Conflict within teams is now expected as a regular part of organizational life (Bolman & Deal, 2021; Rahim, 2023). Conflict is “an interactive process manifested in disagreement, incompatibility, or dissension within or between social entities” (Rahim, 2023, p. 215). It may be intra- or inter-personal, or within or between groups.

Additionally, conflict is substantive, affective, process, transforming, or masquerading (Rahim, 2023). Substantive conflict concerns opinions, issues, or ideas and is engaged with evidence, reason, logic, and creative thinking. Affective conflict involves emotions and feelings and manifests through criticism or personal attacks that create cynicism, hostility, and mistrust. Process conflict entails disagreements over who, what, when, and how tasks might be completed. Transforming conflict begins as substantive conflict but devolve into affective conflict involving emotions. Masquerading conflict is emotional or affective conflict shrouded as substantive ones. These conflict types are most important for research in teams and organizations. Moderate, Substantive conflicts involving nonroutine tasks or ideas can be beneficial for teams, while the others may be detrimental to team success and minimized (Rahim, 2023).

Adaption-Innovation theory (Kirton, 2011) suggests that when one person asks others to create a solution to one problem—Problem A—other problems occur—Problem Bs—involving how best to work together. Problem Bs include any additional problems that distract the group from addressing Problem A, including substantive-affective conflicts mentioned previously and the management of problem-solving styles within the team. A continuum of problem-solving style arrays from strongly adaptive to strongly innovative (Kirton, 2011). Adaptive problem-solvers prefer working within existing structures to be creative and solve problems. Innovative problem-solvers prefer working on the fringe to be creative and solve problems. Significant differences in style cause difficulty with communication, trust, and working together.

Rahim (2023) identified five styles of addressing inter-personal conflict, based on an array with two dimensions: concern for self and concern for others. The Integrating style involves a high concern for both self and others; it employs cooperation in a win-win environment. The Obliging style involves playing down differences and focusing on commonalities with a high concern for others, low concern for self. The Dominating style maintains a high-low concern for self and others in a competitive, win-lose atmosphere. The Avoiding style combines a low concern for both self and others to sidestep, postpone, or withdraw from conflict. Finally, the Compromising style has an intermediate concern for self and others where parties each agree to give something up to make a mutually acceptable result.

This interactive presentation compares conflict management styles with problem-solving styles providing examples of each. Additionally, both styles will be analyzed to show similarities and differences and to suggest how both styles might interact with one another. At this stage, it may be suggested that individuals engage in any conflict management style either more adaptively or more innovatively. Alternatively, examination may suggest that some conflict management styles correlate with one problem-solving style. Thus, this poster represents a preliminary, conceptual investigation of styles operating within groups and teams, one that warrants further empirical research.