims of CRSV are women, it's incredibly important to make sure that women are part of any kind of activities to settle a violent conflict.

"Colombia has been very dedicated. Women are from diverse regions. They have come together to really help bring up a next generation focused on peace versus violence as a way of solving problems. It's not perfect — no peace is perfect — but it is progressive and it is intentional, and that is important. Intentional peace building must be inclusive of survivors of this form of violence."

Jill Langlois is an independent journalist based in São Paulo, Brazil. She has been freelancing from the largest city in the western hemisphere since 2010, writing and reporting for publications like National Geographic, The New York Times, The Guardian and Time. Her work focuses on human rights, the environment and the impact of socioeconomic issues on people's lives.

  • conflict-related sexual violence
  • sexual violence
  • Middle East

How to Resolve Conflict in Workplace Essay

Introduction.

The inevitability of conflicts within an organization suggests that organizational leaders need to embrace them rather than avoid them. Thus, although there are many ways of dealing with conflicts at workplaces, such as collaboration, compromise, competing, avoidance, and accommodation, any strategy that emphasizes leaving conflicts unaddressed is inappropriate.

Conflicts often produce a negative implication on the performance of an organization (Bagshaw, 2004). Since the principal goal of organizational leadership is to look for mechanisms of resolving challenges, which may hinder the performance of an organization so that it delivers value to its owners (shareholders), conflict avoidance constitutes a risky approach to conflict management.

Organizations comprise people from different cultural, professional, racial, age, and other demographic backgrounds. Where people are segregated along these diversity differences, cultural conflicts arise. This suggests that managers and leaders within organizations encounter immense challenges in seeking effective strategies for recruitment, training, developing, and retaining the most talented personnel in an organization characterized by immense workforce diversities.

These challenges become even more pronounced as many organizations endeavor to engage in global businesses as a measure of increasing their competitive advantage. The more diverse the workforce is, the higher the risks of workplace conflicts associated with diversity differences. However, organizations gain from higher workforce innovation and creativity potential upon adopting effective strategies for handling this diversity.

Theoretical Background

Defining workplace conflicts.

In a healthy organization, conflicts are predictable. Workplaces bring people from different cultural backgrounds. Such people have different opinions and views towards various issues encountered in an organization’s daily activities. Such different opinions and views create points of parity and disparity. The disparities lead to conflicts. Bacal (1998, p. 8) defines workplace conflict as “issues that generate frequent expressions of emotions, frustration, and anger.”

This suggests that whenever two or more people work together, they disagree on strategies for accomplishing some desired outcomes. Such disagreements can be either constructive or destructive in an organization. In fact, Bacal (1998) refers to destructive conflicts as ugly clashes, while constructive disagreements are good organizational conflicts. While it is impossible to eliminate workplace conflicts, destructive conflicts are highly undesirable. They should be kept at minimal levels.

Organizations, individuals, and even work teams require constructive conflict for them to grow. Engaging in opposing discussions, especially on mechanisms of accomplishing certain outcomes, creates opportunities for “thinking and doing things that can be useful to everyone” (Bacal, 1998, p.8).

In this sense, the outcomes of decisions made following engagements in constructive conflicts are in favor and accommodative of all key stakeholders’ interests within an organization. Destructive conflicts make people in an organization uncomfortable.

In some situations, escalated conflicts have the implication of compelling people to quit (Bagshaw, 2004). Organizations that experience destructive conflicts also encounter challenges of “…lower morale, lower productivity, higher turnover, and more employee burnout” (Bacal, 1998, p.8). This suggests that organizational leaders and managers should focus on eliminating destructive conflicts while encouraging constructive conflicts in an effort to build higher-performing organizations.

Causes of Conflicts in the Workplace

Workplace conflicts are broadly subdivided into caustic and productive conflicts. Destructive conflicts often involve personality clashes. This occurs when people fail to get along with one another. This type of conflict in the workplace is often fuelled by emotion and perceptions about somebody else’s motives and character. For example, a team leader jumps on someone for being late because they view the team member as lazy and disrespectful.

The team member sees the team leader as out to ‘get’ them because they are not one of the ‘favored children.’ The second type occurs when people view decisions and ideas articulated to a given job or task differently. Conflicting ideas become productive in the event that parties in conflicts have the willingness to engage in brainstorming sessions (Bacal, 1998). In such situations, compromised ideas are, at times, better in enhancing the success of an organization compared to an original idea.

As a cause of workplace conflicts, as hinted above, personality clashes initiate disputes regarding certain business practices, which then skyrocket into mutual loathing (Collinsin & Rourke, 2005). In some cases, two people may not like each other right from the beginning due to diversity differences and other personality differences.

