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.

Conflicts arise through various sources, may it be difference in opinion or let it be difference in caste, gender, age.

Sources could be: Personality clash Wants, Needs and Values differ Assumptions and Perceptions Personal and Group Interest Tension and Stress 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.

Personality Type A : Submissive

Personality Type B : Aggressive

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.

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

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

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.

Aggressive Personalities have a stubborn nature and are always uncompromising.

Their body language is stiff and always keen to emphasize on their points of view.

They always say things like: “I want you to…” “You must…” “You are stupid….”

The best way to cope with them is to ignore them. In cases compromises have to be made to give in to their views.

Submissive Personalities tend to give up easily and don't seek much recognition.

They avoid eye contact, speak quietly and always have a sense of insecurity and failing.

Such people need to be helped by their peer groups. Others should take an initiative for them and help them be even at an organization.

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.

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.