Exercise - Reacting to Conflicts
The end of this chapter discusses was in which people react to conflicts. Some of these reactions are beneficial to a person or an organization, but others can be harmful. This exercise provides you with the opportunity to practice these methods and to decide which methods are most appropriate in a given situation.
Instructions - Read the situation below and then write how you would react to the situation if you were using each of the common reactions to conflict.
Morton Jenko has been with the San Angeles Police Department for the past 6 years. After graduating second in his class at the state police academy, Hunter was hired as a patrol person with San Angeles. He quickly moved up in the ranks to corporal in his second year and sergeant in his fourth. All of the officers considered Jenko to be the best cop on the force because of his high level of intelligence as well as his uncanny ability to work with the public by anticipating problems in the community.
Everything was going along well for Sergeant Jenko until the spring of 2013. During this time, he started dating a girl that he quickly fell in love with. What he didn't know until 5 months after they began dating was that she had once been engaged to his captain.
When Jenko's captain discovered the relationship, he was furious with Jenko but knew that legally he could not control the private life of his employees. However, even though he could not directly tell Jenko what to do, he decided to make his life miserable at work. Captain Webb constantly gave Jenko the worst assignments, kept him away from the public contact that made him such a good officer, and started to lower Jenko's performance evaluations.
Jenko was frustrated at first, then hurt, and finally angry. He finally reached a point where one day he was so angry, that he had to do something. If Jenko were to apply each of the common reactions to conflict in this situation, what would he do in each case? Which of the reactions would be the most appropriate?