Conflicts arise whenever two or more independent parties differ in goals, ideas, interests, or interference from scarce resources. In my previous job, the boss put me in charge of managing a company project. This project needed input from various individuals hence the need to assemble a team to increase efficiency. Setting goals and plans for a project require cooperation and collaboration, and communication. I was in charge of setting up mandatory meetings with the team members. One of the team members failed to attend most meetings due to other personal commitments. This situation caused a delay in the project’s completion time since the absence of this team member made us postpone some of the meetings. Arguments would arise with the team member as both of us differed in views. Other team members were not happy with the lack of commitment and wanted him out of the team.
TRIP is used as an acronym to assist in identifying four distinct goals that operate during the conflict. The acronym stands for Topic, Recreation, Identity, and ProcesS (Maadi, 2017). The topic goals deal with what each part involved in the conflict wants, recreation goals address the relationship between the conflicting parties, while identity goals deal with maintaining face. Face theory states that our communication with others presents how we are to them (Ting-Toomey & Dorjee, 2018). Face saving arises when one party in a conflict involves some sort of mediator to speak for them due to the discomfort of disagreements. An example of such a situation is during court cases where a party uses a lawyer to speak for them. Face damaging occurs in a situation that causes freedom of action. Examples of damage to the hearer can occur when a person in charge gives orders that the hearer is not allowed to deny. Conflicts can lead to implications like a decrease in productivity, mental problems caused by frustration, violence, or even inspiring other members to enhance their creativity in problem-solving.
References
Maadi, M. (2017). An Adapted Non-dominated Sorting Algorithm (ANSA) for Solving Multi-Objective Trip Distribution Problem. Global Analysis and Discrete Mathematics, 2(1), 39-53. https://doi.org/10.22128/GADM.2017.78
Ting-Toomey, S., & Dorjee, T. (2018). Communicating across cultures (2nd ed.). Guilford Publications.
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