Includes bibliographical references (leaves 89-95). / How individuals respond to and handle conflict in the workplace is one of the growing areas of interest and concern among scholars and professionals working in a wide range of disciplines. However, prior work situated as an effort to understand how training people on conflict theory can manifest behavioral change in the workplace is rare. Few published works exist on identifying the behaviors associated with developing constructive conflict handling skills in the workplace. South African institutions need a solution to the widespread challenge of developing their employees' conflict handling skills. In South Africa, these are considered 'life skills.' To address the gap in theoretically supported business education curricula, this evaluation study seeks to explore the link between the constructs of self-awareness and cooperative conflict. The primary aim of this study is to gain a sense of learner's current level of self-reported conflict handling skills and then measure whether the Insights into Lifeskills Project curriculum facilitates the transition to more complex levels. These measures are taken through the use of a primary survey instrument. Additionally, through a process of balancing the program curriculum with the South African National Qualifications Framework, this study explores and measures how participants make vital connections between theory and practice. Post results of a six-week utilization-focused intervention construct an argument that individuals oriented to these constructs are better able to regulate conflict in the workplace through exercising self-awareness and cooperative conflict skills. As a result of explicit instruction in self-awareness skills and conflict response styles, during the period of February 2009 to April 2009, findings report that the Volunteer Participants of the workplace targeted intervention showed pronounced gains in their ability to handle conflict constructively. The twenty-seven Volunteer Participants of the targeted teams were identified for their experience in high levels of interpersonal workplace conflict. The participant-managers of these teams all shared a desire to develop their team's conflict handling skills. The study's Volunteer Participants are professionals of both functional and management designations in a large-scale South African retail organization.

Nursing in South Africa has become a difficult and stressful profession. Nurses are faced with many challenges on a daily basis, including; heavy workloads, shortages of staff, lack of resources and reduced managerial support (Von Holdt & Murphy, 2007). The demands of their job exceed the resources they have to cope with, which in turn, leads to conflict, which ultimately affects their wellbeing. The objective of this is research is to investigate the most and least employed conflict handling styles of nurses in public hospitals and to investigate the relationship between job demands, job resources and the different conflict handling styles, among nurses in public hospitals. A cross-sectional survey design was used. A convenience sample of nursing staff (N=205) was taken from three different public hospitals on the West Rand area in the Gauteng province. The following scales were used in this study: Rahim‟s Organisational Conflict Inventory (ROCI-II) and a self-developed job characteristics questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, Cronbach Alpha Coefficients and inferential statistics such as; MANOVAS, ANOVAS, product-moment correlations and standard regression analysis were used to analyse the data using the SPSS programme. The results indicated that nurses used the integrating style most frequently and used the dominating style least when dealing with a conflict situation. Furthermore, time demands, crisis management and colleague support predicted an avoiding style; while, workload, time demands, job security, feedback and colleague support predicted the use of an integrating style. The obliging conflict handling style was predicted by time demands and payment; workload, crisis management and payment predicted the use of a dominating style and finally, colleague support predicted the use of a compromising style. Further discussion and recommendations were made for future research and for the nursing profession in general. One of the recommendations is that a model can be constructed to help prevent or reduce conflict within public hospitals. / MCom (Labour Relations Management), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

Nursing in South Africa has become a difficult and stressful profession. Nurses are faced with many challenges on a daily basis, including; heavy workloads, shortages of staff, lack of resources and reduced managerial support (Von Holdt & Murphy, 2007). The demands of their job exceed the resources they have to cope with, which in turn, leads to conflict, which ultimately affects their wellbeing. The objective of this is research is to investigate the most and least employed conflict handling styles of nurses in public hospitals and to investigate the relationship between job demands, job resources and the different conflict handling styles, among nurses in public hospitals. A cross-sectional survey design was used. A convenience sample of nursing staff (N=205) was taken from three different public hospitals on the West Rand area in the Gauteng province. The following scales were used in this study: Rahim‟s Organisational Conflict Inventory (ROCI-II) and a self-developed job characteristics questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, Cronbach Alpha Coefficients and inferential statistics such as; MANOVAS, ANOVAS, product-moment correlations and standard regression analysis were used to analyse the data using the SPSS programme. The results indicated that nurses used the integrating style most frequently and used the dominating style least when dealing with a conflict situation. Furthermore, time demands, crisis management and colleague support predicted an avoiding style; while, workload, time demands, job security, feedback and colleague support predicted the use of an integrating style. The obliging conflict handling style was predicted by time demands and payment; workload, crisis management and payment predicted the use of a dominating style and finally, colleague support predicted the use of a compromising style. Further discussion and recommendations were made for future research and for the nursing profession in general. One of the recommendations is that a model can be constructed to help prevent or reduce conflict within public hospitals. / MCom (Labour Relations Management), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

