Nida Faridi

Conflict Analysis Part 1: Observe an instance that you are not personally involved with where conflict is present (you will need to be a bit of a covert operator to accomplish this). Answer the following:
In several detailed paragraphs, describe the conflict scene.
1a. Who was involved in the conflict? What was the relationship between the participants prior to the conflict? Did it appear as if the relationship between the participants had any impact on how either person responded to the conflict?
1b. When and where did it take place? Was it formal or informal? Planned or unplanned? What impact did the location and time have on the outcome?
1c. What transpired? (Be specific)
Two weeks ago, an argument took place between me and the boss. We were in the conference room conducting a team meeting that always took place before the daily goals were conducted. The meeting began as it usually did with a briefing of the goals to come that day and then we started discussing possibly moving some team members from certain projects to projects that took more precedence, due to us having employees on vacation over the next two months. The boss for team immediacy recommended that two of my team members from be moved directly to his team, which would put me short of members for the month. I disagreed and said that one member from his team and one from mine was a more logical choice. This upset the boss and led very shortly to an argument. We eventually both had to be removed from the meeting and received a verbal warning.
Many times when we face conflict, there is a surface-level problem and an underlying problem. The surface-level problem acts only as a symptom of the real problem. Consider both.
1d. What was the surface problem?
I think the surface of this particular problem was conflicts that had happened prior to the meeting. Boss and I have had other such run-ins in the past and it all built up to this moment. This is more about five or six prior situations rather than the situation that took place during that meeting.
1e. What was the underlying problem or the real problem? If this is unclear, what might you speculate the real problem to be?
The problem was definitely underlying problem. We let little things in each other personalities bother us and did not take the time to talk these things out instead we resorted to making ourselves look bad in front of one of our key leaders and being reprimanded for our actions.
There are many conflict management strategies that can be employed when dealing with conflict. Consider which were present in this conflict.
1f. Which conflict management strategies were employed by each of the participants? Did the conflict management strategies change during the course of the conversation? How do you know?
I think if we would have taken the time to discuss our personal problems with one another beforehand this would have never transpired. Instead we let pent up aggression from past incidents get the better of us and as a result ended up looking very childish in a very adult situation.
1g. What was the outcome? Was there a winner? A loser? Did there appear to be an impact on the relationship? If so, what was that impact?
There was no winner in this situation. We were both reprimanded the same way and after the situation transpired we both sat down and worked out our personal differences like adults which is what we should have done in the first place.
1h. Looking back, describe at least two variables that could be changed in this scene to alter the outcome.
If we had discussed our personal feeling with one another prior to the meeting the meeting would have taken place as all meetings do and the event would have never escalated as far as it had. If one of us had taken a “higher path” and not partakes in the argument it would have made the other person look even more irresponsible and deescalated the situation that much faster.
Conflict Analysis Part 2: Much of the learning in this course requires you to draw conclusions about your experiences and observations based on the concepts we have read about and discussed. Taking this into consideration:
2a., 2b. List two specific things you learned about conflict as a result of this exercise. Reference material from the text, threaded discussions, lecture, terminal course objectives, and so forth. Answers that demonstrate application of the course material and effective critical thinking will earn the greatest amount of points.
The first thing I learned from this situation is that you should never let something escalate far enough with another person to where you are at each other’s throats. This entire situation could have been handled in a much more professional manner if boss and myself had just sat down and discussed our personal issues with one another. There is almost no situations where physical violence or high tempers are needed everything can be worked out through conversation eventually.
The second thing I learned from this situation is that it always takes two people for a situation to escalate past a point of no return. What I mean by this is at any time boss or I could have acted in a mature manner and ended the situation. Instead we chose not to and things progressed far enough for both of us to be reprimanded.