Conflict Management in the Corps

As an outfit Commander in the Corps of Cadets I run into conflict on a daily, if not hourly basis. I am constantly practicing many of the concepts we learn in class and putting them to the test. The concepts that hit home with me from these first chapters were the escalation and avoidance types of conflict. I have seen many times how the way you conduct your conflict management greatly effects the way the other person reacts and how your relationship continues after the fact. I will give examples of both types of conflict, but first I will clarify their ideas by defining them "Escalation Conflict is the increasing emotional intensity and multiple stages in which the scope and intensity of the conflict increase over time" and "Avoidance Conflict is when parties may sometimes fear the consequences of open conflict so much that they refuse to acknowledge the conflict and avoid anything that might spark confrontation". For example, as outfit commander I am in charge of the livelihood, well being, and daily functioning of 50 cadets. All of whom have very different goals and personalities, so as you can imagine sometimes it is hard to get through to everyone effectively. There is one cadet in particular that I have never and probably will never get through to. She is the most irrational and confrontational individual. She loves being in escalatory conflicts, odd I know, but she enjoys getting into arguments. She will start out understanding where you are coming from the first time you correct her, then the next time she will give you resistance, the next she exhibits passive aggressive behaviors, until finally she explodes and starts a full on war. Unfortunately due to this vicious cycle we are no longer friends, though we still work together. Other people that have to deal with her tend to use the avoidance side of this conflict theory. They know if they try and confront her or speak with her they will blow up on her, not be responsive to reason, and be straight up unreasonable, so they choose to forget the issue. For them it is not worth the argument and reaction that will ensue so they avoid her all together. These days this individual is hanging on by a thread. She has burned many of the bridges she built with her reactions to conflict and can no longer function in a professional manner. There are many things I enjoy about my job, learning first hand the lessons of conflict management is a big part of that.

Conflict Management in Air Force ROTC

This semester I hold the position of Finance Officer in the university's Air Force detachment.  Thankfully, this position is in the upper echelons of the detachment, so the cadets I usually deal with are pretty level-headed, but that does not mean we don't have our conflicts every now and then.  When someone is trying to get $1000 to organize an event, usually it is not as feasible as they think, so we would have to sit down and discuss it.  It is almost the perfect example for Rummel's 5 stages of conflict.  Everyone knows they have to contact me, and get my approval before they can do anything with money.  When they finally approach me, and ask for a lot more money than we have, that sparks the conflict.  This ends up in us two having a discussion on what we can afford to purchase, and what we can not afford to spend money on, and find other ways to make up for that cost.  After that we both cope with the solution, and we will finally either.  That is one type of conflict within my chain of command in the detachment.  Another area of conflict is when I have to personally pass information to the active duty officers, because that is a whole different dynamic.  There, it is more of a one way street, since I receive all the information and then it is up to me to decide what to do with it and execute the mission.

Conflict Management in ARO

Conflict is a daily occurrence in life--whether it be in the classroom, work, or through an organization. However, through successful conflict management, one can maintain healthy, and long-lasting relationships. Conflict isn't always a bad thing--it can shine light on what is essential to the group's success, challenge peoples' thought process, and promote growth. As a part of my daily life, I am a director in an organization called Aggies Reaching Out (ARO). ARO is an organization dedicated to promoting higher eduction to youth in the state of Texas that come from under-resourced backgrounds. The process of planning, organizing, and executing our trips is a stressful one to say the least. Naturally, there are several conflicting thoughts and ideas that may cause some conflict within the group. For instance, we are in the middle of spring recruitment and nobody can decide on how many members should be accepted. Some may argue that adding a surplus of new members can make the present members feel replaced or overwhelmed. Others may argue that the more the better because a surplus is always better in case members decide to drop. According to Rummel's 5 Stage Model, this is known as the latent stage of conflict-- where "people can recognize their differences, and still have no conflict even when their opposing interests are stimulated" (Rummel). Our Chief Student Leader took it upon herself to address this "almost conflict" in our staff meeting by addressing everyone's opinions individually. All staff members were asked to voice their opinion and later a vote was taken to decide on the final decision. When I asked Rachel the reasoning of her process, she simply said "I don't want to have a final decision on anything regarding our organization without everyone's input. This is for the success of the organization as a whole." Rachel demonstrated conflict management because she was able to recognize a possible conflict and address it accordingly and appropriately.

Rummel, R.J. "PROCESS OF CONFLICT AND THE CONFLICT HELIX." PROCESS OF CONFLICT AND THE CONFLICT HELIX. Web. 29 Feb. 2016. 

Conflict Management in Fish Camp

            "Conflict arises due to a variety of factors. Individual differences in goals, expectations, values, proposed courses of action, and suggestions about how to best handle a situation are unavoidable” (Darling). For successful conflict management, two stages must be completed; the differentiation stage and the integration stage. By the end of a successful differentiation stage, everyone would have been able to freely express their opinions with everyone and being successful in understanding each others opinions. By the end of a successful integration stage, everyone will be able to reach solutions that meet the needs of all. But to ensure success through these two stages, everyone must prevent uncontrolled avoidance and escalation cycles which involves balancing disagreements and interactions (Folger). In Fish Camp, there are a lot of decisions that need to be made on all levels of the organization. I am currently a co-chair and take direction from the Director, Alex, of my session. Today, as a session (15 people) we had to make a video for Camp Revelation night, and every single person had an idea of how best to handle the idea of making the video.  At the beginning when we all met at 10:00 this morning, there was a lot of rigid conflict interaction because of all of the differences in ideas and the uncertainty about the outcome of the video. Alex then came up with an idea and we all ended up liking it and putting our own spin on our individual role, which allowed us to all be able to express our ideas and opinions within his umbrella theme. This allowed us to successfully go through the integration stage because we resolved all of the possible solutions into one awesome video. I did an interview with Alex after the video and talked to him about the final stage, integration. I asked him how he felt about the entire morning from rigid conflict to successful integration and all he had to say was “at the end of the day all I wanted was for y’all to be excited about what we were doing, and the way to get that was by using everyone’s ideas in the plan to become invested in the overall product.”

Darling, John R., Walker W. Earl, (2001) "Effective conflict management; use of the behavioral style model," Leaderhsip & Organization Development Journal, Vol 22 Iss: 5, pp 230-242

Folfer, Joseph P., Marshall Scott Poole, and Randall K. Stutman. Working through Conflict:     Strategies for Relationships, Groups, and Organizations. New York: Longman, 2013. Print.