Conflict Management

Conflict Management

                I chose conflict management because I believe it is a key component in our everyday lives; more importantly, we study conflict management to become more aware of it in the workplace.  Here I wanted to match up conflict management with my MBTI type.  Before I identify how I am connected to these two, I want to specifically discuss what they are.

  Firstly, conflict management can be identified as many things, but to be specific, I believe that conflict can be both good and bad.  In this situation I am going to identify why conflict can be bad, particularly in a workplace.   Conflict occurs when there are two or more differing values, opinions or even perspectives, and thus results in disagreeing parts.  Firstly, conflict can decrease productivity, and thus reducing the overall profitability of your workplace.  Other places conflict can cause problems are it can reduce workplace morale, also give rise to more conflicts and ultimately result in inappropriate workplace attitude. 

My MBTI type is ESFJ, I am a extroverted sensing feeling judging type.  There are a few areas of my type that I wanted to primarily focus on, mostly because I believe that some parts play a bigger role in conflict management for me.  Firstly, there is the fact that I am a feeler, meaning that in general, I value sentiment over logic.  I am very sensitive to other people’s needs and their feelings.  I am more likely to encourage someone rather than criticize them.  This part of me could be good and bad, because in a situation where I might be a supervisor, I might tend to be more concerned with others liking me opposed to doing it right.  In a situation where there is a conflict of values, I might side with someone I understand more rather than seeing it as an outsider.   Overall, I think that being a feeler might cause me to avoid more conflicts but might cause me to manage them poorly.

It is important to note that I am of the judging type, helping counter balance my feeling type.  I have the ability to override my feeling senses, especially when it gets in the way of work.   My judging type gives me a down to earth attitude which can be directly related to how I may resolve conflict, due to my ability to focus on the crucial components of that at hand.  It is important that I do not simply set my focus and make decisions rashly because that can create a situation where I commit to a solution too early.

Realizing that my MBTI personality is separate parts but work together is very important.  I cannot become too interested in how people might think of me when faced with conflict, nor should I attach myself to things I feel are important and thus discredit other components when in conflict.  These two work in unison, and it is important to use them both to my advantage.

In conclusion, I want to recognize power and influence, and how they might directly affect conflict management pertaining to my MBTI type.  Referent power would be a big one for my feeling personality, where I might be looking to gain someone’s approval.  Two influence types that could be correlated to the feeling type would be inspirational appeal as well as personal appeal.   Personal appeal deals with loyalty and friendship while inspirational appeal pertains to follower’s goals and values.   I think that all of these types of power and influence are potential tools in conflict management.