A mini research paper - Conflict Management

A SMALL SCALE STUDY – CONFLICT MANAGEMENT
INTRODUCTION
This paper is based on a small scale study to explore the strategies of Conflict Management adopted by the principal of a private girls’ high school in Karachi. Before going on to the actual happening and my exploration; I would try to elaborate/ describe Conflict and Conflict Management separately in the light of different literature and my own understanding.
What is Conflict?
Webster’s Dictionary defines conflict as “a battle, contest of opposing forces, discord, antagonism existing between primitive desires, instincts and moral, religious, or ethical ideals.” Conflict: Tension between two or more social entities (individuals, groups) that arise from incompatibility of actual or desired responses (Raven & Kruglanski, 1970). According to Katz & Lawyer (1993), conflict is a situation or state between at least two interdependent parties, which is characterized by perceived differences that the parties evaluate as negative.
Conflict is natural among human being. Conflict, to differing degrees, occurs daily in everyone’s life. Conflict is in and of itself, is not necessarily good or bad. It’s the way that conflict is handled that makes the outcome positive or negative. If handled effectively, conflict can create a good learning experience. If handled ineffectively, conflict can quickly escalate to physical and emotional violence.
What is conflict management?
Conflict management is what we do when we identify and deal with conflict in a reasonable manner. To manage conflict, skills like effective communication and negotiation are needed. The term conflict management has become an ever-expanding umbrella that is used to cover a variety of approaches. Conflict management teaches life skills, negotiation strategies, mediation skills.
Different studies have been done to explore Conflict Management. According to Katz. N.H & Lawyer. J.W. (1993);
On the positive side, conflict can provide an opportunity for creativity, renewed energy, drama, development, and growth to individuals, groups, and organizations, resulting in increased cohesion and trust. The conflict is covert or overt; the object of conflict management is to achieve a constructive emotional state in all parties and a clear, mutual understanding of one another’s view. To manage the conflicts two processes interpersonal process and group process are essential; Interpersonal Process: Notice the tension and begin to listen, Continue to listen, Summarize the other’s view, State your view, Handle defensiveness, Invite summary of your view, summarize both sides, Diagnose needs versus beliefs. Group Process: Notice the tension and say what you see, hear and feel, Convey the importance to you of honest reaction, Reflective listening – have the attitude, at all times of a listener, Summarize positions and interests – make a clear distinction between this phase and the next, Express appreciation, Diagnose needs versus beliefs (p.37)
Background of Study
To explore the strategies of effective conflict management, I had chosen a prestigious school of Karachi, which has been its over dominating fame in educational sector spread over many decades. The management of school believes that foundation of their life and School is well laid and cemented by the sacrifices and sweat of their Founders, Administrators, Principals, Teachers[1] and the Student Community. Their loyalty, dedication and devotion have carried them through all these almost 90 years of storms and struggles.
School originally built for specific community girls, but today it houses nearly 2000[2] girls in two shifts, of all creeds and class of respectable societies. School has four sections[3]; while the administrative structure comprises of a headteacher in each section, reporting to an over all Principal. The Principal declared herself as policy maker along with 8 trust members under which school runs. The school campus is a built heritage with its excellent feature of construction.
My journey to this school caused by this research question; “What are the strategies of a headteacher to manage conflicts?”
Rationale
There are certain rationales which motivated me to conduct this mini research. Among them following were the driving factors.
1. Headteachers need to know how to manage and resolve conflicts. Some educators believe competence in conflict resolution skills can lead to increased social and academic achievement in the short run and a more harmonious world in the long run; I wanted to prove this statement.
2. Managing conflict at school has been an age-old challenge for educators. Conflicts are a natural part of life and therefore a natural part of school life as well. Being the leader of a school, I faced many challenges among them was the conflict management and I wanted to empirically observe handling such situations.
Research Participants
My research participant was the principal who has been associated with this institution since she was knee-high. As a pupil, she was the House and School Prefects, and joined the School as a teacher of English in its Primary Section in 1963. Gaining much experience as a Class Teacher, House Teacher and helping out on a personal level in the Accounts and Administration Departments, in 1977 she assumed the duties of Vice-Principal, which was confirmed in 1978. According to her statement - on account of differences of opinion existing at that time, she voluntarily resigned from the services of the school in 1983; and rejoined as Principal in July 1991. She describes herself as a rather strict disciplinarian, with a keen understanding of human nature; she has often been accused of dictatorial tendencies, but knows the value of silent leadership.
