Communication and Conflict

78-613-02 WINTER 2015

ASSIGNMENT

Instructor: Basak Yanar Heney

Team 4

Date: 31 March, 2015

Introduction

Communication and conflict walk hand in hand. Communicating is hard enough as it is and gets tougher when conflict is involved. Communication is an act of sending and receiving information which usually involves two or more people. Conflict, on the other hand, is a form of disagreement or dispute that emerges due to communication or lack of it. Employees avoid conflicts and confrontations by not communicating with each other and this affects organizations negatively, but there are ways managers can encourage the flow of information to, from and amongst their employees. By encouraging communication in their organisation, managers give room for conflict, but not all conflicts are bad. Managers can urge their employees to engage in constructive conflicts with each other without destroying their capability of working together as teams. When these teams are multicultural in nature, they are more prone to conflict. Nevertheless, these teams can successfully put aside their cultural differences and work together as a team to achieve common goals.

Analysis of Four Articles

Some employees, in order to avoid conflict, choose to keep quiet. Although related with some deeply rooted virtues, such as respect and modesty, silence actually has consumed both individuals and organizations psychologically and socially. When does silence begin to take effect? It often stems from people not admitting their differences in opinions as they try to avoid confrontations and they do not want to appear discriminatory. Although in some cases, it may be appropriate to keep quiet, probably because the timing is not perfect and the issue does not relate to the problem at hand. For instance, if you belong to a team with a deadline due in three days, it would be inappropriate to report the breakdown of a coffee machine. Although the coffee could serve as a stimulant, reporting...