Question

One of the most effective means of resolving conflicts is the Thomas Kilmann Conflict Model for handling conflict. With relevant examples, discuss the five (5) styles of managing conflict as championed by the above model

Answer 1

Five styles of managing conflict:

1. Compete: Competition is a power-oriented, uncooperative mode. If you compete for at the expense of the other person, the individual pursues his or her own concerns with any power, his position seems suitable for winning. 'To Compete' could mean standing up for yourself, defend a position you think is right, or just try to win.

Example: Two departments competing within the organization to get appreciated and allocated a bigger budget.

2. Collaborate: Working together is both assertive and cooperative. When you work together, one tries to work with the other person to find a solution that fully responds to both of them. It involves examining a problem to identify two individuals' underlying concerns and to find an alternative that meets both of them. Working together between two people may take the form of exploring a difference, learning from one another's views, resolving certain conditions, or trying to confront each other for resources or a creative solution to an interpersonal problem.

Example: Two different divisions arguing over the budget allocation, join hands to cut the organization 's costs, and release money from the budget for both of them.

3. Compromise: In both assertiveness and cooperativity, compromise is intermediate. When compromise is made, an individual has the aim of finding a solution that is expedient and mutually acceptable to both parties. The compromise lies between competitor and competitor and is less than accommodating, giving up more than competing. It also deals more directly with a question than with avoiding but does not look at it as thoroughly as collaboration. A compromise could mean the breakdown of the difference, the interchange of concessions, or a quick midfield.

Example: Two colleagues are fighting over an important task which could impact their promotion, decide to split the work, and finish together so that they can leave the office for the day.

4. Avoiding: Avoidance is imperfect and non-cooperative. If avoided, a person will not follow his or her own or the other person's concerns immediately. He or she doesn't deal with the dispute. Avoiding could take the form of diplomatically evading a problem, delaying a problem for a better time, or simply retreating from a threatening situation.

Example: When an employee has personal ego problems with a colleague, avoiding his or her suggestions.

5. Accommodating: It is unassertive and cooperative to accommodate — the other way around. When accommodating, a person disregards his own concerns to meet the other person's concerns; in this mode, there is an element of sacrifice. The adjustment could be in the form of selfless generosity or love, obedience to the order of another person if you want not to do so, or yielding to someone else.

Example: Sacrificing personal commitments and giving more efforts to complete the work as directed by the supervisor.