Competitive accommodating compromising collaborating and avoidance

Are they strangers that will remain as such after the negotiation? Are they long standing partner with strategic importance to your organization?

Having taken inventory of your style, their style, the importance of the stakes, and the importance of the relationship.

With a basic understanding of the five conflict management strategies, small business owners can better deal with conflicts before they escalate beyond repair.

However, if accommodation is the only style a person utilizes, he or she is advised to learn more skills. The classic compromise in negotiating is to "split the difference" between two positions.

While there is no victor from compromise, each person also fails to achieve her or his original goal.

Understanding the tactics and strategies of others who use competitive styles can assist conflict managers in defusing the negative consequences of competition and working toward a mutual gains approach.

Competitive tactics include: - Lying - Concealing one's own goals - Concealing one's own interests - Attacking or criticizing the other person verbally - Becoming positional, and then incrementally compromising toward a middle ground - Elevating one's own arguments - Denigrating or rejecting the other's arguments - Threatening and bluffing - Denying responsibility - Pretending to be or actually being hostile "Whatever you want is fine with me." When one party in a conflict genuinely does not care about the outcome of the conflict, accommodation may be the right choice for that situation.