Reflection Report: Interpersonal, Negotiation, and Conflict Management

This report is a student's reflection on interpersonal skills, negotiation skills, and conflict management within a business context. The student discusses the importance of these skills, including active listening, empathy, and teamwork, and how they are applied in their current role. The report explores how these skills have shaped their approach to workplace interactions, conflict resolution, and negotiation, providing examples of their practical application. Furthermore, the student highlights the benefits of these skills in personal and professional development, emphasizing their role in effective decision-making, building relationships, and creating a positive working environment. The report concludes with the student's reflections on how these skills have changed their perspective on handling various situations.

Name
Student number
Assessment 4: Reflection for Interpersonal and negotiation skill and conflict management
Tutor name
Submission date

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Interpersonal skills...........................................................................................................................2
Interpersonal skills at my current role in a business........................................................................3
How interpersonal skills will be useful to me and how it has changed how I think about
situations..........................................................................................................................................4
Negotiation skills and conflict management....................................................................................5
Negotiation skills and conflict management at my current and or future role in a business...........5
How Negotiation skills and conflict management will be useful me and how it has changed how I
think about situations.......................................................................................................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8

Introduction
Over the past few decades, interpersonal skills, negotiation skills and conflict
management have been used in diverse management to develop a conducive working
environment which fits every social group. Leaders have also been using these skills to handle
workplace conflicts, enhance effective communication and support employees towards
accomplishment of their goals (Moosmayer, Schuppar & Siems, 2012). Therefore, the report
seeks to discuss the Implications of interpersonal skills, negotiation skills and conflict
management on my current and future role in business. Furthermore, the report also examines
how interpretation skills will be useful to me and how it has changed how I think about
situations.
Interpersonal skills
Interpersonal skills are tactics, traits and behaviours that an individual relies on when
interacting, building relationships or communicating with others (Erozkan, 2013). In business
context, interpersonal skills refer to ability of an employee to work effectively with others
without workplace conflicts or any other social issues. Furthermore, interpersonal skills usually
range from listening, communication to deportment and attitude. The most common
interpersonal skills practised in the modern world workplace include empathy, patience,
responsibility, dependability, teamwork, active listening, motivation, leadership and flexibility
(Matteson, Anderson & Boyden, 2016). However, the interpersonal skills that have great
implication to my current role include motivation, active listening, empathy and teamwork.
Interpersonal skills at my current role in a business
Interpersonal skills have various implications for my current and future role in a business.
First of all, with my current role involving working with internal and external stakeholders such

as customers, suppliers and my fellow employees from diversities like gender, race, ethnicity and
background, my interpersonal skill of excellent verbal and non-verbal communication ensures
that am able to observe good communication practices with employees and customers at whole.
For example, I remember one day a hot-tempered customer entered our business premises
complaining about how the product he bought from the business failed to deliver its purpose
after lasting for just one day. Furthermore, the customer thought he was scammed having spent
thousands of dollars on the purchase. Through my verbal and non-verbal communication skills, I
was able to calm the furious customer down and settled for a solution. I welcome him with a low
tone and warm gestures that eased his hunger. Using active listening as an element of
interpersonal skills, I listened keenly to her concern as I nod my head to signify I was
concentrating on what he was saying. In addition, I used encouraging words like “don’t worry
warranty is there for you” alongside non-verbal gestures like warm facial expressions, head nods
as well as maintaining eye contact. In the end, my non-verbal and verbal skills helped to create
rapport and reinforced openness in the furious customer.
In my current business role, interpersonal skills have developed respect, empathy and
understanding of other stakeholders that we interact with them on a daily basis. For example, I
have built effective working environment as a result of my ability to show appreciation for time
and efforts from employees, showing courtesy and gratitude, whenever my situation differs with
other employees am able to show respect their opinions and ideas. Furthermore, with the
guidance of my strong interpersonal skills am unable to insult, disparage, attack and take credit
for other employees or customers even if I often improve or build their work. I have also
developed empathy in the workplace as am able to take into account feelings, thoughts and needs
of other employees. Lack of having these interpersonal skills have a diverse negative implication

on my current business role. Firstly, without the interpersonal skills, I will create a bad
relationship with other employees which in turn may lead to job stress. Without the interpersonal
skills, I will create bad reputations for the company resulting in customer unsatisfaction.
How interpersonal skills will be useful to me and how it has changed how I think about
situations
The topic of Interpersonal skills will be useful to me in diverse ways. Through the
interpersonal skills, I will be prepared for the future leadership role in businesses as am able to
make effective decisions and promote a conducive working environment in the organization
which suites people from diverse cultures. Furthermore, I will also be able to support personal
and professional development in the organization hence developing a productive organizational
culture.
Effective interpersonal skills will be very useful to me as it helps to create my self-
awareness. Through self-awareness, I will be able to identify my strengths and weaknesses
which will increase my social abilities, promotes versatility and open-minded and further
improves my current skills. In regard to social abilities, I will be able to build a strong
relationship with my other peers and employee because I will be able to understand well what
they want from each other which certainly come from knowing one’s challenges (weaknesses)
and abilities (strengths). My self-awareness will also promote my emotional intelligence which
will help me to relate the feelings of my fellow employees and peers. Lack of self-awareness and
emotional intelligence can lead to conflicts and therefore learning my emotion patterns will be a
way of improving my emotional intelligence and how I relate with others in society.
Interpersonal skills have significantly changed on how I think about situations by replacing
some negative perception that I had with positive ones. Some difficult situations that were hard