This claim implies that workplace diversity may be a big contributor to conflicts within an organization. Personality clashes also contribute to workplace disputes, which may escalate to become conflicts since people possess different beliefs, values, and approaches to handling problems. When people fail or have difficulties in appreciating and embracing other people’s work methods, clashes emerge.

Some conflicts within an organization can emerge due to a lack of trust in the HR to handle differences between two disagreeing employees. The situation makes the parties engaged in conflict expand their differences when permitted to take matters into their hands. Therefore, HRM deserves to evaluate the circumstances that may cause disregard the consideration of the roles of HRM in conflict resolution by employees.

Gramberg (2005, p. 94) supports this position by further claiming, “interpersonal skills are important to managers with regard to building workplace trust and cooperation from staff members who are collectively accountable for furthering business goals.” In fact, one of the roles of management in an organization is to ensure a peaceful environment characterized by workforce collaboration in the effort to meet an organization’s goals, mission, and aims.

Failure of employee collaboration may give rise to workplace conflicts. Other causes of conflicts within workplaces include poor or inadequate communication, which gives rise to misunderstandings, and limited organizational resources, which lead to competition and conflicting needs. Poor performance in tasks that are allocated to employees may also lead to conflicts when some tasks with higher effort input demands or when poorly completed tasks are reallocated to other employees.

Globalized organizations embrace diversity in their workforce. This strategic initiative is impaired by the belief that employing people from diverse backgrounds gives an organization a competitive advantage. For instance, an organization develops the capacity to tap and benefit from a wide range of talents and knowledge bases (Johnson & Keddy, 2010). This means that an organization is able to innovate and create a wide range of products, which translates into increased profitability while traded in the global markets.

Focusing on diversity as a strategic initiative for an organization delivers gains in terms of enhanced growth through an increment of product range due to innovation that is brought by people possessing different capabilities working together. However, it is crucial to note that diversity also brings together people from different cultural backgrounds (Gramberg, 2005).

The above assertion implies that diversity has the impact of creating cultural conflicts in workplaces. Institute of Leadership and Management (2007) confirms how the HRM is important in resolving such conflicts since it helps to create a common organizational culture by helping employees understand that different people have different abilities and beliefs and that these differences should not be permitted to influence the way people relate with one another.

Alternatively, diversity differences need to avoid personality clashes within workplaces. The HR, being charged with ensuring that employees work in harmony without conflicting situations that lead to personality clashes, should deploy diversity to enhance success by treating any conflict arising from cultural differences and frictions as an act of indiscipline and negligence to comply with an established organizational culture.

While this role may be well established in the outline of the mandates of the HRM in an organization, communication may hinder the success of the initiatives deployed by HR to curb personality conflicts.

Studies by Bacal (1998) and Lee (2008) identify communication as a major cause of workplace conflicts. Leaders for dynamic organizations appreciate the importance of effective communication, particularly while working in an environment of consistent change.

Communication has the ability to deliver tangible products as opposed to being a soft component of leadership roles. Improving the satisfaction of consumers, enhancing the quality of service delivery and product quality, and enhancing retention together with the satisfaction of employees depend on effective communication (Lee, 2008). These aspects also constitute the ingredients of workplace conflicts.

In an organization that employs people from diverse backgrounds, communication is the tool deployed to harness individual differences of employees to align them to a common organizational culture guided by the aims, missions, goals, and objectives of the organization (Johnson & Keddy 2010). This suggests that communication is also important in the effective resolution of employee conflicts. Conflicts influence employee productivity. Hence, the performance of an organization is also affected negatively.

Poor communication often results in resistance to change, especially where the persons working in an organization consider the changes being implemented as threats to their jobs and personal excellence.

For instance, while personnel at the headquarters of an organization may be fighting for standardization of products produced by an organization to ease supply chain and logistics challenges, workers at departmental levels of various products may be opposed to such an endeavor. This disparity creates destructive workplace conflicts between an organization and employees at different hierarchical levels.

Inadequate communication at the intra-organizational levels may result in different perceptions of ideas and strategies that will enhance organizational success in the market (Bacal, 1998). This claim implies that conflicts in ideology minimize the opportunities for channeling organizational energy to the implementation of ideas and strategies that will enhance the increment of productivity of an organization.

Communicating both adequately and effectively is crucial for the elimination of workplace conflicts. Institute of Leadership and Management (2007) confirms that the availability of adequate and unambiguous information helps employees to collectively support effectively while doing what is within their capacity to ensure that an organization succeeds in the direction set by leaders and managers.

