We all experience conflicts in our lives, whether at home or at work or even in a social scene. Your ability to deal with conflicts well will determine your ability to live well and be happy. Kraybill Conflict Style will give you practical guidelines of how to respond to conflicts amicably.
Krabill conflict style was invented in the 1980s by Dr. Ronald S. Kraybill. It identifies five styles of handling conflict. These styles are; directing, harmonizing, avoiding, compromising and cooperating.
Directing style (I win, you lose): This style focuses on its own agenda. The directors will persuade, demand, insist and even command other people to follow their way regardless of how they feel. They are more focused on achieving their objectives and agenda. The advantage of this style is decisiveness and speed. However, misuse of this style will bring resentment, lack of cooperation, mistrust, and inequality.
Cooperating style (I win, you win): The cooperators have a high focus on the relationships and also on their own agenda. Therefore, they engage and negotiate to achieve a win-win situation. The cooperators aim to develop collaboration, goodwill, trust, creativity and even personal growth. Consequently, this style can bring immense satisfaction to all people involved. However, this style can lead to fatigue and time loss due to analysis paralysis.
Harmonizing style (I lose, you win): This style focuses on relationships. The harmonizers regard relationships very highly and will sacrifice their objectives for the sake of unity. They find affinity in acceptance and approval of others. They are easy going and always create a pleasant atmosphere around them. The disadvantage of this style is that it can create frustrations, resentment and even depression because of pent up emotions.
Avoiding style (I lose, you lose): This style has a low focus on both relationships and own agenda. In this, people tend to withdraw, suppress emotions and even avoid responding. This style is good when you want to avoid being entangled in trivial issues. Nevertheless, misuse of this style can lead to explosive situations because of pent up anger.
Compromising style (I win some, you win some): In this style, there is a medium focus on own agenda and on the relationship. Compromisers support moderation and bargain; they emphasize on fairness and understanding. Thus, they build a sense of cooperation between people. However, this style can lead to unprincipled agreements, mediocrity and also blandness.
Kraybill Conflict Style emphasizes on knowledge of your own style and the style of the other party. In this way, you will be able to solve conflicts successfully.
