Analyzing Conflict Management, Coaching, and Mentoring at M&S

This report examines conflict management, mentoring, and coaching within organizations, focusing on a case study of M&S, a Britain-based company dealing in food, clothing, and home products. The organization faces conflict between employees and employers due to reduced staff performance, disrupting the working culture. The report defines conflict, mentoring, and coaching, discusses various conflicts related to the scenario, stages of conflict, and conflict management styles, including accommodating, avoiding, collaborating, competing, and compromising. It emphasizes the importance of conflict resolution techniques, such as withdrawing, accommodating, compromising, forcing, and collaborating, with a recommendation for M&S to use a collaborative style. The GROW framework model is presented as a coaching technique to improve employee performance, involving goal setting, assessing current reality, exploring options, and establishing the will to achieve objectives. The report concludes that effective conflict management and coaching can enhance organizational performance.

CONFLICT
MANAGEMENT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Describe about conflict, mentoring and coaching in organisational context..............................1
Define about various kind of conflicts that linked with scenario and in which stage conflict
management is used....................................................................................................................1
Mention about different stages of conflicts ................................................................................2
Conflict management and styles of conflict management..........................................................3
Describe the term Conflict resolution and conflict techniques...................................................4
What is mentoring and coaching. Discuss their differences from one another ..........................4
Acknowledge various coaching techniques and their role in improving performance of
employees....................................................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Each organisation faces some kind of conflict on regular basis due to which it is
important for manager of company to adopt conflict management techniques so that appropriate
working culture can be maintained (Gossman, Ellis and Toney-Butler, 2019). This assignment is
going to cover about M&S which is a Britain based organisation dealing in food, clothing and
home products. This company is facing an organisational conflict among employees and
employers due to reduced performance of staff members. This has disrupted the working culture
in a considerable manner. This report is further going to discuss about terms like coaching,
conflict and mentoring. Also, different conflicts related to scenario will be discussed along with
stages and management of conflict. Differences in mentoring and coaching are discussed and
role of coaching in performance improvement of employee is mentioned in brief.
MAIN BODY
Describe about conflict, mentoring and coaching in organisational context
Conflict is referred to the clash in interest of different individuals which are working
together or share a close interaction with each other. Generally, conflict is not considered as
constructive approach but in moderate level, conflicts will be beneficial for M&S in increasing
the competitiveness among employees. Mentoring is specified as a procedure of semi structured
guidance in which one individual can share their experience, skills and knowledge so that other
people can be trained and developed. Coaching is a procedure to supervise and train an
individual to increase their working potential and capabilities (Broukhim and et. al., 2019).
Define about various kind of conflicts that linked with scenario and in which stage conflict
management is used
M&S is a large scale organisation in which different departments operates their work in
an independent manner. As thousands of employees work in company, it is not possible for
employers to give proper consideration to each employees. Due to this, organisation is facing
some conflicts and issues in their working procedures. Employers in M&S are not happy with the
performance of employees from past some time. Due to reduced productivity from staff
members, overall performance of M&S have been compromised. Employees feel that their
superiors and employers are not giving them proper guidance and care due to which they face
difficulty in performing work. Also, workers feels that they are not given training due to which
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their skills are not developing and their professional development is compromised. This
demotivate them to perform efficient work in M&S. This all scenario has leads to conflict at
workplace. When this conflict has started at workplace, employers has no idea what is the main
reason behind the disturbance among employers and employees. But, later own during initial
stage when productivity of M&S starts suffering, this conflict is given serious consideration and
conflict management is carried out (Currie and et. al., 2017).
Mention about different stages of conflicts
A conflict can either be moderate or serious. Main reason behind a conflict is difference
in perception, opinion and interest of people. There are different stages of a conflicts which are
stated below in context with M&S:
 Trigger: It is concerned with the particular issue that sparks the issue and conflict.
Triggering is some action that can harm the physical ,mental and emotional well-being of
an a person. Trigger is not a conflict but it can takes an issue to later stages and make it a
big conflict. For example, employers in M&S said to their staff that their work is not
appreciable. It is not an issue but this aspect can trigger a big issue in future.
