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CHAPTER 10: LEADING TEAMS 315
2. The avoiding style, which reflects neither assertiveness nor cooperativeness,
is appropriate when an issue is trivial, when there is no chance of winning,
when a delay to gather more information is needed, or when a disruption
would be costly.
3. The compromising style reflects a moderate amount of both assertiveness
and cooperativeness. It is appropriate when the goals on both sides are
equally important, when opponents have equal power and both sides
want to split the difference, or when people need to arrive at temporary
or expedient solutions under time pressure.
4. The accommodating style reflects a high degree of cooperativeness, which
works best when people realize that they are wrong, when an issue is more
important to others than to oneself, when building social credits for use in
later discussions, or when maintaining cohesiveness is especially important.
5. The collaborating style reflects both a high degree of assertiveness and of
cooperativeness. This style enables both parties to win, although it may
require substantial dialogue and negotiation. The collaborating style is
important when both sets of concerns are too important to be compromised,
when insights from different people need to be merged into an overall
solution, or when the commitment of both sides is needed for a consensus.
Each approach can be successful, depending on the people involved and the

situation. In a study of conflict in virtual teams, researchers found that the com-
83
peting and collaborating styles had a positive effect on team performance. The
effectiveness of the competing style might be related to the use of electronic
communication, in that team members don’t interpret the individ-
ual’s approach as being aggressive and are more willing to accept Action Memo
use most frequently? Answer the questions
a quick resolution. Which confl ict-handling style do you tend to
Other Approaches in Leader’s Self-Insight 10.3 on page 316 to
The various styles of handling confl ict illustrated in Exhibit 10.6 are fi nd out. Try to think of confl ict situations
especially effective for an individual to use when he or she disagrees you’ve been involved in where each of the
with another. But what can a team leader do when confl ict erupts styles might be appropriate.
among others? Research suggests several techniques that help resolve
confl icts among people or teams.

Vision A compelling vision can pull people together. A vision is for the whole
team and cannot be attained by one person. Its achievement requires the coopera-
tion of conflicting parties. To the extent that leaders can focus on a larger team or

organizational vision, conflict will decrease because the people involved see the

big picture and realize they must work together to achieve it.
Bargaining/Negotiating Bargaining and negotiating mean that the parties en-
gage one another and use logical problem solving in an attempt to systematically
reach a solution. Using this approach to confl ict management, people engage in
give-and-take discussions and consider various alternatives to reach a joint deci-
sion that is acceptable to both parties. Confl icting parties may embark upon nego-
tiation from different perspectives and with different intentions, refl ecting either
an integrative approach or a distributive approach. Integrative negotiation is based Integrative negotiation
Integrative negotiation
a cooperative approach to
on a win-win assumption, in that all parties want to come up with a creative solu- a cooperative approach to
negotiation in which confl icting
negotiation in which confl icting

tion that can benefit both sides of the confl ict. Rather than viewing the confl ict parties attempt to reach a win-
parties attempt to reach a win-
as a win-lose situation, people look at the issues from multiple angles, consider win solution
win solution
trade-offs, and try to “expand the pie” rather than divide it. With integrative