JAYESH PAPAIYA (B.E +M.B.

A) – 093218 22111
No two humans come out of the same mold and
differences in ideas and opinions are bound to
arise. Differences lead to Conflicts. When well-
handled, conflicts are in effect good for the
organization as they often lead to creative ideas
and changes for the better. Conflicts become
counterproductive when they give rise to enmity,
hostility, tension, confusion and sabotage among
the workers. If supervisors and managers
themselves are parties to the conflicts, they may
make poor decisions and judgments based on
personal reasons rather than professional
considerations.

JAYESH PAPAIYA (B.E +M.B.A) – 093218 22111

 STORY

THE EAGLE
AND
THE BEETLE

JAYESH PAPAIYA (B.E +M.B.A) – 093218 22111

An Eagle was chasing a hare, which was running for dear
life and was at her wits' end to know where to turn for help.
Presently she espied a Beetle, and begged it to aid her. So
when the Eagle came up the Beetle warned her not to
touch the hare, which was under its protection. But the
Eagle never noticed the Beetle because it was so small,
seized the hare and ate her up. The Beetle never forgot
this, and used to keep an eye on the Eagle's nest, and
whenever the Eagle laid an egg it climbed up and rolled it
out of the nest and broke it.

JAYESH PAPAIYA (B.E +M.B.A) – 093218 22111

At last the Eagle got so worried over the loss of her eggs
that she went up to Jupiter, who is the special protector of
Eagles, and begged him to give her a safe place to nest in;
so he let her lay her eggs in his lap. But the Beetle noticed
this and made a ball of dirt the size of an Eagle's egg, and
flew up and deposited it in Jupiter's lap. When Jupiter saw
the dirt, he stood up to shake it out of his robe, and,
forgetting about the eggs, he shook them out too, and they
were broken just as before.

Ever since then, they say, Eagles never lay their eggs at
the season when Beetles are about.

JAYESH PAPAIYA (B.E +M.B.A) – 093218 22111

 MORAL

Even the weakest may find means to

avenge a wrong

JAYESH PAPAIYA (B.E +M.B.A) – 093218 22111

 LESSONS IN LIFE
What would you have done if you were Jupiter? Wouldn't
you agree that a bulk of an executive or manager's time is
spent in resolving people problems? Entertaining disputes,
differences, criticisms, unhappiness raised by workers
against co-workers? Ideally, organizations would have liked
a Collaborative and Cooperative office environment. Some
employers go to the extent of including such criteria in their
staff's appraisal, although others might subtly work this into
their definition of a team player.

JAYESH PAPAIYA (B.E +M.B.A) – 093218 22111

Everything happens for a reason. It is
important to understand the cause of the
conflict in order to adequately resolve it.
Some of the usual causes of conflict
situations in office are:-

JAYESH PAPAIYA (B.E +M.B.A) – 093218 22111

 1. Logistics support

This can range from lack of stationery

supplies to slow machines to sharing of
workstations. These are not difficult
issues and can be easily managed.

JAYESH PAPAIYA (B.E +M.B.A) – 093218 22111

 2. Staffing needs

Staff wages and office rent are often the leading

Cost components of any business. Today's staff
are expected to multi-task, work long hours and
handle increased work volumes. In a stressful
workplace like this, any unintended but offensive
remark may trigger violent reactions from the other
party.

JAYESH PAPAIYA (B.E +M.B.A) – 093218 22111

 3. Work distribution
Given a job, who would you assign it to – a worker who is
efficient and delivers on time, or a worker who is the exact
opposite? Bosses are often faced with a dilemma on who
To delegate a job to. We know that overloading an efficient
Worker may eventually lead to his burnout. In spite of this,
We continue to assign more work to our good workers and
Risk their unhappiness.

JAYESH PAPAIYA (B.E +M.B.A) – 093218 22111

 4. Rewards and incentives

This is another major source of conflict.

Employees often compare the rewards they
receive and inevitably think that they have
put in more efforts than the colleagues next
to them and deserve better rewards.

JAYESH PAPAIYA (B.E +M.B.A) – 093218 22111

 5. Rivalry and competition

Empowerment is a good thing but authority

has to be clearly defined. Try having two
deputy CEOs perform overlapping functions
and you will soon find both stabbing at each
other's backs.

JAYESH PAPAIYA (B.E +M.B.A) – 093218 22111

 6. Personality clashes

With increasing reliance on foreign talents,

and employees coming from diverse
backgrounds and cultures, conflicts are
unavoidable.

