Manage that conflict! Now you can manage a problem, its solutions, and their implementation with the Holton model for conflict management. It works.

What takes more of your time than anything else does? If you are like colleagues across the continent, the answer is conflict--trying to understand it, managing it, or perhaps trying to avoid it. Unfortunately, with the turbulence of the outside world, the conflict within the walls of academia is exacerbated. The tensions of individuals, and within the institution itself, easily lead to increased conflict.

So, what can you do to manage conflict? How can you reduce the amount of time you spend trying to "keep the peace" within your institution?

WHAT CONFLICT?

First, realize that conflict happens. In fact, if there is no conflict at all, you need to open your office door and let in the reality of the environment. Conflict will always exist, and it is definitely not always negative. Sometimes, issues need to be brought up to the surface; they may have been festering for years while everyone has worked hard to pretend that no problems exist. But the truth is that conflict will help everyone to understand the issues more fully: You have to have a clear understanding of the problems before you can manage them. Managing conflict effectively will empower you, and it will empower your staff.

ASSESSING THE CONFLICT

Your first real step, then, is to understand what the conflict is all about. If you don't take the time to understand the conflict, you will never be able to solve it. Or, you may make an unsuccessful attempt to manage a conflict because you didn't take time to understand it. Often, that exacerbates the problem, and makes your staff and colleagues wonder if you can actually manage conflict at all. After all, conflict usually occurs when people who depend upon each other in some way perceive that they cannot get what they want. Conflict, in fact, requires interdependence.

Interdependence as culprit. Simply put, you won't have conflict with someone with whom you have no relationship. And as fiscal times get more difficult, groups at most institutions become even more interdependent than they were before.

For example, I need a new secretary, but since the college can't afford one, I share one with the department next door. Is there potential for conflict there? You bet there is! If you think about it, I'm sure you can come up with literally hundreds of instances in which you and your office associates are dependent upon others. When you understand that place where two (or more) people or groups of people are interdependent, you will be better able to understand the conflict and define the problem.

Perceptual filtering. It is vitally important to tune in to what can be termed your "perceptual filters." Faculty members will see situations in one way, administrators another, staff yet another. There are even departmental perceptual filters. Does the Student Records office view the week before graduation in the same way as the faculty? The faculty are probably relieved that finals are over and grades are in; the records office, however, finds itself swamped, with staffers trying to figure out who can, in fact, graduate.

Awareness of your perceptual filters is vitally important in conflict management. You want to know: Am I seeing the entire problem, or am I missing something?

We often overlook "the obvious" because we are used to seeing the same people, in the same situations, with the same problems.

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Did you see a problem with the words in the box above? Did you see it the first time, or did you have to took again when asked if there was a problem? Look again ... Does this exercise remind you of times that you have Looked directly at a conflict and, because of past history with the people or the context, overlooked something obvious? Or sometimes we do the opposite. For instance, what is this?

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You want to say it is a triangle, don't you? But you know it is just three lines that do not connect. How often do you look at a part of a conflict and make assumptions about the people, their motivation and behavior, or about information? It is important that you look at the complete situation, to accurately analyze the conflict in order to define the problem. It is your perceptual filter that makes you miss the second "the" in the box on the previous page, or makes you want to say that the three floating lines are a triangle. It is your perceptual filter that creates a unique view and understanding of any conflict that occurs in your office, in the departments that report to you, and at the college as a whole.

Likewise, each member of your staff brings her own perceptions to the office. A graduate of your institution who works in your office will see problems differently than a person who just moved into town. With your wider institutional perspective, your perception of the conflict will be different than that of your secretary, who may be more focused on the work of your department. That's why, in order to understand the conflict, you need to understand the perceptual fields of those in conflict. In now-dated parlance, you need to know "where they're coming from."

Content, relationship, and identity. Looking at the type of conflict is another way to analyze and understand it. All conflict has three parts: content, relationship, and identity. Think of the last conflict that walked into your office. Let's say a department chair and a support staff member were unable to reach agreement about work hours. Obviously, they are disagreeing about content--the hours. But there are actually three different conflicts going on, and content is only one of them. If you look only at the rational, logical description of content, you will probably miss the most important elements of the conflict.

The relationship between the two (or more) parties in conflict is always pivotal to both understanding and managing the conflict. What is the power relationship? Who is truly in charge here? Are the chair and the staff member good friends, or do they barely speak with each other? Are other members of the department friendly with the staff member, and not the chair? What are the nuances of relationship at play? Only by understanding the relationship between the parties in conflict will you move toward fully analyzing it.

There is always a third element at play in conflict--identity--and it is especially obvious in clearly delineated "class" systems such as in academic institutions. How long after you meet someone new to your institution (or at another) does it take to know if she is faculty, staff, or administrator? That is one of the first questions that we ask of each other, but what difference does it make? In many things, and especially in conflict, it makes a significant difference. Do you manage conflict differently with a faculty member? Do you assume that her behavior and reasons for being at the institution are different from your own? Do you assume that she goes into a conflict with a different agenda--without even checking out those motivations?

All of this helps you in your first step in effective conflict management--identification and definition of the problem. A conflict cannot be effectively managed until it is first understood. What's more, getting all of the parties in the conflict to agree on the identification and definition of the conflict goes a Long way toward managing it.

After the first step of clearly analyzing, understanding, and defining the conflict, it is time for ...

CREATIVITY, BRAINSTORMING & ACTION PLANS

Now solutions need to be found, and it is important that you go beyond the "same old" solutions. It is time for information gathering, brainstorming, and creativity.

Let's say that two departments reporting to you are in conflict over resources. Both need another full-time staff person, and there just isn't enough money. What could you do? Sure, hiring one person to be shared by the departments is an option. But is there enough money to hire a graduate assistant? Can the work be changed to benefit a grad student? Are these the only solutions? What other ideas might you come up with? Creative solutions are needed as you think of ways that both departments can satisfy their needs. How do others in institutions similar to yours solve the problem? Undoubtedly, there are listservs for people in your position, which give you a unique opportunity to glean ideas from possibly hundreds of people. So, brainstorm! Work with a group of people--including those involved in the conflict--to come up with some unique ideas. And, as in all traditional brainstorming, make sure you use criteria to come up with the "best" solution to your conflict. Above all, be sure that those in conflict have been a part of the solution-finding process, or they will definitely not buy into the solution.

Finally, the parties in conflict must come up with a specific, written plan of action. Failure to have a clear, well-delineated plan causes many agreements to fall apart as each party says, "I thought you were going to take care of that ..."

ENDNOTE 

For the academic administrator, conflict will always take up time. But with the tools to understand, analyze, and manage conflict, you will be more effective in the use of that time. And each time you manage a conflict, you will increase your knowledge base and skills. What's more, with each positively managed conflict, your reputation as a fair, just, and effective administrator will grow.

Susan A Holton, Ph.D., is editor of Mending the Cracks in the Ivory Tower: Strategies for Conflict Management in Higher Education (Anker Publications, 1998), and o professor of Communication Studies at Bridgewater State College (MA). She teaches, researches, writes, and consults on issues of conflict management and organizational effectiveness in higher education. Reach her at [e-mail].