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How to avoid causing conflict
1. Quotable quote
"It is the hostility which is usually seen as the harmful aspect of conflict. The management of conflict thus becomes an effort to eliminate or minimise hostility, acknowledging that it is inevitable, if not healthy, for individuals or groups to strive to attain their own preferred outcomes or to satisfy their own particular interests."
2. Ask yourself
You can keep conflicts in your work-place to a minimum. But, for starters, to keep things running smoothly in your area, do you:
- Listen carefully to employees to prevent misunderstandings?
- Monitor employees’ work to help you understand and coordinate their actions?
- Encourage employees to come to you when they can’t solve problems with co-workers on their own?
- Clear the air with regular meetings that give employees a chance to discuss grievances?
- Provide a suggestion box, check it frequently, and personally reply to all signed suggestions?
- Offer as much information as possible about decisions (yours and management’s) to minimise confusion and resentment?
- Use employee surveys to look for conflicts that haven’t yet surfaced?
3. Viewpoint
"You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view." …