In this sense, the goal of an effective communication program within an organization is to foster a change in employees’ behaviors and perceptions toward other employees, which may trigger personality clashes.

Effecting the desired change in an organization through communication takes different forms. It may involve the harmonization of people’s attitudes or alteration of work processes in an effort to support the organization’s success by eliminating the clash of ideas in the manner of executing various job elements, which may be destructive.

Effective communication entails communicating strategies for success through translating the essential business objectives and goals into terms that employees can understand easily (Johnson & Keddy, 2010).

In response to such communication, employees become engaged and aligned in readiness to work collectively toward driving organizational success. In fact, when communication fails, misunderstanding arises, resulting in the failure of employees to execute tasks as desired by managers and leaders. This translates into workplace conflicts between managers, supervisors, and leaders with employees.

Impacts of Workplace Conflict

The human resource arm of an organization has an immense responsibility to ensure that top talent within an organization is retained. HRM is the core competency of an organization whose objective is to handle issues related to employees.

Such issues include enhancing motivation, enhancing job satisfaction, laying remuneration structures, giving advice on promotions, and aiding an organization to acquire top talent through selection and recruitment. Addressing issues that result in poor performance of employees, such as poor job satisfaction, calls for the HRM to establish correlations for the challenges. Lee (2008) identifies ugly workplace conflicts as one of the correlates of poor job satisfaction.

As a core competency for an organization, HRM engages in tasks such as training and development and managing conflicts within organizations through conflict resolution. Conflicts that HRM enhances their management are between an organization and employees or between employees and other employees. These conflicts produce both positive and negative impacts on an organization.

Conflicts may have the impact of creating opportunities for organizational growth. Bacal (1998) supports this impact by adding that a good organizational conflict entails providing the means for learning and setting mechanisms for fostering employee cooperation.

Collins and Rourke (2005) maintain that conflicts may create an opportunity for employees to learn strategies for effectively handling similar conflicts in the future.

While workplace conflicts may emanate from poor communication, conflicts can provide a means through which people become aware and/or understand the various issues that may translate into future conflicts.

Through this understanding, people are able to develop honesty and transparent organizational communication channels (Lee, 2008). Different ideas and angles of view on a given issue that may be influencing an organization have the impact of creating well-brainstormed ideas, which aid an organization in achieving better performance levels.

Organizational performance is a function of many variables. Some of these variables are workforce morale, employee turnover rates, productivity, and employee burnout. Bacal (1998) confirms that these variables correlate directly with workplace conflicts.

As revealed before, one of the common causes of workplace conflicts is workforce diversity, especially in terms of professional capabilities and cultural differences. This assertion implies that effective management of workforce diversity can improve workforce productivity, enhance workforce engagement, and foster the reduction of staff absenteeism and workforce turnover.

HRM plays a central role in handling all issues negatively influencing employees’ productivity in the workplace. In case of ugly conflicts, diversity implies leading to conflicts, which impair employees’ productivity by lowering their work morale. However, an organization will benefit if good organizational conflicts arise from diversity differences.

Google provides an important benchmark on how positive conflicts of workforce diversity can enhance the performance of an organization. Google Company gains from the varied viewpoints of its diverse workforce in effect that such a workforce provides increased problem-solving capacities and enhanced creativity levels.

In this context, it is inferable that proper management of good organizational conflicts involving exchange and disagreement on various ideas akin to diversity differences in talent and creativity levels has positive impacts. For instance, the creativity and innovativeness of a diverse workforce have made Google gain via establishing a central position in the competitive market.

The goal of managing workforce conflicts is to ensure that conflicts do not negatively impact organizations’ success. Labor turnover constitutes one of the negative impacts of workplace conflicts. In many organizations, labor turnover is deployed as a measure of performance. It measures the decisions of the worker to remain committed to the work of an organization (Bacal, 1998). Employee turnover is divided into two main types: voluntary and involuntary turnover.

Voluntary turnover occurs when employees decide to quit employment out of their own will to engage in other activities, such as self-employment, but not because the job was dissatisfying. In the case of involuntary turnover, people are compelled by circumstances to quit their employment. Such circumstances include poor pay, perception of exploitation, conflicts with other employees, and work-personal life conflicts, among other reasons.

Labor turnover is controllable or unavoidable in some situations. For instance, where workplace conflicts cause labor turnover, proper management of such conflicts can control and avoid them. Where this does not happen, the impacts of labor turnover due to destructive workplace conflicts have serious consequences on the performance of an organization both in the short and long term.

McClure (2004) contends that high turnover in organizations leads to increased costs of recruitment together with training of new employees to fill the gap left by the outgoing employees. Turnover is one of the issues that organizations seeking to exploit cost competitiveness as a strategy of success should address proactively. Addressing it proactively calls for organizations to deal with its causation, such as workplace conflicts.

