Conflict Assessment – Cheap Research Essays

Briefly describe an organizational conflict that you have observed/experienced or researched. (It could be the conflict you used in the Week Three discussion forum or another conflict.) Using the Wilmot-Hocker Conflict Assessment Guide, analyze the components of the conflict and report on your analysis. Be sure to include an analysis of key factors that would influence the choice of ADR to be used in the conflict. Recommend an ADR method to resolve the conflict. Justify your selection of ADR method.
The Hocker- Wilmot Conflict Assessment Guide
This guide is composed of a series of questions designed to focus on the components of conflict discussed in part I of this book. It can be used to bring specific aspects of a conflict into focus and serve as a check on gaps in information about a conflict. The guide is best used in tote so that the interplay of conflict elements can be clearly highlighted.

1.Nature of the Conflict
1.What are the “triggering events” that brought this conflict into mutual awareness?
2.What is the historical context of this conflict in terms of (1) the ongoing relationship between the parties and (2) other, external events within which this conflict is embedded?
3.Do the parties have assumptions about conflict that are discernable by their choices of conflict metaphors, patterns of behavior, or clear expressions of their attitudes about conflict?
4.Conflict elements:
5.
1.How is the struggle being expressed by each party?
2.What are the perceived incompatible goals?
3.What are the perceived scarce rewards?
4.In what ways are the parties interdependent? How are they interfering with one another? How are they cooperating to keep the conflict in motion?
6.Has the conflict vacillated between productive and destructive phases? If so, which elements were transformed during the productive cycles? Which elements might be transformed by creative solutions to the conflict?
2.Styles of Conflict
1.What individual styles did each party use?
2.How did the individual styles change during the course of the conflict?
3.How did the parties perceive the other’s style?
4.In what way did a party’s style reinforce the choices the other party made as the conflict progressed?
5.Were the style choices primarily symmetrical or complementary?
6.From an external perspective, what were the advantages and disadvantages of each style within this particular conflict?
7.Can the overall system be characterized as having a predominant style? What do the participants say about the relationship as a whole?
8.From an external perspective, where would this conflict system be placed in terms of cohesion and adaptability?
9.Would any of the other system descriptions aptly summarize the system dynamics?
3.Power
1.What attitudes about their own and the other’s power does each party have? Do they talk openly about power, or is it not discussed?
2.What do the parties see as their own and the other’s dependencies on one another? As an external observer, can you classify some dependencies that they do not list?
3.What power currencies do the parties see themselves and the other possessing?
4.From an external perspective, what power currencies of which the participants are not aware seem to be operating?
5.In what ways do the parties disagree on the balance of power between them? Do they underestimate their own or the other’s influence?
6.What impact does each party’s assessment of power have on subsequent choices in the conflict?
7.What evidence of destructive “power balancing” occurs?
8.In what ways do observers of the conflict agree and disagree with the parties’ assessments of their power?
9.What are some unused sources of power that are present?
4.Goals
1.How do the parties clarify their goals? Do they phrase them in individualistic or system terms?
2.What does each party think the other’s goals are? Are they similar or dissimilar to the perceptions of self-goals?
3.How have the goals been altered from the beginning of the conflict to the present? In what ways are the prospective, transactive, and retrospective goals similar or dissimilar?
4.What are the content goals?
5.What are the relational goals?
6.What is each party’s translation of content goals into relationship terms? How do the two sets of translations correspond or differ?
5.Tactics
1.Do the participants appear to strategize about their conflict choices or remain spontaneous?
2.How does each party view the other’s strategizing?
3.What are the tactical options used by both parties?
4.Do the tactical options classify primarily into avoidance, competition, or collaborative tactics?
5.How are the participants’ tactics mutually impacting on the other’s choices? How are the tactics interlocking to push the conflict through phases of escalation, maintenance, and reduction?
6.Assessment
1.What rules of repetitive patterns characterize this conflict?
2.Can quantitative instruments be used to give information about elements of the conflict?
7.Self-Regulation
1.What options for change do the parties perceive?
2.What philosophy of conflict characterizes the system?
3.What techniques for self-regulation or system-regulation have been used thus far? Which might be used productively by the system?
8.Attempted Solutions
1.What options have been explored for managing the conflict?
2.Have attempted solutions become part of the problem?
3.Have third parties been brought into the conflict? If so, what roles did they play and what was the impact of their involvement?
4.Is this conflict a repetitive one, with attempted solutions providing temporary change, but with the overall pattern remaining unchanged? If so, what is that overall pattern?
5.Can you identify categories of attempted solutions that have not been tried?
The Conflict Assessment Guide can be used in a variety of contexts. Students who are writing an analysis of a conflict can use the questions as a check on the components of conflict. Using extensive interviews with the conflict parties or constructing a questionnaire based on the guide enables one to discover the dynamics of a conflict. The guide can also be used for analyzing larger social or international conflicts, but without interviewing or assessing the conflict parties, one is restricted to highly selective information.
A consultant to organizations can also use the guide by modifying it for direct use. Similarly, an intervener in private conflicts such as those of a family can solicit information about the components of a conflict in an informal, conversational way by referring to the guide as an outline of relevant topics. In either case, care should be taken to modify the guide for the particular task, for the conflict parties, and for your intervention goals.
If one is a participant in a conflict, the guide can be used as a form of self-intervention. If both parties respond to the guide, you can use it to highlight what you and the other party perceive about your conflict. Usually, we recommend that a questionnaire be constructed for both persons to answer, and once the data are collected, the parties can discuss the similarities and differences in their perceptions of the conflict.
Whatever your preferred assessment technique, or combination of approaches, the assessment devices in this chapter can enable you to see some order and regularity in conflicts that at first appear confusing and overwhelming. With careful assessment, the dynamics of conflict can come into focus so you can fashion creative, productive options for management.
Summary
Conflicts are often perplexing to both participants and outsiders. Usually, however, an interpersonal conflict is operating as a system of relations, complete with repetitive behavior, rules, and other identifiable dynamics. There are many possible ways to assess conflict patterns. Metaphoric/dramatic approaches search for the images of the process held by the participants and use those as a stepping stone for creative management options. Diagramming