Saturday, October 5, 2013

Effective Techniques Of Non Lethal Conflict Resolution

By Angel Dudley


With the regular scarcity of resources in our societies, disputes are an unavoidable part of life. We encounter them in organizations and many other settings. Disagreements occur when the goals, interests and priorities of parties are not in congruence. Each party has an opposing view and resources are limited. Disputes may have positive or negative outcomes. If the outcome is expected to be negative, the disagreement should be quelled using non lethal conflict resolution techniques.

Reaching a consensus is the most beneficial result of an agreement. In this case, both parties practice empathy and try to work out a solution that fulfills the need of each opposing party. This approach seeks to find the underlying problem rather than fighting the symptoms. While this process may be time consuming, the consensus approach offers the best solution and reinforces the personal relationship between all parties.

Where the subject matter of the argument is not very significant, a dispute may be suppressed by forcing. This is a technique where the interests, priorities or goals of one party are chosen over those of the other party. The problem is not solved in its entirety and is thus likely to resurface. The relationship between the warring individuals may also be affected negatively in the long run.

The term compromise refers to a strategy that seeks to identify a practical solution to a disagreement by finding their common ground. By compromising, both parties give up some of their demands in order to arrive at the solution. This tactic does not face the underlying causes of a disagreement. Since the opponents lose some of the subject matter, they may later become disgruntled. This method is useful for moderately important objectives where direct coercion cannot be used.

Accommodation is entirely giving up your point of view or your interests for those of each opposing party. In this case, one party yields to the interests of the other entirely and voluntarily. This method is also referred to as smoothing. It can be used when you realize that your needs, goals or priorities are not as important as those of the other party. Some parties adopt this approach to buy time until they can respond better.

Withdrawal is a resolution strategy that works by ignoring the cause of problems and hoping that it will go away. Where the subject matter of a dispute is trivial, one party may choose to just walk away and give up their demands. This is usually the case if one party has more urgent matters. Nevertheless, avoiding a problem may result in bigger problems for the organization.

Where management has executive control over resources, they may issue a direct command regarding the dispute. An authoritative command gives out the position of the executive on the argument. The managers are not required to explain their position or reasons for coming to that conclusion.

Communication is important in solving intergroup disputes. In many instances, the opposing parties do not understand the value of the subject matter to other parties. For one to run an organization successfully, they have to learn the techniques of non lethal conflict resolution. This knowledge can also be used in social relationships.




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