Conflict Management in an Interview: Evaluation and Recommendations

This report evaluates the conflict management techniques that could have been adopted by both participants during an interview. The report identifies several conflict issues that arose during the interview and recommends ways to reduce conflict. The report concludes that effective conflict management is crucial for conducting an interview smoothly.

Running head : THINKING STYLES, NEGOTIATION AND CONFLICT MANAGEMENT
THINKING STYLES, NEGOTIATION AND CONFLICT MANAGEMENT
Name of the student
Name of the University
Author’s note

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Executive Summary
The main aim of the report is to explain the consequences during the phase of
interview and identify some of the resolution techniques that could have been adopted by
both the participants to reduce the conflict. This report mainly focus on the threatened that
both the participants are going through and the conflict that arise during the interview.
Several conflict issues are identified during the interview and it has found that both the
participants are aggressive during the conversation. Their body language seems that both of
them are angry and threatened to each other view.

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Table of Contents
Conflict Management Evaluation..............................................................................................3
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Transcript analysis.....................................................................................................................3
Purpose identification.............................................................................................................3
Storytelling.............................................................................................................................4
Transcript analysis under threat.............................................................................................5
Opinions versus facts.............................................................................................................6
Recommendations......................................................................................................................7
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................7
References..................................................................................................................................9

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Conflict Management Evaluation
Introduction
The case study is all about an interview, where Russell Brand is an interviewee who
came for newspaper editor job position. This interview was not smooth as it was expected
due to some consequences in the process of interview. This issue was mainly due to the
question for political magazine. The transcript discussed about the characteristics of Russell
and Jeremy, the way they both presented in that interview (Chen 2012). The interview mainly
focused on conflict management as the interviewee and interviewer were inappropriate for
this interview process. The interviewer must adopt some etiquette such as the behaviour that
must be flexed with emotional understanding, patience, managerial understanding,
psychological stability and many more. The interviewee must be capable enough to perform
the job role for that position that he is going to appointed. The conflict can arise for many
reasons, this must be solved in right time with right measures and by right person (Coleman
2014). The structure of the paper have three parts: in this paper, the first part of the paper
discusses about the purpose of each participant in this interview at the beginning of the
interview. The second part discusses about the participant experiences and their behaviour.
The third part describes about the conflicts and threatening issues which aroused in the
interview process. The fourth part describes about the choice of opinion or fact (Dunne
2016). The purpose of this paper is to solve the conflict that arouses in an interview and in
workplace. The conflict management helps to solve the conflicts in an effective manner.
Transcript analysis
Purpose identification
The interview conducted is a BBC News night interview, and the Jeremy Paxman is
the interviewer, and Russell Brand is the interviewee participating in this interview. At the

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beginning of the conversation the purpose of Jeremy Paxman asked an offensive question and
wanted to know the potential skills of Russell and understand deeply to the perspective of
Russell related to the concept of editing of a political magazine and the purpose of Russell
Brand at beginning is to genuinely give the answer with a good sense of humour because he
doesn't know much about politics (Barsky 2012). Later on during the process, the purpose of
Russel Brand was biased. The verbal communication between both of them seems to be very
polite. But, their body language shows that both of them are angry with each other’s view
related to the political system. Russell Brand seemed to focus on minor disagreement and was
quite aggressive and not ready to listen to the opinion of Jeremy Paxman. He was frustrated
with the political system of the country and wanted to change the policy (Fiadjoe 2013).
Therefore, he was severe with the questions asked and took it personally. Whereas Jeremy
also continuously instinct him because he didn’t find any relevant answer from Russel, but he
was trying to manage the conflict. Therefore, a dispute arises at the end of the interview
session.
Storytelling
In the interview process, the stories that Russel Brand is spontaneously telling about
the instances that are quite personal. He acts as a conflicts generator in this interview. Russell
was frustrated and reacted violently to the questions asked. Russell criticised the political
systems of the country and wanted the system to be replaced with the current system (Rahim
2017). He emotional attacked the problem of his own life related to the political system. He
wanted to have non- democratic system where no political parties are involved for ruling the
individuals of the society (Van 2013). The interviewer is also criticising the aspects of
Russell and tells that people don't vote, and hence, they don't feel to engage with the current
political system. He was frustrated with the political corruption involved in every political
field of job. The political pressure can harm the decision making process of the organisation.

