What do we mean by Conflict Management?
In day to day living it is inevitable that we will all have disagreements with other people because everybody has different needs, values and wants.
Most of the time this forms a normal and natural part of our life and helps us to understand that there are different ways of thinking and doing things. Usually we manage to resolve the difficulty or agree to differ and then get on with our life. This is the positive side of conflict.
However, there are occasions when the disagreement escalates and becomes more difficult to resolve. This can be for a variety of reasons, for example, a lack of communication, a clash of values, a change in circumstances or, perhaps, a fear of the unknown. When this happens lots of people find the situation very difficult to handle and usually very strong emotions are stirred up which get in the way of resolution. It is at times like this that conflict can become destructive. This can lead to harmful behaviour, polarize differences, undermine our self esteem and take attention away from other important things we should be doing.
There are a wide range of tools and techniques that individuals can use to manage conflict in a positive way. These can be learned easily and used very effectively to resolve difficulties.
If you would like to learn more about Conflict Management, please select and download the Conflict ManagementPDF document on the right.
