Conflict Style Assessment and Analysis - Essay Example

? Conflict Style Assessment and Analysis Conflict management skills are essential for everyone as they broaden a person’s knowledge on how best to deal with an arising conflict. Since conflict can seep in any time it is advisable to know basic personal conflict management styles to improve your relationship with your colleagues at home, work or any other social place. According to Kilmann and Thomas (1976), the five stylistic approaches to conflict management are dominating, obliging, avoiding, compromising and integrating. Therefore, to enable a better understanding of problem one is supposed to know its root cause and the best measures that can be taken to mitigate or eradicate it. In this paper I will explore my weaknesses and strengths to get a deeper understanding of how I can deal with conflicts and the areas of conflict management strategies I need to work on to improve my skills. We will be guided by my assessment results through the use of conflict resolution tactics which will be the yardstick of my evaluation. The given course assignment which required an individual to analyze his or her conflict style gave me an opportunity to compare and contrast my believed values about conflict management with the views of two of my friends. It is often obvious that when one is doing his or her personal evaluation one may be swayed to give strong marks to the styles one feels they are great as per his or her conviction but through an unbiased evaluation, it might turn out that your evaluation were skewed. I was also not different from people who are optimistic about themselves as I noted that results from my evaluators’ had differed from my results as I had awarded myself more points on the main styles. However, it became evident from all the results that my leading styles are collaboration, accommodation and comprise as I had scored higher on them while the inferior ones were competition and avoidance. This analysis shed a light on me that I need to put more effort on improving my conflict skills as competition could deter my skills if not mitigated. BACKGROUND/ RESEARCH To facilitate the research study, the conflict styles analysis worksheet provided in the course was used. To properly rate myself, I asked two of my friends who knows me well to complete filling in the assessment worksheets. These two friends were my pastor who knows my home-life relation hence was in a position to rate me on the way I react at home and the second one was James who is my workmate. The reason why I chose them is because we have been together with them for a long period and most importantly they are objectives hence cannot be biased as from their principles they tell someone point blank about his or her conduct, hence I knew they could gauge about me without fear or favor. Second, being my friend I understood they were doing it for the better part of me and for my improvement. I arrange the collected data into a chart to allow viewers to see the analysis at ease and in a more precise way. Analysis Avoidance Competition Compromise Accommodation Collaboration Self Analysis 6 8 20 25 26 Work-life Analysis 8 11 17 23 22 Home-life Analysis 10 12 19 20 23 Average 8 10 19 23 24 Table 1: Conflict style analysis To make the analysis more visible and easier to understand the trends of three person assessment, I drew this line-chart below. The chart shows the results of my evaluators’ opinion about my conflict management skills as well as my self assessment. Figure 1: Line Chart Below is how scored on each conflict management style. Collaboration - I scored highest on this style at an average score of 24, however, this result differed with my self assessment as I had overrated myself with a score of 26 compared to my evaluators. According to Lussier and Achua (2010), collaboration is a conflict resolution style that is assertive as it encourages cooperation between or among parties in order to have an amicable solution that is acceptable to all conflicting members. Accommodation - this was my second highest rating style as I scored an average score of 23. Again on this score, I gave myself more scores than from the opinions of my friends. I also scored higher on work than at home. This could because most of the time I am at work place as I spend time at home during weekends and at nights. Accommodation is the act of being accommodating as the word suggests, hence it is used to boost peace as the warring parties are required to shelf their interest for the sake of harmony thus it is the most preferred style of conflict management (Wilmot & Hocker, 2007). Compromise – on this style I scored an average score of 19. This was equivalent to what I scored at home. This is a cooperative and mildly assertive style where conflicting members are supposed to make concessions that allows room for agreeable resolutions. According to Wilmot and Hocker (2007), trade offs and exchanges as a compromise to satisfy all the conflicting parties. Competition - I scored an average score of 10 which was higher than my self-rating of 8. Shockingly, the score shows that I am more competitive at home than at work, a case which not healthy for building a strong relationship. This is because competition is linked to negative impacts such as destructive aggressiveness instead of assertiveness, confrontation and attempts to win a case or argument at the expense of colleagues, which is a dangerous trend in conflict situations (Wilmot & Hocker, 2007). Avoidance - I self-rated this style lower than my evaluators. Furthermore, I scored higher on this style at home than at work. According to Lussier and Achua (2010), this style is uncooperative and unassertive as it provides a solution to a conflict but instead leads