单选题 .  Most people don't enjoy facing the difficult situations that sometimes occur with coworkers in the workplace. Such situations may arise from honest disagreements over design or engineering issues, personnel or benefits matters, management decisions or actions, or from any other situation where human impressions and objectives differ.
    There could be double trouble for engineers who are more likely to feel at home with electrons (电子) and bytes (字节), and behave in highly predictable ways, than with coworkers, who often appear arbitrary and unpredictable. For those of us who have internalized the strict and measurable rules of the physical world, dealing with other people can be both disappointing and frustrating.
    Yet how you manage situations of conflict with your coworkers could have a significant impact on your career, often even more than your engineering prowess or your design skills. Those who deal successfully with potential conflicts are far more likely to receive added responsibilities and promotions, in addition to the pay increases and respect that come with them. On the other hand, not dealing successfully with conflict can potentially relegate you to a career backwater, with technical challenges and high pay passing you by.
    Why is dealing with conflict an important skill today? It's primarily because there's more of it now than in the past. Workers of all types are more likely to speak up for their own ideas or actions, rather than follow the dictating corporate chain of command. Conflict also sometimes arises as a result of unclear company goals, or when those goals aren't shared equally by all. Rather than working for a single common good, employees and managers seek individual goals, such as promotion, job, security, experience, money, and even the proverbial free lunch.
    Not only is actual conflict greater today, but even the potential for interpersonal conflicts in the workplace is far greater than at any time in the past. One reason for this is increased time-to-market pressures. The need to rapidly make decisions, establish and engineering direction, and meet project milestones adds elements of tension and stress to an already difficult endeavor.
    This makes the workplace a potential minefield for interpersonal conflict. It's especially apparent to an engineer in a position of responsibility, like a project leader or an engineering manager. For an engineer who must work with others to complete a project, the need to manage conflict can spell the difference between success and failure.1.  Which of the following statements is true according to the passage? ______