Week 14 Question 2

2). Briefly outline an example of collaborative conflict resolution that you have engaged in. Contrast that with competitive conflict. Which was more satisfying to you? To the other party?

In a collaborative conflict resolution everyone involved have to speak what they think and have to feel they are important part of the solution. They are also responsible in listening what others have to say and try to understand and work toward mutual decisions. An example of a collaborative conflict resolution I have engaged is with my roommate. As anyone might expect, while living with roommate, there is going to be something to fight about. Since both my roommate and I were working fulltime and going to school, we wanted our apartment to be a peaceful place to get away from all the pressures; therefore it was worth our time to work on our collaborative conflict resolution. Whenever we had an issue we communicated it to each other well. We also view the issue from other points of view beside our two conflict one. We really thought hard to find some common ground to balance our two needs. Basically, we worked on the conflict until it was a “win win” situation.

On the other hand, competitive conflict is where one individual or group goes to compete in getting a better price, want, and thing than the other party. I also remember one particular instance where I was engaged in a competitive conflict with my roommate. On our initial meeting, we rented two bedrooms apartment with one master bedroom and one guestroom. We both wanted to get the master bedroom; therefore it was very difficult to find a middle ground. The only solution we had was to use competitive conflict resolution method. I believe both collaborative and competitive conflict resolutions are satisfying depending on the situation.