Communication/Conflict in the Workplace
Read Brody (2014) Chapter 10: “Improving Communications and Handling Conflict”.
In your written assignment to me:
- Describe a situation in which you had a conflict with a subordinate or supervisor.
- What were the concrete issues?
- Describe the flow of communication in chronological order.
- Describe how, when and where the communication occurred at each step of the way (i.e. e-mail, telephone, face-to-face, in the context of a meeting, etc.). Note anything about the environment or time of day or week that may have made the conflict worse. (For instance, late Friday afternoon after a tiring week, etc.)
- Describe any emotional issues, personality factors, past history, etc. that might have made the situation more volatile.
- Describe major “phases” of the encounter.
- What was the end result?
- As you reflect on this encounter, what helped it come to resolution? Was there anything that made the situation worse?
- If you had it to do over again, what would you do differently and why?
