Conflict Management.

It was an interesting experience to deliver a few sessions on conflict management to the district level leadership of an organisation where everyone was convinced that conflicts are a real hindrance in progress but most of them were a little inflexible to modify their existing organisational culture. It is a proven fact that conflicts significantly cost organisations, both in terms of financial losses and excessive engagements of leadership for the resolution of conflicts. According to studies, the cost of conflicts for the US has been estimated at 350 billion US dollars, for the UK around 66 billion US dollars and 232 billion US dollars for Japan. In terms of time spent for conflict resolution, studies suggest that managers spent almost one quarter of their official time in resolving and mitigating conflicts while senior management may spend up to 80 percent of their time in addressing conflicts. Besides the monetary cost, conflict leads to several workplace issues such as loss of productivity, absenteeism, withdrawal of people, arbitration and healthcare.

Probably the most important element in conflict management is awareness about the causes of conflict. There are an array of reasons, from misunderstandings to conflicting goals which result in conflicts in an organisation. We can all conveniently comprehend misinterpretations, miscalculations and personal differences. The lack of role clarification and jurisdictional ambiguities are technical aspects which need specific interventions from the management to avoid day-to-day conflicts in organisations. Threats to status and status inconsistencies are psychodynamic in nature, and thus vary from one individual to another. Communication problems have to be addressed by the individual through continuous focus on different modes and means of the modern-day communication landscape. Lack of performance standards and conflicting goals indicate organisational inability to mobilise available resources and channelise human potential to achieve organisational objectives. It is a proven fact that any organisation without SMART objectives cannot realise success. Only measurable and time bound attainable objectives can facilitate organisational members to direct their efforts towards the destination. An ambiguous objective will allow people to remain in their comfort zone, which is quite natural; therefore organisations need to spend reasonable time to crystalise their objectives for convenient...