Conflicts are a natural part of people's daily lives and we all know that they cannot be avoided. Equally common are conflicts in school as an institution, not at least in the interaction between teachers and students. The purpose of this study is to investigate how teachers think and reflect on the various classroom conflicts that arise with students, and which preventive measures the teachers use. This study intends to answer the following questions; What is it that characterizes conflicts between teachers and students in middle school?     How do teachers think that these conflicts can be prevented and what solutions can be applied? I have used in this study a qualitative research method as a tool. This study examines how teachers reflect and discuss about their perceptions of classroom conflicts. My theoretical connection consists of the senior lecturer in pedagogic, Arne Maltén and his ideas of communication theories. He describes different perspectives that teachers can relate to in the prevention of conflicts that may arise.                                                                                                                                                                                                                   The results of my study reveal that teachers receive a negative view of conflicts while they share different approaches of how conflicts could be prevented. The teachers are aware that conflicts at school are impossible to avoid but at the same time they decide to deal with them with their own methods. There are a number of these which can be applied in dealing with conflicts. Some teachers do not shy away from the conflicts, while others choose to avoid them. In school and in learning environment there should be a constructive approach to prevent conflicts.

There is an increasing trend in this globalized economy for Asian corporations to utilize Western management practices. However, studies have shown not all western management practices can be imported into Asian corporations without accounting for the values and beliefs of Asian employees. This study will explore the effects of Confucianism on the respondents¡¦ evaluation of their trainers/instructors. The specific purpose of this study is to examine the differences between Taiwanese and North Americans respondents in (1) Confucius influence, (2) conflict handling style, and tendency of (3) acquiescence response, when evaluating trainers/instructors. The relationships among these major variables were examined statistically. Results strongly suggest that Confucianism has a significant and positive impact on the tendency of acquiescence response. This response may skew the evaluation results in Taiwan, where the influence of Confucianism is significant as compared to North America. The data and analysis provided by this study is a useful reference for Asian corporations looking to import western management practices, and for international corporations looking to standardize their management systems across differing cultures.

