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Five Approaches to Conflict

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Five Approaches to Conflict

It’s important to know your habitual response to conflict so that you can be alert to the possibility of taking a different approach. Just because you have a preferred style of approaching conflict does not mean that you must be a slave to that one approach. According to negotiation experts Lewicki, Saunders and Minton, there are five major approaches to conflict resolution. The approaches are distinguished by their levels of cooperativeness and assertiveness.

  1. Competitive Style

    • The competitive style involves assertively maintaining that you are right and attempting to “win” the negotiation in any way possible. The other side’s needs are disregarded, and winning is the goal. The competitive style may result in a conflict being resolved in your favor, but it is not recommended for the long-term because you will have made no headway in working productively with your adversary, and may have built up ill-will that can hamper future relations.

    Accommodating Style

    • The accommodating style is low on assertiveness and high on cooperation. This approach can be taken to a situation in which you do not have a great deal invested in getting your way. Basically, it’s not worth it to you to do anything but let the other side have its way.

    Avoiding Style

    • This approach is low on both assertiveness and cooperativeness. It means walking away from a conflict situation, perhaps because the issues are not sufficiently important to you and you don’t feel a need to deal with the other party. If the situation doesn’t go away, it means that the avoidance style only bought you time, but did nothing to resolve differences.

    Collaborating Style

    • The collaborating style is high on assertiveness and cooperativeness. It is useful when parties have significant differences, but it is important to maintain working relations. It is also appropriate when the cooperation of all parties is needed to carry through with the decisions reached as an outcome of the negotiations. It’s time consuming, but a good choice for parties who need to work with each other despite their differences.

    Compromising Style

    • The compromising style is characterized by moderate levels of assertiveness and cooperativeness. It is useful when parties, for whatever reason, are not able to reach an ultimate resolution to their conflict. The compromising style lets parties reach a workable short-term solution and “live to negotiate another day.”

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