to believe and handle have been made easier through interpersonal skills. For example, it was
difficult for me to negotiate with my employer to increase my salary or grand a sick off,
however, I realized that through effective interpersonal communication the way I express myself
determines how I will have a win-win outcome which benefits both parties.
Negotiation skills and conflict management
Negotiation is a way in which individuals settle their differences. Siewiorek, Saarinen,
Lainema & Lehtinen (2012) defined negotiation skills as tactics or methods by which agreement
or compromise is reached while avoiding dispute or argument. Conflict management is defined
as a process of increasing the positive aspects of conflicts while limiting the available negative
aspects. The most common negotiation and conflict management skills include active listening
and being non-biased towards one party.
Negotiation skills and conflict management at my current and or future role in a business
Negotiation skills and conflict management also has various implication at my current
and future role in a business. In the business context, my negotiation and conflict management
skills have enabled me to build a strong relationship with all internal and external stakeholders.
For example, I have been able to provide a fair and equal work environment among the
employees and customers in my business role. Treating all employees equally and fairly
regardless of social diversities like race, gender or background has instead motivated customers
to shop more in the company and further motivated other employees to be more productive.
In my current role, effective negotiation skills have significantly created success. As
conflicts will always be there in life, through effective negotiation skills am able to solve the
current problems and avoid future conflicts. For example, in my business role, negotiation has
facilitated lasting delivery and quality solution which are long term solutions and satisfies all the

parties involved. In addition, I have been able to successfully solve disputes that occur over
suppliers, customers and employees. The disagreements which occur upon these classes of
people always ranges from major misunderstanding like breaching of the organizational policies
to minor misunderstanding like confusion over a particular delivery. Furthermore, I have noticed
that whenever there is dispute in the business, internal and external stakeholder become
distressed, compromise delivery, reduce performance and damage the relationships hence putting
the business at risk of workforce conflict or closure. In addition, leaving business issues
unresolved or escalating disputes of litigation also carries high business risks. Therefore, my
effective negotiation skills have been able to solve most of the disputes in the organization with
consideration of approaches like Alternative dispute resolution (ADR) without involving the
court of laws.
Effective negotiation skills have enhanced effective decisions making in my business
role. For example, I faced a particular instance in the organization which required high
negotiation and conflict management skills. Particularly, the instance involved the decision of
implementing new office technology (ERP) to replace the traditional one. Some employees
agreed that indeed a new system was required for an organization to deliver successfully while
others opposed the change. The differences in opinions with which ERP system was suitable for
the organization resulted in an environment where there was confliction of ideas. Through the
use of my negotiation and conflict management skills, I was able to handle the situation. Firstly,
I called for a meeting with both parties, listened keenly to their concerns, then I make the staff
members understand the importance and implication of each ERP system. After mutual
understanding, we all come to an agreement that implementing new ERP will solve the current
problems in the organization such as high –error rate and also will make the work easier.

How Negotiation skills and conflict management will be useful me and how it has changed
how I think about situations
Negotiation skills and change management will be useful to me in various ways. Firstly,
the skills will enable me to become an excellent mediator to various issues that will be
experienced in my current and future business role. Furthermore, negotiation and conflict
management skill will significantly help me to build confidence in handling changing situations
in society and organization. I will not be intimidated by diverse bullies but rather negotiate for
what is right. When a person is already intimidated it means he or she is not up to fight and
therefore they end up taking advantage of it. In the contemporary business world, people
intimidate others in order for them to be successful. For example, a manager can intimidate an
employee who has a higher qualification for managerial positions. In the business role, being
intimidated means loss of opportunities, promotions and profits and therefore learning and
developing effective negotiation skills means I will not let myself to get intimidation during the
process of negotiation. Furthermore, I will be able to understand that if another individual we are
in negotiation is more confident because he or she is convinced they deserve something more
than me. Through understanding and tabling the conviction, I will be in a position to win a
negotiation. In the future, I will use negotiation skills in enhancing effective formal transactions
such as negotiating legal contracts, service delivery, leasing and selling of diverse products to the
potential customers.
Negotiation skills and conflict management has significantly changed on how I think
about situation. For example, I used to think that all conflicts that occurred in the society or
organization should be solved through arbitration (the court process). However, through the
learning of negotiation and conflict management skills, I have realized that I can solve the minor

conflicts with other employees’ through mediation process without consulting managers.
Furthermore, I have learned different ways of how to handle or respond positively to
organizational change
Conclusion
In conclusion, interpersonal, negotiation and conflict management skills have positive
impacts on my current role. The negotiation and conflict management skill have significantly
enhanced my confidence and ability to tackle diverse issues that occur in the workplace as well
as in society. Interpersonal skills have significantly influenced how I interact with employees to
ensure there is a conducive working environment.

References
Erozkan, A. (2013). The Effect of Communication Skills and Interpersonal Problem Solving
Skills on Social Self-Efficacy. Educational Sciences: Theory and Practice, 13(2), 739-
745.
Lolli, J. C. (2013). Interpersonal communication skills and the young hospitality leader: Are they
prepared?. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 32, 295-298.
Matteson, M. L., Anderson, L., & Boyden, C. (2016). " Soft Skills": A Phrase in Search of
Meaning. portal: Libraries and the Academy, 16(1), 71-88.
Moosmayer, D. C., Schuppar, B., & Siems, F. U. (2012). Reference Prices as Determinants of
Business‐to‐Business Price Negotiation Outcomes: An Empirical Perspective from the
Chemical Industry. Journal of Supply Chain Management, 48(1), 92-106.
Siewiorek, A., Saarinen, E., Lainema, T., & Lehtinen, E. (2012). Learning leadership skills in a
simulated business environment. Computers & Education, 58(1), 121-135.