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Basics of Conflict Management CRETE Day 2 Training Tricia S. Jones, Ph.D., Dept. of Psychological Studies in Education e-mail: tsjones@temple.edu. Critical Tools for Constructive Classrooms. Understanding Needs Based Conflict Positive Discipline Conflict Styles Collaborative Negotiation.
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Basics of Conflict ManagementCRETE Day 2 TrainingTricia S. Jones, Ph.D., Dept. of Psychological Studies in Educatione-mail: tsjones@temple.edu
Critical Tools for Constructive Classrooms • Understanding Needs Based Conflict • Positive Discipline • Conflict Styles • Collaborative Negotiation
Basic Needs • Love and Belonging • Power • Freedom • Fun • Safety
The Nature of Conflict • Conflict is “a disagreement between two or more people who have differences in goals or methods for dealing with a situation” • Normal • Natural • Necessary
Functional (helpful or constructive) Open Honest Calm Focused Flexible Energizing Creative Dysfunctional (not helpful or destructive) Closed Deceitful Tense Proliferation Rigid Draining Stupifying Functional and Dysfunctional Conflict
Conflict Styles • Conflict styles are the predominant ways that people deal with conflict. • Most people rely on one or two styles that are often defined by emphasis on concern for the self or concern for the other. • The goal of an effective conflict manager is to be able to use any conflict style when the situation demands.
Conflict Styles • Five Styles of Conflict Competing Collaborating Concern for Self Compromising Accommodating Avoiding Concern for Other
Thomas and Kilmann’s styles • Avoiding: Avoidance can be either physical and/or psychological • Accommodating: meeting the needs of the other person but ignoring your own needs.
Thomas and Kilmann’s styles • Competing: a win-lose orientation in which you try to maximize your gains • Compromising: “Split the Difference” • Collaborating: Problem-solving style in which the parties work together against the problem.
When Each Style is the Best • Avoiding • When the issue is trivial to you • When there is no long-term relationship • When you are the low power party in a serious power imbalance • Competing • When the other will be very competitive • When important others expect you to compete • AND when the stakes are high
When Each Style is the Best • Accommodating • When the issue is trivial to you • When harmony in the relationship is all important • When you are the low power party in a serious power imbalance • When you want to build trust in the other by demonstrating a protection of their interests • Compromising • When there are truly finite resources • When there are no means to increase the divisible resources
When Each Style is the Best • Collaborating • When the issue is complex and requires creativity • When there is a long-term relationship • When their implementation of the decision is necessary
Principled Negotiation • Scholars from the Harvard Negotiation Project have suggested ways of dealing with negotiation from a cooperative and interest-based perspective. They call this approach “principled negotiation” because it rests on four assumptions or principles.
Separate the People From the Problem • As you identify the problem, make sure you can distinguish between the issues to be solved and the people involved. Try to: • understand their perceptions • monitor their emotions • communicate effectively
Focus on Interests NOT Positions • A position is a tangible outcome that someone argues for. An interest is the reason why that outcome is desired and an underlying concern about the problem. • there are usually multiple interests for any issue • you don’t have to have common interests to find a solution that meets them all • the more you understand your interests and the other party’s interests, the better able you are to find a solution or solutions that will produce mutual and lasting satisfaction.
Invent Options for Mutual Gain - Brainstorm • This is a process of creating as many solutions as possible BEFORE you evaluate them to decide which are the best options. • Otherwise, good ideas never have a chance to be suggested and discussed because people are too busy arguing over the first ideas introduced.
Find Good Criteria • Choosing a good solution or solutions (remember you can have more than one), depends on making sure that the criteria for solutions are considered legitimate by the parties. The criteria come from • interests already identified by the parties, especially common interests shared by all parties • external rules or policies that must be followed