The best approach to the management of organizational conflicts encompasses developing strategies for their prevention (Wisinski, 2003). However, the occurrence of conflicts indicates potential problems that negatively impact employees’ productivity, such as low motivation.

They also create opportunities for establishing good relationships among work teams and individuals when arbitration, mediation, and reconciliation efforts succeed. Considering that good relationship among employees is the foundation for higher work team productivity, mild destructive workplace conflicts in this sense can help build better-performing work teams.

Handling Conflicts in the Workplace

In practice, employees are not able to handle misunderstandings with their peers in an effective way before such misunderstandings have translated to personality clashes. The realization of this argument calls for the management to step in to look for mechanisms for handling conflicts (Myatt, 2012; Cloke & Goldsmith, 2005).

One such mechanism is adopting disciplinary measures for employees engaging in unproductive conflicts. However, intra-communication and inter-communication strategies are vital before disciplinary action is adopted.

This move calls for HR managers to possess good interpersonal and intrapersonal communication skills. “These skills are deployed to help harness employees’ personal and social skills that are necessary for conflict resolution” (Masters & Albright, 2002, p.117).

Indeed, interpersonal communication comprises an essential skill in conflict management within an organization in the effort to diffuse various stressful environments together with hostile situations, which may create fertile grounds for the development of conflicts (Myatt, 2012, para.8).

In organizational settings, the emergence of conflicts is hard to prevent. According to Gramberg (2005), the main challenge is how to resolve workplace conflicts. To reduce incidences of defiant behaviors, effective management of employees entails effectively communicating the rules and procedures of punishing employees in case of breach of the established rules and regulations that define the codes of ethics and organizational culture.

Since any grievances and disciplinary actions within an organization begin with clear and precise communication of the implications of an employee’s acts of misconduct, interpersonal and intrapersonal communication skills are an important requirement for a manager who endeavors to prepare, conduct, and conclude grievance and disciplinary cases effectively.

Scholars have developed many models to describe various mechanisms of resolving conflicts within an organization. Thomas-Kilmann proposed one such model. According to his model, conflicts can be handled using five main styles: accommodating, shunning, working together, rivalry, and compromising.

Accommodation involves the decision by an organization to cooperate with parties in conflict to the highest possible degree. Often, one party works against its desired goals and/or outcomes. The strategy works well when one party in conflict has a better solution to a given problem (Masters & Albright, 2002). It helps in building strong ties between two or more parties in conflict.

Alternatively, one may choose to ignore the need to resolve a given conflict. This approach entails the resolution of conflicts by avoiding them. This style works well when the effective solution is costly, when one perceives that he or she has minimal probabilities for winning, or when an issue in conflict is trivial. However, avoiding is not an effective strategy in the long term (Bagshaw, 2004: Bacal, 1998).

The collaboration includes partnering to follow a goal that another party pursues. During the collaboration, an effort is made to accommodate all people’s ideas for synthesis to develop a single superior idea for resolving a conflict.

Such an idea also needs to consider all points of agreement and disagreement between the collaborating parties (Bagshaw, 2004). This way, it becomes possible to break away from the win-lose strategy to explore the win-win strategy. This approach requires an incredibly high capacity to trust one another in the development of a superior idea for the resolution of a conflict.

The approach is opposed to the competing technique in which the focus is on the win-lose approach to conflict resolution (Gramberg, 2005). Competing approaches work well in times of dire need to make quick decisions. In the case of compromising, parties in conflict focus on a lose-lose strategy. The approach is best suited whenever parties in conflict pursue goals and objectives that cannot converge.

Lee (2008) asserts that managers should engage in communication with employees and other organizational stakeholders for a number of reasons. One of the reasons is attributed to the expensiveness of ineffective communication in an organization. In modern workplaces, communication in management is important since workplace environments continue to be sophisticated.

They also involve complex interaction processes among all individual units that make the whole organization. Consequently, collaboration capability enables an organization to gain from a diverse creative workforce that requires ardent and unambiguous communication (Lee, 2008). This way, it becomes possible to handle workplace conflicts that are attributed to poor and inadequate communication.

Upon establishing the issues that attract conflicts between various employees and/or an organization, the focus shifts to establishing mechanisms of healing the wounds caused by a conflict.

In this process, Gramberg (2005) identifies reconciliation, arbitration, and mediation as important techniques for handling workplace conflicts. Reconciliation involves the admission of wrongdoing followed by forgiveness. Mediation involves bringing two parties in conflict together through a third party by revisiting the series of events or disputes that led to the conflict.

