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Unit 8: Communication and Conflict

In some cases the conflict becomes a performance issue, and may become a topic for coaching Notes
sessions, performance appraisals, or disciplinary action.
8.12.7 Guiding Principles

By managing conflicts skilfully, you can:
• Gain cooperation from team members.
• Improve performance and productivity.
• Reduce stress and preserve integrity.

• Solve problems as quickly as possible.
• Improve relationships and teamwork.
• Enhance creativity.
• Increase staff morale.

8.13 Dealing with Anger

When you meet with someone who is angry, you can use the tools of effective listening to
help defuse this anger. Nevertheless, when anger is directed at you, it is much more difficult
to respond definitively, because your own emotions are usually involved.
8.13.1 To Effectively Defuse Anger, Keep in Mind the Needs of the
Angry Speaker
• To vent: An angry person needs to let off steam and release the anger that may have
been brewing for a long time use your communication skills to allow the person to
do this.
• To get the listener’s attention: An angry person wants to know that you are paying
attention use your body language to show this.
• To be heard: An angry person wants someone to listen to his her point of view,
acknowledge the feelings you hear so that the speaker knows you appreciate how
angry he she is.
• To be understood: An angry person wants someone to appreciate how he she feels try
to empathize with his her experience so that he she feels you understand the situation,
and acknowledge his her right to feel the way she does.

8.13.2 When You are listening to an Angry Person
• Be Attentive and Patient: Keep in mind that he she will become less angry as you let
him her express herself.
• Be Sincere: Empathy and validation must be both honest and genuine.
• Be Calm: Try to remove your own emotions from the discussion. Remember that an
angry person may say inflammatory things in the heat of the moment, but you do not
have to react angrily.

8.14 Resolving Conflict versus Managing Conflict

It is important to recognize the difference between resolving conflict and managing conflict.
The goal of conflict resolution is conflict elimination. Conflict resolution is often an impossible
task and not always a desirable goal. Department chairs who accept conflict resolution as
their ultimate objective will undoubtedly fail. Conflict management is directed toward

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