Communication Styles In Conflict Resolution

Communication Styles In Conflict Resolution

When society hears the word conflict it usually brings to mind something destructive but when we talk about conflict in the context of team dynamics it can be constructive as well as destructive. Whenever people unite to work as a team for anything more than a brief duration, some conflict is normal, and should be expected. Because of the inevitability of conflict, being able to recognize, address, and ultimately resolve it is vitally important, since unresolved conflict may have undesirable effects, including reduced morale, or increased turnover. Just as conflicts within team environments vary, so do methods for resolving it. In this paper, we will talk about the latest 'best practices'; and the various communication styles in conflict resolution.

There are five communication styles defined by Virginia Satir, a famous American writer and psychotherapist. This classification can give you an alternative approach on how to be courageous in a conflicting situation at work.

When your opponent tends to dominate and win an argument by any means, he or she uses the "blaming" or "aggressive" style. The "blamer" hides a feeling of alienation and loneliness behind the facade of tough and complacent person. People with this communication style are more likely to initiate a conflict. The individual who takes a blaming stance is attempting to mask personal vulnerability by trying to control others as well as by indiscriminately disagreeing with them. This stance allows the blamer to feel a greater sense of personal importance in spite of the experience of loneliness and personal sense of failure. This person will complain, bullying others and finding fault with them. One who assumes a blaming stance discounts the other person or people.

Blaming can be transformed into being assertive and taking a stand for oneself. When standing up for oneself, the blamer learns to assert self realistically, as opposed to having a knee-jerk reaction to others.

Superreasonable (the computer). A person assuming the stance of superreasonable seeks to disguise vulnerability with a detached control that focuses on intellectual experience. This focus allows the person to skirt emotions and thereby anesthetize feelings. This person is cool, aloof, reasonable, and intellectual; his or her clear persuasiveness should not be confused with congruent communication. This type of communication discounts both self and other.

A person who is superreasonable can learn to use his or her intelligence creatively, as opposed to using intelligence to protect self. The professional will sense the connection with emotions in the transformed superreasonable and be aware of this person's wisdom.

Irrelevant (the distractor). The individual who takes on the irrelevant stance is pretending that the Stressor is nonexistent. He or she diverts the focus from the present, feeling-laden situation to something else. To others, that diversion may appear quite off-the-wall. Non sequiturs and scatterbrained comments frequently are observed. This type of communication discounts self, others, and context.

Transformed, the formerly irrelevant person has the ability to be spontaneous and have fun. This person becomes a creative individual capable of congruent interactions, having no ...