Change Mgt and Conflict Mgt ONlLINE

I dont think that there will be an effective way to propose conflict management online. I believe that conflicts are mostly with people and until you realize and understand how to deal with people, you will not be successful at managing conflicts. You may be able to do workshops online to teach people steps to avoidance, but the fact of the matter is that conflicts can not be solved without the presence of people. (REAL LIVE PEOPLE)

Digital Bridges

Conflict often arises out of limited resources. One resource that is limited mostly by virtue of how hard it may be to access is information. Technology has bridged many information gaps. Many conflicts arise out of information or misunderstandings simply because people do not know all the pertinent information, both about the issue and the people they are dealing with. Access to information through technology has created 'digital bridges' to fill in these gaps. Most information is probably accessible the only problem is taking the time to educate oneself. In any case there still must be an attitude that cooperative problem solving is possible, or there is no motivation to actually seek out the information available. 

On a smaller more direct scale technology can serve as a forum for questions, discrepancies, issues, and general problems to be looked at, analyzed and answered. This is both a way to help employees with problems and see small problems before they blow up into difficult conflicts. 

Conflict and Change Management Online

The gravitaion of life online is increasing greatly. An individual can shop online, find dates online, why not resolve conflicts or manage people from the internet. Is this a difficult concept to put into practice? It is possible to both of these things online. Lets first dicuss conflict managment online. Advantages for conflict management online is that there is no physical violence involved. Resolving conflict via internet is an exchange of messages. The disadvanteage is that a conflict resolution may take longer to achieve. Because there is no one on one interaction, it may take a longer time to resolve.

The advantage of managment online is that managment can be done from far distance. So someone in America can manage a group on the opposite dide of the world, for example china. Because resources are cheaper in other areas, this way of managment can help increase profit. The disadvantage is that communication can be difficult. To encode message souly online can be difficult.

Assimilation

Well a good example of assimilation would be the public school system. You have to adapt to survive in any situation, but when you are young you are way more impressionable. It is really hard to be 100% yourself. Kids join gangs because of peer pressure and the desire to fit in (besides “safety” reasons). There are other kinds of assimilation that happen too though. Sometimes assimilation has positive effects too. It’s a lot easier for teachers to assimilate children so they can teach them all the same way. It’s the same way in the corporate world.

Animal Cruelty

Everybody is capable of a good presentation, but you really have to have great social and organizational skills to give an awesome presentation. I actually went to a lecture/ seminar on animal abuse this past summer. The way the presenter would speak was like he was speaking directly to you. I mean really you feel guilty as hell for eating a piece of chicken! I thought that it was really effective how he used slides with pictures of the animals before ad after. I think I almost threw up once. He also used video and handouts as well. I know that it sounds like he was just bashing meat eaters, but that was only half of it. He started out by saying eating meat isn't bad, just the way the factories treat and execute the animals. I like how he played both sides of the fence and the media he used.

Decision making styles

With the magnitude of decisions i am required to make every single day, it would seem near impossible that i do not have a set system for making decisions. i think my decision making process is all about prioritization. i prioritize my decisions into areas of my life- work, school, and personal (including marathon training) and try to make the smartest decision I can each day for the circumstances. Like most busy people, time constraints limit my decision making process.
The older I get, the more I search for the work/ life balance that is so hard to achieve. With that in mind I find myself spending more time on personal issues while just trying to fit everything else in. The decision to finish school was a personal objective and it was made quickly. The decision to go back was not hard- finding the time, money, and energy is a whole other story.
The decision to run a marathon was a little more thought out- but not much. I set a goal, had the drive and made the decision every week to follow up on that goal.
In my work environment, there is less time for sitting down, waying out options and finding the rational choice- after you have been in this business you know that you make a choice and the important thing is to follow through. I think the idea of rational decisions puts a lot of pressure on people. Sometimes there is a right or wrong decision and sometimes that decision just means you try again until you find what works for you. Overall i make more intuitive decisions and I have found that follow through is almost as important as the inital decision.

Playing Mental Chess

Making decisions can be tedious. Decision making becomes tedious when you take in consideration all the angles i.e. how is this going to play out in the future, does making this decision contribute to my goals. Probably the decision that I have thought out the most that has been asked of me ever since I was a child is, “what do you want to do when you grow up.” Maybe it was my upbringing, but nearly every grown up in my life asked me that as a child. Simply being asked the question changed my frame of mind. Suppose I was never asked this question, it would not have seemed as important to make a decision. Since it was made to seem an important decision and one that I should think about, I thought it was important to get it right. Due to the fear of picking the ‘wrong’ choice I was indefinitely unwilling to commit to anything. In essence, I was attempting to make the most rational decision possible. The problem was that the things I wanted to do were often very irrational, unstable, and difficult to obtain. Such as being a movie producer, being a screen writer, becoming an aviator, or being an Olympic athlete.

When I went away to college for the first time I finally decided that trying to make these decisions rationally inhibited my willingness to take chances that could pay off if everything went as planned. So, my decision making has become less and less based on purely rational thought and increasingly based on motive and desire. If I am tackling a difficult decision I will first decide what my motive is for making the decision. I find looking into motive is eye-opening. It allows me to see alternatives that I may not have previously thought about. Once the motive is clear, decisions are much easier for me to make. Another factor I incorporate into decision making is attitude. Once a decision is made it can mentally be sabotaged by a bad attitude. Even if you may not have picked the best decision having a better attitude will help to some extent. In any case these little tricks I like to use are much less time consuming than playing out mental chess with each decision