Archives for Communication and Behavior

Expressing Emotions – why, in the workplace, is it so hard to talk about feelings?

Emotions can be defined as a spontaneous rather than conscious feeling. They can be feelings of joy, sorrow, reverence, hate and love. Emotions are an unavoidable part of being human. When we recognize that someone else is preventing us from achieving our goals or preventing us from getting what we want, emotions often heat up and conflict becomes the inevitable result. Apparent threats or signs of disrespect may cause emotions to seethe. The intensity of the emotion signifies its importance to us. Therefore the more important the situation and the stronger we feel about it, the more likely the conflict… Continue Reading Expressing Emotions – why, in the workplace, is it so hard to talk about feelings?
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Categories: Communication and Behavior, Culture, Managing Emotions, and Uncategorized.

Anger and Conflict

Conflict is rife with emotion. One that we frequently encounter is anger. While it is often a secondary emotion that is initially triggered by fear, anger is more visible and can trigger ineffective responses to conflict. One of the Conflict Dynamics Profile (CDP) active destructive responses is Displaying Anger which involves acting out the inner emotion. Angry displays can include raising one’s voice, swearing, and physical displays like slamming your hand on a table. Suppressed anger can also leak out as demeaning or retaliatory behaviors. These types of responses tend to escalate and prolong conflict because the emotions of the… Continue Reading Anger and Conflict
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Categories: Communication and Behavior, Managing Emotions, and Uncategorized.

The Value of Becoming Conflict Competent

In our books on conflict competence, we have explored not only how to improve competence but perhaps more importantly—why. In order to make the effort to change patterns of thinking and behavior, adults need to have a good reason. Fortunately, in the case of conflict, there are many that can benefit both individuals and organizations. People usually think of conflict as something negative and as a consequence their initial reaction is either to avoid it or to try to do something that makes it go away. In line with this thinking, the key benefit of conflict competence is lowering the… Continue Reading The Value of Becoming Conflict Competent
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Categories: Communication and Behavior and Uncategorized.