Coping Strategies required for Conflict Management.

2.  All of us at a point of time experience conflicts in our life. We
argue with our spouses, colleagues, our boss and our clients,
even the people we may try to help. So long as people are
individuals there will be the potential for conflict. That’s the
first thing to learn about conflict. It isn’t wrong or bad; it’s
just part of being a person in contact with other people.
 So to define conflict, it is a natural disagreement resulting
from individuals or groups that differ in attitudes, beliefs,
values or needs. It can also originate from past rivalries and
personality differences.
 From the above statement we can conclude that conflict
arises due to difference in opinion between either an
individual or a group of individuals. The outcome of these
differences is conflict.

4.  Conflicts arise through various sources, may it be
difference in opinion or let it be difference in caste,
gender, age. Personality Type A :
Submissive
 Sources could be:
 Personalityclash
 Wants, Needs and Values differ
 Assumptions and Perceptions
 Personal and Group Interest
Personality Type
 Tension and Stress B : Aggressive
 Power and Influence
 These could be considered the main sources of
conflicts as people with difference in opinion and
tastes never co-exist and hence conflicts occur.

5.  Conflicts have a various
effects over an individual as
well as the organization.
 As Job Satisfaction
decreases, Absenteeism
and health issues increase
with the costs also going up
and Job Performance
showing drastic decrease.

6.  Conflicts are a part of every group. They are
inevitable and natural. Conflicts cannot be
deleted from an organization, hence they have
to be managed.
 Conflict management is a necessity in every
organization as conflicts occur everyday due to
changes and pressures of performance.
 Coping Strategies are used to manage
conflicts in every organization. Coping
strategies such as :
 Individual Coping
 Organizational Coping

7.  Coping is simply an effort to solve personal and
interpersonal problems, and seeking to master,
minimize or tolerate stress or conflict.
 INDIVIDUAL COPING STRATEGY
 The first step in managing a conflict is individual
coping. An individual needs to manage the
conflicts or differences inside him to be able to
come up to an agreement with the people around
him. Individual coping include :
 Exercise
 Relaxation
 Behavioral Self-Control
 Cognitive Therapy
 Networking

8.  ORGANISATIONAL COPING STRATEGIES
 In an organization there are various types of
personalities, Aggressive, Assertive and Submissive.
Every personality has a different opinion which gives
rise to conflicts. To cope with organizational
conflicts, strategies used should be:
 Assess positive and negative personality traits of people
involved.
 Taking over control by the seniors if conflicts are at lower
level managements. If seniors are involved they have to
come up to a agreement between them as adverse effects
will be felt over the entire organization.
 Confront whosoever is involved directly. A joint outcome
is better than attaining losses.
 Brainstorming sessions to be conducted regularly.

9.  Aggressive Personalities have a  Submissive Personalities tend to give
stubborn nature and are always up easily and don't seek much
uncompromising. recognition.
 Their body language is stiff and always
keen to emphasize on their points of  They avoid eye contact, speak quietly
view. and always have a sense of insecurity
 They always say things like: and failing.
 “I want you to…”
 “You must…”  Such people need to be helped by their
 “You are stupid….” peer groups. Others should take an
initiative for them and help them be
 The best way to cope with them is to
even at an organization.
ignore them. In cases compromises
have to be made to give in to their
views.

10.  Diagnosis : Diagnose the nature of the conflict so that
its easy to find a solution for it.
 Initiation : Taking the initiative to influence someone
to change their behavior that may be causing the
conflict.
 Listening : An important strategy to reduce conflicts is
the ability to listen and understand the other persons
point of view.
 Avoidance : Stay away from conflict.
 Compromise : Willingness to settle a conflict with an
agreement that all parties involved will accept willingly.

11.  Tries to change and/or solve problem: Coping
strategies help reduce conflicts in organizations and
lets the employees work towards a common goal
without organizational hiccups.
 Confronts the real problem: Coping helps realize
the real problems in the organizations. Problems
such as low performance and low employee
satisfaction levels.
 Keeps identity and role separate: Coping ensures
that an employees identity and their roles in the
organization remain separate, a mixture of these
could result in higher levels of conflicts in the
organization.