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Dealing with Conflict

Just as in any interpersonal relationship, conflict is an inevitable part of working in teams. Small groups experience two forms of conflict. Substantive conflict revolves around disagreements about the group’s tasks, procedures, or decision options (Rahim, 2002). Affective conflict stems from interpersonal or cultural differences between members, power struggles, or simply bad feelings (Rahim, 2002). A moderate amount of substantive conflict can help prevent groupthink, but when groups experience too much substantive conflict or get embroiled in affective conflict, it’s time for a group member to assume leadership and manage the situation.

The characters on the show Glee constantly move between substantive and affective conflict, sometimes allowing personal feelings about other members to get in the way of the group’s goals. How do you handle conflicts that combine elements of both conflict types?

Michael Yarish/© Fox/Courtesy Everett Collection

As Chapter 8 covers, there are several possible approaches to dealing with conflict. Choosing the right approach depends on the nature and severity of the conflict. In situations involving unethical behaviors or clearly “right” courses of action, consider using a competitive approach, in which you pursue your own goals to the exclusion of others (Rahim, 2002). For ex-ample, your class group might want to ignore an assignment requirement they think is “unimportant.” Rather than avoiding a conflict and going along with the group, a leader using a competitive approach would openly listen to the group but ultimately insist that the assignment requirement be met.

In instances with too much substantive or affective conflict, a collaborative approach may be best. This approach gives everyone a say in the resolution, so they tend to view the outcome as fair. Taking a collaborative approach to managing a conflict involves applying the following practices:

Focus on common ground rather than proving who’s right (“Gina and Christian, you both care about meeting the deadline; you’re just disagreeing about how to get there”).
Use active listening skills from Chapter 5 by asking questions and paraphrasing what you’ve heard someone else say (“So, Martin, it sounds like you’re concerned that this option is going to cost too much. Is that correct?”).
State your point of view clearly, and take responsibility for it by using “I language” (“I’m not comfortable with this plan because it doesn’t say who’s responsible for getting the supplies we need”).
Be consistent in your communication (“As I said earlier, I’m not comfortable with this plan”) rather than sending mixed messages (“This plan has problems, but if everyone else is OK with it . . .”).
Stick to the issue at hand, and avoid bringing up unrelated matters (“We need to stay focused on the problems in the plan”).

In general, avoiding a conflict is not productive unless the issue is insignificant (“You’re sitting in my chair!”).