Dr. Melanie Flowers Strategic Conflict Management Execution

TAKES A PROBLEM-SOLVING APPROACH TO CONFLICTS AND OTHER CHALLENGES AT THE ORGANISATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL LEVEL

Dr Melanie Flowers is an instructor and course developer. She has worked in diverse industries, experiencing first-hand the critical elements in managing people and challenges. Tap into her knowledgebase and be inspired to take a problem-solving approach to all areas of your life.

She has a PhD in Business and Management from the University of Gloucestershire, UK. She holds a Magister Artium (M.A.) in Political Science with focus on International Relations and New English Literature from Eberharld Karls Universität, Tübingen, Germany.

Based on her research on the dynamics of the Liberian civil wars and peace implementation process, Dr Melanie Flowers has given invited lectures on Liberia – its past and current history. In acknowledging that conflict is omnipresent at all levels (international, national, interpersonal, intrapersonal), Melanie investigated organizational conflict and its diverse effects on interpersonal relations at the workplace as well as on organizational culture and performance in her PhD research. She has presented introductory lectures on organisational conflict management to entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs and developed a course based on her research findings and derived organisational conflict management framework model.

STEP 1: CONSULTATION

Dr. Melanie Flowers' customised solution, research and or training package begins with first consulting with you or your organisation in order to identify your core goals for the tailored training, for example.

Step 1 helps to identify the target audience, learning objectives, expected outcomes, types or conflicts or negotiations or complaint handling, human-biased challenges, etc., faced.

The above procedure paves the way to consult with some of the target audience and or Line Managers to help map out skill gaps, challenges they want to resolve, and desired take-aways.

The following properties of conflict are considered essential to my conflict approach (Flowers, 2023):

Conflict is a process and not state (Pondy, 1967; Rahim, 2011; Thomas, 1992a, 1992b).
It involves a minimum of two parties (Imbusch & Zoll, 2006).
There exists an incompatibility/difference in interests/goals/values (contradiction with regard to the content) (Imbusch & Zoll, 2006; Rahim, 2011).
It involves conflict-related dispositions of the conflict parties (assumptions/ attitudes): their cognitions, volitions and emotions (Galtung, 1996; Glasl, 2013).
There has to be an awareness/perception of incompatibility (Bendersky et al., 2014; De Dreu & Weingart, 2003; Glasl, 2013; Lewicki et al., 2014).
For conflict to be complete and manifest, it has to be expressed through conflictual behaviour (Galtung, 1996; Glasl, 2013).

Organisations are essentially human enterprises, which are governed by individuals’ decisions, actions and motivations. On the one hand, economies grow and change through the motivations, decisions and actions of its employees (Lazear & Gibbs, 2009). On the other hand, altered working relationships caused by ineffective cooperation, leadership and conflict management can adversely affect the general performance of organisations. This is depicted in a declined labour and production capacity of the organisation and its employees (Hersey et al., 2008; Kurray, 2008). Counterproductive conflict behaviour leads to mistrust, fear, loss of communication, intra- and interpersonal distress, distraction from work as well as to an increased focus on the conflict on the side of the conflict parties, which causes material as well as immaterial costs to the organisation (De Dreu & Weingart, 2003; Flowers, 2023; Lawless & Trif, 2016; Lewis et al., 2006; Mayer & Louw, 2009).

The focus on well-being of employees benefits the organisation’s productivity, underlining the need to make it part of its organisational goals (Dijkstra et al., 2011). According to Wright et al.'s (2007) research, job performance was the highest when employees scored highly on both psychological well-being and job satisfaction. By contrast, the occurrence of conflict has an effect on individual’s job satisfaction and organisational commitment, leads to increased absenteeism and turnover intentions and thereby affects an organisation’s production capacity (De Dreu & Beersma, 2005; De Dreu & Weingart, 2003; Giebels & Janssen, 2005). The conflict situation at work affects the individuals’ motivation to come to work and their physical and mental health (De Dreu et al., 2004; Spector & Jex, 1998). Withdrawing behaviour also involves communicating and cooperating as less as possible with the other person which leads to mistakes due to miscommunication as well as double-work (Flowers, 2023; Knippen & Green, 1999). The more intense the conflict becomes, the less are the conflict parties able to process and exchange information (Giebels & Janssen, 2005).

The focus should be on decreasing the negative consequences of conflict through the application of a problem-solving conflict management strategy (Dijkstra et al., 2011). In the same vein, Rahim (2011, 2016) attributes positive individual and organisational outcomes to cooperative conflict management styles whilst dominating and avoiding conflict management styles often result in conflict escalation and negative outcomes. The reason is a higher concern for the other party and win-win approach to conflict in cooperative conflict management approaches, in comparison to non-cooperative or avoiding styles. Thus, dealing effectively with conflicts and communication mishaps can influence and change conflicting behaviour, improve working relationships and impact the performance of organisations generally (Flowers, 2023).