 Assumption and labelling: Now, reaction of employees is towards labelling the
employers and making assumptions about their intentions. For example, Employees of
company will assume that intention of employers is vindictive and they are saying bad
about employees to humiliate them and proving them inferior (Chatterji, Arlosoroff and
Guha, 2017).
 Attack and Blame: It is a human nature that if people face some conflict with one
another, they will target, attack and blame each other unnecessary. Generally, there are
two situations, either a person can withdraw or attack back. In case of M&S conflict,
employees has attacked the employers and blame that if they have given right care,
training and guidance to workforce, overall performance of company wouldn't have
suffered.
 Entrenched: At this stage, a conflict gains the momentum and each concerned party
invest their opinion to prove themselves right. As human being is a sophisticated person
and tries to prove themselves right, this stage of conflict is very dangerous (Johansen and
Cadmus, 2016). In context with M&S, at this stage, employers give justification about
themselves like they are guiding employees but they don't listen them and employees
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invest in proving their point of view right. At this stage, interaction in concerned parties
minimise and it will reducing the efficiency of M&S considerably.
 Collision: It is the last stage of a conflict in which both the parties feel very aggressive.
In this situation, either a conflict resolution is adopted to secure the welfare of both
parties or a party win argument over other and celebrates victory. In case of M&S,
company has adopted a conflict resolution to resolve their matter properly.
Conflict management and styles of conflict management
Conflicts in an organisation can take place on the basis of either caste, race, personal
reasons or any political reason. Conflict management is refereed as the process of identifying and
handling conflicts in an efficient, fair and sensible manner. There are basically five styles to
manage a conflict and these styles are stated below:
 Accommodating: In this style, an individual cooperates to a high extent due to which
their personal goals and targets can suffer. This kind of style is adopted if other party is
more efficient and posses better solutions (Black and Falk, 2019).
 Avoiding: In this style, concerned party simply avoids the issue and do not try to create
ruckus out of it. This style is used when an individual knows that conflict is very trivial
and they do not have any chance to win it.
 Collaborating: In this style, concerned parties pair up with one another so that a medium
path can be achieved. In this situation, there is no win-lose paradigm and both the parties
seek win-win solution. M&S is going to use this style to manage their conflict properly.
 Competing: It is basically a Win-lose approach in which a person acts very assertively so
that they can win the argument at the expense of other party. This change management
style is not suitable for M&S as this style will impacts the overall well-being of company
in negative manner.
 Compromising: This a lose-lose situation where all the concerned parties are not able to
provide themselves right and they compromise with one another on certain grounds.
Compromise will not allow M&S to achieve maximised revenues and impacts the
efficiency of organisation in negative manner (Ellis and Toney-Butler, 2019).
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Describe the term Conflict resolution and conflict techniques
Conflict resolution is a formal or informal procedure where all the parties concerned with
conflict identify a peaceful solution. This solution helps the involved people in solving their
dispute in a proper manner. There are some conflict resolution techniques which will help M&S
in resolving their issue in a proper manner. These techniques are withdrawing, accommodating,
compromising, forcing and collaborating. In case of M&S, where conflict is between employers
and employees about reduced performance of staff, company can use collaborative style to solve
this conflict (Wang, Zhang and Deng, 2019). In this context, employers and employees of M&S
can have face to face interactions and select a possible solution by listening the perception and
view point of each other. Here, employers of company has decided to give regular training to
employees to increase their working capabilities and employees had promised to deliver their
best efforts in performing their organisational work. By this, overall performance of firm will
improve and concerned firm will be able to solve their conflict in a systematic manner. Yes, this
technique is effective and overall productivity of company is improving as employees are given
right guidance due to which they are able to perform complex work in simplified manner (Prause
and Mujtaba, 2015).
