Behavioral assessments play a crucial role in dealing effectively with the growing need to resolve conflicts before they affect the smooth functioning of a team. Conflict resolution has today become a commonly used phrase in almost every organization. Conflict can erupt between two or more employees or teams owing to disagreements on certain decisions, which in turn occur due to differences in behaviors, values and expectations.
To combat this crisis organizations widely seek the services of professional training consultants, who help resolve conflict through various behavioral assessment tools. They provide feedback material that enables leaders to make appropriate use of conflict handling modes. These methods also help employees enhance their comfort level with their less used styles.
Teams tend to loose productivity if conflict prevails. But if the management is able to successfully resolve conflict, the overall performance of the team improves tremendously. The major reason for this is that less collaborative teams are outperformed by more collaborative teams.
Elements of behavior that impact conflict situations
There are two basic elements, assertiveness and cooperativeness, that are measured during value assessments with the purpose of resolving conflicts. An illustration of the five modes of conflict management is as follows:
Competing:
This type of conflict is rooted in uncooperative and assertive behaviors. Competitors stand up for their rights and go to the extent of arguing (and sometimes even more than just argue). They want to get their demands fulfilled at the expense of those of others. Competitors are tough minded personalities and advocate the position they find appropriate. They may see accommodators as timid and too polite.
Accommodating:
Such employees uphold the values of cooperativeness and unassertiveness. They are the exact opposites of competitors. Accommodators sacrifice their own interests and protect other people’s feelings. They may also act generously and obey orders even when their intuition tells them not to. They are cohesive, believe in building goodwill and value support and teamwork. Accommodating employees may look upon competitors as
selfish, unconcerned about others’ feelings and not valuing goodwill.
Avoiding:
Avoiders are uncooperative and unassertive. Neither they are concerned about their own problems nor those of others. They like to keep meetings short and believe in saving personal energy and time. Avoiders withdraw from complex scenarios, postpone issues, or might even step aside and not deal with issues altogether. Such employees avoid dealing with conflict.
Collaborating:
Employees who collaborate are cooperative and assertive. In other words, they are complete opposites of avoiders. Collaborators value open-mindedness, agreement, learning and innovation. They believe in satisfying their concerns by collaborating with others and finding a mutual solution to the problem at hand. Employees who collaborate try to learn from others’ insights by exploring issues leading to disagreement.
Compromising:
Compromisers are judicious and uphold the values of cooperativeness and assertiveness. They make efforts to reach solutions with mutually agreed upon terms. Compromising employees give up less than accommodators and more than competitors. They do not go into in-depth exploration of issues but do not avoid anything either. They are direct and practical. Compromisers value moderation, expediency, balance and reciprocity.
Your Ultimate Success has an impeccable record of assisting organizations to effectively deal with conflict situations. The company’s skilled team of professional training consultants conducts behavioral assessments that enable employees to analyze their positive and negative behaviors and work towards mutually achieving organizational goals.
Resource Box: YUS is the market leader in implementing behavioral assessments. You can trust YUS in carrying out behavioral assessments interviews successfully and helping you find best suitable employees. Your Ultimate Success (YUS) is one of the most reliable sources for the best and most versatile corporate coaching services.