This step is then followed by suggesting codes of behavior or reactions that should have prevented the conflict. In each case, the parties in conflict identify their own mistakes and put effort into ensuring they would not repeat the same mistakes in future workplace interaction processes (Gramberg, 2005). Arbitration through a third non-partisan party, including a court, becomes important where conflicts have translated to personal injuries and/or paying off damages is necessary.

Nature and Solutions of Workplace Conflicts

From the discussions in the literature review section, workplace conflicts have both negative and positive impacts. Even ugly conflicts may also have some aspects of positive impacts if managed effectively. Managing workplace conflicts requires the deployment of various techniques and approaches. From the Thomas-Kilmann model for conflict management, the techniques involve avoiding, challenging, teamwork, negotiation, and accommodation.

In the context of the Gramberg (2005), arbitration, reconciliation, and mediation can suffice as solutions to workplace conflicts. The appropriateness of each of these solutions depends on the cause of conflicts encountered by an organization and the desired outcomes. For instance, organizations seeking to have a motivated workforce in a bid to enhance their productivity in the long term will seek solutions that have long-term outcomes in the resolution of employee conflicts.

Based on the literature review, one of the causes of conflicts in the workplace is the allocation of tasks that are impartially done by poorly performing employees to higher performing employees after they (higher performing employees) have completed their allocated work. A possible solution to this challenge encompasses the deployment of performance-based pay systems.

Performance-based reimbursement is a system of payment in which people are rewarded or paid equivalently for their amount of work or output. A good example of this payment mechanism is the payment of salespeople on commission, depending on the number of sales made. Another potential cause of conflicts in an organization is personality clashes. A possible solution involves employing people with diverse personality traits.

When a conflict occurs, accepting it as the status quo followed by its avoidance may be a possible response to workplace conflicts with the anticipation that the conflict will fade (Collinsin & Rourke, 2005). Alternatively, parties in conflicts can work collaboratively to establish a common ground of mutual benefit. This approach can sometimes fail to work, with parties resorting to compromising, accommodation, or competing.

Competing calls for parties to engage in a dialogue such that the best party emerges the winner. The losing party follows the directive issued by the winner. This alternative opposes the compromising option, which advocates for parties in conflict to consider acquiring little gains and/or incur some losses in the effort to establish a middle ground. People wishing to embrace accommodation as an alternative to the resolution of conflicts surrender their demands and needs in the quest to please another party (Gramberg, 2005).

In these five alternatives, parties in conflict may engage in dialogue voluntarily without mediation from a third non-partisan party. Bringing parties in conflict into an agreement may also call for arbitration. In situations where one party admits wrongdoing, reconciliation becomes an important alternative to the solution of workplace conflicts.

Diversity constitutes a major cause of conflicts within an organization. It refers to the myriads of differences existing among people working in an organization concerning parameters such as gender, race, community values, age, sexual affection, income levels, work experience, parental status, religious beliefs, ethnicity, religion, and physical abilities.

Where organizational culture reinforces the significance of diversity differences in contributing to and explaining workplace behaviors, performance levels, stigmatization of abilities of various people, and stereotyping of people from a given cultural background, ugly conflicts are inevitable. A solution to this challenge is developing an organizational culture that embraces workforce differences in line with an organization’s goals, objectives, and mission.

Tackling Conflict: Conflict Management Styles, Implication of Conflict Management Styles, and the Relationship between Conflict Management and Job Satisfaction

Traditionally, many organizations were managed hierarchically through a bureaucratic system in which pay level was a function of an employee’s position in the hierarchy of management. Adopting a performance-based pay system in such organizations entails adopting organizational change. Unfortunately, people generally resist change, especially when the desired change influences them negatively.

Performance-based payment system encompasses one of the changes that may face hefty criticisms from employees, particularly those at senior levels in the hierarchical management protocol. Senior employees whose payment needs adjustment to meet their performance levels are most likely to object to the system when a subordinate who records a high-performance level earns a higher income than they do.

On the other hand, the subordinates will embrace the change. Consequently, implementing performance-based pay systems within an organization may create conflicts between employees, their line managers, and supervisors. Additionally, in an effort to earn higher pay, employees may work at unsafe speeds. This situation is undesired. Thus, this solution is inappropriate since it may introduce other conflicts.

An alternative to implementing performance pay systems involves seeking to resolve workplace conflicts related to personality clashes by employing people of assorted personality traits. While this strategy has the merits of ensuring that people with similar personalities work under similar work environments, it becomes hard to find enough people possessing exactly similar personality traits in large work teams.

