Conflict Management

Personal Benefits

• Be able to better manage conflict and relationships
• Better understanding of different types of conflict
• Personal awareness of preferred conflict resolution styles
• Enhanced knowledge on how to deal with difficult people
• Greater confidence in managing conflicts and engaging in challenging conversations
• Ability to identify sources of conflict and to prioritize the area(s) of conflict to address
• Greater competence in addressing conflict involving cultural differences
• Improved relationships at work and in your personal life

Organizational Benefits

• Creation of a healthier workplace
• Investment in employees to help them meet their potential
• Improvement in working relationships throughout the organization
• Fewer conflicts at work that derail productivity
• Fewer escalated conflicts 
• Reduced need for disciplinary actions
• Greater discourse on hot topics that may lead to superior outcomes
• Increased collaboration
• Stronger leaders who are able to better handle difficult situations and conversations

Program content

This program will include the following topics and activities:

• Theory of conflict and conflict management
• Evaluation of individual conflict styles, including a debrief of the various styles
• Simulations and conflict scenarios, together with debrief
• Peer feedback on simulations
• A individualized development plan for each participant, along with coaching

In-Person Learning

Learn alongside fellow participants from across the country, discovering best practices that span industries and sectors.

Our in-person programs include classroom learning sessions led by award-winning Smith School of Business professors and industry experts. Practice new skills in breakout sessions, projects and simulations, and apply your learning toward real-world case studies.

SmithToronto

SmithToronto is located on the 30th floor, 200 Front Street West in the heart of Canada's financial centre and is easily accessible by GO, subway and the PATH system.

Smith School of Business delivers many programs and classes at SmithToronto and it is home to the Master of Finance, Master of Management Analytics, and Master of Management in Artificial Intelligence programs. The site includes classrooms, meeting rooms, staff offices, special events spaces, and a variety of multi-media presentation systems.

As well, it includes three Boardroom Learning Centres with fully interactive videoconference capabilities. These rooms are used to deliver classes for Smith’s Executive and Accelerated MBA programs.

Session Leaders

Session leaders include senior professors from Smith School of Business and knowledgeable experts from industry. These outstanding teachers are constantly in touch with today's business world through real-world business experience, Board memberships and their own consulting practices.

Christina Benzing

Consonance Consulting

Christina is a Human Resources professional with over 15 years of experience in both in the private and public sectors. As Vice-President of Human Resources for a manufacturing company with clients around the globe, Christina provided strategic advice on how to optimize and grow business in foreign countries. In the public sector, she has helped organizations to capitalize on increasing diversity based on the changing demographics of Canada's workforce and how to adapt all HR processes to support and engage cross-cultural talent.

In addition to the cultural matters, she has worked with executives and leaders across various industries to help them expand their leadership strengths, elicit staff engagement and foster high-performance teams. As part of this work, she's been actively sought after to support troubled groups and individuals who are underperforming or causing problems as the result of interpersonal conflict.

Christina previously taught for the University of Saskatchewan Edwards School of Business, and she now teaches cross-cultural management for Queen's University Faculty of Law, as well as Queen's Executive Education.

Christina has an undergraduate degree in commerce, and two graduate degrees in international business focused on leadership and organizational strategy. For her Master's thesis, Christina conducted primary research into what types of organizational efforts would make a difference in engaging employees from various cultures in higher degrees of organizational commitment. This research was focused on healthcare, where Christina has spent the majority of her career.

Shai Dubey

Business Law, Negotiations & New Venture Management
Smith School of Business

Shai Dubey teaches courses in negotiations, cross-cultural management, ethics, domestic and international business law and entrepreneurship.

Shai earned his Bachelor's Degree from the University of Toronto and his Law Degree from Queen's University. Shai is also a graduate of the aviation Flight Technology Program at Seneca College. 

After graduating from Seneca College in 1984, he began his working career as a commercial pilot. In 1985 he founded and ran both an executive aircraft charter company and a flight training school based in Toronto. After selling this company, Shai worked as an aviation consultant providing strategic and regulatory advice to Canadian and foreign clients. He practiced law on Bay Street and then ran a global company prior to joining Queen’s.