Managing Conflict, Boosting Performance: Evidence-Based Insights from Business Psychology
By Dr Suhair Mereish.
Conflict management impacts the wellbeing and performance of individuals, teams, and organisations. This highlights the importance of managing conflict at work.
While not all conflict is harmful, as it reveals hidden issues, clarifies expectations, and encourages motivation, managers spend around 20% of their time managing it. Dysfunctional conflict can lead to negative consequences, including heightened scepticism and erosion of trust.
Conflict is often perceived as differences in views across individuals and teams, which may lead to resentment and hostility. Conflict handling focuses on how employees approach conflict and the behaviours they use when they experience it. To address this issue, this article will present the conflict management styles of employees in organisations and provide evidence-based interventions for practitioners to apply when encountering workplace conflict.
Conflict Management Strategies in the Workplace
Conflict resolution focuses on eliminating conflict from the workplace, whereas conflict management aims to balance conflict, promoting productive and constructive conflict.
Conflict management research identifies a wide range of conflict management strategies, yet much of the literature relies on Blake and Mouton’s (1964) dual concern theory. This framework posits that how individuals manage conflict is shaped by the extent to which they have a concern for themselves and a concern for others. These styles are shaped by a combination of personal traits and situational factors. This results in different conflict management strategies, initially developed by Kilmann and Thomas (1974) and later refined by Rahim and Magner (1995) as follows:
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Forcing: Prioritises imposing one’s position on others, and characterises individuals who tend to have a high concern for self and a low concern for others.
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Yielding: Involves accepting others' will, and describes individuals who tend to have a low concern for self and a high concern for others.
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Avoiding: Focuses on suppressing thinking about issues, and reflects individuals who tend to have a low concern for self and others.
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Problem Solving: Is oriented towards reaching an agreement that satisfies both parties, and represents individuals who tend to have a high concern for self and others.
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Compromising: Seeks a middle-ground, and pertains to individuals who tend to have an intermediate concern for self and others.
How Conflict Management Shapes Employee Performance
Employee performance can be understood as the overall value to the organisation of the specific behaviours an individual demonstrates over a given period of time. In the context of workplace conflict, this suggests that performance is reflected in how employees behave when experiencing tense situations. Importantly, behaviour and performance are different from each other: behaviour focuses on the actions of individuals, whilst performance concerns the extent to which those actions contribute to organisational goals.
Research suggests that conflict management styles are positively associated with employee performance. Whilst different conflict management styles may be useful in different situations, the Problem Solving style is widely considered the most effective strategy. By seeking a mutually satisfactory solution that meets the needs of all parties, this approach can strengthen collaboration, preserve working relationships, and support stronger performance outcomes. In contrast, Forcing and Yielding styles are not associated with positive employee performance, and the Avoiding style may undermine performance by negatively influencing working relationships.
Practical Implications for Business Psychology Practitioners
1. Conflict Management Style Awareness Training
Raising employees’ awareness of their own conflict management styles can be an effective way to reduce the escalation of workplace tensions. Training programmes can provide practical guidance on which conflict management strategies are most suitable in different situations, while also incorporating negotiation scenarios, role-plays, and reflective exercises. These initiatives can promote more constructive conflict behaviours by increasing emotional awareness, supporting the early identification of potential conflicts, and helping employees work towards more effective, mutually beneficial solutions.
2. Conflict Coaching
Conflict coaching is another valuable intervention that organisations can offer to help employees strengthen their conflict-handling skills and de-escalate tension. Typically involving one coach and one coachee, the process relies on the client's active participation and offers exceptional and individualised support by attending solely to the agenda of the client. By focusing closely on the coachee’s experience, the coach can help them reflect on the conflict, consider alternative perspectives, and recognise that the other party may have a different but equally important interpretation of the situation.
Essentially, conflict coaching does not necessitate a direct confrontation between the coachee and adversary, making it particularly useful for employees who may not yet feel ready to engage in a joint resolution process. As such, this intervention helps employees develop problem-solving, constructive communication, and decision-making skills.
Conclusion
Conflict is a common feature of organisational life, and managing it effectively is critical to both employee performance and organisational effectiveness. Employees may adopt different conflict management styles, including Forcing, Yielding, Avoiding, Problem Solving, and Compromising. Research suggests that these styles have positive relationships with employee performance, with Problem Solving often emerging as the most constructive approach.
In order to bridge the gap between theory and practice, this article has proposed evidence-based interventions, including conflict management awareness training and conflict coaching. Ultimately, when managed effectively, conflict can become a catalyst for healthier relationships, improved performance, and organisational growth.
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About the Author
Dr. Suhair Mereish is a Senior Lecturer in Organisational Psychology at the University of Westminster and a fellow of the Higher Education Academy in London, UK. Her research explores individual differences, social identity, and national culture with a focus on Jordan’s collectivist society. In addition to her academic work, she brings industry experience as a Recruitment Officer in a telecommunications company in Jordan, and volunteers with the North London Mental Health Trust (NLFT), supporting trauma-informed projects. Suhair Mereish is also an award recipient from the International Conference on Organisational Psychology in New York.
References
De Dreu, C. K., Evers, A., Beersma, B., Kluwer, E. S., & Nauta, A. (2001). A theory‐based measure of conflict management strategies in the workplace. Journal of Organizational Behavior: The International Journal of Industrial, Occupational and Organizational Psychology and Behavior, 22(6), 645-668.
Herrmann, J. (2012). A comparison of conflict coaching and mediation as conflict resolution processes in the workplace. Australasian Dispute Resolution Journal, 23, 43-51.
Mereish, S. (2020). Investigating how individual differences in organisations are associated with employee performance, job satisfaction and climate for innovation: A Quantitative Study in Jordan’s Middle Eastern Context (Doctoral dissertation, University of Westminster).
Rahim, M. A., & Magner, N. R. (1995). Confirmatory factor analysis of the styles of handling interpersonal conflict: first-order factor model and its invariance across groups. Journal of applied psychology, 80(1), 122-132.
Thomas, K. W., & Kilmann, R. H. (1974). Thomas-Kilmann conflict mode instrument. Xicom.