Natasha experienced a conflict at her workplace regarding not receiving a raise after over a year of good performance reviews. The tangible issue was the raise itself, but intangible factors like Natasha's shyness and her manager's behavior also contributed. Natasha used an avoidance strategy by not asking for a raise due to fear of losing her job. Donna chaired a committee that faced resistance from the Director of Public Relations regarding initiatives. Donna resolved the conflict through collaboration by clarifying goals in a meeting with the Director and COO.

1. Discussion - Week 2
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Discussion: Tangible Versus Intangible Conflict Issues
In this Discussion, you are asked to identify a conflict situation
about which you feel strongly. It may be a workplace conflict or
a personal conflict at home or at school. The conflict may be
interpersonal or between two different groups, but not more.
Some examples of workplace conflicts might be whether you or
a colleague will lead a project team when you were simply told
to work together, or a clash over roles and responsibilities that
have some overlap. Work conflicts may be over pay disparities,
opportunities to be more visible, or unfair performance reviews,
to name a few. Make sure that the conflict is about a content
issue, not based on personality differences.
Documenting the details through writing them down and
analyzing the conflict situation you identified will provide you
an opportunity to put into practice the Stop – Think, Listen and
Communicate (S-TLC) espoused in the textbook readings this
week. As you plan what you want to communicate, keep in mind
the basic communication rights and practice them with others,
even as you would like for them to be practiced with you. Look
also for the emotional content of the others involved in your
conflict and identify opportunities to empathize with them.
When people feel heard and understood, they are much more
likely to be open to exploring options. These tactics create a
safe space for learning, exploration, and change.
Cahn, D. D., & Abigail, R. A. (2014). Managing conflict
through communication (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Pearson Education.
To prepare for this Discussion, pay particular attention to the
following Learning Resources:

2. Review this week’s Learning Resources, especially:
0. Five Stages of Conflict - https://dougnoll.posthaven.com/the-
five-stages-of-conflict-escalation
0. Furlong, G. T. (2005). The conflict resolution toolbox:
Models and maps for analyzing, diagnosing, and resolving
conflict. Mississauga, Ontario: John Wiley & Sons Canada.
2. Chapter 8, “Model #5: The Dynamics of Trust” See
attachment
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Assignment:
Respond to at least two of your peers' postings in one or more
of the following ways:
1. As you review the conflict scenario presented by your peer,
consider what has not been said as well as what has been said.
Share what impressions of intangibles you get that are not
explicitly stated in the description that might be worth checking
out?
1. Based on your review of your peer’s scenario, and using the
description from the Dynamics of Trust model, discuss what
shared goal might emerge?
1. Using de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats perspective, think about
this conflict? Please share the Hat ,in an area in which you think
it might be helpful for your peer to gain more informatio n or
insight?
1. 3 -4 paragraphs
1. No plagiarism
1. APA citing
1st Colleague - Natasha Mills
Natasha Mills
Tangible Versus Intangible Conflict Issues

3. Top of Form
One conflict scenario that I have experienced in the workplace
involved asking for a raise. I had been with the company for
over one year and my performance reviews indicated that a raise
was overdue. Therefore, I anticipated that the manager was
aware of this fact and that he would offer me a raise during each
performance review. When the time came, we would only
discuss my performance, which was always exemplary, with the
manager. However, he failed to propose a raise each time and
since I was afraid that bringing it up would put my job at risk, I
did not ask for a raise either. The goals of this conflict were
instrumental for my manager and identity on my side. This is
because I ought to have interacted with the manager and asked
for a raise for him to give me one, particularly since he did not
mention it during every performance review. On the other hand,
the manager’s failure to offer me a raise ignited a desire in me
to attack his image (Cahn & Abigail, 2014). This goal stemmed
from my inability to understand why he would not offer me a
raise despite the length of time I had spent in the company, as
well as my good performance reviews.
The tangible core conflict issue in the described scenario was
the raise. I needed a raise, which is an observable asset, making
it a tangible conflict issue (Cahn & Abigail, 2014). On the other
hand, personality issues formed the core of the conflict scenario
identified. I was shy, which hindered me from asking for a
raise, making it difficult for the manager to know that I needed
a one. Also, it is possible to state that the manager had a
behavioral issue that contributed to the intangible conflict
issues of the described scenario because he resisted from
offering a raise until I asked for one, which is a fact that I later
came to learn from colleagues when I narrated the situation to
them.
The two cardinal dynamics of the trust model include risk and
motives or intentions (Furlong, 2005). My perspective of the
conflict situation involved the element of risk. At the time, I

