Conflict is not a sign of dysfunction; it’s an indicator of diversity – diverse thoughts, ideas, and approaches.
But sometimes – from the loud hallway disagreements and heated boardroom debates – you may wonder if these clashes are too disruptive, or if they’re leading you away from progress rather than toward it.
The determinant of whether conflict becomes a stumbling block or an opportunity is the conflict management styles your team members employ. Are they warriors, peacekeepers, or something in between? Each style has its unique influence on team dynamics and, consequently, on group performance.
Done right, conflict can foster creativity, stimulate critical thinking, and promote growth. Through the lens of conflict management styles, we’ll help you understand how disagreements, if navigated strategically, can fuel your team’s drive towards peak performance.
Defining Conflict Management Styles
While every conflict is unique, the responses generally fall into five categories. Each conflict management style carves a unique path through the dynamics of a team, with distinct implications.
-
- Avoiding: This style is characterized by sidestepping or postponing conflict. The avoiders prioritize harmony and order above all else, often neglecting their own needs and concerns in the process. Avoiding can bring temporary peace but may also allow underlying issues to fester. It may work for trivial issues but could hamper the resolution of significant problems.
- Accommodating: Here, the individual prioritizes the needs and concerns of others over their own. Accommodators often surrender their own position to maintain peace within the team. Accommodating nurtures a harmonious environment but at the risk of individual resentment or unaddressed concerns. It could either enhance team cohesion or undermine individual confidence.
- Competing: The competitors are assertive and uncooperative. They view conflict as a win-lose scenario and work aggressively to achieve their goals, often at the expense of others’ needs or concerns. Competing ensures the assertive pursuit of goals, which could drive performance. But it might also breed a competitive atmosphere that can fracture team unity.
- Compromising: This approach is moderate in both assertiveness and cooperation. Compromisers seek solutions that partially satisfy everyone involved, often resulting in a give-and-take scenario. Compromising presents a balanced approach but could result in solutions that are only partially satisfactory. This can lead to suboptimal performance if the compromise solution is not the best one.
- Collaborating: The collaborators aim for a win-win situation. They confront the conflict directly and try to fully satisfy the concerns of all parties involved, fostering an environment of trust and mutual respect. Collaborating fosters creativity, innovation, and comprehensive problem-solving, but it requires time and effort. It could catalyze high-performance teams that appreciate diverse viewpoints and work towards a shared vision.
Managing a team is easy when everybody gets along. But when conflict management styles butt heads, how can a leader guide their team through a disagreement effectively?
The Leader’s Voice: Facilitating Conflict Management
Conflict within a team is inevitable. Part of managing a large and diverse group is understanding their individual differences and managing accordingly.
A research study from the International Journal of Conflict Management found that female employees consistently use more noncompeting strategies (integrating, obliging, avoiding and compromising) than male employees and male employees consistently use more competing strategy (dominating) than female employees. Race, sexuality, socioeconomic status, and other factors certainly affect individuals’ conflict management styles as well, although more research is needed in this area.
These findings underscore the importance of leaders being attuned to the differing conflict management strategies of their team members and facilitating a balance that respects these differences and promotes equity. Leaders should aim to ensure that one conflict management style does not dominate to the detriment of other styles, thus creating a balanced, fair, and productive environment.
Put Into Practice: Managing Differing Conflict Management Practices Within a Group
i. Identify and Understand
Firstly, understand each team member’s preferred conflict management style. This can be done through direct conversations, observations during meetings, or even through formal assessments. This understanding provides a baseline for interactions and conflict resolution.
ii. Communicate and Educate
Ensure that your team understands the concept of conflict management styles and the impacts of each. An open dialogue can encourage individuals to understand the strengths and limitations of their own styles and appreciate the differences in others.
iii. Establish Ground Rules
Create guidelines that encourage respectful communication and mutual understanding. These rules can act as a compass during conflicts, promoting fair interactions and constructive outcomes.
iv. Facilitate Conflict Resolution
As a leader, it’s essential to facilitate conflict resolution, especially when team members struggle to find common ground. Your role may involve mediating discussions, suggesting compromises, or helping parties understand each other’s perspectives.
v. Encourage Adaptability
Promote a culture of flexibility and adaptability. While everyone has a preferred conflict management style, the ability to switch between styles based on the situation can lead to more effective outcomes.
vi. Regularly Review and Adjust
Conflict management isn’t a set-and-forget practice. Regularly review how conflicts are managed within your team, seek feedback, and make necessary adjustments to improve the process. This commitment to ongoing improvement can enhance your team’s ability to handle conflicts constructively over time.
Conflict Management Style and Organizational Culture
Understanding the dynamics of conflict management within your team is a crucial step. Yet, we must broaden our perspective to recognize that these individual and team-level styles do not exist in a vacuum. They’re deeply embedded within the larger context of your organization’s culture.
The Relationship Between Organizational Culture and Conflict Management Styles
Organizational culture, that invisible yet palpable “way we do things around here,” can significantly influence the conflict management styles that team members gravitate towards. For instance, a culture emphasizing competitiveness and individual achievement might naturally nurture the competing style of conflict management, while a culture prioritizing team harmony might foster more accommodating or compromising styles.
The alignment, or lack thereof, between your team’s conflict management styles and your organization’s culture can have a substantial impact on team dynamics and overall performance. An incongruence can lead to internal friction and decreased productivity, as team members may feel pressured to act against their conflict management inclinations. On the other hand, alignment can facilitate smoother interactions, but it might risk suppressing diverse styles and the benefits they can bring to conflict resolution.
Shaping Organizational Culture for Balanced Conflict Management
So, how can you, as a leader, navigate this intricate interplay between conflict management styles and organizational culture?
-
- Cultivate Awareness: Begin by understanding your current organizational culture and how it might be promoting or discouraging certain conflict management styles. Surveys, feedback sessions, or organizational behavior consultants can provide valuable insights.
- Promote Diversity in Conflict Management Styles: Encourage a culture that values a spectrum of conflict management styles, rather than favoring one over others. Make it clear that each style has its place and utility depending on the context.
- Provide Training and Development: Equip your team with the knowledge and skills to adapt their conflict management style as needed. Training sessions, workshops, or coaching can help your team members broaden their conflict resolution repertoire.
- Lead by Example: As a leader, your actions will always speak louder than your words. Actively demonstrate varied conflict management styles, and highlight the situational factors that guided your choice.
Case Studies of Successful Conflict Management in Different Organizational Cultures
Various successful companies, from Google’s “Psychological Safety” ethos to Amazon’s “Disagree and Commit” principle, have consciously developed their cultures to encourage balanced conflict management styles. They’ve recognized that while conflict is inevitable, its management is malleable. These companies have seen firsthand how cultivating a supportive culture around conflict can lead to improved team dynamics, increased creativity, and stellar performance.
To conclude, conflict management styles and organizational culture are deeply interconnected. A mindful leader can shape their organization’s culture to celebrate and harness the diversity of conflict management styles, converting potential points of friction into fuel for growth and innovation.
To understand more about how Arden Coaching can help you navigate team dynamics and maximize performance through effective conflict management, please visit our website or get in touch with us today. We’re committed to transforming your team’s conflicts into stepping stones for success.