addressing |
The style of response to conflict that seeks to deal with the conflict openly and resolve it. |
affective conflict |
A type of conflict that centers on an emotional conflict between parties. Affective conflicts can be very destructive to a company if unresolved. |
attacking |
The style of response to conflict that involves offensively attacking the other party in the conflict. This style is the most unproductive response to conflict a person can have. |
authoritarian contest |
A contest conflict in which both parties in conflict turn to an outside party to judge a winner. |
cognitive conflict |
A type of conflict that centers on the completion of a task. Cognitive conflicts often highlight important problems a company needs to fix. |
concealing |
The style of response to conflict that tries to hide and ignore the conflict, usually in the hope that it will go away. This style does not make a conflict worse, but usually will not solve it either. |
conflict |
A disagreement between two people or groups. Conflicts can be cognitive, affective, or a blend of both. |
contest |
Any conflict in which one party "wins" while the other "loses", which leads to resentment and problems. |
directly adversarial contest |
A contest conflict in which one group is pitted directly against another group. |
distance |
The act of giving parties in conflict something different to work on, allowing them to withdraw from the conflict itself for a bit. |
emotional involvement |
The idea that each party in a conflict has some feelings concerning the conflict. |
final agreement |
A balanced, specific, written agreement that settles a conflict and details how the conflict is resolved. |
interdependence |
The idea that two parties in a conflict need each other to complete their own tasks. |
mediation |
The formal process of attempting to resolve a conflict. |
mediator |
The person or group that conducts the mediation between parties in conflict. Ideally the mediator is a neutral party, not involved in the conflict. |
mutual blame |
The idea that parties in conflict place the blame for the conflict mostly, if not entirely, on the other party. |
negative results |
The idea that a workplace conflict will eventually cause problems for the company if left unresolved. |
personal conflict |
A conflict between two people, most often from a mutual dislike or personality clash. |
separation |
The act of removing parties in conflict from the conflict itself, often by physically separating them. |
workplace conflict |
A conflict taking place in the workplace that tends to involve different levels of emotional involvement than other conflicts. |