4. trusted that the manager would offer me a raise during every
performance review after working for the company for more
than one year with good performance. Every time, this did not
happen as I had anticipated. The manager’s failure to offer a
raise led me to assess the risks associated with my asking. My
assessments led me to the conclusion that I risked losing my
job, which was more costly than not getting a raise. Therefore, I
resisted from asking for a raise. Further, my shy personality
contributed to the risk tolerance in the situation.
My manager’s perspective corresponded with the motives and
intentions dynamic of the trust model, particularly that which
concerns the intrinsic nature attribution. The intrinsic nature of
the other person, in this case the manager, is attributed to the
conflict when it comes to this dynamic (Furlong, 2005). This
intrinsic nature leads to unintentional behavior despite the harm
caused to the other party. For instance, the manager’s behavior
of not offering a raise until an employee ask was intrinsic
because he was probably not aware of the harm he was causing
certain employees, such as me.
The communication strategy that I relied upon in my conflict
scenario was dysfunctional. I used the confrontation avoidance
and accommodation cycle due to elements of fear and shyness.
“…confrontation avoidance/accommodation cycle, which is
characteristic of those people whose first impulse is to avoid
initiating conflict or to quickly give in (accommodate) when
conflicts arise” (Cahn & Abigail, 2014, p.33-34). Confrontation
avoidance and accommodation became a script that I repeated
with every performance review, each time concluding that the
risk of asking for a raise was much higher than that of avoiding
the discussion of the issue with my manager. Thus, the
dysfunctional cycle, specifically the cycle of confrontation
avoidance and accommodation, is the one that best fits this
conflict.

5. Cahn, D. D., & Abigail, R. A. (2014). Managing conflict
through communication (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Pearson Education.
Furlong, G. T. (2005). The conflict resolution toolbox: Models
and maps for analyzing, diagnosing, and resolving conflict.
Mississauga, Ontario: John Wiley & Sons Canada.
2nd Colleague – Donna Tizzano
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Donna Tizzano
RE: Discussion - Week 2 Tizzano Initial Post
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Dr. Fisher and Class,
I recently experienced a conflict at work with a co-worker who
is the Director of Public Relations (PR). She is a member of a
committee I chair – the Patient Experience Committee which is
composed of several sub committees. The purpose of the
committee is to assess and improve the patient healthcare
experience in a variety of ways. We evaluate the ease of
navigating the hospital by ensuring we have appropriate
signage, the ease of making appointments, knowing where to go
upon arrival to the hospital, and lastly, reconfiguring the Patient
Healthcare Portal so that it provides helpful information to our
patients.
During the last several meetings of the committee we have
discussed the need to link the Patient Healthcare Portal to our
Hospital website and provide preventative healthcare
information to our patients. The most recent meeting discussed
a “New Year and New You” strategy where patients are
reminded to schedule preventive healthcare screenings such as
mammography and colonoscopies etc., while providing the
necessary instructions to allow them to easily schedule these

6. appointments. Education on these topics would also be
available.
The conflict issue, or trigger, for this conflict occurred because
of consistent resistance from the Director of Public Relations.
She consistently insists initiatives proposed by the committee
can’t be pursued or completed and always blocks the creative
process of committee members trying to brainstorm ideas.
Additionally, this caregiver has not followed through on any of
the tasks assigned to her in previous meetings. The rationale she
gives for her behavior is that her direct report, the COO, has
instructed her to focus public relations and advertising on our
three service lines: Ortho/Spine, Bariatrics, and Behavior al
Health. The other reason she gives is that antiquated software of
the medical center may not support our initiatives. The
committee knows this to be an inaccurate statement because the
head of the Information Technology Department confirmed the
hospital’s platform would support these computer initiatives.
At the end of one of these meetings, several committee members
approached me about the PR person’s resistance to the work of
the committee. The lack of participation from this person has
disrupted the momentum of our committee and has caused many
members, including myself, to be frustrated and angry. My
intended strategy was to schedule a meeting with the PR person
and the COO to discuss possible paths forward. The PR person
pre-empted this attempt by going to the COO’s office
unannounced to tell him her version of the challenges she faced
because of the requests of the committee. The obvious intent of
this conversation was to present her view of the situation in
order to influence the opinion of the COO instead of discussing
the conflict collectively with committee members.
Our committee cannot achieve our goals unless everyone is
collaborating, so I did request a meeting with the PR person and
the COO to discuss the obstacles facing our committee. During

