Cja 444 Week 4 Conflict Management Styles
Conflict Management Styles
Kristin Thornton
CJA/444
January 27, 2014
William McCauley
Conflict Management Styles
Conflict occurs when someone has or is about to negatively affect something that another individual cares about. It is how individuals respond to and resolve conflict in the workplace that can limit or enable his or her success. If an individual understands conflict and the conflict patterns he or she may exhibit can empower him or her to make better decisions when he or she is facing a particular conflict. Conflict can occur through various sources, such as personality traits.
Conflict styles Individuals also have different conflict styles. For instance, an individual style of thinking or communicating may …show more content…
conflict with another individual’s style of thinking or communicating. However, it is easy to adapt to conflict in styles when and individual knows how. The Thomas Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument is a model on how to handle certain conflict like individuals having different styles of thinking or communicating. The model is based on five conflict management styles; accommodating, avoiding, collaborating, competing, and compromising (Sources of Insight, 2011).
Accommodating
Accommodating conflicts occurs when an individual cooperates at his or her own expense by working against his or her own goals, objectives, or desired outcomes (Wright State University, u.d.). This approach can help individuals work together and receive more knowledge if another individual is an expert in a particular field or has a better solution to the task the group is trying to accomplish. It can also be effective in achieving future relations with the other group members (Sources of Insight, 2011).
Avoiding
The Avoiding approach is when an individual simply chooses to avoid the issue. This occurs when individuals are not helping other coworkers reach their goals, and the individual is not assertively pursuing his or her own. Typically the avoiding approach works when a conflict arises, which is trivial or when there is no chance that the individual will win an argument over the issue. Avoiding conflict can be effective when the work environment is emotionally charged or if an issue can be costly. Unfortunately, avoiding a problem is not a good long term strategy (Sources of Insight, 2011).
Collaborating
Collaborating occurs when two or more individuals partner up to accomplish all of their goals. This helps everyone receive what they want. It is a “win-win.” This approach can be effective for complex situations when a solution is needed, but can be challenging creating space for each individual’s ideas. It requires a high volume of trust, time, and effort to get all individuals on board with a particular plan of action (Sources of Insight, 2011).
Competing
Competing individuals is a win-lose approach that occurs when an individual acts very assertive when trying to accomplish his or her own goals, without consulting with the other coworker he or she is supposed to be working with on a particular task (Sources of Insight, 2011).
This can come at the cost of the other coworkers. The competing approach is only appropriate for emergencies, decisive action, or is every coworker is aware of the approach and supports it.
Compromising
Compromise is a “lose-lose” approach. It is when everyone gives something up that they value (Wright State University, u.d.). The compromise approach requires individuals to cooperate with one another, but it is an easy way out if each individual has an equally important goal, when collaborating could have been a better solution for the group of individuals.
Workplace
“I” am a Geospatial Engineer, who works with the 177th Topographical Engineering Unit and the conflict management style the unit uses would best be described as avoiding, which is not the best approach for conflict. Avoiding conflict could cause chaos within the workplace and never helps when it is an important situation. “My” preference would be to follow the collaborating approach. If the unit would collaborate with every individual in the unit to make sure everyone is following the chain of command and is given the same information it could help set the unit up for
success.
Conclusion
There will always be conflict in the workplace and it can be detrimental for organizations morale or for the outcome of productivity. Having the skills to manage internal and external conflicts effectively is a big challenge in the workplace and is essential for success. By embracing conflict in a working environment, employees can make the most out of each experience and learn from each opportunity. Each opportunity an individual takes to learn from conflict provides him or her with practical strategies and behavior that can help him or her prevent conflicts from occurring in future situations.
References
Robbins, S.P., & Judge, T.A. (2009). Organizational behavior (13th ed.) Upper Saddle River,
NJ. Pearson/Prentice Hall.
