Conflict is not quite a strange thing for people. Human beings experience it in their day-to-day lives with their friends, family members and even colleagues at workplaces. In today’s world, organisations recruit employees from diverse geographical locations with different cultural backgrounds and various viewpoints.
Therefore, disagreements are bound to happen when such people work together in the same place. However, while conflict might be expected in workplaces, it still causes significant frustration, discomfort, pain and anger. Not only the workplace environment gets toxic, but it also negatively impacts business growth.
Today’s business leaders are taught to lead organisational change, transformation, and development. However, they are often not taught the basics of conflict management. Now, you must be wondering what the reason behind the little recognition of conflict management in leaders is.
It could be because it is often assumed that leaders will know how to avoid conflicts. However, it is not true at all. Conflict management is a skill which every leader must be taught. Leaders not taught conflict management will take conflicts as a situation that can never be resolved.
Therefore, they will not even bother to address it, making the business undergo a major crisis. Often the leadership style becomes a source of conflict in the workplace. Read this article to learn about conflict management styles!
What is Conflict Management?
Conflict management is a process through which disputes are resolved. While it may sound simple, it is quite a challenging task. Therefore, different tactics depending on the situation, are involved, such as negotiation and creative thinking. When a conflict is properly managed, an organisation will be able to minimise negative outcomes, enhance customer satisfaction and boost business growth.
Conflicts are bound to happen. Conflicts in an organisation indicate a higher level of employee engagement. Also, it means that employees are comfortable enough to challenge each other and have faith in the organisation to resolve their conflicts fairly.
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Effective Conflict Management Styles
Regarding conflict management, one solution cannot work for all situations. Each situation will be different from the triggers of the conflict to the parties involved. Therefore, a leader cannot stick to one conflict management style. Instead, they should be able to take a bird-eye view of the conflict and apply the best management style for the specific situation.
Here are a few conflicts management styles that can help leaders resolves conflicts in the workplace:
Accommodating
This conflict management style is focused on putting the other party’s needs or desires before your own. You allow the other party to win. However, accommodating conflict management is only suited for situations where the leader doesn’t care about the issue as strongly as others.
Therefore, if you think prolonging the conflict is not worth your time, you can settle it with this conflict management style. While it may seem a somewhat weak style, accommodation can be a perfect choice to resolve small conflicts and move towards more important issues.
Pros
- Small disagreements can be handled quickly and easily
- Leaders can have more time and energy to settle important issues
Cons
- Leaders using this style might be viewed as weak
- It will not work for larger or more important issues
Example
Suppose you are in a marketing meeting finalising colour for your upcoming spring campaign. However, employee groups are suggesting two different ones. To stop them from arguing, you decide to go for both colours.
Avoiding
Another conflict management style that is used the most by leaders is avoiding. This style aims to reduce conflict by removing the conflicting parties. If team members working on the same project are arguing, a leader can either remove them, extend the deadline or form a new team. It may sound like too much work. However, it is one of the most effective conflict resolution styles.
Leaders should only use this conflict management style when they feel like a little cool-down period will help resolve the matter. While this style might work in a few situations, it can also lead to more conflicts in future.
Pros
- Giving employees time to calm down can often result in the conflict resolution
Cons
- If used in the wrong situations, this style might make conflicts worse.
- Leaders can seem incompetent if they use an avoidance style too much.
Example
Suppose your two senior employees are working on a big project together. However, they are unable to get on the same page regarding a few minor details. Also, the deadline is nearby. To manage the conflict, the leader pushes the deadline and gives each employee an extra day to work on the project.
The space to take a break from each other and extra time to complete the work can help both employees calm down and resume with a more collaborative mindset.
Compromising
The compromising conflict management style is focused on finding a middle ground by asking both parties to compromise and get on the same page. This style is also called lose-lose- both parties must give up on a few things for the solution to be agreed upon. Now, you must be wondering when to use this style. It is used when time is short, and leaders have to resolve the conflict even if the solution they found is not perfect.
Pros
- Bigger issues can be resolved quickly
- Both parties will feel heard and valued
- Leaders using this tactic will be seen as facilitating agreement
Cons
- One party might feel they sacrificed too much
- Leaders overusing this style will burn up their employees’ goodwill
Example
Suppose you have put two employees in charge of the advertising budget for the next year. However, one employee wants to hire a full-time social media manager, while the other wants to increase targeted digital ads. Therefore, as a leader, you use a compromising conflict management style and make the employees reach a compromise by hiring a social media manager part-time with the remaining budget spent on digital advertising.
Conclusion:
Are you unable to manage conflicts at your workplace? ActionCoach can help you resolve conflicts efficiently. Contact us today at 01442 773310 or email westherts@actioncoach.co.uk for a business coaching session on conflict management styles!
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