What is mentoring and coaching. Discuss their differences from one another
Mentoring and coaching are two different terms which are usually confused with one
another. Difference among these two aspects are stated below:
Mentoring Coaching
 Mentoring is basically a chain of
passing good practices so that required
work at M&S can be performed in a
systematic manner.
 Coaching is a way through which a
person can be supervised by a superior
individual so that their capabilities and
competencies can be improved.
 Mentor guides the employees in
performing organisational work rather
than teaching them, how to do work.
 With the help of coaching, employees
in M&S can learn new skills so that
high advantage can be achieved.
 It is a long term procedure  This is a short term procedure
 Mentoring emphasising on career of
staff members (Başoğul and Özgür,
 Coaching give emphasis to the
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2016). performance of employees.
Acknowledge various coaching techniques and their role in improving performance of
employees
Coaching techniques are the procedures that helps a people in learning new aspects so
that they can improve their working capabilities and developed themselves at both professional
& personal level. In this context, manager in M&S can use GROW framework model which
included different coaching techniques. Elaboration of model is carried out below:
 Goal: It is the first step in coaching techniques. According to this step, employer in a
company is needed to look at the behaviour which is needed to be changed and then
convert this change in the form of a goal. In case of M&S, employers want to improve
the performance of employees. They can formulate SMART objective for it so that their
expectation can be fulfilled (Carton and Tewfik, 2016).
 Current reality: In this technique, employee of M&S can define their current reality. It
is an important step in which employee will share with the employers about their
ineffectiveness in performing work. Also, they will share the situations in which they
need proper guidance.
 Exploring Options: In this step, current reality is already explored and employers in
M&S will formulate different strategies so that their expected objectives can be achieved
in a proper manner.
 Will: This is the last step in which employees of company will share their opinion about
the formulated strategies and give their full participations so that prepared objectives of
employers can be achieved in a timely manner. By this, conflict of firm will be resolved
properly.
CONCLUSION
As per discussed report, this can be comprehended that conflicts can reduce the working
capabilities of employees and employers in an organisation. There are different states of conflicts
which can triggers a spark into big organisational issue. Main styles to manage conflicts are
accommodating, collaborating, compromising, competing and avoiding. Out of all the style,
M&S can adopt collaborating in which both parties will find a common solution. Conflict
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resolution is basically a way to resolve an issue in a systematic manner. In this context, GROW
framework can be used by concerned organisations.
REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Başoğul, C. and Özgür, G., 2016. Role of emotional intelligence in conflict management
strategies of nurses. Asian nursing research. 10(3). pp.228-233.
Black, C. E. and Falk, R. A. eds., 2019. The Future of the International Legal Order, Volume 3:
Conflict Management(Vol. 5367). Princeton University Press.
Broukhim, M. and et. al., 2019. Interprofessional conflict and conflict management in an
educational setting. Medical teacher. 41(4). pp.408-416.
Carton, A. M. and Tewfik, B. A., 2016. Perspective—A new look at conflict management in
work groups. Organization Science. 27(5). pp.1125-1141.
Chatterji, M., Arlosoroff, S. and Guha, G., 2017. Conflict management of water resources.
Routledge.
Currie, D. and et. al., 2017. The management of workplace conflict: Contrasting pathways in the
HRM literature. International Journal of Management Reviews. 19(4). pp.492-509.
Ellis, V. L. and Toney-Butler, T. J., 2019. Conflict Management. In StatPearls [Internet].
StatPearls Publishing.
Gossman, W., Ellis, V. L. and Toney-Butler, T. J., 2019. Conflict Management.
Johansen, M. L. and Cadmus, E., 2016. Conflict management style, supportive work
environments and the experience of work stress in emergency nurses. Journal of Nursing
Management. 24(2). pp.211-218.
Prause, D. and Mujtaba, B. G., 2015. Conflict management practices for diverse workplaces.
Journal of Business Studies Quarterly. 6(3). p.13.
Wang, Y., Zhang, K. and Deng, Y., 2019. Base belief function: An efficient method of conflict
management. Journal of Ambient Intelligence and Humanized Computing. 10(9).
pp.3427-3437.
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