Conflict Management Styles 1

1

RUNNING HEAD: Conflict Management Styles











Conflict Management Styles
Steven Griffiths
CJA444
Michael Ranses
University of Phoenix
6/10/13










Conflict Management Styles 2

2

Conflict Management at a Glance
No matter where you are, or what you are doing conflict happens. Your amount of success is
dependent on your own ability to respond and overcome to your conflict. One needs to understand what
conflict is, identifying your own patters of conflict, and finding the power to effectively make better
choices when seeking out conflict or facing it.
Some have found that ones attempt to embrace conflict, and treat its source as that of growth as
well as transformation. Conflict can come from someones lack of goals for their life. Setting goals and or
priorities can help lessen conflict in ones life, or even by setting shared goals with a friend, partner or
loved one. Personality conflicts arise when there is a lack of chemistry, or you have not figured out a way
to effectively click with another co-worker. It is important to remember that people have different
styles, and when you think that your communication style will conflict with anothers communication
style will cause conflict, that easiest solution for this issue is to find a way to adapt, and not shut down.
Often times you will find yourself in conflict with someone elses values or beliefs. The ultimate
challenge here is trying to remember that the values or beliefs are at the core of the conflict. Adapting to
different styles is one thing, but confronting conflict where values and beliefs are up front is another.
Sometimes it is good to assess if a particular business, culture, or group is a good fit for you, or if you
should possibly go somewhere else.
Styles of Conflict Management
Accommodating is the act of cooperating to a certain degree, often times at your own expense
and works against the goals you have set for yourself earlier. This style of approach is most effective
when the alternate party is more of an expert, or has come up with better solutions for an issue. This style
can also help save future relations with the other person involved. The avoidance style is most common,
and to put it simply it is when you avoid the problem or issue. This particular style does not help the other
party involved reach their goals, because you are not effectively reaching your own. This style works only
Conflict Management Styles 3

3

when the issue is trivial or you have zero possibility of winning the argument. It is also quite effective
when the issue at hand can have a costly outcome, or when the overall atmosphere of the issue is charged
emotionally and there is a need to create a bubble of space between you and anyone else involved.
Collaborating This is where you partner or pair up with the other party to achieve both of your goals.
This is how you break free of the win-lose paradigm and seek the win-win. This can be effective for
complex scenarios where you need to find a novel solution. This can also mean re-framing the challenge
to create a bigger space and room for everybodys ideas. (Lucade, 2010). The foreseeable downside to
this style is that is requires the highest degree of trust and coming to a mutual agreement that requires a
lot of effort as well as time to get all involved on board and begin to generate the ideas. The competition
approach or win lose has you act in an assertive manner in order to achieve your goals, without
playing nice with the other party involved, but it may however be at the overall expense of the opposite
party. This style of approach is normally most effective in times of emergencies where there is a set time
table to adhere to, or when the situation calls for a decisive and quick action. The final style of conflict
management is that of compromising, where the lose-lose scenario tends to play out between each
party, and no one achieves what it is that they want. Requiring a somewhat medium amount of
assertiveness as well as cooperation, it is most appropriate for situations where a temporary solution is
needed, and both sides have goals at stake. If it comes down to this style of handling conflict, it is best to
try and go to the route of collaborating, as it would produce a better solution. By knowing your own
default patterns you improve your self-awareness. Once you are aware of your own patterns, you can
pay attention to whether they are working for you and you can explore alternatives. By using a scenario-
based approach, you can choose more effective conflict management styles and test their effectiveness for
you and your situations. (Anderson, 2009).


Conflict Management Styles 4

4

References
Lucade, M. (2010). Conflict Management. Retrieved from http://sourcesofinsight.com/conflict-
management-styles-at-a-glance/
Anderson, A.J. (2009). Conflict Resolution. Retrieved from
http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_81.htm