How to handle conflict at work as a manager
Managers can save time, money, and resources by employing workplace conflict resolution techniques. Develop a conflict management style and find leadership courses on edX.
By: Shelby Campbell, Edited by: Valerie Black
Last updated: June 30, 2025
Although conflict is often unavoidable when working with others, it can distract employees. Conflict management strategies for managers can help reduce and resolve conflict, saving time, money, and resources.
You can become a better conflict manager with online conflict management courses on edX. Learn how to help your team reduce emotional distractions today.
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How common is workplace conflict?
Workplace conflict is a significant distraction in modern workplaces, taking time and energy from your team's strategic goals. A long-term study from Georgetown University showed that conflict in the workplace is only getting more common — 62% of workers polled in 2016 reported experiencing incivility in the workplace at least once a month, up from 49% in 1998.
There are many potential causes of workplace conflict, including:
- Miscommunication
- Performance issues
- Varying timelines and deadlines
- Opposing team goals
- Unclear expectations
- Biases
While any workplace leader can help prevent and resolve conflict, managers assume the bulk of the responsibility for mitigating conflict and making their workplaces psychologically safe. Research from McKinsey shows that workers' relationships with managers determine 86% of their satisfaction with interpersonal relationships at work.
Further McKinsey research indicates that 47% of workers who reported being treated poorly deliberately decreased their time at work, and 38% said they intentionally produced lower-quality work. Clearly, a manager's inability to reduce conflict at work can be costly. Conflict resolution skills are essential to drive employee engagement.
Conflict management styles
In 1974, Dr. Kenneth W. Thomas and Dr. Ralph H. Kilmann published the Thomas-Kilmann Instrument (TKI), an assessment that has become a leading tool for helping managers better understand their conflict management styles. It charts the styles between a y-axis of assertiveness and an x-axis of cooperativeness.
The five main management styles from the TKI conflict model include:
Avoiding
The avoidant conflict management style involves no manager intervention, instead allowing the conflict to resolve naturally. However, this doesn't mean the manager is ignoring the problem — avoiding the conflict may be the right solution for the circumstances. On the TKI, it's neither assertive nor cooperative.
Example avoidant management scenario
Two teammates who usually collaborate well are frustrated after a meeting about a high-pressure project. However, the conflict is low-risk and likely to resolve on its own, so you choose to avoid immediate intervention and monitor the situation.
Accommodating
The accommodating conflict management style involves acquiescing to one party's needs. Accommodating managers may yield to minimize conflict and move forward, but they won't address everyone's needs or goals in the process. It's almost completely cooperative rather than assertive on the TKI.
Example accommodating management scenario
You notice tension between two employees over their approaches to a routine task, with one more passionate about their method. To avoid derailing progress on a minor issue and preserve the relationship, you ask the less-passionate employee to follow the others' preferred approach.
Compromising
The compromising conflict management style involves creating a solution that satisfies a portion of all parties' needs. Managers who compromise may meet in the middle so everyone can achieve part of their goals without prioritizing one person over another. Compromise is moderately assertive and cooperative on the TKI.
Example compromising management scenario
Two team members disagree about how to allocate resources for their joint project — one favors speed, while the other favors quality. You facilitate a discussion, and they agree to split the budget evenly between faster tools and additional testing to keep the project moving forward.
Collaborating
The collaborative conflict management style involves devising a solution that meets everyone's needs. Collaborative managers prioritize innovation over quick resolutions. They tend to put emotions aside, thoroughly examine a conflict, and encourage creativity and teamwork. On the TKI, collaborating is highly assertive and cooperative.
Example collaborating management scenario
Two department heads clash over scheduling shared staff, each needing support during peak hours. To resolve the conflict, you schedule a meeting with them to map out both teams' workflows and develop a schedule that meets everyone's needs.
Competing
The competing conflict management style involves using managerial discretion to determine a solution. This solution may not satisfy everyone's needs, but it can demonstrate your authority as the decision-maker. It's almost entirely assertive on the TKI.
Example competing management scenario
Your project manager insists on implementing a specific tool to meet a tight deadline despite objections from your team. Prioritizing results over consensus, you enforce the manager's decision to ensure timely delivery.
3 easy steps to conflict management at work
Depending on the situation, managers may have to vary their approach to conflict management. Here are some steps you can take to help you decide how to manage conflict on your team:
Step 1: Set guidelines for civil communication.
Start the conflict management process by reminding all parties to speak with respect. Ask them to reserve judgments and prior thoughts about each other to create a welcoming, psychologically safe space. Encourage active listening.
By creating a calm, non-judgmental space, your teammates may feel more comfortable advocating for their perspectives.
Step 2: Discuss the problem.
Next, outline the problem and its origins. Why are your coworkers disagreeing? Assess the unbiased details and ensure each party understands the situation.
Returning to the beginning of a problem without judgment may also remind each party that they're working toward a common goal, and opposing each other gets in the way of accomplishing it.
Step 3: Ideate solutions.
Have each party create solutions. Allow each person to explain their perspective and discuss the pros and cons of their solutions. An unemotional approach may help each party understand what is and isn't reasonable about their request and compromise certain aspects.
It may also become clear that there's a solution that makes more sense for your circumstances. Use the TKI scale to help you decide when to be more assertive or cooperative.
Developing your conflict management style
Everyone has natural styles of resolving conflict that may change situationally. People generally don't fall into strict conflict management categories. However, your instinctive response may not be the best way to work through the conflict.
Effective managers often intentionally change their response to conflict to mitigate workplace distractions. Think about a time when you passionately disagreed with someone. Did you:
- Avoid the person you disagreed with?
- Cede their point, despite your feelings?
- Find a middle ground that you could both live with?
- Create a new solution that fulfilled everyone's needs?
- Insist on your perspective?
After you identify how assertive or cooperative you were in the given scenario, you can address ways your response could have better addressed or mitigated the situation.