For effectiveness in the performance of a work team, diversity in personality traits may also be important, especially where an organization intends to create a work team that engages in constructive conflicts to enhance the brainstorming of ideas. Consequently, this solution is inappropriate since some levels of disagreements in decision-making processes and the manner of contextualization of issues are important in developing the most effective strategies for enhancing organizational performance.

Parties in workplace engage in conflicts due to different opinions. This implies that seeking to compel conflicting people to establish a compromise, accommodation, or collaboration attracts some challenges since none of the parties would be willing to sacrifice his or her self-esteem. Competing is perhaps the best approach for ensuring that a superior party in a conflict wins.

This boosts the self-esteem of the winner but immensely destroys the self-image of the loser. In the case where conflicts involve issues that are directly related to work, the loser suffers low job morale, which may affect his or her satisfaction with the job. This may lead to an intention of turnover or even the actual turnover. The converse of this claim is true for the winning party.

From an organizational dimension, the goal is to enhance the motivation and commitment of all employees in their work commitment. In overall, this suggests that the organization will have lost by deploying competing styles for workplace conflict management. Although the conflicts may be resolved, collaboration may also have similar impacts, just like competition, since one party must surrender to the demands of another party. Avoidance is the most inappropriate alternative.

Diversity management, as an approach to the resolution of workplace conflicts, implies that strategies for managing workforce diversity cuts across different causation elements for conflicts in workplaces. Thus, it can help in the elimination of conflicts that are associated with different levels of expertise, thus leading to a low performance by some employees that will necessitate the incorporation of performance pay-based systems while addressing the issues of personality differences, which may create personality clashes.

It also rhymes well with the concerns of mediation, reconciliation, and arbitration since conflicts that require these mechanisms of conflict resolution are akin to differences among individuals. Diversity management is the most preferred approach in the management of workplace conflicts in globalized organizations.

Recommendations

There are different approaches to solving conflicts. The article recommends a proactive passive approach as opposed to a reactive approach. The recommended proactive passive approach emphasizes handling the causation of conflicts in workplaces effectively. Mediation, arbitration, and reconciliation are reactive since they are deployed after a conflict has already occurred and caused damage to an organization.

Avoiding, competing, collaborating, compromising, and accommodating are equally reactive approaches. The adoption of performance-based pay systems is a recommendable approach to the management of conflicts that are associated with poor performance among some employees. However, they can create more problems and conflicts in the end. Thus, the approach is unsuitable.

The best approach for managing workplace conflicts entails understanding the benefits of adopting a multicultural environment tolerant of diverse workforce. By accomplishing this strategy, organizations would gain immensely in the form of increased productivity of the diverse workforce, hence boosting the profitability of the organization in question.

Incorporating this recommendation requires all management staff members, from top to bottom, to understand workforce diversity’s relevance from moral and business perspectives. Another way of incorporating the recommendation is by altering organizational values to orient people to commit themselves to promoting workforce diversity within the work environment.

A third way of incorporating the recommendation involves the creation of awareness and/or skills that focus on diversity training. This strategy needs to be implemented by managers of organizations in the quest to ensure that workforce socialization is directly congruent with the adopted new values.

In turn, it can increase understanding among people from diverse cultural backgrounds and increase group cohesion. It can also foster the improvement of self-knowledge. When employees embrace the diversity and diversity needs of all their work team members, they can carefully examine their objectives. Through this path, they can understand what is most important to them, thus improving their focus and enhancing their efficiency. This strategy is an essential catalyst for job satisfaction.

Conflict is inevitable in the workplace. It is a reality in every work environment by bringing people from diverse backgrounds together. While people continue to work in teams while caring about the manner their work team members treat them, disagreements will always arise to create conflicts in the workplaces.

Conflicts refer to the various issues emerging in the workplace that create emotions such as anger, discontent, and frustration. Such emotions produce either positive impacts or negative impacts on an organization. For instance, positive impacts may encompass the provision of an opportunity for organizational growth. Negative impacts involve issues such as reduced employee motivation, turnover, low job satisfaction, and reduced employee productivity.

Reference List

Bacal, R. (1998). Conflict Prevention in the Workplace: Using Cooperative Communication . Winnipeg: Bacal & Associates.

Bagshaw, M. (2004). IRS Managing Conflict in the Workplace . London: Lexis Nexis.

Cloke, K., & Goldsmith, J. (2005). Resolving Conflicts at Work: Eight Strategies for Everyone on the Job (Rev. ed.) . San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Collins, D., & Rourke, S. (2005). Managing Conflict and Workplace Relationships . Ohio: Mason.

