Conflict Management

Strategies
 Agenda
 Introductions
 Conflict Resolution Exercise Activity
 Conflict Management & Group Think
 Underlying Factors/Handling Common Conflicts
 Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument
 General Tips for Preventing and Managing
Conflicts with Students
 Final Thoughts/Action Plan
 4 Word Build Activity
 Observations about final words selected
 How did you come to the decisions in your
group(s) with regard to which ones to keep or
drop?
 Were you passive in one group and more active
in another?
 Any new insights into the original word (post
activity)
 What did you learn from the exercise?
 Conflict
Management
 The Truth about Conflict

 Conflict is inevitable; however the results of conflict

are not predetermined.
 Conflict might escalate and lead to nonproductive
results, or conflict can be beneficially resolved and
lead to high quality results.
Interactions that may cause conflict
 You/Student
 You/Student Employee
 You/Set of Students
 You/Parent/Student
 You/Supervisor (connected to student issue)
 You/Employee (connected to student issue)
Any that I missed???
Why is Conflict Needed?
 Helps raise and address problems – it can be a
productive change agent
 Helps people learn how to recognize and benefit
from differences
 Helps avoid “Group Think”
 4 Vertical Lines Example
 What are some negative effects of “Group Think”?
Group Think Among Students
 Dispelling Group Think
 Growth comes through conflict

Group Think Among Colleagues

 Working with students with a “history”
 How you handle the conflict
When does Conflict become
a problem?
 When it:
 Hampers productivity
 Lowers morale
 Causes more and continued conflicts
 Causes inappropriate behaviors
 Underlying Factors/Handling
Common Conflicts
 Common underlying factors with conflict when
working with students
 Personality differences
 Heightened Emotions
 Language barriers
 Age Differences
 Different energy levels
 Different opinions
 Practical challenges
 What are some ways to deal with these
common conflicts?
Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument
 Developed by Ken Thomas, PhD and Ralph Kilmann, PhD, both
professors of management at the University of Pittsburgh.
 It has become the leading measure of conflict-handling modes, backed
up by hundreds of research studies and selling over four million copies.
 Two basic dimensions of behavior (assertive and cooperative) define
five different modes for responding to conflict situations.
 Avoiding
Neither pursuing your own concerns nor those of the other individual (not
dealing with the conflict)
Examples: Diplomatically sidestepping an issue, postponing an issue
until a better time, or simply withdrawing from an intimidating situation.
 Advantages:
 Effective when an issue is trivial or when you perceive no chance of satisfying your
concerns
 Effectivewhen the potential costs of confronting a conflict outweigh the benefits of
its resolution
 When gathering more information outweighs the advantages of an immediate
decision
 Allows involved parties to cool down
 May allow others to resolve conflict more effectively on their own
 Disadvantages:
 Hoping issues will resolve themselves is not a good long term strategy in some
situations
 Others may develop a perception that you fear conflict, are not in control, or
indecisive
 Can cause long term damage with student relationships
 Overuse/Underuse of Avoiding
Overuse could result in:
 Lack of input from you
 Decisions on important issues getting made by default
 Festering issues
 An atmosphere of “walking on eggshells” developing

Signs of Underuse:
 Do you sometimes find yourself hurting people’s feelings or
stirring up hostilities?
 Do you sometimes feel overwhelmed by a number of issues?
 Avoiding Example
 Clip from Office Space - “The Glitch”
 Accommodating
Giving ground as a way of maintaining harmony
 Advantages:
 Time saver/Effective for meeting deadlines
 Helps avoid any unnecessary argument/tension
 May be useful when harmony and stability are more
important than the subject at hand
 Effective when you realize that you are wrong – to allow
a better solution to be considered, to learn from others,
and to show that you are reasonable
 Disadvantages:
 Concern for others overrides concern for self and empowers
others to control the situation
 May lead to power struggles
 Overuse/Underuse of
Accommodating
Overuse could:
 Work against your own goals and objectives
 Cause your ideas to receive minimal attention
 Be harmful to the relationship if staff member always
gives in and the student always gets their way
 Lead to frustration for you

