International Human Relations For Communication

Conflict Management

Discuss about the International Human Relation for Communication.

Development of conflict is very usual in any of the relationship. Thus, there is always a need to management these conflicts. The conflicts can be managed by using different approaches according to the nature of conflict and the mature of the individual who are facing the same. Among friends, conflict management is very necessary to retain the bond as it is (De Wied, Branje and Meeus, 2007). Communication is another factor that affect the friendship and he reaction with the friends. If there is lack of communication then friendship may ruptures with time. Friendship also helps in improving the communication skills of person. These issues of conflict and communication can be resolved by using different approaches. Some conflict management approaches that have been discussed in the report are competing, collaboration, accommodating, avoiding and compromising. These behaviors of the individual help them to resolve the conflicts that have been generated among the people (Cahn, 2013). The report defined communication as the process that is not limited to speaking but it involves listening and body language use as well.

Conflict can be defined as the differences in the views and opinions according to their thinking process. When two people or group of people met and discuss anything, then it leads to generation of different ideas related to the topic. These ideas may differ from each other according to the preference and thought process of the individual. Thus, the differences in these ideas may generate conflict among the individual with contrasting ideas and thoughts. There are various reasons that can results into conflicts (Matheson, Olsen and Weisner, 2007). The difference in behavior, attitude, actions, thought process, beliefs, views and opinions of the individuals leads to conflicts amongst them. The conflict can be resolved by settling down the issues or the cause of issue generated. To get better understanding of the conflict, it is important to learn about the why these conflicts occur. The first and the foremost cause of generation of conflicts is that the people disagree with each other. People disagree because they have different viewpoints on the topic and see the situation differently (Dem?r and Weitekamp, 2007). It is totally depends on the personality of the individual that how he looks at the situation. A much known example of this situation is glass of water. A glass that is half filled with water can be observed as half empty by anther individual. So, it is the aspect of viewpoints that can differ with individual to individual. The difference in the social status and the level of education of the individual may affect the thought process and also the personality of the individual. Age is also a big factor that can affect the thought process of the person. It is not necessary that the child thinks or perceive the situation in the same way as the adult. The reason being that, both the individual have their own personality and may have different experiences regarding a particular thing.

Communication Skills

Every conflict does not lead to negative results. Some of the organizations generate the conflicts among the people to create the environment of competition so that the employees in the organization can perform better (Thayer, Updegraff and Delgado, 2008). It also helps in stimulating the new ideas for resolution of different issues. When any of the issues have been raised, it needs to be resolved. The resolution of the issue can be done only by thinking about the solution from all the aspects and this requires different types of thought process to think about the solution from all the ways. The discussion that supports the generation of new ideas also results in cohesion between the individuals who all are contributing in the discussion.

Different individual behave differently at the time of conflicts. To manage the conflicts, it is important to understand the response styles of the people. The first types of people are addressers who take initiatives to resolve the issue by making other people agree on his own views. They confront the other individual with confidence (Selfhout, Denissen, Branje and Meeus, 2009). Next types of people are concealers. They have a blank response towards the issue resolution practice. Last one are the attackers, they attack the other members of the discussion panel by expressing their feelings in aggressive manner. There are five types of behavior through which conflicts can be resolved:

• Compete: The people with this behavior compete with the other individuals and the decision is made according to the winner who wins the competition.
• Collaborate: Collaborate refers to the mixing of the thoughts. This behavior suggests that the conflict in this case can be resolved when both the parties under conflict collaborate their ideas and resolve the issue mutually (Franz and Götzenbrucker, 2012).
• Compromise: Compromise is the case where one of the parties needs to settle down with their ideas and have to get ready on the ideas of other party. The middle route is taken out in this case in order to find out the solution.
• Accommodate: It is the situation where one of the party lose a lot and gain little by mutual concern.
• Avoid: Avoidance is the case where both the parties are rigid in nature and do not confront. In this case, time has been given to the parties to cool down their rigid nature.

Conflict management is very necessary in order to maintain any relationship. To understand the concept, the theories of conflict management can be implemented on the relations of friends. Friendship is the relation that has been made by the voluntary action of the humans. That means it is not made by god (Patterson, 2007). People chose their friends themselves after looking at their qualities. I have many friends and sometime we generally have some kind of conflicts regarding the things in spite of the fact that we have selected each other’s friendship. The issues that generally rose between me and my friend are generally related to the academic project we do. We always go through some kind of conflicts at that time because our perception observing things is very different from each other and thus we never completes our project on time as well as we never get good grades. This is because we have different views and we fails to manage the conflicts that generated between us (Ledbetter, 2009). We need to apply some of the relevant conflict management approach to resolve the issue. It has also been observed that managing the issues with friends is very different from the approaches that are used to manage the conflicts with non-friend people. This is because of the difference in the bond between the individual in either of the cases.