Significance of the study
As a novice research, this study initially will help ‘me’ to understand the issues and strategies to solve them, which will contribute to improve my leadership practices in future. It will also help to bring to the forefront the issues related to leadership and management. These findings will help management, headteachers and teachers to make leadership process smooth.
Methodology
I had chosen the qualitative research paradigm for my study, as I was desirous to explore the phenomenon by close observation of the practices and interviewing to find out the strategies about conflict management. It was only possible in the real-life context or situation as Maykut & Morehouse (1994) say, “Qualitative research emphasis on understanding through looking closely at people, words, actions and records” (p.17). Within the qualitative paradigm I employed case study method for the study. As Yen (1994) also cites in Merriam, “a case study is an empirical inquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context, especially when the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clear evident” (p.27).
Data Collection Tools
For data collection, I used interview and observation. For this study I had chosen semi-structured interviews and formal and informal discussions to probe more. Through interviews, I gathered an in-depth understanding of particular context or setting. A non-participative observation was also my tool to collect data, through which I tried to observe the headteacher’s routine activities, without disturbing the scene.
Findings
During my exploration, I could only find out two finest aspects of conflict management and in my opinion, these two aspects were the sources to maintain and sustain an effective school.
Strict Rules and Regulations and Penalizing on Violation
Students are always expected to follow the rules or live with the consequences. In this prestigious institution, I found the strict rules and regulations for the students and according to the principal, “Stick to your principles because rules are rules to be followed”. During my discussion with the principal she very much emphasized on discipline, rules and regulations. She, a bit aggressively told me that, “Students’ rule and regulations are much strict as we don’t accept indiscipline, and we are always strict for it, rules and regulations are final and binding”. Principal further elaborated that, “putting off or avoiding issues may make matters worse”, so we try to solve the problems at its initial stages. The penalty (a form of conflict management) for the violation of rules is much interesting and worth to mention here. On the violation ‘minus marking’ has been introduced and the class teacher maintains the record, and these markings of-course affect the final grades. Because of this rule, the conflicts rate is very much low. School is proud to maintain the strict rules as principal told us that, they don’t want to jump to modern ways of teaching and management abruptly.
Students Council – Empowered Stakeholders
There are always many allies and collaborators out there who can help on this journey. School has an excellent and active Students’ Council including Principal, prefect, treasurer, behavior councilor, cleanliness councilor and these all try to solve the problems if arise. Principal is heading this council and the rest are students so they have also been empowered to solve their own problems.
Likewise, every section has a semi-independent headteacher, who works to smoothen the atmosphere of the school. Principal told us that she has motivated the students’ council to think before action. This is a crucial principle in working with conflicts. If your intention is to intervene in conflict then try to influence it for the better (Fisher, S. et al. 2003).
Limitation of the Study
The selection of the single case study design naturally brings many limitations as far as the generalization of the result of the study is concerned. However, by understanding something about this particular case more in depth, we might eventually learn something about more general phenomena. The findings of this study can not be generalized on the whole population because the study is limited to one school only.
The school was running in a very systematic way and our visit to school was also taken very formally. So to collect data, I couldn’t create an atmosphere (actually, being treating as a guest, I was not in a position to freely wander around the school) to discuss and interview in the most natural settings, but all became very much ‘formal’.
Conclusion
There might be a great challenge for the school in future. The coming years will show more remarkable changes for which the school will have to gear itself to show ‘some’ flexibility in the rules and regulations. School is doing very well in terms of conflict management by strictly following the rules, but some times we have to show some flexibility.
Conflict is characterized by perceived differences and negative emotional states. The issues in conflict can be thought of as tangible and intangible – as needs or beliefs. Conflict often results in destructive ends, but it doesn’t have to be this way. Collaboration and compromise are usually available as alternatives in a conflict situation. School is exercising the same, but a bit more compromise would also be helpful.
REFERENCES
Conflict Management (n.d) Retrieved January 08, 2008, from http://disputeresolution.ohio.gov/schools/contentpages/styles.htm
Fisher, S., Abdi, D.I., Ludin, J., Smith, R., Williams, S., Williams, S.(2000). Working with Conflict. Skills & Strategies for Action. UK: Zed Books.
Katz, N.H. & Lawyer, J.W. (1993). Conflict Resolution. Building Bridges. California: Crown Press.
Raven, B.H., & Kruglanski, A. (1970). Conflict and power. New York: Academic Press.
Ross, M.H (1993). The Management of Conflict. Interpretations and Interests in Comparative Perspective. London: Yale University Press.

[1] Total 135 teachers with 30 sub-ordinate staff.
[2] Morning 1400, evening 563
[3] Primary, Secondary, Cambridge and afternoon section