Signs of Underuse:
 Having trouble building goodwill
 Being viewed as unreasonable
 Having trouble admitting when one is wrong
 Failing to recognize legitimate exceptions to the rules
 Refusing to give up
 Competing
The only way for one party to reach its goals is to
overcome the other; acting in an assertive way to
achieve your goals, without seeking to cooperate with
the other party;
 Advantages:
 Effective when quick, decisive action is necessary
 Effective when dealing with important issues where
unpopular actions need implementing
 Examples: cost cutting, discipline, enforcing unpopular rules

 Disadvantages:
 May generate ill will that is costly and unpleasant;
students whose needs are ignored are likely to resent their
faculty/staff and act in ways that cost the university.
Overuse/Underuse of Competing
Overuse could result in:
 Lack of feedback
 Reduced learning
 Low empowerment
 Surrounded by “yes” people
 Decrease in engagement
 Others afraid to admit ignorance and
uncertainties to you

Signs of Underuse:
 Feeling powerless in situations
 Having trouble taking a firm stand, even
when it seems necessary
 Compromising
Each party sacrifices something he/she is seeking to
gain agreement; neither party really achieves what
they want, but agree to meet in the middle, often due
to time constraints;
 Advantages:
 It’s cooperative, recognizing that both parties
must agree to resolve a conflict
 Disadvantage:
 It’sself-centered since the parties act in their self
interest to get the best possible deal
Overuse/Underuse of Compromising
Signs of overuse:
 Do you concentrate so heavily on the practicalities and
tactics of compromise that you sometimes lose sight of
larger issues?
 Does an emphasis on bargaining create a cynical climate of
gamesmanship?
Signs of underuse:
 Do you sometimes find yourself too sensitive or
uncomfortable to engage in the give-and-take of bargaining?
 Do you sometimes find it difficult to make concessions?
 Collaborating
Working together to resolve conflicts; where you break free of the
“win-lose” paradigm and seek the “win-win”
 Advantages:

 Benefits are clear; not only can the issue at hand be resolved,
but the relationship between parties is improved
 Effective when you need to find an integrative solution and the
concerns of both parties are too important to be compromised
 Effective when your objective is to learn and you wish to test
your assumptions and understand others’ views
 Effective when you want to merge insights from people with
different perspectives on a problem
 Disadvantages:

 Takes time and a mutually satisfactory outcome isn’t always

possible
Overuse/Underuse of Collaborating
Signs of overuse:
 Spending time discussing issues in depth that
don’t seem to warrant it
 Failing to elicit collaborative responses from
others.
Signs of underuse:
 Is it difficult for you to see differences as
opportunities for joint gain, learning, or problem
solving?
 Are others uncommitted to your decisions or
policies?
Thomas-Kilmann Conflict
Mode Instrument
 General Tips for Preventing and
Managing Conflicts with Students
Tip 1: Think about what your office
communicates.

Tip 2: Practice objectivity, even if

student has a “history”

Tip 3: Get students out of the pinball

machine that Rowan can be

Tip 4: Show an investment in

students and parents

Tip 5: Use active listening

Tip 6: Don’t take conflict personally

Tip 7: Consult, consult, consult

Tip 8: Know when the issue is above

your head

Tip 9: Don’t gossip about the

conflict…especially when escalating

Tip 10: Learn from both the conflict

and the resolution
 Recommendations
 Conflict is something we shouldn’t fear. It can
improve performance and productivity when
handled well.
 When conflict is resolved well, relationships and
organizations generally improve overall.
 Remember that every conflict mode has value
and is important.
 Focusing on desired outcomes and being mindful
about the different conflict modes, enhances our
ability to be better conflict managers.
Final Thoughts/Action Plan
 Which concept(s) resonated the most with you?
 Which concept(s) do you think would be most
beneficial for you to put into practice?
 How can they be implemented into your daily
interactions?
 Studies show that after one day, people forget more
than 70% of what was taught in training!
 Information in our memories can fade over time if not
accessed enough.
 Don’t let the information go to waste!

 COURSE EVALUATIONS