to a lose situation that may be exploited further to re-ignite the conflict. ANALYSIS The results display that I scored more on the positive styles relative to perceived negative styles. Even though every style has its importance depending on the nature of the conflict, competition, avoidance and accommodation styles can impact negatively in some situations when applied wrongly. While compromise and collaboration are known to have robust attributes related to them in times of conflict resolution. According to my rating, I scored high in these two positive attribute, however, to better development myself in solving conflict without the hindrance by the other styles which are deemed to have side effects, I will focus more on the area I need to improve. As the analysis has shown, I use avoidance, competition and accommodation more than I think I use them, hence I should strive to reduce their use for better engagement with the people I associate with. It was noted that I am too accommodating than it should as I often let the other party to have their own way while I compromise mine. The trend as I have noted leaves me feeling cheated and unacknowledged as the party enjoys his or her win. I more cooperative rather than being unassertive to have my fair share, thus ending up being the loser in a conflict. Although I am not advocating competition, in a conflict every party should feel appreciated and rewarded equally at the end of a conflict. Therefore, from this assessment I have resolved to be a bit more aggressive than I am today. The other weakness I noted was avoidance, where the offense I commit is to ignoring a subject than I don’t like or postponing a problem that I don’t want to be associated with. This action has led to an escalation of the problem instead of terminating it completely, thus this conflict management style is negative as it does not yield solution to a problem as it sidelines parties involved instead of uniting them. On issue of competition, I was evaluated as being more competitive than I should be. To be able to resolve a conflict, I understand from my conflict management skills that I should be assertive rather than being aggressive hence I must improve on this trait to aid my skills. I find myself employing this style when I want to sway an opinion on my conviction or when I want to prove a point which my colleague seems to disapprove. OPINION I have appreciated this analysis as it has given me a green light to forge ahead with the positive areas of conflict management that I have, but more importantly to rectify undoing behaviors that I have used to resolve conflicts but have not been the best. I have more than often applied the wrong conflicting management styles in the wrong situation although to the best of intentions. After a careful review of this analysis, I was able to outline the origin of some of my professional and personal problems as I inefficiently used the wrong conflict management skills. I have resolved to be analyzing the problem critically, before issuing or acting on it. Therefore, in issue of competition, I will be weighing both side and repercussion of each decision I make and avoid completely use of arrogant or aggressive speech to my patterns. I have been using avoidance to save a confrontational situation and sometimes it has been a wise remedy. Nonetheless, more often I am swayed by it even in circumstances that it is not effective especially in a situation I want to outdo my friends. But after the action and deep meditation I feel sorry and unwise for taking that route hence I avoid such situation in future. To better relate to my friends and people around me I will be using avoidance in a healthy way where it appropriately is deserved. In handling accommodation, I am giving up to a situation that I think it will be demeaning to me even though I am supposed to participate. This habit has been sometimes counterproductive to solve a conflict between my friends as I look for the stronger one and give in to his or her side while the other is left desperate. In such a circumstance I have been a little aggressive to solve the matter head on. CONCLUSION The self analysis and evaluator's assessment of my natural skills of conflict management have aided me greatly to realize my weakness and areas I need to improve on. It has come to my knowledge that competition is not a worthy cause to take in a conflict situation as it portrays one as a participant rather than a mediator or a problem solver. The conflict management skills learnt can boost my problem solving skills and personal growth as I will be able to handle different kinds of people. Through discovery of my weakness I will be able to become an effective conflict solver rather than avoiding problematic issues. I will also be asserting my needs where appropriate by being reasonably aggressive instead of accommodating a situation that leaves me bitter. I have learnt that developing different styles of conflicting management have can aid an individual in mitigating or eradicating disputes and disagreements. Using optimistic methods in resolving conflict has many benefits to a person's relationship with others and I have noted that by utilizing positive avenues I can improve not only my relationship work but also partner affection and love for my children. References Covey, S. (2011). The 3rd alternative: Solving life's most difficult problems.   New York, NY: Free Press. Lussier, R., & Achua, C. (2010). Leadership: Theory, application & skill development (4thed.). Mason, OH: Cengage Learning. Welmot, W. & Hocker, J. (2006). Interpersonal Conflict by Wilmot & Hocker. New York: McGraw Hill. Wilmot, W., & Hocker, J. (2007). Interpersonal conflict (7thed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill. Read More