CONFLICT OF MANAGEMENT TRAINING (IN-HOUSE)

DATE : 21st – 23rd AUGUST 2016 (3 Days)

TIME : 9.00 am - 4.00 pm
PLACE : BILIK PERSIDANGAN, DEPARTMENT OF MUSEUM
MALAYSIA
ORGANIZER : TRAINING UNIT, DEPARTMENT OF MUSEUM
MALAYSIA
CONSULTANT : SAFE SKILL ACADEMY (OUTSOURCE)
PARTICIPANT : DEPARTMENT OF MUSEUM MALAYSIA OFFICERS
(GRED S27 – S41)

INTRODUCTION

Some conflicts are good as they result in thinking outside the box and taking performance to

higher levels. Others can be counterproductive, resulting in diminished morale and

productivity at the workplace. Most undesired conflicts arise because employees do not see

eye-to-eye on issues related to work and sometimes over personal matters. 

The new professional mantra at the workplace celebrates and most importantly, makes use of

individual personality differences, as these differences are important to foster creative

thinking. Such thinking is needed to sustain a business in a dynamic environment pummelled

by recession, high turnovers and a rapidly changing nature of competition.

These very individual differences, however, will likely lead to conflicts when individuals

with contrasting and even subtle differences in aspects of their personalities clash within

workplace contexts. 

Workplace friction is not limited to the odd balls that have significant interpersonal issues

with most team members. Employees in today’s workplaces need to understand not only their

teams better but also themselves, in order to fully comprehend the personal underpinnings to

workplace conflicts with peers and repartees, and ways to overcome these conflicts. 
Take the example of an employee who habitually applies a logical and rational way of

decision-making. Contrast this person with a peer who is concerned about others’ well-being

and adopts a compassionate approach to decision-making. It’s easy to understand potential

situations of conflict when these two individuals come in contact in shared decision-making

situations. 

Clearly, an insight into such differences in approaching workplace requirements such as

decision-making and team work will enable the management to better resolve conflicts and

more importantly, prevent conflicts by helping employees understand their own and the

idiosyncratic behaviours of their colleagues.  

While broad personality types such as extraversion or introversion are easy to identify and

relate to, individual differences in personality in many situations do not manifest themselves

as different personality types but as subtle differences between people of the same type. Such

differences are harder to spot but nevertheless, influence peoples’ interpersonal relations at

the workplace, including their ability to manage and resolve conflicts. 

Current personality assessments may focus on identifying broad personality types without

digging deeper into facet level interpretations of individual differences. Perhaps, what’s

required are assessments that will offer this deeper insight into why individuals behave the

way they do, and at a level that is more personal and meaningful for the employee. The

learning that takes place from this information will also facilitate better communication

among employees, eventually resulting in more functional teams. 

Although conflict management is an important application of workplace personality

assessment, the benefits of such an assessment go well beyond smoothing out bumps in day-

to-day operations. Strategic thinking required from the organisation’s leadership depends,

eventually, on the kind of person entrusted with this job in the organisation. 

A leader needs to direct her energies in the right direction, process information optimally,

take decisions that make the best business sense, deal with the workplace environment and

most importantly react to stress in a manner that creates harmony in her surroundings.

Therefore, assessing personality for leadership coaching becomes relevant for HR that will

spend a considerable amount of time and people resources to identify the right kind of

leadership for its organisations. 

Perhaps at no period in the history of the workplace than today, are managers and HR

professionals looking at factors way beyond skill sets and compensation, to gauge what

impacts high performance. 

Personality and the resultant behaviour have always impacted how people view their work,

peers and their short and long-term goals in organisations. It is today, in the context of the

twenty first century workforce, that personality is rightfully gaining its seat as worthy of

objective and accurate assessment at the workplace and worth its weight in gold. Indeed

understanding personality is golden. 

So, this conflict management training can benefit almost every individual – both at home and

on the job. Anyone who works with others is very likely to be a party to some disagreements
on occasion. Depending upon the seriousness of the situation, having thorough conflict

resolution training can make the difference between losing your job and impressing your

superiors.

