Attitude • What is your attitude toward conflict in general? Do you honestly feel conflict is positive or negative? How often do you feel you are in a win/lose scenario when in the midst of conflict? (Please explain the reasoning behind your answers.) • Have these beliefs changed after reviewing the course material for Week 1 and, if so, how? (Please explain the reasoning behind your answers.)
2. Experience • How much experience do you have in handling conflict in the workplace? Rate yourself on a scale of 0-10, with 0 being applicable if you have never been in the workplace and 10 being a professional mediator. If you have not previously had a job, please apply the rating to volunteer/school experience and note whether that experience was as a volunteer or a student (in high school or college). • Include a brief explanation of your experience and the reasoning behind your ratings.
3. Training • How much formal training have you had in resolving workplace conflict? • How much formal training have you had in resolving personal conflict?
4. Conflict Response and Management Approach • How do you normally handle difficult situations in terms of the five responses to conflict (see p. 5 of your textbook)? • Do you generally employ a more positional or interest-based approach to conflict management (see pp. 7 and 8 of your textbook)? • Please compare and contrast your personal response with that of your professional response. If there’s a difference between the two, in what way do you behave differently and what do you feel is the explanation for this behaviour?
5. Provide a brief SWOT analysis of your conflict management skills at this point.
6. Going forward, what specific skills and behaviours do you hope to develop during this course, if any, and why? Is there something in particular which you would like to address over the course of the term – of great interest to you personally or something you believe would help you professionally?