<p>Vi har genomfört en kvalitativ studie i ämnet konflikthantering. Vi har valt att utforma den med hjälp av fem lärare som vi har intervjuat. Konflikter kan man inte undvika, varken i livet eller i skolan och där är det lärarens uppgift att hantera dem. Därför tycker vi att det är viktigt att belysa och förstå kunskapen om konflikthantering.</p><p>Förr hanterades inte konflikter och bråk i skolan som idag. Fram till 1958 var det fortfarande tillåtet att bestraffa elever med aga. Det var genom aga och skäll som man hanterade konflik¬terna istället för att som idag prata med eleverna. Skäll existerar fortfarande men framförallt hanterar lärarna konflikter med hjälp av att kom¬municera med eleverna. Idag är idealet att kommunicera väl; lyssna, tala och känna empati. I konfliktsituationer agerar läraren ofta medlare mellan eleverna.</p><p>För att ta reda på hur kunskapen om konflikthantering i skolan ser ut tar vi hjälp av begreppet tyst kunskap. Eftersom tyst kunskap har många olika tolkningar för vi en diskussion kring begreppet. Att vi använder oss av just detta begrepp beror på att tyst kunskap i alla olika tolk¬ningar ändå anses vara en praktisk kunskap. Så är, menar vi, även fallet med konflikthan¬teringen i skolan eftersom den är kopplad till lärarens vardagliga arbete. Därför kopplar vi samman kunskap om konflikthantering med tyst kunskap.</p><p>Vi har kommit fram till att hur lärare hanterar konflikter beror mycket på vilka ideal som råder just då. Lärarna i våra intervjuer inhämtar kunskapen om konflikthantering till största delen i sitt arbete och de anser alla att det är viktigt att aktivt förebygga konflikter för en fungerande undervisning och ett gott klassrumsklimat. Kunskapen om konflikthantering är situationsbunden och personlig men detta räcker inte för att vi ska kunna sluta oss till att det är tyst kunskap, detta beror helt på vilken definition man utgår ifrån. Vi vill poängtera att våra resultat inte på något sätt försöker vara generaliserande.</p> / <p>We have done a qualitative study about conflict-handling. The purpose of this study is to understand conflict-handling and prevention of conflicts in the classroom from a teacher’s perspective; how does teachers develop their knowledge of conflict-handling and is that knowledge tacit? How can teachers handle conflicts and quarrels in the classroom and how can they prevent them? Those are our questions at issue. To get information we interviewed five different teachers and studied relevant literature. We have chosen to restrict this study to conflicts between pupils or teachers and pupils, grade 4-6 in the Swedish school.</p><p>Conflicts or quarrels are things that can’t be avoided and it is the teacher’s job to handle them, this is called conflict-handling. In former times the conflict-handling in schools meant corporal punishment or telling the pupil off. Telling-off still exists in our schools today but the way conflicts are handled is now mostly by using communication and the teacher will in most cases become the mediator between the pupils.</p><p>To elucidate conflict-handling we chose to use the concept of tacit knowledge. This concept has many different interpretations but all of them are saying that tacit knowledge is practical. Therefore it is interesting for us to connect conflict-handling, which is a part of the teacher’s daily tasks, with tacit knowledge.</p><p>We have compared the interviews with each other and with the literature and found that the conflict-handling depends on what the current ideals are. The teachers in our interviews learn conflict-handling mostly in their work and they all think that it is important to actively prevent conflicts for a functioning education and a good atmosphere in the classroom. In the matter of deciding if conflict-handling is tacit knowledge or not it all comes down to which definition of tacit knowledge you rely on. The results we found are only specific for the teachers we interviewed and for our study.</p>