JAYESH PAPAIYA (B.E +M.B.A) – 093218 22111

Approaches to Conflict
Resolution

JAYESH PAPAIYA (B.E +M.B.A) – 093218 22111

 A. Ignore and forget
Many choose to be non-confrontational. When faced with
An unpleasant situation, they would rather ignore and
pretend that they were not part of it. In situations caused by
misunderstandings or sudden flare of temper, withdrawing
rather than confronting may be a wise approach. However,
where one party is always aggressive and unreasonable,
walking away is perceived by people as lacking courage
And dignity. This is avoiding a problem, not resolving it.

JAYESH PAPAIYA (B.E +M.B.A) – 093218 22111

 B. Be a Assertive
The other end of the spectrum is to be assertive and insist
on your stand. This may sometimes work when the need
to take charge of the situation far outweighs the need for
good human relations. Hence, in many industrial strikes
where workers demand higher pay and better benefits,
you may find the management taking aggressive steps
like issuing threats and ultimatums. If the management
turns soft, it is likely to see repeats of the demands and
may eventually be at the mercy of the workers. Where
relationships are important, let the parties know your
position on the matter with clear statements like “I know
...”, “I want ...”, “I feel ...”, “I would like ...” Said calmly and
in a matter-of-fact tone, the other party would understand
your position and mull over his possibilities.

JAYESH PAPAIYA (B.E +M.B.A) – 093218 22111

 C. Win-win
In a conflict situation, viewing each other as enemies will always lead to
heightened emotions like anger. We should look at it as a problem that
has surfaced, hear each other's needs, and work together as partners,
instead of adversaries, to arrive at a win-win outcome. In a classic
example by Stephen Covey, if two persons are fighting over an orange,
a win-win situation is not to divide it and give each person half the
orange. It may be that one of them wants to drink the orange juice
Whereas the other wants the rind to bake his cake. If the needs had
Been discussed, both can have exactly what they want, i.e., all the
rind and all the juice.

JAYESH PAPAIYA (B.E +M.B.A) – 093218 22111

 D. Creative solutions
Think of conflicts as presenting a challenge, an opportunity for
you to do something creative and think out of the box. To give
an example, a staff may insist in having his workstation
relocated and the boss denies his request, citing space
constraints. If the boss had probed, he would learn that the
staff is unhappy because the workstation faces a washroom.
What both parties should do is to put on their thinking caps.
Perhaps they could realign the door of the workstation to face
another direction, or shift the position of the desk and chair.

JAYESH PAPAIYA (B.E +M.B.A) – 093218 22111

 E. Active listening
When a customer comes to you with complaints and seems
extremely emotional about an issue, the job of a good
customer relations officer is to listen and defuse the tension.
The mistake that many officers make is to take on a defensive
stance and launch into textbook statements of how glorious
the company's track records are. This only infuriates a
customer who is not bothered about the history, but has no
qualms in making the company a history. Listen and
understand their emotions. The louder they shout, the more
they want to be heard, so acknowledge their problem and
empathize with them. At the appropriate part of the
conversation, let them know a little about your position or
the company's policies. Try not to propose a solution, but
lead the customer to suggest a solution and state what he
wants. Take positive steps and always keep the customer
informed about what happens next.

JAYESH PAPAIYA (B.E +M.B.A) – 093218 22111

 QUOTABLE QUOTES

“Difficulties are meant to rouse, not

discourage. The human spirit is to grow
strong by conflict.”

JAYESH PAPAIYA (B.E +M.B.A) – 093218 22111

 QUOTABLE QUOTES
“He never wants anything but what's right
and fair; only when you come to settle
what's right and fair, it's everything that he
wants and nothing that you want. And that's
his idea of a compromise.”

JAYESH PAPAIYA (B.E +M.B.A) – 093218 22111

 QUOTABLE QUOTES

“The successful person has unusual skill at

dealing with conflict and ensuring the best
outcome for all.”

JAYESH PAPAIYA (B.E +M.B.A) – 093218 22111

 QUOTABLE QUOTES

“Avoid fight or flight, talk through

differences.”

JAYESH PAPAIYA (B.E +M.B.A) – 093218 22111

 QUOTABLE QUOTES

“When two men always agree, one of them

is unnecessary.”

JAYESH PAPAIYA (B.E +M.B.A) – 093218 22111