Managing Conflict in the Workplace:

 

Five responses and their advantages and disadvantages

 

Go back to Part 1: Managing Conflict in the Workplace

Avoidance: Remember, this one is where no one gets needs met. So why would you ever use this style? If the situation is too emotional, you may want to table it for a while until people calm down and the situation can be discussed more constructively. If, however, you always avoid any conflict at the expense of your own needs, you are doing yourself no favors. And, frankly, you are being less than honest with your co-workers as well. You may be angry or hurt to the point where your work is impacted, but no one knows why. This can be disastrous, both for you and for your work group if you over-use this style.

Accommodation: This style is where you don’t get your needs met, but others do. Again, why should you ever do this? Let’s say you have a co-worker who really, really wants to take the lead on a particular project. You don’t have the same passion she does for this project, although you are aware that either of you could be logical choices for the lead role. You decide not to lobby for the assignment yourself, but to suggest that it might be an appropriate role for her. Her needs are met. If you infer that you may have had some level of desire to be assigned a lead role here, your needs are not met.

Compromise: Let’s revisit the previous example. Assume the project in question is large enough to sort of split the lead role between the two of you. You both may have preferred to have the whole project, but you agree to divide responsibilities for the lead role. Some of your needs are met and some of her needs are met. But some of each person’s needs are not met, too.

Competition: Again, let’s revisit the assignment of the project lead role. Were you to employ a competition style, you would do everything in your power to get the entire lead role for yourself regardless of whether or not the other person got anything she wanted. Is there ever an appropriate use of this style? Yes. If there is an emergency, such as a fire in the building, you aren’t going to ask people how they feel about leaving! You are going to be directive and order them to get out now.

But how about in day-to-day operations rather than emergencies? Yes, again. There are cases in which the decision is not open for discussion, regardless of how it may impact others. A plant has to close. A department has to be restructured. A job is eliminated. It would be dishonest and even cruel to pretend that the topics are open for discussion. Even though the needs of the other person are certainly impacted by these kinds of events, management simply has to proceed with respectfully and compassionately informing the workforce when these kinds of actions must take place.

Collaboration: Collaboration is a style in which both parties have all their needs met. Difficult? Yes. Time –consuming? Yes. Appropriate for every conflict? No. Collaboration is appropriate when the subject at hand is very important to both parties, and when the outcome is critical to the business. Collaboration is sometimes used to negotiate contracts. It is not used to decide where the group will have lunch.

 

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