Conflict Management
Conflict in an organization is inevitable. As long as there are unmet needs, incompatible objectives, perceptions, and interpretations differences, disagreements, or such, conflict is unavoidable (Robbins & Judge, 2016). As cited in the Transforming Leader’s article (2019), we need to understand how others handle conflict and how to deal with their conflict management style to improve our team collaboration and communication.
There are five different levels of conflict styles according to their level of cooperativeness and assertiveness that are:
Competing — Assertiveness level: High, cooperativeness level: Low
People who have Competing as their dominant conflict style tend to value their own needs more than others (University of Texas System, 2021)
Accommodating — Assertiveness level: Low, Cooperative level: High
This style is the opposite of competing. People whose dominant conflict style is accommodating, usually neglect their own needs to satisfy the needs of the other party (Transforming Leader, 2019)
Avoiding — Assertiveness level: Low, Cooperativeness level: Low
“Avoiding” type people tend to ignore the conflict and withdraw from it. According to Novak (2019), this style is the best for managing a meaningless conflict or when one of the parties doesn’t sure about the issue yet so that they need time to think and withdraw from the conflict.
Compromising — Assertiveness level: Medium, Cooperativeness level: Medium
The concept of compromising is “I win some, you win some” (University of Texas System, 2021). When compromising, people are willing to forfeit some part of their needs and entice others to do the same. The main intention of this style is to find a fair adequate solution for both parties involved.
Collaborating — Assertiveness level: High, Cooperativeness level: High
This is the “Win-win solution” conflict management style. Collaborating style generates a solution that could satisfy the needs of both parties (Novak, 2019). This style is usually the best style to manage conflict, however, sometimes it’s hard to reach and takes time. Therefore, if the relationship it’s not critical to be maintained it may be not worth the time and energy spent to reach the “Win-win solution”
Conclusion
Conflict management is one of the most must-have crucial skills for a leader. Each of the styles has its pro and cons. We need to analyze the type of conflict and determine which style is the best.
References
The five styles of conflict. (2019, May 18). Transforming Leader. https://transformingleader.org/five-styles-conflict/
Robbins, S. P., & Judge, T. A. (2016). Organizational behavior.
Understanding conflict handling styles. (2021). University of Texas System. https://www.utsystem.edu/offices/human-resources/current-employees/manager-resources/employee-relations/understanding-conflict-handling-styles
Novak, M. C. (2019). 5 most effective conflict management styles (+When to use each one). https://learn.g2.com/conflict-management-styles
Note:
This article is written based on University of The People Organizational Behavior (BUS 5113) written assignment by Fristy Tania in October 2021
