Executives in the new millennium are facing an ever-increasing number of organizational disputes in the form of customer complaints, employee grievances, charges of discrimination, contractual disagreements, law suits and unhealthy competition within and between work groups. Unfortunately, many organizations are inclined to handle these conflicts on an ad hoc basis or by using approaches which may escalate the situation.
A constructive approach to managing organizational conflicts provides an integrative and comprehensive way to minimize conflict and resolve disputes when they arise. Executives and managers who are seeking better ways of handling internal and external corporate and governmental conflicts may need to look at the following:
· Analysing sources of disputes, evaluating the nature and effectiveness of current procedures and involving key people in the organization in assessing the need for change.
· Developing an individually appropriate system step-by-step with organization members.
· Examining various dispute management procedures including mediation, advisory mediation and arbitration for their implementation.
· Modifying – i.e. matching the appropriate dispute management procedure to the problem; managing and evaluating the results and making appropriate adjustments.
· Overcoming organizational resistance to change by working with difficult people, building support and handling “political” problems in advance.
· Sensitizing their companies internally and externally to new approaches.