Strategies Of Maintaining Organisational Conflicts

Conflicts may be managed by the conflicting parties themselves or by third parties. Organizational conflicts can be met with non-attention, suppression or resolution.

   
1.  Lose-Lose Strategies

In lose-lose strategy both parties in the conflict lose in the sense that neither achieves its true desires in the conflict. Conflict is managed in such a way that its underlying reasons remain unaffected. Consequently future conflict of a similar nature is likely to occur.

There are three basic approaches to conflict management in the lose-lose strategy;

i.    Avoidance

Managing conflict by avoidance is an extreme form of non-attention. In this approach there is no direct attempt to deal with a manifest conflict. Everyone pretends that conflict does not really exist or if it does exist, it is such that it will simply disappear. Consequently, in this strategy, the conflict is left to develop on its own into a constructive or destructive force within the organization.

ii.    Smoothing

This is managing conflict by playing down differences among the conflicting parties and high-lighting similarities and areas of agreement. The aim is to encourage peaceful co-existence through a recognition of common interests. Smoothing may ignore the real essence of a given conflict. It is a form of a non-attention of a minor form.

iii.    Compromise

In this approach accommodations are made such that each party in the conflict gives up something of value to each other. As a result neither party gains its full desires and the reasons for conflict remain unsolved.