English218G-M72 Wiki 4

1. A Summary of the Article by Paul Glover
What We Have Here Is a Failure to
Communicate: Recognizing the
Sources of Conflict

2. Skill Deficiency
Indicators
Poor communication skills
Unable to express themselves
Not talking to others respectfully
Not listening to others
Effects
Lack of ability to talk and listen to others
respectfully leads to a tense workplace with
inflexible employees

3. Different Interests
It is inevitable that when people work together
that not everyone will have the same views on a
topic.
Because of this inevitability compromises must
be made in order to make the different parties
happy.

4. Stress
The majority of workers today are experiencing
stress in their workplace.
Many refrain from speaking up for fear of
retaliation and negative impacts on their job

5. Organizational deficiency
Many organizations do not have a system or the
tools to address and resolve conflict that occurs
in the workplace.
Paul Glover lists two essential items that a
workplace must have in order to deal with
conflicts.
First employees need the skills to be able to
resolve problems.
Secondly there must be procedures in place that
all employees have access to and the opportunity
to use in case of a conflict.

6. Lack of resources
In today's workplace employees are scrambling
to do more with less.
This leads to conflicts as people compete for
those limited resources in order to accomplish
the job.

7. Personality clash
Some people just cannot get along and have a
tendency to push other peoples’ buttons just for
the fun of it
This is a major contributor of conflict under any
circumstances.

8. In Conclusion
When talking about conflict in the workplace,
Paul Glover concludes that "at the heart of each
[conflict] is the inability of the two sides to
communicate effectively, listen effectively and
genuinely work for a solution that meets
everyone's need".

9. Citation
Glover, Paul. What We Have Here Is a Failure to
Communicate: Recognizing the Sources of
Conflict. Retrieved from
http://www.businessperform.com/articles/workpla
ce-communication/failure-communicate.html