TBL 3: Managing stress and conflict, and developing negotiating skills Flashcards
What is the effect of stress in the workplace?
- Reduces productivity
- Increases management pressures
- Makes people ill in
many ways - Serious risk
of litigation for all employers and organisations - Significant liabilities for damages
- Bad publicity and loss of reputation
- Dealing with stress-related claims also consumes vast
amounts of management time
List the key findings of the ‘Quality of Working Life’ report
- Anger and mood: 43% admitted to feeling or becoming angry with others too easily
and one third (31%) confessed to a loss of humour creating workplace pressures. - Muscle tension and headaches: More than half of those questioned (55%)
complained of muscular tension or physical aches and pains. 44% said they
experienced frequent headaches. - Tiredness and insomnia: Asked about psychological symptoms, 55% experienced
feelings of constant tiredness at work. 57% complained of insomnia.
List causes of stress
- Bullying or harassment, by anyone, not necessarily a person’s manager
- Feeling powerless and uninvolved in determining one’s own responsibilities
- Continuous unreasonable performance demands
- Lack of effective communication and conflict resolution
- Lack of job security
- Long working hours
- Excessive time away from home and family
- Office politics and conflict among staff
- A feeling that one’s reward is not commensurate with one’s responsibility
- Working hours, responsibilities and pressures disrupting life-balance (diet, exercise,
sleep and rest, play, family-time, etc.)
List stress indicators
A key indicator is different behaviour from that usually seen.
- sleep difficulties
- loss of appetite
- poor concentration or poor memory retention
- performance dip
- uncharacteristic errors or missed deadlines
- anger or tantrums
- violent or anti-social behaviour
- emotional outbursts
- alcohol or drug abuse
- nervous habits
What are the three different ways that people respond to stress?
Resistance: you fight the cause of stress and respond defensively
Avoidance: you ignore the cause of stress and hope that it will somehow disappear
Confrontation or adaptation: you work to identify the cause of stress and eliminate
it. If you cannot eliminate it, you work to find a solution to adapt the new situation
and reduce the stress.
Give examples of stress management techniques
ACT - don’t REACT
- Identify the underlying cause of the problem
- Speak to someone who can help you analyse the situation and identify issues and suggest solutions
TAKE CONTROL
- Do something
- Help define and reinforce your course of action
COMMUNICATE EFFECTIVELY
- Always organise your thoughts logically and carefully
- Write things down
- Don’t send written communication in haste - draft them and review them before sending them out
REMIND YOURSELF OF WHAT IS IMPORTANT
- Remind yourself why you chose to do this job
BE SURE THAT YOU KNOW WHAT YOU LIKE ABOUT YOUR ROLE
- Involve yourself in the aspects of your role that you enjoy
- May require additional training, delegation or moving roles
Give examples of the main causes of conflict
- Success
- Objectives and beliefs
- Territory
- Irrational hostility
- Personal style
Describe Territory in respect to conflict
Territory includes:
- Personal space (office, a chair, or a parking space)
- Time
- Resources (budget allocations, equipment, staffing)
- Pay (salary, overtime, bonus, commission)
- Job related “perks” such as an expense account, car, quality of accommodation and
travel
- Responsibilities
- Preferred status relationships with important clients or senior management within
the company
Describe Irrational hostility in respect to conflict
Arise
out of our perceptions of other people and they colour our feelings towards them.
No real logic or sensible foundation
E.g. if a colleague reminds you of someone from your earlier life with whom you didn’t
have a good relationship, the resemblance may make you feel wary of your colleague,
without knowing why.
Describe Personality Style in respect to conflict
Personal style is an amalgamation of attitudes, perceptions, style of communication,
personality, habits and ways of doing things
There are different types:
- Traditionalists
- Analysts
- Competitors
- Performers
Describe the Traditionalist personality style
- Prefer familiar, safe situations
- Creatures of habit
- Like to have routines and
established systems and
procedures - Like to form close, often social,
relationships with other team
members - Generally predictable, patient
and loyal
Describe the Analysts personality style
- Slow at decision-making because they need to analyse, think things through and explore all the options - High standards, both for themselves and the other team members - Generally thoughtful, precise, systematic and highly critical
Describe the Competitors personality style
- Easily bored by routine
- Motivated by the possibility of
success - Because they thrive on change,
are keen to experiment and find
new ways of doing things - Make decisions quickly and easily,
and enjoy risk-taking and the
“thrill of the chase” - Generally confident, impatient, ambitious people who like to get
the job done and move onto the
next challenge
Describe the Performers personality style
- Extremely sociable and good with people, they love to charm, persuade and convince - Prefer people to systems or ideas - Can be impulsive and often take a slapdash “it’ll be alright on the night “approach - Generally optimistic, easy-going, enthusiastic and fun
Describe the difference between symptoms of conflict and tactics
The main
symptoms of conflict and the tactics people tend to use in an attempt to “win”
E.g.
Symptoms: arguments, tense atmosphere, missed targets, low morale etc.
Tactics: Distorting the facts, tying people in knots with red tape so that it
becomes extremely difficult for them to do
their job, manipulating people