7. the meeting, I communicated the goals of the committee
focusing on addressing the health care disparities and focusing
on preventative health measures for the people in the
community we serve. I explained that the services were not
outside the scope of the hospital’s current practices and would,
as an additional benefit, generate revenue. The PR person then
explained that she had specific directives to follow, and these
initiatives did not align with the committee’s directives. The
COO agreed that our committee goals would benefit the
community and the hospital and directed us to work together to
accomplish these initiatives moving forward.
Cahn and Abigail (2014) describe intangible core conflict as
non-material assets that can be described as feelings, behaviors,
habits, or personality attributes. The intangible core conflict
variables in this situation are PR person’s personality traits
which influence her behaviors in these meetings; her resistance
and push back when ideas are presented, her assertive and bold
personality, and her lack of engagement and follow -through on
directives. A tangible core conflict as defined by Cahn and
Abigail (2014) are physical or observable assets. In this
situation these observable assets are the unwillingness of the PR
person to make revisions and edits on the hospital website and
her lack of follow through on leading a walk-through hospital
assessment with the signage company to assess the
accuracy/efficiency of hospital signage.
Initially, I considered applying the Avoidance/Accommodation
Conflict option to describe this conflict situation, but I believe
a better description of this dysfunctional conflict cycle is the
Passive-Aggressive Communication Option. The PR person
presented her views in such a way as to allow the committee to
believe she was speaking with the support and authority of the
COO. It was true that she had been given directives by the
COO. But she this was not the equivalent of having the absolute
authority of the COO to approve or deny the committee

8. initiatives. She also inhibited progress of the committee by
agreeing to accomplish certain tasks and then not following
through. Her passive aggressive style was also demonstrated in
her unwillingness to work together with the Committee and the
COO to try to resolve differences. Instead, she chose a
Communication Cycle which involved only her and the COO,
her intent being to undermine the committee objectives before
committee members had an opportunity to present the rationale
for the proposals being made. She was functioning in this way
behind the scenes while never acknowledging to me or to the
committee that there were any issues, all descriptors of the
Passive-Aggressive Communication Option (Cahn & Abigail,
2014). The most obvious interpretation of this behavior is that
the PR person feels the need to be in charge, wants to have
authority over the action of the committee and wants to follow
her individual agenda without considering the ideas or opinions
of others. Cahn and Abigail (2014) describe the passive
aggressive person as one who wants to be the winner in a
conflict thereby ensuring the other person is the loser. This
approach to conflict is dysfunctional and more importantly
ineffective since the issues typically never get resolved (Cahn &
Abigail, 2014).
Trust in a relationship implies that you are confident about the
sincerity of another person’s motives or intentions when there is
a possibility of risk involved (Furlong, 2005). The Dynamic
Trust Model focuses on the level of risk each person has
relative to what they want or need, the way in which they assess
the cause of the conflict, and who is assigned the blame
(Furlong, 2005, p.129). In the situation I described, my
perceived risk was that our committee would not meet the
educational and health screening needs of our indigent patient
population. This perception was the result of the behaviors,
questionable motives, and unknown intentions of the PR person
which I interpreted as self-serving and insincere. This
perception was strengthened as she demonstrated lack of follow

9. through on directives, lack of engagement, and resistance to
implementing any suggestions from the group.
The communication strategy I ultimately used to resolve this
conflict is collaboration. I scheduled a meeting with her prior to
the next meeting of the committee. The intent of the meeting
was to clarify objectives moving forward. I am passionate
about the healthcare needs of our community, so I made this the
focus of the meeting. I did not dwell on the behaviors or
motives of the PR person. During the meeting, we each shared
our thinking and the reasons for our perspectives on how to
move forward as a committee. We concentrated on the shared
goal of educating our community and the importance of
preventative health. We had an opportunity to clarify how we
could cost-effectively achieve these goals. I chose this
communication strategy because it usually results in a mutually
agreed upon resolution. A mutual solution was important since
this will not be the last time I will be working with the PR
person. Collaboration provides us the opportunity for growth
and development in a personal/professional relationship (Cahn
& Abigail, 2014).
Donna
Resources:
Cahn, D. D., & Abigail, R. A. (2014). Managing conflict
through communication (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Pearson Education
Furlong, G. T. (2005). The conflict resolution toolbox: Models
and maps for analyzing, diagnosing, and resolving conflict.
Mississauga, Ontario: John Wiley & Sons Canada.
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