Conflict Mode Style Worksheet
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Individual Worksheet: Conflict Modes / Styles (Due Week Four)
In team settings, individual team members generally handle conflict in five key ways as identified in an adaptation of the Thomas-Kilman Conflict Inventory (1976): Avoidance, Accommodation, Competition, Compromise, and Collaboration. All five conflict styles can be both beneficial and/or costly to individual and team success. It can also be argued that all five conflict styles may be useful to resolve conflicts under certain circumstances. Please review the five conflict styles listed below:
Individual preferences for managing conflict within the Thomas-Kilman Conflict Inventory:
Avoidance (Lose — Lose Orientation)
Low concern for results/assertiveness
Low concern for people/cooperation
Uncomfortable with conflict
May believe that agreement is not possible
Accommodation (Lose —Win Orientation)
Low concern for results/assertiveness
High concern for people/cooperation
Uncomfortable with conflict
May be willing to sacrifice own needs in order to meet the needs of another
Competition (Win — Lose Orientation)
High concern for results/assertiveness
Low concern for people/cooperation
May enjoy conflict and sacrifice relationships with others in order to win
Compromise (Win-Lose : Lose-Win Orientation)
Moderate concern for results/assertiveness
Moderate concern for people/cooperation
May not see that a win-win is an option
Will give up some interests for others – meets some needs
Collaboration (Win — Win Orientation)
High concern for results/assertiveness
High concern for people/cooperation
Strives to meet the needs of all parties
Conflict Style Diagnosis
Four scenarios are offered below. Several questions follow each scenario that ask you to do the following:
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Identify and list the conflict style(s) exhibited by all team members.
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Describe how the conflict style is helping or hindering the accomplishment of team goals and objectives.
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Determine and list alternative strategies and state your rationale.
Provide typed responses to the questions that follow each of the four scenarios. Each question requires a response of 25-50 words.
Scenario 1
In a professional team meeting, one member of the team, Janelle, is continuously late. In fact, this is the third meeting in a row when Janelle has been more than 15 minutes late. The other members of the team (George, Felicia, and Jose) have talked among themselves about Janelle’s behavior and how it is impacting the productivity of the entire team. Janelle has key information needed to complete the team project and her tardiness generally delays the beginning of the team meeting. Jose would prefer to ignore Janelle’s tardiness and tells George he wants to exclude Janelle from the team, but so far Jose has not said anything to Janelle. Seeing Jose’s frustration, George took the time to meet one-on-one with Janelle for a few moments following the 2nd time that Janelle was late two weeks ago. Janelle promised George that she would be sure to be on time, but here they are again; Janelle is late and the members are seething.
What is the conflict style exhibited by each team member (choose from the options presented at the beginning of this worksheet)?
Jose is clearly showing signs of avoidance while George is exhibiting accommodation. George, Felicia, and Jose are collaborating when they talked amongst themselves about Janelle’s tardiness.
How is each person’s style of conflict management helping or hindering the accomplishment of team goals and objectives?
Felicia and Jose are avoiding the issue, which does not help the problem. George has the right idea about talking to Janelle, but to be effective, the group should talk to Janelle. Janelle may not realize the others feel the same way as George, so has not taken the issue seriously.
What are possible alternative strategies that each member could adopt? Why would each be helpful?
George, Felicia, and Jose should collaborate and meet as a group with Janelle. Perhaps there is a problem with their meeting times and as a group, then can collectively compromise.
Scenario 2
Roxanne and Carlos have worked together on a work project before and established a good working relationship. As managers in their organization, they have been assigned to meet with three other managers, Annika, Carol, and Justin. However, once all members begin to work together as a team, some interesting individual behaviors are observed.
Annika doesn’t go out of her way to contribute, but instead nods her head, seemingly agrees with the group, yet returns to her department and complains how the group never accomplishes anything. Rumors fly throughout the organization and dis-information reaches Roxanne, who, so far, has not confronted Annika nor shared what she knows.
Annika has managed to secure side agreements with Carol, who now comes to the meetings with agenda items that have nothing to do with the discussion. Meanwhile, Justin just tries to keep the peace among the team members and continually soothes the members during the discussion. Meanwhile, both Roxanne and Carlos, who had secured initial team agreements about Ground Rules and a team action plan, are becoming restless and agitated because after two meetings, the team doesn’t seem to be making progress.