The Nature of Conflict and Mediation at the Workplace Research Paper

The Nature of Conflict and Mediation at the Workplace - Research Paper Example Using a qualitative descriptive approach, this research examined the responses and narratives of employees of two different companies. The findings implied that since the nature of conflicts, the mediation strategies and conflict resolution plans employed by the two companies were different, hence the outcome in the form of job satisfaction level was also different. Although the research shed extensive light upon the issue related to workplace conflicts, there is the need for further research to take this study at a broader level where companies from different demographic locations and cultures are compared in order to get a better understanding of the concept of workplace conflict and conflict resolution. Introduction Conflict, mediation, and resolution are a necessary part of a successful journey in the life of an organization. Conflicts occur at every level in the workplace during achievement of organizational goals. Better resolved at the personal level, some conflicts get so big that a mediation strategy is required to resolve them. Before going into the niceties of the research paper, it is deemed important to define some important terms that will be used frequently in the coming pages. Masters and Albright (2002, p.14) define conflict as â€Å"a disagreement between two or more parties who are independent.† Conflict is something that almost every one of us has experienced to some extent at the workplace with a superior, a colleague, a subordinate, or a customer. We experience distress and sorrow over the dispute and this increases our workplace stress and finally creates disastrous impacts on our job satisfaction. Conflicts weigh heavily on the organization in terms of cost as well because engaging in a conflict and taking time out to create a conflict resolution plan, a mediation strategy, or arranging a third party mediator, demands resources and finances. Also, the time and energy that is spent resolving conflicts can be better used for fruitfu l projects and milestones. Thus, avoiding and resolving them if they occur becomes necessary if the company’s interests are kept in focus. If conflicts go unresolved, this increases dissatisfaction and the overall organizational culture is destroyed which is very likely to bring the bad name to the company. Resolution or no resolution affects not only the individual’s activities at the workplace but his personal life is also disturbed. Managing a conflict is an important task that occurs at three levels, according to Masters and Albright (2002, p.13). According to them, first of all, an individual must know how to deal with the conflict at the personal level like when he enters a conflict with a senior, a junior, a colleague, or a client. Second, he must be able to enable others in the organization to manage their personal conflicts. This is important because those conflicts will eventually come to you taking your extra time if they are not resolved in time by the peop le involved. Third, he must be able to work out an effective plan or strategy that should make sure that workplace conflicts are avoided and if occur then resolved in time. Conflicts at work â€Å"reflect systemic processes and patterns in how work gets done† (Masters & Albright, 2002, p.13) thus it is important to determine those patterns so that better conflict management is made possible.  Ã‚  

The Rocking-Horse Winner by D. H. Lawrence Research Paper

The Rocking-Horse Winner by D. H. Lawrence - Research Paper Example The author addresses different social features in the form of themes. Among the most evident themes in the story are poverty, cohesions in the family institution and death among many others. By addressing such, the author provides a relative portrayal of the early English society from his point of view (Barrett, Thomas and Lawrence 121). Art is a cultural product that provides a relative representation of the society. The relativity of art arises from the angles of adoptions preferred by the artists. As an artist, D. H. Lawrence seeks to portray the early English society. He investigates the social structure of the time thus writes a story that typifies specific social features that he believes are of relevance to the people. Poverty for example has remained a major factor in most societies as people strive to obtain a living through their merger earnings. The author thus uses an imaginary family and imaginary characters to depict the effects of poverty on family relations. The story centers on the life of a middle class early English woman who believed she had no luck. Her husband strives to make a living out of arts but his endeavors do not pay off thus compelling the family to live miserably in poverty. Poverty is a state of deprival as people fail to afford a decent living. The same is the case with the family that struggles with the need to sustain the woman’s high profile life since she is an extravagant spender. In an attempt to help his family, her son takes to gambling and realizes that he is lucky as she predicts the winning horse in the local rocking competition. He however practice hard on his rocking horse thus acquires an infection and dies at the end of the story. The mother does not change her lifestyle and even as the boy dies the family makes a hefty eighty thousand pounds that the woman spends extravagantly (Lawrence 31). The author centers the story on fundamental social features and institutions that define the nature of life in soci eties. in doing this, the author understands the need to achieve some relevance with his audience and therefore uses familiar social features which help earn the story the much desired relevance. Such activities as horse rocking were common in the early European culture and therefore relevant to the society. The same is attributable to such features as the family institution, poverty and even death. The relationship among the members of the family is an equally important determinant of the peace and stability in the family. The author analyses the need for peace and love in a family by portraying the nature of the family in the story. The woman, Hester does not love her son Paul who on the other hand loves his mother and therefore strives to support the family. The lack of maternal love compels the boy to hide some secrets from the mother. He takes to gambling secretly and only tells his father much later when he realizes that the family situation is overwhelming the old man. Anothe r important determinant of the relevance of the book among its diverse audience group is the use of language. The language an author uses to develop a story helps define an audience for the story thus earing their acknowledgement of the work. Additionally, the language among other literary features helps portray the authors’ professionalism and ability to communicate to the specific target audience. Lawrence’s story targets a general readership. This implies that the story