BENEFITS OF TRAINING

Conflict is a natural occurrence, particularly in the workplace when multiple employees work

together. The varying backgrounds and opinions of employees often lead to different

conclusions or ideas on how to handle work projects. While some people choose to avoid

conflict, others employ conflict management skills to resolve the situation. Training

employees and yourself on conflict management provides beneficial skills for the workplace.

Stronger Relationships

Poorly managed conflict often causes friction between the involved employees, possibly

damaging the working relationship. By learning how to resolve conflicts in a professional,

respectful manner, the employees involved are often able to strengthen their relationships.

The skills enable staff members to work well together because the parties involved know how

to navigate the disagreement. Instead of fighting, insulting or ignoring one another, the

colleagues learn how to better collaborate, which can help build their relationships.

Problem Solving

Conflict resolution skills enable employees to resolve their own problems quickly and

effectively. This allows the flow of activity to continue in the workplace without extended

disruptions due to conflict that goes unresolved. Employees who know how to handle conflict

are also less likely to run to the manager to solve every disagreement that arises related to

work. All employees, including the manager, are able to work more.
Reduced Tension

Conflict can cause tension between employees if they don't know how to handle the situation.

A disagreement that stays unresolved causes that tension to build and often spreads to other

employees who weren't originally involved. If both parties feel they are right and refuse to

listen to one another, they may pit themselves against one another, dragging in other

employees to choose sides. Tension due to unresolved conflict lowers morale in the

workplace and can stall the work flow. By training your employees how to handle conflict on

their own, the overall tension decreases for a better working environment.

Increased Understanding

Conflict resolution skills allow people to move beyond their own emotions and opinions to

make objective decisions. By teaching these skills in the workplace, you encourage a deeper

understanding of situations that arise and the other people in the office. Employees learn how

their colleagues feel and think, as well as how to interact with them. The parties involved also

take a more thorough look at the situation and consider other possible solutions. This can lead

to learning on the specific work topic.

COURSE AIM

The aim of conflict management course is to introduce practical conflict resolution

techniques and strategies that managers and team leaders can effectively utilise when

managing conflict in the workplace. It should build on previous training, skills and

knowledge of effective performance management.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

By the end of this one-day training course, the participants will have:
 1. Defined confrontation and their role in managing conflict in the workplace to ensure

they maximise individual and team performance

2. Identified their preferred style/s in influencing others and managing conflict and the

additional strategies that they need to use to successfully resolve the conflict situation

3. Demonstrated their skills in resolving conflict and confrontation

4. Have identified a plan to apply and enhance their communication skills in the

workplace to address existing conflicts

DETAILED PROGRAMME

1st day

9.15 am - Registration and coffee

Everyone needs to collect a name badge or sticker and a pack of information about the day.

Pack needs to include:

• Agenda for participants

• Worksheet

• Evaluation sheet

(Have pens set out on the tables- tables set for 4-6 people depending on numbers- need 3

groups or multiples of 3 if possible)

10.00 am - PowerPoint- Introductory slides

1. Course title

2. Mission statement

3. Comments re: conflict in centres from Chief Director JMM

4. Objectives of the training

11.00 am - What do you need to know?

1. Ask participants to tell you what they would like to get out of today’s session and

what they would like covered. Write their ideas on a flip chart and explain that you

will have an opportunity to review this at the end of the session. Anything not covered

can then be followed up by the trainer and information sent on to participants.

12.30 pm - Break (Lunch)

2.30 pm - Ice-breaker

1. Ask participants to work in pairs and discuss with their partner the following:

“Think of a time when you experienced conflict that you are happy to share with

people.

Discuss this with the person sitting next to you who will then feed this back to the rest

of the group. Consider how the incident made you feel”

2. Ask them to swap after about 2-3 mins (you will need to remind them when to swap)

and to keep the story brief. Ask participants not to discuss incidents that might stir up

difficult feelings for them that would upset the start of their day!

3. After about 15 minutes, ask each participant to introduce their partner and very briefly

relate their partner’s story and the feelings involved.

3.30 pm - PowerPoint

1. Definition and purpose of conflict

2. Why does it occur?

3. Positive reasons for conflict

 4. Negative reasons for conflict

5. What will happen without resolution?

6. ‘win/win’, ‘win/lose’ and ‘lose/lose’.