Gramberg, B. (2005). Managing Workplace Conflict: Alternative Dispute Resolution in Australia . Annandale, N.S. W.: Federation Press.

Institute of Leadership and Management. (2007). Managing conflict in the Workplace . Oxford, Boston: Pergamon Flexible Learning.

Johnson, C., & Keddy, J. (2010). Managing Conflict at Work: Understanding and Resolving Conflict for Productive Working Relationships . London: Kogan Page.

Lee, E. (2008). Communication Network Approaches to Conflict Management at the Workplace and Job Satisfaction . London: Lexis Nexis.

Masters, F., & Albright, R. (2002). The Complete Guide to Conflict Resolution in the Workplace . New York< NY: Amacom.

McClure, L. (2004). Anger and Conflict in the Workplace: Spot the Signs, Avoid the Trauma . San Francisco, SA: Jossey-Bass.

Myatt, M. (2012). 5 Keys of Dealing with Workplace Conflict. Retrieved from < https://www.forbes.com/ >.

Wisinski, J. (2003). Resolving Conflicts on the Job . New York< NY: Amacom.

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  5. Conflict Resolution in Work Teams Free Essay Example

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  6. 😊 Resolving conflicts essay. The Importance of Resolving Conflict in

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  1. How to Write a Conflict Essay: A Step-by-Step Guide

    A conflict essay is a type of academic writing that explores the causes, effects, and solutions of a social, political, or personal problem. Conflict essays can be challenging to write, as...

  2. 30 Conflict Resolution Examples (2024)

    Problem Solving Here, you aim to address an issue head on. You first identify the problem, then brainstorm solutions, and finally choose the best one. It's an analytical approach where the stress lies not on fighting, but on working together to reach a beneficial result. 5. Strength-Based Approach

  3. Resolving Conflict Essay

    Answer: "A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger." This quote taken from Proverbs in the Bible can be seen as the framework upon which resolving conflict is based. This speech is geared towards outlining and discussing five strategies that can use in effectively resolving conflicts within an organization.

  4. What is Conflict Resolution, and How Does It Work?

    Conflict resolution can be defined as the informal or formal process that two or more parties use to find a peaceful solution to their dispute. A number of common cognitive and emotional traps, many of them unconscious, can exacerbate conflict and contribute to the need for conflict resolution: • Self-serving fairness interpretations.

  5. Conflict Resolution Skills

    By, and What is conflict? Causes of conflict in a relationship How do you respond to conflict? Conflict resolution, stress, and emotions Core skill 1: Quick stress relief Core skill 2: Emotional awareness Nonverbal communication and conflict resolution More tips for managing and resolving conflict What is conflict?

  6. Conflict Resolution Theories and Strategies

    1 A serious disagreement or argument. 2 A prolonged armed struggle. 3 An incompatibility between opinions, principles, etc conflict can be described as a disagreement between the parties, it arises due to lack of consensus between the parties.

  7. 166 Conflict Resolution Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

    Conflict Analysis and Resolution Procedures. This essay explores the conflict phenomenon with a specific focus on the analysis and application of the conflict resolution procedures that exist in the conflict ethos to real life. Charting a Course for Conflict Resolution - "It's a Policy".

  8. Essays About Conflict: Top 5 Examples and 7 Writing Prompts

    Since conflict is a sensitive topic, a critical rule in writing conflict essays is to always rely on factual evidence. Quick Summary: Our Top Picks For Essay Checkers Contents [ show] 5 Essay Examples 1. Why Is Conflict Important? By Anonymous on StudyMoose.Com "… Conflict is a big part of the story and it makes the story interesting.

  9. Peace and Conflict Resolution

    Rwanda. Rwanda: How the genocide happened. BBC, 2008. Web. Simpson, John. Halt to rebel advancing creates Libya divide. New Africa, 2011. Web. This essay, "Peace and Conflict Resolution: External Intervention" is published exclusively on IvyPanda's free essay examples database.

  10. How to Write an Essay on Conflict

    Start each body paragraph with a topic sentence that states a main point, and then support that point with three or four of your examples from your initial research. Repeat this process for each remaining body paragraph. Within the body of the paper, address whether the conflict was resolved, and how. In your conclusion, summarize your main ...

  11. Conflict Resolution: Causes, Factors, and Strategies Essay

    Ursiny, T. E. (2003). The coward's guide to conflict: Empowering those who would rather run than fight. Naperville: Source Books Inc. This essay, "Conflict Resolution: Causes, Factors, and Strategies" is published exclusively on IvyPanda's free essay examples database.

