Overview: conflicts and ways of dealing with them

Resolution of conflict

Overview: conflicts and ways of dealing with them

Conflicts or disagreements, whether involving individuals, groups or even nations, come in many shapes and sizes. So do the ways of dealing with various conflicts. Perhaps the simplest, though not always the best way, is to ignore the issue. How often have you heard someone say, "Oh, forget about it" and then move on or at least try to move on? Sometimes, the words or the attempt to forget about it just don't work out. The problem affects other situations or just doesn't go away.

If turning your back on matters is at one end of the scale, then war is at the other end. However, war usually settles matters at a tremendous cost-in terms of death, injury and destruction. There have to be better ways, and there are.

Winston Churchill once said, "It is always better to jaw-jaw than to war-war." It was his way of emphasizing the value of talking rather than coming to blows to settle disputes. Between the extremes of "ignore" and "war" there are many ways that words are used. Some are fairly informal and may just involve one-on-one discussion between those with a disagreement. Other procedures are much more formal and involve taking cases to courts of law or tribunals.

Various means exist for dealing with disputes before they go to court. They include informal discussions or negotiation, consultation or facilitation and mediation or arbitration. There are also many specific methods within these procedures, sometimes grouped together as alternative dispute resolutions. The variations include issue-based problem-solving and facilitation, two valuable tools for early, low-level conflict resolution.

This session covers the more informal portion of the above options, providing information on appropriate dispute resolution methods that use discussion or negotiation and consultation or facilitation to improve workplace relations.