University Reflection: STAR Model of Workplace Conflict

This assignment presents a student's professional reflection utilizing the STAR model to analyze a workplace conflict. The reflection details a situation involving a disagreement with a colleague over project credit, leading to a suspension. The student applies the Thomas Kilmann model and the Johari window to analyze the conflict, exploring conflict handling modes and self-awareness. The analysis examines how these theories could have been utilized to resolve the conflict more effectively. The reflection concludes with lessons learned, emphasizing the inevitability of conflicts and the importance of emotional control and organizational intervention. The student highlights both strengths, such as vocalizing concerns, and weaknesses, such as emotional reactions, providing insights for future conflict resolution strategies.

Running head: STAR MODEL: PROFESSIONAL REFLECTION
STAR MODEL: PROFESSIONAL REFLECTION
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1STAR MODEL: PROFESSIONAL REFLECTION
1. Story
The situation that occurred with me was a significant workplace conflict situation that
involved a senior colleague. The situation involved me and my colleague. The situation took
place at the workplace. My colleague and I were involved in the same project and had almost
identical tasks. This required us to work in proper coordination. However, my ambitious
colleague was more inclined towards his ambitious goals. We were doing a shared task and he
wanted to take the entire credit for the task. However, I found about his intentions and a conflict
of interest was created. This resulted in a huge quarrel that ended with both of us being handed
suspension orders. This issue created a deep impact within my mind. I felt that the corporate
workplaces were filled with selfish people that wanted to gain advantage for themselves at the
cost of their colleagues. After the suspension I spoke to the HR about the matter. My colleague
was proved guilty through an investigation and was handed a written warning. The medium term
outcome was that the people in the office became more aware. In the long run, the shared
projects were handled within strict ethical guidelines.
2. Theory
Two important theories that are relevant to my story are the Thomas Kilmann model and
Johari window.
The Thomas Kilmann theory is dependent on the Thomas Kilmann model. According to
the theory, the conflict is described as a condition in which the concerns of the people are
incomparable (Koley & Rao, 2018, Octobe). The model identifies two dimensions when
choosing the course of action that needs to be taken during conflicts. These are assertiveness or
the degree to which the own needs of any person are satisfied and cooperativeness or the degree
to which the other person’s concern can be satisfied. Five conflict handling modes that are
present as per the theory are avoiding, accommodating, compromising, competing and
collaborating.
The Johari window is a model for self-awareness, personal development as well as group
development. It helps to develop better relationships. According to this theory, in the window
there are four regions (Oliver and Duncan, 2019). One is the open self or free area. Another is
the blind area or the things that are unknown to the person by known by others. The third one is
the hidden area or the things that the person knows but does not want the others to know. The
fourth one is the unknown self or the things that are not known either by the self or the others.
These are the four areas that are much important when people interact during conflict situations.
3. Analysis
In my story the Thomas Kilmann theory can be applicable as in case of my colleague
being concerned about his own needs while I was concerned more about the project. It can be
said that my colleague and I were part of the same project. I could have avoided the conflict by

2STAR MODEL: PROFESSIONAL REFLECTION
knowing more about the needs of my colleague from the project. The major conflict resolution
aspects could have been used by me rather than going into a quarrel that had both I and my
colleague suspended. The johari window was applicable as in the open self and the hidden areas.
I should have given more effort towards understanding the things that my colleague wanted to
gain from the project. In short, I and my colleague were unable to go beyond the storming stage.
This stage is about establishing good relationship with the team after the forming stage or the
guidance oriented stage. These two theories could have been utilized by both me and my
colleague in developing better grounds for resolving the conflicts. Both I and my colleague
seemed to be unaware of our needs from the project. As a result of this, we were unable to work
together and develop our
4. Reflection
I learnt from the situation that conflicts are inevitable when people work together. It also
helped me to understand that it is baseless to always think that people would cooperate
effectively with us in our shared projects. The thing that worked well was the intervention form
the organization. I believe that they took the right decision in the case. I could have handled the
situation better by developing better techniques to handle the situation without engaging in any
quarrels. The strength that I have exhibited was being vocal about the event. In the future the
organization can be helped as this would give better voices to the employees. I did exhibit a
weakness by getting carried away by my emotions. In the future I would always try to
understand conflict situations better before approaching to resolve them.

3STAR MODEL: PROFESSIONAL REFLECTION
References
Oliver, S. and Duncan, S., 2019. Looking through the Johari window. Research for All, 3(1),
pp.1-6.
Koley, G., & Rao, S. (2018, October). Adaptive human-agent multi-issue bilateral negotiation
using the Thomas-Kilmann conflict mode instrument. In 2018 IEEE/ACM 22nd
International Symposium on Distributed Simulation and Real Time Applications (DS-
RT) (pp. 1-5). IEEE.