  12. Conflict Resolution Essay

    Conflict Resolution Essay Sort By: Page 1 of 50 - About 500 essays Conflict Resolution Essay they will not always see eye to eye. Major conflict that is not dealt with can devastate a team or organization (Make Conflict Work, 2008). In some situations, conflict can 1288 Words 6 Pages 5 Works Cited Good Essays Preview

  13. Essays About Conflict in Life: Top 5 Examples and Prompts

    1. Useful Notes On 4 Major Types Of Conflicts (Motivational Conflict) By Raghavendra Pras "Conflict… results when two or more motives drive behaviour towards incompatible goals." Pras regards conflict as a source of frustration with four types.

  14. The Impact of Faith and Belief on Conflict Resolution

    Life is full of unexpected events and challenges that push individuals to respond and make decisions. Conflict arises when one fails to resolve these problems, leading to internal distress and even external manifestations such as aggression or depression.

  15. How to Resolve Conflict Essay

    The way that a person responds to whatever conflict they are faced with is what determines success or failure. If a person meets the conflict head on and with a positive attitude, then it is almost certain to end in success. If a person meets the conflict with a negative attitude and tries to avoid it, then. 989 Words.

  16. Essay on Resolving Conflicts

    100 Words Essay on Resolving Conflicts Understanding Conflicts. Conflicts are disagreements or fights that happen when people have different ideas or feelings. They can happen between friends, family, or even countries. It's important to know how to resolve conflicts to keep peace and harmony. Listening Carefully

  17. Communication and Conflict Management: [Essay Example], 686 words

    Communication in conflict management refers to the exchange of information, ideas, and feelings between parties involved in a conflict, with the aim of reaching a resolution. Effective communication is vital in resolving conflicts, as it allows the parties to express their perspectives, understand each other's viewpoints, and work towards ...

  18. Conflict Resolution, Essay Example

    Conflict resolution in any work place is a challenge to employees and employers. There are many causes of conflicts that include poor communication which leads to misunderstandings and differing personalities. According to the Make Talk Work Bookmarks, there are a number of ways that conflicts can be managed and avoided in any work place.

  19. Conflict Resolution

    📘 Free essay examples for your ideas about Conflict Resolution 📚 Essay topics examples and ideas on Conflict Resolution 🏆 Best Essay Topics on Conflict Resolution ⚡ Simple & Conflict Resolution Easy Topics 🎓 Good Research Topics about Conflict Resolution 📖 Essay guide on Conflict Resolution Questions and Answers Essay examples Essay Topic guide

  20. How to Resolve the Conflict? Free Essay Example

    How to Resolve the Conflict? Categories: Conflict Download Essay, Pages 7 (1579 words) Views 555 The bringing of people together in social interaction necessarily involves a set of interpersonal dynamics which sooner or later will lead to conflict. Conflict between people or groups often arises from competition for resources, power, and status.

  21. Conflicts in Relationships: [Essay Example], 300 words

    One day, she belittled my interests, and I responded in kind, leading to a falling out between us. Looking back, I believe that if we had taken the time to understand and appreciate each other's passions, the conflict could have been resolved amicably. On the other hand, a conflict with my best friend ended in a positive outcome.

  22. Conflict Resolution and Peacemaking

    Conclusion. Conflict resolution and peacemaking is one of the most popular topics in social psychology. The factors of conflict in various social environments are numerous and varied. The most common elements of the conflict resolution process include contact, cooperation, communication, and conciliation (Myers, 2002).

  23. How Wolves Became a Pawn in the Culture Wars

    Matt Collins, who works on reducing conflict between humans and wildlife for the Western Landowners Alliance, says a focus on cultivating a "radical center," a term popularized in conservation ...

  24. Opinion

    The Israeli-Palestinian conflict should not be insoluble. But it can't be solved so long as millions of Palestinians have been turned into the world's only permanent refugees.

  25. You and the Law

    Ury: The best way to not resolve a conflict is to fall straight into the "three-A trap." Either go on the attack, thinking, "I'm going to win this," or do the opposite, which is to avoid ...

  26. Is there a way to achieve peace in Israel and Palestine? I believe

    If the current tragedy offers any hope, it's a growing clarity on how Palestinians and Israelis could forge a brighter future for their children, says political commentator Daniel Levin

  27. Sexual violence is part of the history of war. Is it inevitable ...

    The specific term "conflict-related sexual violence," or CRSV, was first introduced in 2000 when the United Nations Security Council issued a resolution that launched the Women, Peace and Security ...

  28. How to Resolve Conflict in the Workplace Essay

    Since the principal goal of organizational leadership is to look for mechanisms of resolving challenges, which may hinder the performance of an organization so that it delivers value to its owners (shareholders), conflict avoidance constitutes a risky approach to conflict management.