https://mayrsom.com/tag/conflict-resolution/
Conflicts between students in a project group is valuable to their productivity because it helps to further enhance closeness and mutual respect between them. Generally, when brainstorming and pitching an idea for a project, conflicting of ideas between students will happen. In my opinion, empathy is the most effective technique to handle a conflict because it allows one to have a better understanding of another person by trying to be in the other person shoes. To illustrate further, allow me to share with you a conflict between students, which I have personally witnessed recently, and how empathy could be used to resolve the conflict and strengthen their bond and mutual respect.
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Joey's group were tasked to create an automotive robot that could launch a capsule at a specific height. The tension was high for his group as the due date for the proposal was approaching near. Jackson Joey's group have not come to an agreement on an idea to propose to their program chair, Dr Lee Paul Shaun, because Joey's his idea was conflicting with the one given by another group member, Joel. They argued over whose idea was better and both refused to back down. In the middle of the argument, Joey, who was frustrated, raised his voice and barked at Joel asking as to why couldn't Joel accept his idea. Joel, with arms crossed, retaliated with a vexed look, " Why must I accept your idea? Why can't you accept mine instead?". Joel then continued, " Can't you see that my idea is more creative than yours, and could even impress Dr Lee? Yours is just basically boring!". After hearing such insulting words from Joel, Joey eyes started to cast down. He was deeply hurt. Joey responded with, " Do you know how much the group approval of my idea means to me? Do you ever stop to consider how I feel towards this entire project?". Joel, with body faced away, ended the argument by ignoring Joey's response and researching more on his idea instead - showing how uninterested he was with Joey's idea. No agreement between either ideas were made but more importantly, the feeling of frustration and distrust, were present between the two by the end of the argument.
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The main problem in the story above is that both Joel and Joey does not want to accept each other ideas. I believe that the main cause was that both refuses to see from each other point of view. The conflict could easily be resolved by using empathy. As a third party, I knew that Joel did not want to back down because he wanted to show his contribution to the group and not feel "useless" while Joey wanted people the group to acknowledge his sense of creativity. I believe the solution to this problem is that Joel and Joey should both take each other feelings into consideration and compromise their ideas. This approach allows them to respect each other more and strengthen the bond between them.
In conclusion, conflicts happen all the time in school and in my opinion, empathy is the most effective way to approach it. By effectively using empathy to resolve conflicts, one could gain mutual respect and strengthen bond between group members. These are important especially when dealing with fast paced, agile, and highly-stress projects. However, empathy is just one out of many communication techniques that I normally use to approach a conflict, what could yours be?
Interesting character and simple story to digest. Is it interesting how you use empathy to resolve issue by understanding one another. This is good method in resolving issues especially if you will be working with the same group for a long time. A more compromising approach may be required at times though, whereby it is a simple and short project.
ReplyDelete-Khairil
Hello Khairil,
DeleteThank you for your kind words. I'm glad that you enjoyed the story and took something out of it. I hope you will continue to read my blog. I'll definitely try my best to impress you more on my next post.
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ReplyDeleteDear Hanzalah,
ReplyDeleteYour story involves a very common problem that can be seen for all groups that are trying to make a proposal for a project. While i do agree that empathy is a method of approaching this conflict, i feel that it would be better to seek mediation through a third party opinion instead. The third party would come evaluate both Joel and Joey's proposal and find a common ground in which both of them could come into agreement. This may still cause some unhappiness between them, but this could probably make the proposal more refined.
-Jason Chua
Hello Jason,
DeleteThank you for your kind feedback. You have a point. I do agree that a third party should come to evaluate and find common ground between them. This will be very helpful however, this is strictly applicable to a group of more than two, which in my case, follows. Consider if it's only in a group of two. Students outside the group would usually not want to mind their business in other people group. It is up to both members responsibility to resolve their conflict in order to progress further. This is just my opinion though, do reply me again if you think otherwise.
Hanzalah, this is a relevant case for study. Also, the question at the end is appropriate.
ReplyDeleteBut, the story is too sketchy. The task instruction states: "Describe in detail an interpersonal conflict situation, real or hypothetical. Describe the context of the conflict, the people involved, the main problem, and the possible causes." While you have named what you thought were the main problem and possible causes of the conflict, the story - told in 3 sentences, by the way - does not show the feelings or motivations of the characters.
Also, the names are rather confusing - Who is 'Jackson group' in this story? What is this group's connection with Joey and Joel?
Hello Dr Lee,
DeleteThank you for your kind feedback. I apologize for not answering the task given properly. To clarify, the story was initially longer. However, due to each post word count limit, I trimmed the story and forgot about being detailed. I have edited the post and I hope it gives you a better and clearer picture of the story.
Hello Hanzalah,
ReplyDeleteI think the story which is relevant to our own study life. I believe we all be involved in these kind of situation before. As you say, we all want to show our's contribution to the group. But in this case, I think both of them, Joey and Joel, only focus on their own contribution and too stubborn that refuse to accept other's idea. They must realized it won't have any benefit either for their project nor for their relationship. I agree what you say, at first, they must accept part of each other's idea. They must learn to find out other people's advantage, then they can complement themselves.