Whenever people interact, there must be conflict simply because different individuals naturally have different beliefs, hopes and expectations about any given subject. For years, several conflict style assessments have been in existence. Better known as TKI, the Thomas Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument is one of the most popular among them.
Ease of Use
It is more than four decades since the TKI was first introduced in the market. One of its main strengths is the easy way of using it. In addition, the time taken to achieve results is short.
You don’t need any particular knowledge or skill in order to administer the TKI. Moreover, the questions are answered in just a quarter of an hour while interpretation takes not more than one hour. The instrument comes in English, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese, Danish and French with more than 7 million copies having been published since inception. Therefore, it is widely used all over the world by Organizational Development and Human Resource specialists to enable discussions on issues that trouble respondents. It is also used to help them know the effects of modes for handling conflicts on forces governing individuals, groups, and organizations.
How TKI Works
The purpose of the instrument is to gauge the behavior of an individual in a state of conflict. This means a situation whereby two people have opposing interests. The TKI uses a couple of dimensions. Cooperativeness measure the effort made by an individual to fulfill the concerns of the other person. On the other hand, assertiveness measures how determined an individual is in satisfying personal concerns.
There are five different conflict styles identified by the two dimensions. In competing, the individual does everything to find a personal position without caring about any cost to others. On the other hand, an accommodating individual sacrifices personal concerns for others. When avoiding, however, the individual neither pursue personal interests nor that of the other person.
A collaborative person tries to work with others towards getting to a common solution. When compromising, the aim is to find a solution that is acceptable to both sides but only gives partial satisfaction. This means that individuals are a little more than competing but less than accommodating. In addition, they don’t try to avoid the issues but do not work as hard in attempting to find a solution as collaborative individuals.
Conclusion
The five modes for handling of conflicts can be used by anyone. While no one uses only one style of coping with a conflict situation, some people have favorite modes on which they have heavier reliance. The reaction towards conflict is mainly a result of individuals’ personal tendencies and the needs of the situation.
