Insights into life skills : a targeted evaluation of constructive conflict strategies in the workplace

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.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

School of Education

Year dc:date.issued

2010

Author dc:creator

• Freitas, Dixie

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Soudien, Crain

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/14347

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/14347