Conflicts are important for the success of any leadership. However, they can also be detrimental to the success of the organization in many ways since it greatly affects the employees’ motivation and willingness to work. Since conflicts cannot be avoided in the workplace, appropriate mechanisms should be put in place to solve them. As a company employee, I have found myself witness a conflict in my workplace. Good conflict resolution mechanisms help manage conflicts and return the situation to normal. However, if wrong methods are used to resolve conflicts, it only makes the situation more volatile than it was ( Canary & Weger Jr, 2015) .
A couple of years ago, I found myself in a conflict situation at work with my colleague. I was planning to take my leave and after speaking to my manager, he designated one of my colleagues as a back-up. He required me to update him of all I was doing over the past few months so that he can easily fit in. attending to patients was my job and so I had a few patients whom I had scheduled to meet and talk to in the coming week. I scheduled a meeting with my colleague and updated him. I had a specific patient I had been in touch with and attending to for the last five months. He was to come back and see me the coming week. It was an important meeting because he was a cancer patient and I was to assess his progress before recommending him to the doctor. When I came back from leave, I found that most of the work I was following up had not been touched. The patient that required urgent attention had not been attended to as well.
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My colleague simply said he was very busy and was not able to spend his time working on the things I had left him to take care of. I perceived him as a rather untrustworthy, unreliable, and irresponsible person. With my frustration, I openly confronted him and told him his work ethic was pathetic and needed to change it. We argued and exchanged bitter words in the process. All the argument revolved around me thinking that he could manage my workload in my absence. I expected him to be much more productive than he was.
We managed to resolve some conflict because I aired out openly what was pressing in my heart. Our manager also came in and listened to both of us give our perspectives. He mediated us first and encouraged me in particular to leave emotions out of this case ( De Dreu, 2015) . Furthermore, he encouraged all of us to appreciate that we are different in terms of work ethics and how we deal with situations. On his part, the manager conceded that he was wrong not to have kept the communication constant with my colleague in order to know that he was working on what I had lined up ( Almost et al. , 2016).
Given such a situation right now, I would first ask my colleague to explain his own reasons for not having worked as I had expected him to. I would also have inquired from the manager if he had been following up to determine progress. I would also compromise my rigid stand which was driven by strong emotions ( Masuda & Kostopoulos, 2016) . This would enable conflict resolution to take place without prejudice. It would be easy to arrive at a win-win situation.
In conclusion, conflict resolution is the difference creator in a workplace. It depicts good management and poor management. Using right methods brings harmony among workers and the company is able to achieve positive results.
References
Almost, Joan, et al. "Managing and mitigating conflict in healthcare teams: an integrative review." Journal of advanced nursing 72.7 (2016): 1490-1505.
Canary, D. J., & Weger Jr, H. (2015). Competence in conflict management. The international encyclopedia of interpersonal communication , 1-10.
De Dreu, C. K. (2015). Conflict and conflict management. Wiley Encyclopedia of Management , 1-4.
Masuda, A. D., & Kostopoulos, K. C. (2016). Performance in Teams: The Role of Conflict-Management Styles, Team and Leadership Identity. Rethinking Innovation: Global Perspectives , 238-260.
