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Conflict-Management Styles

Useful Techniques For Managing Conflict

Pseudo-Conflict

  1. Ask for clarification of perceptions

  2. Establish a supportive rather than a defensive climate

  3. Employ active listening: Stop, Look, Listen, Question, Paraphrase content and feelings

 

  1. Listen and clarify perceptions

  2. Make sure issues are clear to all members

  3. Use a problem-solving approach

  4. Keep discussion focused on the issues

  5. Use facts rather than opinions as evidence

  6. Look for alternatives or compromises

  7. Make the conflict a group concern rather than individual

  8. Determine which conflicts are most important to resolve

  9. If appropriate postpone the decision to do additional research and relive tension

 

Simple Conflict

Ego Conflict

  1. Let members express their concerns, but do not allow personal attacks

  2. Employ active listening

  3. Call for a cooling off period

  4. Try to keep discussion focused on issues (simple conflict)

  5. Encourage parties to be descriptive rather than evaluative and judgmental

  6. Use a problem-solving approach

  7. Speak slowly and calmly

  8. Agree to disagree

Styles of Conflict Management

Research suggests that everyone behaves in predictable ways to manage conflict with others. According to Raph Kilmann and Kenneth Thomas, there are two factors that suggest your conflict management style.

 

  1. How concerned you are for other people

  2. How concerned you are for yourself

 

These two factors result in five styles of conflict management.

 

  1. Avoidance

  2. Accommodation

  3. Competition

  4. Compromise

  5. Collaboration

 

Each one of these styles will be discussed in greater detail to help you identify which style you most closely associate with. The strengths and weaknesses of each style will be evaluated to determine the best situation to use each one.

Avoidance 

The avoidance style occurs when an individual attempts to ignore disagreements. People who practice avoidance do not like the hassle of dealing with a difficult, uncomfortable situation, or they are unassertive and afraid to stand up for their rights.

 

Pros:
Avoidance can give the group time to cool off or think about issues that are the source of conflict. Also, if the conflict is about something trivial it is not worth the time or effort to manage the conflict.

 

Cons:
Avoidance can simply burry the problems while the cause of the conflict remains. This results in an escalation of emotions making the conflict worse. Avoidance may also signal to others that you don’t care about the needs and interests of others in the group.

 

Avoidance results from a low concern for others as well as yourself.

Accommodation

The accommodation approach is used to make conflict go away by giving in to the wishes of others. People who use the approach method have a high need for approval; they want others to like them. They also may me appearing to maintain their cool, doing what others want them to do, but in reality are pursuing their own needs-to get others to like them.

 

Pros:

To agree with others may indicate that you are reasonable and want to help. If you realize your position is wrong then decide with the others, if you admit errors others are likely to as well. Accommodation can help a group develop a supportive climate as long as you don’t make it a habit.

 

Cons:
Giving in too quickly to what others want may cause the group to make a bad decision because the issues underlying the conflict have not been thoroughly examined. Remember, conflict is not inherently bad; it is normal and to be expected. If several people quickly accommodate, then the group has lost a key advantage of using different points of view to hatch out the best solution or decision.

 

Accommodation is used when there is a high concern for others and a low concern for self.

The competition style occurs when people stress winning a conflict at the expense of one or more other people. People who have power or want more power often seek to compete with others so that others will accept their point of view as the best position. Research has shown that group members that seek power and position are the ones that talk the most.

 

Pros:
If you are certain that you have accurate information and that your insights and experiences can help the group achieve its goal, then stick to your position and seek to persuade others. Also, if some group members advocate a course of action that is immoral or illegal or that violates personal instincts of what is right and wrong, it’s appropriate to advocate a different course of action.

 

Cons:

The competitive style may result in greater defensiveness, messages that blame others, and efforts to control other group members. It is stressed that it’s important for group and team members to have a common goal and to work toward the common good. If some group members seek to promote their own interests over the group interests, then the competition diminishes the overall power of the group.

 

Use Competition when concern for self is high and concern for others is low.

Competition

Compromise

The compromise style of conflict management attempts to find a middle ground, a solution that somewhat meets the needs of all concerned. Although on the surface a compromise can appear to be a good thing, it can also create a lose-lose result if nobody what he or she actually wants or needs.

 

Pros:
If a decision is needed quicky and a compromise can be achieved to meet the time demands of the situation, then compromise may be best. I may help everyone especially after a long, contentious conflict. Compromise can also maintain the balance of power in a group.

 

Cons:

If no one feels that the compromise is a good solution, then it is not the best choice. If a decision is reached too quickly without group members hashing out why they disagree, the best decision may not be made. Compromise can be deceiving because it seemingly gives in to each position.

 

Compromise is used when there is some concern for self and some concern for others.

Collaboration

Groups who use the collaboration style of conflict management view conflict as a problem to be solved rather than as a game in which some people win and others lose. In the long run, groups that take the time to collaborate have better results. Then group members work side-by-side rather than fighting for power. Essential elements of a collaborative style include leaving personal grievances out of the discussion and describing problems without being judgmental or evaluative of other people.

 

Pros:
The obvious advantage is the prospect of a better solution to issues facing the group and more satisfied group members. Collaboration is also good when a group is in need of fresh, new ideas. This is because when collaboration is needed because old approaches failed to work.

 

Cons:
The main disadvantages are the time, effort, and skill it takes to successfully collaborate. Collaboration requires patience. If a quick decision is need collaboration may not be best. Manipulative people can use collaboration as a pretense for completion and pursuit of their own ideas.

 

To collaborate is to have a high concern for both yourself and others.

It may sound like the collaborative approach is the best and it often is. However, the best conflict management style depends on a variety of factors. Most people find three aspects of conflict to be uncomfortable.

  1. The participants fail to reach a clear solution

  2. The conflict is managed poorly

  3. The participants avoid disussing the key issues and true sources of the conflict

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