Conflict in workplace

      In my current workplace, I had a conflict with my manager as we had a miscommunication about a new project that I had proposed to do for a new customer.  I had already asked him to extend the deadline for the completion of the project and he approved it.  When the deadline approached, he had forgotten our agreement and he became very annoyed that some parts of the project were not completed.  I explained where I had fixed the project and then put down a plan in order to explain and provide the client with the already finished work and promised to follow up the rest.  The manager later recalled the promise and we started to make beneficial changes in writing to avoid the confusion which brought conflict. 

      It is not effective to have conflicts in a work place whereas dodging conflicts in a work place does not work.  What really works is doing something about the conflict.  If I was the manager I would not be engaged in the conflict as I had to understand that conflicts are unavoidable at work.  This does not mean that conflicts or troubles in the workplaces can be avoided but can be a start of a learning process.  Thus the best way that the manager would handle the conflict would be by handling the conflict positively.  Mostly when a workplace is having new ideas about something, conflict is available which means that there is no business change or plan without conflict.  The fact that people in a workplace are conflicting does not have to reflect negatively on them thus just means that they strongly disagrees which is a good thing rather than letting go of the conflict unsolved (Bennis & Cloke, 2013). 

 

 

Reference

Goldsmith, J., Bennis, W., & Cloke, K. (2013). Resolving conflicts at work: Eight strategies for everyone on the job. San Francisco, Calif: Jossey-Bass.