Communication skills can be defined as the skills that are used to communicate and interact with others. Communication is the process that occurs between the receiver and the sender. Receiver is the one who listens to the message and sender is the one who sends the message (DeVito, 2007). Thus, communication process has three elements that is receiver, sender and the message. Communication is considered as the very important part of our daily lives. We go to workplace or school, talk to our friends, talk to teachers and colleagues and also communicate on social networking. Communication is not only about speaking, it also includes the act like listening, reading, writing etc. it has been identified that listening is the most important part of communication (Deutsch, Coleman and Marcus, 2011). In addition to it, writing and speaking is also important part of communication. Communication skills are very critical forte success of an individual. This is because we all know that human are social animals and it is very essential to express their views to each other in order to live. In order to communicate with each other, the first thing that needs to be considered is to understand the purpose of communication. If anyone does not know the purpose of the communication then the conversation he or she will made will be of no use. The second thing that needs to be considered is the audience. The nature and type of audience helps in determining the type of communication. Words are not the only element that needs to be used in making conversation or at the time of communication. The use of body language is equally important (Jacobson, 2009). There are different viewpoints of communication. The first is the mechanistic view that suggests communication is the transmission of the massages or the information from one part that is sender to another party that is receiver. The psychological view is about much more than simply the transfer of the information. It also includes the emotional consent of the message. This viewpoint suggests that communication is about sharing of feelings and thoughts with the help of words. Feeling can be in terms of intention of the sender and the reaction of the receiver after receiving the message. Social viewpoint considers the speech as the main element of the communication. This theory argues that communicating is dependent on the content of the speech. Some has systematic viewpoint regarding communication. This viewpoint focuses on the interpretation of the message received by the individual (Derlaga and Berg, 2013). This theory says that communication between the individuals is about the interpretation of the same message by different people in different ways. The last viewpoints are the critical viewpoints that view communication as the process of delegating work and show power or authority on others.

All the viewpoints or the theories that have been discussed above are related to the communication skills of the people. It is not necessary that everyone has same views regarding communication and thus people have different ways of communication with each other (Littlejohn and Foss, 2009).

The intensity of relations between the two people affects the way one communicates with another. Communication is very important part of friendship. This is because friends become friends on the basis of how they communicate with each other. The lack of communication or the proper communication can lead to issues and ultimately results in braking of friendship among the people (Hargie, 2010). Misunderstanding occurs between me and my friend because of the listening issues. We do not listen to each other and perceive according to our understanding. This results in conflicts and then ruptures our communication.

Conclusion:

It has been concluded from the report that conflict management and communication skills have great impact on the relationship such as friendship. Conflict management is the approach that helps in managing the issues or the clashes between the friends or the individual because of the differences in the ideas and views of the people. The issue of conflicts of different views between the friends can be resolved by implementing the collaborating and compromising behavior. This is because; it is the only way the conflict can be handled. as the friendship is the relationship of the bond so friends should never compete with each other or avoid the conflicts because it may rupture the friendship of the people.as far as the communication skills is considered, it has been identified that communication between the friends also help in making the bond strong (Beebe, Beebe and Redmond, 2009). Lack of communication leads to lack of bonding and thus conflicts occur. The study for the above report signifies that communication between friends can also be the reason of conflict if it is not proper. To resolve the issue of lack of communication in the above case the friends need to learn the listening skills because listening is also great part of communication. Communication is not only limited to speaking. The alternative methods that can be used to resolve the conflicts between the friends are the approach of competing in some cases. This develops the competition among the friends and also resolves the issue without any disputes.

References: 

Beebe, S.A., Beebe, S.J. and Redmond, M.V., 2009. Interpersonal communication. Pearson Custom Pub..

Cahn, D.D., 2013. Intimates in conflict: A communication perspective. Routledge.

De Wied, M., Branje, S.J. and Meeus, W.H., 2007. Empathy and conflict resolution in friendship relations among adolescents. Aggressive behavior, 33(1), pp.48-55.

Dem?r, M. and Weitekamp, L.A., 2007. I am so happy’cause today I found my friend: Friendship and personality as predictors of happiness. Journal of happiness studies, 8(2), pp.181-211.

Derlaga, V.J. and Berg, J.H. eds., 2013. Self-disclosure: Theory, research, and therapy. Springer Science & Business Media.

Deutsch, M., Coleman, P.T. and Marcus, E.C. eds., 2011. The handbook of conflict resolution: Theory and practice. John Wiley & Sons.

DeVito, J.A., 2007. Interpersonal Communication Book, The, 13/E. New York, NY: Pearson International.

Franz, B. and Götzenbrucker, G., 2012. The second generation and the use of the Internet: communication and friendship structures of young Turks in Vienna, Austria. International Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 2(5), pp.38-49.

Hargie, O., 2010. Skilled interpersonal communication: Research, theory and practice. Routledge.

Jacobson, S.K., 2009. Communication skills for conservation professionals. Island Press.

Ledbetter, A.M., 2009. Family communication patterns and relational maintenance behavior: Direct and mediated associations with friendship closeness. Human Communication Research, 35(1), pp.130-147.

Littlejohn, S.W. and Foss, K.A., 2009. Encyclopedia of communication theory (Vol. 1). Sage.

Matheson, C., Olsen, R.J. and Weisner, T., 2007. A good friend is hard to find: Friendship among adolescents with disabilities. American Journal on Mental Retardation, 112(5), pp.319-329.

Patterson, B.R., 2007. Relationship development revisited: A preliminary look at communication in friendship over the lifespan. Communication Research Reports, 24(1), pp.29-37.

Selfhout, M., Denissen, J., Branje, S. and Meeus, W., 2009. In the eye of the beholder: perceived, actual, and peer-rated similarity in personality, communication, and friendship intensity during the acquaintanceship process. Journal of personality and social psychology, 96(6), p.1152.

Thayer, S.M., Updegraff, K.A. and Delgado, M.Y., 2008. Conflict resolution in Mexican American adolescents’ friendships: Links with culture, gender and friendship quality. Journal of youth and adolescence, 37(7), pp.783-797.