CONFLICT MANAGEMENT 1

Writing Assignment 3

Conflict Management Strategy

Jordan Shteiwi

11/27/18

COM 2206

Sinclair Community College

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Conflict happens in everyone's lives, it’s inevitable. It can take the form in many ways,

either verbal discussions, fiery red arguments, and even hostile awkward silence. William

Wilmot and Joyce Hockner describe conflict as “an expressed struggle between at least two

interdependent parties who perceive incompatible goals, scare, resources, and interference from

the other party in achieving their goals.” (2013). Avoidance (Lose-Lose), Accommodation (Lose-

Win), Competition (Win, Lose), Compromise (Negotiated Lose-Lose) and (collaboration (Win-

Win) are different styles that people use when facing conflict with others. In this writing we will

discuss the conflict style that a receptionist chose to use while in conversation with a patient who

has been at a Doctor’s office for a very long time waiting to be seen.

After reading the scenario, I believe that the receptionist chose the Competition (Win-

Lose) conflict style when interacting with the patient. Competition is a Win-Lose situation that is

a high concern of self and low concern of others (Adler, Rosenfeld & Proctor, II, 2015) It can

also be a power-driven mode that is high in assertiveness and low in cooperation. With the

Competition style comes sub-divisions, Passive Aggression and Direct Aggression. With passive

Aggression, the person who is communicating (in this example that would be the receptionist)

will express the dissatisfaction of the situation in a way that it is not direct. Direct aggression is

where a communicator lashes out and attacks the source of displeasure. This can come in the

form of character attacks, physical attacks, teasing, ridicule and threats which are directed at the

other party involved. With this example, I feel that the receptionist used passive aggression. As
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well as some direct aggression. The biggest hint to me was that the scenario stated the patient

walked back to her seat in the waiting room feeling very defensive when the receptionist said

that she didn't have time for this and this is what happens when you don't plan properly. This is a

direct attack on the patient and her character, implying that she is not organized and impatient.

When learning how to go through Conflict Management we hit a step called

communication climate. The definition of communication climate is, according to Adler, "the

emotional tone of the relationship." (Adler). This can be in a romantic, friendship or

acquaintance relationship, it essentially it is affected by the environment. Our book has a good

example, it says to imagine two interpersonal communication classrooms. Both classes are the

same in aspects of class size, length of time and content however one classroom is warm and

inviting while the other is cold and hostile. This is a result of how the people feel about the class

and how they treat each other. (Adler). Within a positive climate, such as a doctor’s office in our

example, can come with negative reactions. In the scenario the doctor’s office is very busy, and

when the patient asks the receptionist about the time to be seen the receptionist replies with a

defense provoking behavior because she is stressed with the busy environment around her. The

behavior that she exhibited was control. She gave a short snippy answer of “I don't have time for

this” which showed her assertiveness of power but had no regard to the patients’ needs or

interest. (2013).
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The second half of the behaviors is a Supportive behavior. This is where both parties get a

portion of what they are after in an interaction. The receptionist chose to react to the patients

question with a behavior that only further made the environment more hostile and negative. A

better way that she could have handled the patients question was to use the Supportive Behavior

Problem Orientation. This is a way of finding a solution that satisfies both parties and resolves

both of their needs. The goal with problem orientation is that both parties feel like they can come

to agreement so that everyone feels they have won and to help diffuse the situation and no cause

further defensiveness. (2013)

There are better ways that the receptionist could have used in the situation to get her

message across without being on the defensive side. Instead of the receptionist just saying, “we

are busy and the doctor has a lot of patients to see.” She could have said “I know that you can see

we are very busy today, and I an unable to give you a time because each patient is different,

however I can give you and idea of how many patients are in front of you.” The patient then

could have responded with “Yes, I can definitely see the office is very busy today, and that would

be fine, I just need to give my work an idea of how long I will be before I can return.” I don’t

think that the receptionist needed to say anything about her not having time for this, after all it is

a part of her duties to interact with the patients and she also should have not said that “this is

what happens when you do not plan properly” as it is not the patients fault the office is busy.

If I was in the role of the receptionist, I would have to stop and understand that the
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patients don’t want to be at the office when it is busy and more than I like to deal with a busy

office. I also wouldn’t expect a patient to know the many tasks that have to be completed on top

of making sure the patients are taken care of. When supportive behavior is used instead of

defensive behavior, I feel that it would quickly diffuse the tension and allow both the patient and

the receptionist to come to an agreeance that benefits them both. Understanding the concepts of

conflict management can either make a situation more stressful, or it can put parties to somewhat

at rest.

Conflict management is a very important part of our social interactions with people.

When we understand the parts of conflict management, conflict strategy, defensive

behavior/support behavior and communication climate, we can learn how to quickly and easily

resolve a conflict without becoming or feeling defensive. Since it is something that we will deal

with many times in our lives, I feel that it is an important piece of information to learn about.
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References

Adler, R., Rosenfeld, L., & Proctor, II, R. (2015). Interplay: The Process of Interpersonal

Communication (13th ed., p. 374). New York, New York: Oxford University Press.

Adler, Ronald B., and Russell F. Proctor. Looking Out/looking in. 13th ed.

Boston: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning, 2011. Print.

Wilmot, W.W., & Hocker, J.L. (2013) Interpersonal Conflict (9th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-

Hill.