MLDR 6175 Week 1 Conflict Types Discussion Post Example

Course	MLDR 6175 Managing, Mediating, and Resolving Conflict
Week	Week 1
Paper type	Discussion post
Length	About 540 words, 3 pages
Format	Discussion post, APA 7 citations
School	Walden University
Program	MS in Leadership
Updated	October 2026

Free sample paper for MLDR 6175 Week 1

Week 1 Discussion: What Kind of Conflict Is This?

The Fight Over One Week in October Is Really a Fight Over Who Owns the Stage: Sorting a Theater's Calendar Dispute Into Task, Process and Relationship Conflict

The Surface Dispute

I am general manager of Lantern Hall Theater Company, a composite regional theater with a 640-seat main stage. Our development department has booked the annual donor gala on the main stage for Thursday, October 15. Our production department needs that week, October 12 to 18, closed for technical rehearsals of the season's largest musical, which opens October 23.

What this page is doingThe dispute is stated in terms both department heads would accept, so classmates start from the same facts the post will reinterpret.

Sorting What Has Been Said

Jehn (1995) told apart disputes about the task and personal friction among the people on it, and later work with Mannix added a third kind, disputes over how the work is divided and who decides (Jehn & Mannix, 2001). Sorting the past three weeks' emails and meeting remarks statement by statement, all three types appear. The argument over whether the gala could move to Wednesday, or whether the crew could work around a three-hour event, is task conflict, and frankly a manageable one. The question beneath it, who has the authority to book the main stage at all, is process conflict: development booked the date in March, before production had a technical schedule, and nothing in our procedures says whose booking wins. And the remarks at last Tuesday's staff meeting, when our production manager said development "treats the stage like a rental hall" and our development director answered that production "has never once thought about where the money comes from," are relationship conflict beginning to form.

What this page is doingEach statement is sorted on its own, because a dispute as a whole is rarely only one type.

Which Type Is Doing the Harm

The process conflict is doing the damage. If our managing director simply picks a date this week, the task conflict ends, but the next booking clash will arrive with the same unanswered question about ownership, and each round adds to the relationship conflict that is already visible. De Dreu and Weingart (2003) found in a meta-analysis that both task and relationship conflict were associated with lower team performance, which suggests that settling the date while leaving the process question open would not even protect the work. What our company lacks is a rule about who owns the calendar, not a better date.

Question for Classmates

When you sorted a dispute in your own workplace, did it turn out to be about the work, the people or the process, and which type had the others riding on it?

Reply to Marisol

Marisol, you described your hospital unit's argument about float nurses as relationship conflict because two charge nurses "can't stand each other." Reading your account, I wonder whether the float assignment rule itself is unclear, which would make it process conflict with relationship conflict layered on top. Is there a written rule about who decides where float nurses go on a short-staffed night?

Reply to Devon

Devon, your example of the sales team arguing over the new pricing tool reads to me as task conflict, as you say, but you mention that the regional manager chose the tool without asking anyone. Jehn and Mannix (2001) found that process conflict early in a group's life tended to hurt later performance. Do you think the pricing argument would have been as heated if the team had been part of choosing the tool?

References

De Dreu, C. K. W., & Weingart, L. R. (2003). Task versus relationship conflict, team performance, and team member satisfaction: A meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(4), 741-749. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.88.4.741

Jehn, K. A. (1995). A multimethod examination of the benefits and detriments of intragroup conflict. Administrative Science Quarterly, 40(2), 256-282. https://doi.org/10.2307/2393638

Jehn, K. A., & Mannix, E. A. (2001). The dynamic nature of conflict: A longitudinal study of intragroup conflict and group performance. Academy of Management Journal, 44(2), 238-251. https://doi.org/10.5465/3069453

The Walden MLDR 6175 Week 1 instructions

Week 1 asks you to identify the kind of conflict in a dispute you know. State the surface disagreement in a few sentences that both parties would accept as accurate, without casting either as the problem. Then sort what has actually been said, statement by statement, into task, relationship and process conflict, citing the typology. Argue which type is causing the most harm and why settling the visible issue alone might not end the dispute. End by inviting classmates to run the same sort on a dispute of their own. In replies, look for a type a classmate may have missed, especially process conflict hidden under an argument about people or tasks.

Inside the MLDR 6175 Week 1 example

The post opens with the gala and the technical week in two sentences. A section introduces Jehn's types and sorts specific statements: the argument over Wednesday as task conflict, the question of who may book the stage as process conflict and two remarks at the staff meeting as relationship conflict beginning to form. A section argues that process conflict is doing the damage, since a ruling on the date would leave the ownership question open, citing De Dreu and Weingart. A short question invites classmates to sort their own disputes. Two replies suggest a hidden process conflict in a nursing example and early process conflict in a sales example, citing Jehn and Mannix.

Where the marks sit in the MLDR 6175 Week 1 rubric

Opening posts in this conflict course score well when theory is applied to specific statements rather than to a dispute as a whole. A neutral statement of the surface dispute earns credit. Sorting individual remarks into conflict types, with the typology cited, is weighted heavily because it shows the concepts in use. A reasoned argument about which type is driving the harm shows analysis beyond labeling. Connecting the argument to research on conflict and performance shows depth. Replies that identify a type a classmate overlooked, with a question rather than a correction, add value to the thread. Posts that label the whole dispute with one type, or describe one party as unreasonable, tend to earn less.

MLDR 6175 Week 1 help: mistakes that cost marks

Write down three or four things people actually said or did in your dispute, as close to their words as you can. Beside each, ask whether it is about the work itself, about the people or about who decides and how. Expect to find more than one type. Then ask which type would remain if the visible disagreement were settled tomorrow; that is often the one doing the damage. Many first posts call a dispute a personality clash when the real trouble is an unclear rule about authority. Another common slip is describing one side's view more generously than the other's. If you are unsure where a statement belongs, our writers can talk through the sorting with you.

Get a MLDR 6175 Week 1 example written to your instructions

Post the Week 1 discussion prompt and rubric into the request, add the reply count, and the initial post plus replies comes back inside 24 to 48 hours, the first one free. Prompts that supply their own dispute instead of inviting one get an example that works on that dispute and keeps the three-type sort.

More MLDR 6175 papers and MS in Leadership samples

MLDR 6175 Week 1 questions, answered

Where can I find a free MLDR 6175 Week 1 sample paper?

The complete opening post and its two replies appear below, free to read.

What dispute does the MLDR 6175 Week 1 post examine?

A clash between a theater's development and production departments over the main stage during technical rehearsals.

Which conflict types does the post use?

Task, relationship and process conflict, following Jehn and Jehn and Mannix.

Which type does the post say is doing the harm?

Process conflict, because no rule says who may book the main stage.

Why would settling the date not end the dispute?

The ownership question would remain and the next booking clash would reopen it.