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So for this reason, Russell was dissatisfied with the political parties (Goldberg 2014). Russell
wants to reduce the concept of profitability system of the business. He criticises that
profitability creates a deficit in the business. Here, the stories each participant are telling for
gaining their issue instead of gaining mutual understanding. Therefore the facts of criticism
raised between the two participants resulting in conflict at the end of the process.
Transcript analysis under threat
There happened various instances in the interview where the participants are
threatened. First instantaneous was When Russel was asked with a provocative question of a
political magazine. Russel was threatened and jeopardised the concept of politics. Here, the
social psychology of the interviewee is threatened. He identifies himself as a part of a social
group where the current system does not fit the requirements of the populations and creates
drug addiction problem among the people (De 2018). Second instantaneous is when Jeremy
convey Russell that he is not specific on his opinion, positions of the personality of Russel is
threatened in this part. His attitude and personality towards the real facts are not significant.
He was struggling with a phase of biasedly justifying his views. Russel with poor
communication skill, this created a critical issue for the interviewer Jeremy (De Wit, 2012).
This created a bad impression on Jeremy, as the interviewer was expecting the interviewee to
have good communication skill and would have the ability to deliver the job roles in this
position. But as Russel was unable to communicate, a proper message was not delivered to
Jeremy. This can create conflict in the organisation among the employee (Harris 2013). The
conflict may be by misunderstanding of some conversation, which can trigger for a big
conflict arousal. This can be managed by enabling proper understanding and proper formal
communication in workplace can solve the conflict effectively. The interviewer was treating
the interviewee in an unfair manner, as the interviewer was easily frustrated with the
interviewee. The unfair treatment in interview can arise for a conflict if it is not managed at

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right time (Angouri 2012). The conflict can be resolved by allowing both parties to state their
views about each other and then they must work on their performance to rectify their
mistakes in an interview. The interviewer must be calm and must have patient to listen to the
interviewee. This can help the interviewer to understand the skills and knowledge that Russell
needs for this job position. Another instance was that Russell was frustrated with his past life.
He was irritated that was reflected in that interview, the interviewer did not support the
interviewee’s point of view (Pines 2013). Jeremy criticised Russell for his poor approach in
that interview. He verbally abused Russell with his continuous questions related to his past
life.
Opinions versus facts
Russell Brand wanted a revolution in the current political system, instead of voting
system. Because he thinks that voting system destroys the economic disparity and is not
working well in a democratic country (O’Leary 2017). But the fact behind this concept of
vote provides people with an opportunity for people to raise their opinion and vote for the
person for who they believe in. This system is vital in a democratic country to give an equal
chance to each citizen to decide their authority in the nation. Revolutions may cause
economic consequences in society (Craver 2012). As it may not be supported by large
number of employees in an organisation. So the interviewer must recruit an employee who
can understand the organisational value and respect the policies and adopt to revolutions that
may be benefited for the growth of the organisation (Haynes 2014). Whereas, Jeremy
supported for voting system. Jeremy supported that in a democratic country, voting system
should be mandatory. But the real fact is that, there are many disadvantages of voting. The
main disadvantage of voting is that it may involve political issues such as corruption and
criminality in it (Wall 2012). The corruption may create conflict as the appropriate decision
may not be taken by the company. This inappropriate decision may result in conflict, where

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the inefficient leader may mislead the team or would not be able to achieve the goals of the
company. It is important to recruit or choose a proficient leader who is able to lead the team
and achieve all the objective of the company (Steers 2014).
Recommendations
The participants could have managed themselves by adopting conflict management
techniques during the interview. Both the participants could listen to each other’s point of
view. The interviewer should listen to Russell’s issue first and as an interviewer he could
have ignore the offensive question while the conflict is going on. Jeremy could have
encourage and motivate Russell in supporting his point of view. Interview can be more
effective if each participants could have applied the conflict management techniques. If both
the participants would have stop accusing each other’s point of view, they could have
verbally match their conversation. The interview could have been versatile by gaining a
complete understanding related to the issue.
Conclusion
The paper concludes that the conflict management is important for this interview
process where the interview can be smoothly processed. The conflict management helps to
solve the conflict to improve the management for conducting an interview. The interviewee
and interviewer have understood the etiquettes of interview. This paper concluded that the
issues regarding behaviour and psychology can be the bigger conflict which can be solved by
understanding how an interview must be conducted and how the interview must present
himself in front of the interviewee. The interview had some positive and some negative roles
where conflict was an issue. This was recognised for a positive approach in an interview. The
effective management of an interview can be done by taking feedback from both interviewer
and interviewee for the interview process that can highlight the issues among the Russell and

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Jeremy. This issues or conflict have been addressed properly by conflict management where a
interview can be conducted in an effective manner.

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