Vi har genomfört en kvalitativ studie i ämnet konflikthantering. Vi har valt att utforma den med hjälp av fem lärare som vi har intervjuat. Konflikter kan man inte undvika, varken i livet eller i skolan och där är det lärarens uppgift att hantera dem. Därför tycker vi att det är viktigt att belysa och förstå kunskapen om konflikthantering. Förr hanterades inte konflikter och bråk i skolan som idag. Fram till 1958 var det fortfarande tillåtet att bestraffa elever med aga. Det var genom aga och skäll som man hanterade konflik¬terna istället för att som idag prata med eleverna. Skäll existerar fortfarande men framförallt hanterar lärarna konflikter med hjälp av att kom¬municera med eleverna. Idag är idealet att kommunicera väl; lyssna, tala och känna empati. I konfliktsituationer agerar läraren ofta medlare mellan eleverna. För att ta reda på hur kunskapen om konflikthantering i skolan ser ut tar vi hjälp av begreppet tyst kunskap. Eftersom tyst kunskap har många olika tolkningar för vi en diskussion kring begreppet. Att vi använder oss av just detta begrepp beror på att tyst kunskap i alla olika tolk¬ningar ändå anses vara en praktisk kunskap. Så är, menar vi, även fallet med konflikthan¬teringen i skolan eftersom den är kopplad till lärarens vardagliga arbete. Därför kopplar vi samman kunskap om konflikthantering med tyst kunskap. Vi har kommit fram till att hur lärare hanterar konflikter beror mycket på vilka ideal som råder just då. Lärarna i våra intervjuer inhämtar kunskapen om konflikthantering till största delen i sitt arbete och de anser alla att det är viktigt att aktivt förebygga konflikter för en fungerande undervisning och ett gott klassrumsklimat. Kunskapen om konflikthantering är situationsbunden och personlig men detta räcker inte för att vi ska kunna sluta oss till att det är tyst kunskap, detta beror helt på vilken definition man utgår ifrån. Vi vill poängtera att våra resultat inte på något sätt försöker vara generaliserande. / We have done a qualitative study about conflict-handling. The purpose of this study is to understand conflict-handling and prevention of conflicts in the classroom from a teacher’s perspective; how does teachers develop their knowledge of conflict-handling and is that knowledge tacit? How can teachers handle conflicts and quarrels in the classroom and how can they prevent them? Those are our questions at issue. To get information we interviewed five different teachers and studied relevant literature. We have chosen to restrict this study to conflicts between pupils or teachers and pupils, grade 4-6 in the Swedish school. Conflicts or quarrels are things that can’t be avoided and it is the teacher’s job to handle them, this is called conflict-handling. In former times the conflict-handling in schools meant corporal punishment or telling the pupil off. Telling-off still exists in our schools today but the way conflicts are handled is now mostly by using communication and the teacher will in most cases become the mediator between the pupils. To elucidate conflict-handling we chose to use the concept of tacit knowledge. This concept has many different interpretations but all of them are saying that tacit knowledge is practical. Therefore it is interesting for us to connect conflict-handling, which is a part of the teacher’s daily tasks, with tacit knowledge. We have compared the interviews with each other and with the literature and found that the conflict-handling depends on what the current ideals are. The teachers in our interviews learn conflict-handling mostly in their work and they all think that it is important to actively prevent conflicts for a functioning education and a good atmosphere in the classroom. In the matter of deciding if conflict-handling is tacit knowledge or not it all comes down to which definition of tacit knowledge you rely on. The results we found are only specific for the teachers we interviewed and for our study.

I dagsläget har alla människor en sorts relation till sin bank. Relationen kan vara alltifrån sparande, lån, aktier och med mera. Produkter och tjänster mellan de olika bankerna har blivit likartade efter avregleringen år 1986. Detta har medfört att det har blivit alltmer viktigare för banker att vara konkurrenskraftiga i sina produkter och tjänster till sina kunder. I detta fall har fler banker investerat mycket på sina resurser för att få lojala kunder. Relation skapas i en bank då sammanhängande faktorer såsom kommunikation, åtagande, kompetens samt konflikthantering uppnås. Detta leder till studiens syfte, vilket är att utforska huruvida bankrådgivarna använder sig utav de psykografiska- och relationsfaktorerna för att kunna uppnå en god relation till sin kund. I studien har man använt sig utav hermeneutisk forskningsfilosofi, detta tillsammans med en abduktiv ansats, samt en kvalitativ metod. Denna metod används för att skapa en djupare inblick och förståelse för forskningsområdet. Genom intervjuundersökningarna har denna uppsats analyserats för att kunna ge svar på uppsatsens forskningsfråga, samt syfte. Grunden till intervjufrågorna kommer ifrån olika teorier. Intervjuerna ägde rum på Sparbanken 1826 i Kristianstad, där bankkunder, privatrådgivare samt personalansvarige intervjuades. Studien indikerar på om de psykografiska- och relationsfaktorerna används i en svensk bank. Studien påvisar att alla fyra relationsfaktorer används utav banken, däremot används inte samtliga psykografiska faktorer, då det endast är värdering som verkställs på banken. / Nowadays customers have a sort of relationship with their bank. The relationship can be from savings, loans, stocks and more. Products and services between the different banks have become similar after deregulation in 1986. For that reason, it is significantly important for banks to offer competitive products and services to their customers. This has resulted to more banks have invested many of their resources in order to have more satisfied and loyal customers. Relationship is created in a bank when interrelated factors such as Communication, Commitment, Competence and Conflict handling are achieved. This leads to the purpose of this research, which is to explore if the psychographic factors have an impact on the advisers relationship with the customers. The study has used hermeneutic research philosophy combined with an abductive and a qualitative approach. The method is used to create a deeper insight and understanding of the research area. This study has been analyzed through field studies in order to provide answers to the study´s problems and purposes. The bases of the interview questions were selected and gathered from different theories. The interviews were conducted at Sparbanken 1826 in Kristianstad, where bank customers, private advisors and staff officer were interviewed. The study indicates if the psychographic- and relationship factors are used in a Swedish bank. The study demonstrates that all four relationship factors used by the bank, however, all the psychographic factors are not used, where there were only valuations executed on the bank

