Question #3). Pick one concept from the assigned reading, that we have not already discussed, that you found useful or interesting and discuss it.
The concept of Avoidance is interesting because I have had that happen in a work environment before. Harris and Sherblom state that “missing group meetings or refusing to participate in the discussion and work robs the group of individual perspectives and energy and impoverishes the decision-making process” (237). I previously worked as a receptionist at a roofing company and scheduled bi-weekly meetings with the employees including the roofers. At first, the meetings were informative and everyone input their views on work scheduling. The company was small and it began to go through financial issues, so a few of the employees began to call in sick more often and miss meetings. As the authors exemplify, “groups will develop their own norms on how to deal with disputes,” and when inconsistency with employee attendance began, my manager avoided conflict because he still needed the jobs to be completed. Since he did not want to lose employees due to disagreements, he only gave warnings and assigned jobs to the hard-working ones until the labor was completed and filed.
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Hello Bella,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your post this week and find the concept of “avoidance” interesting as well. Conflict is a natural part of life and it’s funny to see how most people try to avoid it all costs. It seems to me like those who avoid conflict do so, thinking that the problem will just eventually go away or they think it’s easier than to confront the issues at hand. Unfortunately, for the most part conflict never just disappears; instead, it just festers and becomes a bigger problem later on. I think it is beneficial and is a great learning experience when you are able to tackle problems head on and address the issues and work through them collaboratively with the others involved in the conflict.
Hi Bella82,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your blog. I feel sad that your manager has been put in a position that he has to choose avoidance to deal this his employees. It made me think of my own family problems. When my sister was being rebellious, she had a lot of argument of my mom. Every time my mom was trying to address her issues with her, she would just act out more in the future. In the end, my mom got scare because she doesn’t want my sister to act out more. My mom avoided conflicts with my sister all-together and sadly they stop communicating for a long period of time. Avoidance isn’t the best way to deal with conflict because nothing really gets resolved.
-Sogo
Hey Bella
ReplyDeleteI think it is so cool how we always choose the same topics for the interesting concepts out of each chapter. I had the same problem you experienced at your job with avoidance, at one of my old jobs. My boss explained the rules and consequences to everyone, but many times people would disobey these rules and still not get penalized. He would also just give warnings because he wanted everyone to still like him and to simply avoid confrontation or conflict. I used to get upset by this because I used to go out of my way to comply with all the rules even though if I didn’t, it wouldn’t have made a difference. This form of avoidance is clearly a negative one.
Pocahontas