Assertiveness and Cooperation
Assertiveness and cooperation are crucial concepts that are used to solve conflict among people. While assertiveness refers to declining people’s opinions without offending them, cooperation is a concept that seeks to submit and cooperate with the conflicting party.
The two concepts are used to determine the conflict-managing style which is used by managers. The degree of assertiveness and cooperation that is employed to solve conflict determines the style that will be used. For example, equal application of assertiveness and cooperation result to a style that is referred to as compromising. In fact, these degrees develop the Five Conflict Management styles which include accommodating, avoiding, collaborating, competing and compromising. Creation of the five styles according to assertiveness and cooperation is illustrated on this table.
Key Factors When Using Compromising
Conflict managers should consider two key factors when they are deciding on whether to use compromising style or not. First, compromising is used when the manager need to attain a temporary solution concerning the conflict between the people. Consequently, a temporary solution calls for the manager to make a decision that does not favor any side. The other factor that the manager should consider is the importance of the parties’ goals. In this light, compromising should only be applied when the parties’ goals are equally important.
Good Leader
During the ninth parliament of Kenya, there was a controversial debate which aimed at determining the head of government businesses in parliament. The contention emerged due to parliamentarians who supported the prime minister and some who supported the vice president. When he was making his decision, speaker of the parliament decided that he would be the head of business government. This provided a good solution since it ensured that the parliament was not divided. Although the speaker had been supported by the prime minister in the political arena, he did not rule in favor of him. This portrayed unbiased leadership which is a quality of good leaders. However, he did not offer a permanent solution because the speaker cannot play two roles in a country.
Involving Observers
Managers can involve observers when they are dealing with small groups. In a small group, observers are capable of monitoring the behavior of each member and reporting their finding. On the contrary, this would be fairly difficult when dealing with large groups of people.
Using Interaction to Get Feedback
Observer can use interaction between group members in order to get necessary feedback. For example, the observer can trigger a debate among members concerning their views about the group activities. This oral debate, which aims at disapproving each other, will provide the observer with sufficient information about their activities.
Social Presence
Social presence refers to the degree of awareness that is developed during online interaction as well as the appreciation level that accrue from the aspects of that interaction. One of the most crucial characteristics of social presence is the assumption of different forms which range from physical interaction to text communication. In CMC, social presence could be improved by including visual and audio files when communicating through electronic devices.
Computer-Mediated Communication and Face-to-Face Communication
The most critical difference between CMC and face-to-face is based on the level of interaction that is experienced by the parties involved. While CMC involve the use of electronic devices during communication, face-to-face involves physical interaction between the sender and receiver.