Ch. 13
Case: Communication Competency
Conflict Style Case Incidents[]
Instructions
Your task is to rank the five alternatives as to your statements and/or actions in each of the following four case incidents. Rank the alternatives from the most desirable or appropriate way of dealing with the conflict to the least desirable. Rank the most desirable as 1, the next most desirable as 2, and so on, with the least desirable as 5. Enter your rank in the space next to each item. Next, identify the conflict style being used with each of the possible statements and/or actions (forcing, accommodating, avoidance, compromise, or collaboration). Place your response at the end of each statement.
Case Incident 1
Peter is team leader of a production molding machine. Recently, he has noticed that one of the employees from another machine has been coming over to his machine and talking to one of his team members (not on break time). The efficiency of Peter’s operator seems to be falling off, and his inattention has resulted in some rejects. Peter thinks he detects some resentment among the rest of the team. If you were Peter, you would:
- ___a. Talk to the team member and tell him to limit his conversations during on-the-job time. _______________ style.
- ___b. Ask the manager to tell the team leader of the other machine to keep his operators in line. _______________ style.
- ___c. Confront both men the next time you see them together (as well as the other team leader, if necessary), find out what they are up to, and tell them what you expect of your operators. _______________ style.
- ___d. Say nothing now; it would be silly to make something big out of something so insignificant. _______________ style.
- ___e. Try to put the rest of the team at ease; it is important that they all work well together. _______________ style.
