By Donna Deeprose
When flaring tempers disrupt the workplace or disputes
between employees threaten to hamper performance, how do you respond?
For some insight on your approach to conflict resolution, take the assessment
below. Choose the option that most closely matches what you would do in
each situation. There are no right or wrong answers.
| 1. If a meeting
broke into a shouting match between two or more participants would
you: |
| |
|
| 2. If two people
who worked for you had a serious disagreement over what action to
take to meet a specific objective, would you: |
| |
|
| 3. If you had
recently added several newcomers to your staff of long-term employees
and the two groups were constantly polarized, would you: |
| |
|
| 4. If you received
a complaint from another manager that one of your employees had been
argumentative and disruptive in an interdepartmental meeting, would
you: |
| |
|
| 5. If you had
two people working for you who constantly argued, never agreeing on
anything, would you: |
| |
|
| 6. If an employee
lost her temper at a difficult customer, would you: |
| |
|
| 7. If two employees
argued over the use of a piece of equipment, would you: |
| |
|
| 8. If a mistake
occurred and two employees each blamed the other for it, would you: |
| |
|
| 9. If two employees,
both wanting the same promotion, sought to discredit each other by
innuendo and rumors, would you: |
| |
|
| 10.
If two employees had an ongoing argument and everyone else in the
unit started taking sides, seriously disrupting work, would you: |
| |
|
Editor: The answers are:
1: Avoidance, Facilitation, Arbitration;
2: Arbitration, Avoidance, Facilitation;
3: Facilitation, Avoidance, Arbitration;
4: Facilitation, Arbitration, Avoidance;
5: Facilitation, Avoidance, Arbitration;
6: Arbitration, Facilitation, Avoidance;
7: Arbitration, Avoidance, Facilitation;
8: Arbitration, Avoidance, Facilitation;
9: Facilitation, Arbitration, Avoidance;
10: Arbitration, Facilitation, Avoidance.
To score the whole assessment, just add up the number
of times the user chooses each approach. Do not have these words pop up
while they are answering the questions—that could encourage them
to gear their answers toward a particular approach.
Here’s how you scored on each approach:
The responses to the situations differentiate
among three approaches to conflict:
Arbitration:
making a unilateral decision on what action to take to stop the conflict.
Avoidance:
staying out of the fray, either by ignoring the conflict or by focusing
attention elsewhere.
Facilitation:
working with the combatants to help them arrive at a solution that satisfies
all.
To learn more about your own approach, click on the
approach with the highest score. If two approaches tie for highest, click
on either one.
Thanks for taking this assessment. We hope it gave you
new ideas for dealing with conflict in the future.
If you would like to improve your conflict resolution
skills, consider the following AMA seminars:
Click here
for information about AMA seminars.
|