PurposeThe purpose with thisstudyis to find out how preschool teachers describe their individual and collaborative work in relation to handling and preventing the children’s conflicts. Further the objective is to discover therole of the individual pedagogue, and the teacher team have in conflict situations. To discover the relevance of the teacher teamin the children’s conflicts,the studywill also evaluate how the collaborative work within the teamcan be made possible. Research methodThe data has been collected by interviews to research how the preschool teachers describe the individual, and collaborative work with conflicts, and how they perceive the work with conflicts.ResultsThe study shows that the preschool teachers find thatit’s important to handlethe conflicts that emerge among the children. Although the collaborative work within the teacher teams varied, the teachers still found it of importance of handlingthe conflicts within the group. According to the preschool teachers, the reason that the collaborative work is crucial is because a lack of organization between the pedagogues, results in inconsistent methods for handling the children’s conflicts. An organized teacher team is also important because the collaboration allow the children to develop and learn from their conflicts.

South African organizations experienced more conflict in the past ten years because of all the changes in the management of labour relations. Employees at lower, middle and upper management levels within organizations are not well informed about the different types of conflict, the functionality and dysfunctionality of conflict, how conflict takes place within the different job-levels and how to manage and resolve it. Dysfunctional conflict can be destructive and it can affect the productivity of the organization. Because of the lack of knowledge regarding conflict within the steel organization and the necessity for it to be handled correctly, it was decided to seize the opportunity to contribute to the existing knowledge of conflict. Objectives of the study The major objectives of this study are as follows: To determine how literature conceptualizes conflict dynamics by examining theory, industrial sociology, organizational behaviour and general management. To determine the following aspects by means of an empirical study: - What the main reasons are for conflict within the steel organization. - How the handling of conflict differs among the middle and lower job levels within the organization. Research study and methodology The research study is divided into a theoretical and an empirical framework. Chapters 2, 3 and 4 outline the theoretical basis. Various aspects of conflict and handling or managing it are discussed in detail. The study employs the conflict theories of Ralph Dahrendorf and Karl Marx as points of departure, as found in chapter 2, in an attempt to provide a framework for the problem statement and to attempt the attainment of the set of objectives. This chapter discusses conflict and analyzes it as a social interaction characterized by force, strife and animosity. It also offers and analysis of Dahrendorf s and Marx's theories to determine their suitability to the study. Chapter 3 discusses conflict within a business context with reference to functional and dysfunctional conflict. different approaches to conflict. types of conflict, different reactions to conflict as well as its different stages. Chapter 4 addresses the course, handling and management of conflict by analyzing the conflict process while it keeps the theories of Marx and Dahrendorf in mind. Chapter 5 analyzes and describes the data and results found by means of empirical research according to specific statistical methods. The empirical study was conducted among the employees of a steel company. A standardised questionnaire and personal interviews were used. Major findings Chapter 6 consists of analysed information about the assembled data. The major findings of the study support the set of research objectives and prove all of them. Major findings include the following: Cooperation, discipline and communication are problem areas within the steel organization. A large number of employees show dissatisfaction about the nature and extent of their work. Some of the employees misuse their authority and this is a major cause of conflict. A total of 95% of the population show that they would like further training in the dynamics of conflict management. Half of the population show that they are unaware of any policies and procedures of conflict management in the steel company. Conclusion In conclusion as found in chapter 6 the study makes a number of recommendations centring on the training of employees to handle conflict and policy-making about conflict-handling and management. / Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Sociology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006.