Conflict Handling Styles Nathaniel D. Danjibo

Five Approaches Confrontation (Coercion) Avoidance (Withdrawal) Collaboration (Smoothing) Compromising (Give and Take) Joint-Problem Solving (Putting heads together)

Two Dimensional Approaches Concern for self; Concern for others

Joint Problem Solving/Integration It involves the coming together of the different stakeholders to find solution to the conflict, but more so, it involves high concern for the self and others. The approach involves openness, exchanging information, looking for alternatives and examination of differences to arrive at an effective and acceptable solution.

Collaboration This approach has low concern for the self and high concern for the other. It does occur when there is great understanding for one’s weakness and sacrificing maximally for the other, with the hope that someday, while in need, the other will also make sacrifices for one.

Competition/Confrontation Involves high concern for self and low concern for others. It is a win-lose type of approach where the dominating party seeks to impose its ideas and decisions on others and insists that it must win by all means. The disadvantage of this approach is that the dominating party only wants to look at issues from their own myopic prism and not from the angle of the other conflicting party.

Avoiding Those who adopt avoidance as a strategy for managing conflict have low concern for themselves and others. The avoidance style is often associated with ‘withdrawal, buck-passing, or sidestepping situation’, and by so doing, the avoider fails to satisfy both himself and the other party.

Compromise .This approach takes into consideration concern for both self and others. It is more or less a give-and-take approach where conflicting parties get satisfies. This approach also involves sacrifice from conflicting party.

When to Use Which Style Each conflict handling style is more or less like a weapon that should be strategically utilised. Since they cannot be utilized simultaneously, there are critical moments when each of the styles can be used/not used.

Competition, Forcing, Contending When Appropriate to Use When Inappropriate An emergency looms Collaboration or cooperation has not yet been attempted You are sure you are right Cooperation from others is important The issue is trivial and others don’t really care what happens Used routinely for most issues Self-respect of others is diminished needlessly

Collaborating, Cooperating When Appropriate When Inappropriate The issue and relationship are both significant Time is short Cooperation is important You are overloaded with “processing” A creative end is important The issues are unimportant Reasonable hope exists to meet all concerns The goals of the other person are certainly wrong

Compromising When Appropriate When Inappropriate Cooperation is important but time or resources are limited Finding the most creative solutions possible is essential When solutions are even less than the best, it is better than complete stalemate When you cannot live with the consequences. When efforts to collaborate will be misunderstood as forcing

Avoiding When Appropriate When Inappropriate The issue is trivial You care about both the issue and the relationship The relationship is insignificant Used habitually for most issues Time is short and a decision not necessary Negative feeling may linger You have little power

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