Understanding Personal Conflict Management Styles

Each person has their own way of managing conflict, termed conflict styles. The styles of conflict are described by Hocker & Wilmont (2014) as being “patterned responses, or clusters of behavior, that people use in conflict” (p. 145). Personal history plays an important role in the development of individual conflict styles because, as Hocker & Wilmont (2014) explain, “your personal history, such as your family of origin and other influences, makes a difference in how you respond to conflict. Perceptions about conflict, whether it is an activity to be avoided or sought out and whether it is a negative or positive activity, develop over time” (p. 71). Depending on which perception the person develops, there are many different approaches to conflict resolution available. For instance, the five primary conflict styles include the accommodation style, the avoidance style,

The second style, the avoidance style, is characterized by Hocker & Wilmont (2014) as the “denial of conflict, changing and avoiding topics, being noncommittal, and joking rather than dealing with the conflict at hand” (p. 151). The third style, the competitive style of conflict, has a variety of names, including the dominating style, “power over” style, or the win-lose approach to conflict manage, and involves the process of attaining one’s own goals of resolution at the cost of the expense of the other people involved (Hocker & Wilmont, 2014). The fourth conflict style is the comprising style, which basically involves negotiation between two or more people in order to resolve a conflict by meeting in the middle or finding a common ground. Finally, the collaborative style of conflict, the most revered style of conflict management, is the ability to work together in order to find a solution to the problem that is agreeable to all parties