Sources of Insight (2011). Five conflict management styles at a glance. Retrieved from http://sourcesofinsight.com/conflict-management-styles-at-a-glance/ Wright State University (u.d.). Conflict management style and strategy. Retrieved from
http://www.wright.edu/~scott.williams/LeaderLetter/conflict.htm#Conflict%20Management%20Strategies
Kristin Thornton
CJA/444
January 27, 2014
William McCauley
Conflict Management Styles
Conflict occurs when someone has or is about to negatively affect something that another individual cares about. It is how individuals respond to and resolve conflict in the workplace that can limit or enable his or her success. If an individual understands conflict and the conflict patterns he or she may exhibit can empower him or her to make better decisions when he or she is facing a particular conflict. Conflict can occur through various sources, such as personality traits.
Conflict styles Individuals also have different conflict styles. For instance, an individual style of thinking or communicating may …show more content…
conflict with another individual’s style of thinking or communicating. However, it is easy to adapt to conflict in styles when and individual knows how. The Thomas Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument is a model on how to handle certain conflict like individuals having different styles of thinking or communicating. The model is based on five conflict management styles; accommodating, avoiding, collaborating, competing, and compromising (Sources of Insight, 2011).
Accommodating
Accommodating conflicts occurs when an individual cooperates at his or her own expense by working against his or her own goals, objectives, or desired outcomes (Wright State University, u.d.). This approach can help individuals work together and receive more knowledge if another individual is an expert in a particular field or has a better solution to the task the group is trying to accomplish. It can also be effective in achieving future relations with the other group members (Sources of Insight, 2011).
Avoiding
The Avoiding approach is when an individual simply chooses to avoid the issue. This occurs when individuals are not helping other coworkers reach their goals, and the individual is not assertively pursuing his or her own. Typically the avoiding approach works when a conflict arises, which is trivial or when there is no chance that the individual will win an argument over the issue. Avoiding conflict can be effective when the work environment is emotionally charged or if an issue can be costly. Unfortunately, avoiding a problem is not a good long term strategy (Sources of Insight, 2011).
Collaborating
Collaborating occurs when two or more individuals partner up to accomplish all of their goals. This helps everyone receive what they want. It is a “win-win.” This approach can be effective for complex situations when a solution is needed, but can be challenging creating space for each individual’s ideas. It requires a high volume of trust, time, and effort to get all individuals on board with a particular plan of action (Sources of Insight, 2011).
Competing
Competing individuals is a win-lose approach that occurs when an individual acts very assertive when trying to accomplish his or her own goals, without consulting with the other coworker he or she is supposed to be working with on a particular task (Sources of Insight, 2011).
This can come at the cost of the other coworkers. The competing approach is only appropriate for emergencies, decisive action, or is every coworker is aware of the approach and supports it.
Compromising
Compromise is a “lose-lose” approach. It is when everyone gives something up that they value (Wright State University, u.d.). The compromise approach requires individuals to cooperate with one another, but it is an easy way out if each individual has an equally important goal, when collaborating could have been a better solution for the group of individuals.
Workplace
“I” am a Geospatial Engineer, who works with the 177th Topographical Engineering Unit and the conflict management style the unit uses would best be described as avoiding, which is not the best approach for conflict. Avoiding conflict could cause chaos within the workplace and never helps when it is an important situation. “My” preference would be to follow the collaborating approach. If the unit would collaborate with every individual in the unit to make sure everyone is following the chain of command and is given the same information it could help set the unit up for
success.
Conclusion
There will always be conflict in the workplace and it can be detrimental for organizations morale or for the outcome of productivity. Having the skills to manage internal and external conflicts effectively is a big challenge in the workplace and is essential for success. By embracing conflict in a working environment, employees can make the most out of each experience and learn from each opportunity. Each opportunity an individual takes to learn from conflict provides him or her with practical strategies and behavior that can help him or her prevent conflicts from occurring in future situations.
References
Robbins, S.P., & Judge, T.A. (2009). Organizational behavior (13th ed.) Upper Saddle River,
NJ. Pearson/Prentice Hall.
Sources of Insight (2011). Five conflict management styles at a glance. Retrieved from http://sourcesofinsight.com/conflict-management-styles-at-a-glance/ Wright State University (u.d.). Conflict management style and strategy. Retrieved from
http://www.wright.edu/~scott.williams/LeaderLetter/conflict.htm#Conflict%20Management%20Strategies