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In today’s business climate, the contrast between organizations that effectively manage workplace conflict and those that do not is stark. Organizations with neglected, poorly defined, or immature conflict management approaches experience a variety of undesirable effects, from reduced productivity and poor decision-making to information suppression and gridlock. Sometimes these escalate, causing stress and division, upending working relationships and leading to hostility, complaints or even legal action.
Conversely, organizations with sophisticated approaches to conflict create an environment that people perceive as fair and equal. In an environment where divergent information flows freely, different perspectives are included in decisions.
How can leaders ensure their organizations fall into the latter group? Although conflict management is a big topic, some important things need to happen for the effort to be effective.
Related: 6 Strategies for Resolving Conflict in the Workplace
Understanding conflict theory
As with any workplace phenomenon, harnessing conflict for positive outcomes requires a shared description of its fundamental elements. We can begin by offering a definition of conflict that differs from how people typically view it. Rather than viewing conflict as inherently destructive, organizations with a mature approach define conflict as the presence of opinions or concerns that conflict with one another. They recognize that this diversity of opinion is inherent in the human experience.
The internal power struggles we see in organizations are just one way in which conflict is viewed.
Researchers Ralph Kilmann and Ken Thomas identified five overarching modes that people use when approaching conflict (Disclosure: My company sells the Thomas Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument). These can be understood by how people demonstrate different levels of assertiveness and willingness to cooperate.
Compete: This assertive, uncooperative approach occurs when one party aims for a 100 percent victory.
Accommodation: This is a non-assertive, cooperative approach in which one party gives the other whatever it wants.
Compromises: This is a somewhat assertive, more collaborative approach in which both parties get some, but not all, of what they want.
Avoid: This unassertive and uncooperative approach occurs when at least one party refuses to engage in the conflict.
Cooperation: This assertive yet collaborative mode occurs when two or more parties adopt a problem-solving approach that addresses the concerns of all involved.
Collaboration is characterized by the fact that it often leads to a completely new solution than was originally intended. It requires the most skill and practice. And while it’s not suitable for every scenario, it tends to be the least used. Not surprisingly, organizations with a mature approach to conflict tend to use this mode more frequently.
Identifying a team’s culture of conflict
Due to life and work experiences, backgrounds, and innate psychological and personal preferences, people tend to fall into one of these five conflict modes – usually without being aware of it. Likewise, they often do not consider that there are other approaches and fall into the mode that is most comfortable for them.
In addition, teams and organizations have a culture of conflict based on the combination of conflict styles of its members. If this culture is not cultivated, conflict tends to be unproductive – even destructive.
In order to develop conflict management skills, it is therefore necessary to become aware of yourself and others. Increased awareness of conflict modes leads to a decrease in people’s tendency to immediately adopt defensive or offensive stances when conflicts arise. With strategic training and development, people’s unconscious habits and assumptions become conscious and they gain insight into their agency in conflict.
In addition, their tendencies and behaviors when dealing with conflict can now be observed, measured and improved. Teams can choose the right mode for the conflict instead of defaulting to the usual resolution.
However, before this begins, organizations must uncover their culture of conflict. For example, an organization might find that it tends to view conflict as a threat to teamwork. Others may find that they view this as a waste of time and resources that should be avoided. Others may see this as a threat to leadership authority and organizational stability. These perspectives can shape the culture in which employees operate and have a radical impact on whether they handle conflict appropriately.
To achieve greater conflict management effectiveness, we must know our starting point. First, organizations must uncover their biases, assumptions, and perspectives regarding conflict. From here, steps toward a healthier culture can begin. Next, each team must strengthen employees’ self- and other-perception skills through strategic training and development. The teams then need help adapting to the new behaviors.
Related: 3 Ways to Use Conflict to Strengthen Your Startup
Choosing the best approach to conflict
With this awareness comes the ability to select the best conflict mode for the scenario.
Collaboration generally leads to superior decisions, especially when complex problems are involved. However, since it requires time, it may make sense to save it for critical situations where a win-win outcome or an innovative solution is required.
On the other hand, if there is not enough information to make a fair decision, it may be beneficial to temporarily avoid the conflict. It provides an opportunity to collect data, research, or feedback from other stakeholders. Once everyone is better informed, the conflict can be revisited with a higher likelihood of a productive outcome, minimizing the risk of decisions based on misunderstandings.
Even if the optimal mode is selected, it must be implemented effectively. The aim is to give a team the skills it needs to successfully deal with conflicts. This could include the ability to:
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Distinguish between people’s concerns – what they primarily want to achieve – and the positions or actions they want to take to satisfy their concerns.
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Formulate an issue in terms of these concerns compared to the positions originally held by the parties involved. For example, collaboration requires uncovering the concerns underlying people’s positions.
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Demonstrate a balance between firmness and flexibility when trying to collaborate or adapt, especially when the other party is stuck in competitive mode.
Reducing conflict costs
A final consideration is that even if conflict mode is best suited to the situation, it still comes with costs. Effective conflict management includes minimizing these costs.
When a leader dismisses the significant consequences of conflict as merely the price of making the right decision, it is an indication that he or she lacks conflict management skills. An experienced leader can operate in competition mode without provoking colleagues, in avoidance mode without seeming to avoid important issues, or in accommodation mode without seeming like a pushover.
Related: How to Successfully Manage and Resolve Conflicts in Your Team
In summary, organizations with mature conflict management get to this point because senior leadership has made it a priority and invested in their conflict management culture and their people. Such organizations encourage the willingness to express opposing views and the free exchange of information, and senior leadership leads by example by developing and demonstrating their own conflict management skills.