2nd day

9.00 am - Conflict in the Contact Centre

Exercise - Ask participants to work in small groups (multiples of 3 groups) and give one third

of the groups worksheets. Ask them to complete the sheets filling in how conflict may be

created or made worse by the actions of the focus group on the worksheets.

Allow 30 minutes and then ask for feedback to the whole group.

9.30 am - PowerPoint - Recognising different emotional states

1. Aggression

2. Anxiety

3. Depression

4. Frustration

5. Disapproval

6. Feeling threatened

Exercise- hand out laminated pictures amongst small groups and ask participants to identify

the different emotions involved.

11.40 am - How we react to conflict

Exercise- Active listening skills

Ask participants to work in pairs. Hand out role cards A and B to each pair. One half of the

pair will talk for about 2-3 minutes about how difficult the journey was to the training session

and the other person will not listen properly. You do not need to explain this- let the
participants read what is on the role cards without discussing what they have to do. After 2-3

minutes ask them to swap around for another couple of minutes. Then ask for feedback from

the group about how it felt not to be listened to, and the b group about how easy or difficult it

may have felt not to listen.

Explain that good, active listening is really important when someone is very upset or angry- it

is essential not to get things wrong or look as though you are not interested.

12.30 pm -Break (Lunch)

2.30 pm - Exercise- Personal space

Ask participants to stand up and working with someone they haven’t worked with, find some

space and face each other. Then ask them to move towards each other as close as they can,

until one of them feels uncomfortable.

Discuss how this made people feel and talk about the ‘intimate’, ‘personal’ and ‘public’ zone.

3.30 pm - Using “I” statements

Explain the importance of not using confrontational language when dealing with people who

are angry or upset, e.g “you shouldn’t shout at me” would be better put as “I don’t like it

when you shout at me”

Exercise - Handout 3 statements to each group (or fewer if you have lots of groups) and ask

the participants to re-word the statements to make them less confrontational.

3rd day

9.00 am - Barriers to effective communication

Using a flip chart, ask participants to list what they see as barriers to effective communication

in the contact situation.

10.00 am - Dealing with conflict

General discussion with whole group about what steps we should take in a contact centre to

deal with conflict- write this on a flip chart as a plan.

11.00 am - Exercise: Case studies

Read out 3 case studies and ask participants to say how they would deal with the situations-

What would you do? What would you say?

12.30 pm - Break (Lunch)

2.30 pm - De-briefing

General discussion of the importance of de-briefing - how should this be done and when?

What about following an issue up?

3.30 pm - Checking out understanding

Look again at the flip chart list from the start of the session - have the items that participants

listed been covered? Are there any questions?

4.00 pm - Close session

Ask participants to complete evaluation sheets from their packs and give out handouts. Hand

out certificates and collect evaluation sheets.

RESOURCES

This module is based on a PowerPoint presentation, but could be developed as an OHP

Presentation or the slides transferred to flip chart or handouts. The ice-breaker will need to

be presented carefully- if participants discuss something that stirs up very angry feelings, you

may have to help them deal with those before moving on. It is best to suggest that something

manageable is discussed. It is usually a good idea to randomly assign participants to groups

as they arrive. This can be done by using different coloured dots, for example, on their name

badges. It would not matter for this programme, however, if people worked with someone

they already know.

The paper resources required for this module are as follows:

• A copy of the ‘Agenda for Participants’ (1 copy per person)

• Name badges and/or stickers

• Pens

• PowerPoint presentation or whatever form you are using

• Flip chart and pens

• Trainer’s Notes Support Sheets

• Worksheets

• Laminated pictures of different emotions

• Role cards a and b for active listening exercise

• Statement cards for Using ‘I’ statements exercise

• Case studies

• Evaluation sheets

• Handouts about the presentation

• Certificates

CONCLUSION

This training is designed to supplement formal conflict management training and assist

museum officer in implementing their new conflict resolution skills in the workplace. The
focus of training sessions is placed on learning why we make assumptions, how to broaden

our perspective on the situation, the possible conflict triggers and the hidden, underlying

causes and tensions. Developing coping mechanisms is explored, along with possible

resolution options, ways to move forward towards resolution and how to negotiate and abide

by agreements.