Conflict Handling Styles

Conflict Handling Styles

The five conflict handling modes are

1. Competition- People who approach conflict in a competitive way assert themselves and do not cooperate as they pursue their own concerns at other people’s expense. To compete, people take a power orientation and use whatever power seems appropriate to win. This may include arguing, pulling rank or instigating economic sanctions. Competing may mean standing up and defending a position believed to be correct, or simply trying to win. Forcing is another way of viewing competition. For people using a forcing style, usually the conflict is obvious, and some people are right and others are wrong.

2. Avoidance- When you avoid a conflict, you allow others to handle it without your involvement. If the disagreement does not intensely concern or affect you, it may be best to simply avoid participating in the conflict at all. Another reason to avoid a conflict is if anger is involved--if you or another person are very angry, avoiding the disagreement temporarily can allow you both time to cool down. As with accommodating, it is important not to rely on avoiding conflict involving matters that do mean a lot to you.

3. Compromise- If you need to resolve a conflict more quickly, compromising might be a good solution. With compromise, each person gives a little bit up in order for the ultimate solution to be acceptable to everyone. You will not get your way entirely with compromise, so this is a style that is best to use when the answer to the problem is not of utmost importance to you

4. Accommodation- People who accommodate are unassertive and very cooperative. They neglect their own concerns to satisfy the concerns of others. They often give in during a conflict and acknowledge they made a mistake or decide it is no big deal. Accommodating is the opposite style of competing. People who accommodate may be selflessly generous or charitable, and they may also obey another person when they would prefer not to, or yield to another’s point of view. Usually people who accommodate put relationships first, ignore the issues and try to keep peace at any price.

5. Collaboration -Unlike avoiders, collaborators are both assertive and cooperative. They assert their own views while also listening to other views and welcome differences. They attempt to work with others to find solutions that fully satisfy the concerns of both parties. This approach involves identifying the concerns that underlie the conflict by exploring the disagreement from both sides of the conflict, learning from each other’s insights and creatively coming up with solutions that address the concerns of both. People using this style often recognise there are tensions in relationships and contrasting viewpoints, but want to work through conflicts.