Conflict Style Inventory

A Conflict Style Inventory is a tool developed to measure an individual's response to conflict situations.

A number of conflict style inventories have been in active use since the 1960s. Most of them are based on the managerial grid developed by Robert R. Blake and Jane Mouton in their Managerial Grid Model. The Blake and Mouton model uses two axis. "Concern for people" is plotted using the vertical axis and "Concern for task" along the horizontal axis. Each axis has a numerical scale of 1 to 9. These axes interact so as to diagram five different styles of management. This grid posits the interaction of task versus relationship and shows that according to how people value these, there are five basic ways of interacting with others.

An early conflict style inventory that was based on this grid was Jay Hall's Conflict Management Survey (Teleometrics International, Inc., The Woodlands, TX, 1973) This instrument never gained widespread use.

Soon thereafter came Kenneth W.Thomas and Ralph H. Kilmann with their Thomas Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument (Tuxedo NY: Xicom, 1974). The TKI, as it is sometimes known, put conflict style inventories "on the map" and according to the publisher's website, there are over five million copies published.

The Thomas Kilmann Conflict Mode instrument uses the Mouton and Blake axes, and identifies five different styles of conflict: Forcing, Avoiding, Accommodating, Collaborating, Compromising.

Strengths: The TKI is quick to administer and interpret. It takes about 15 minutes to answer the questions, and an hour or so for interpretation by a trainer. There are some interpretation materials helping users identify appropriate use of the styles and to help them become more comfortable with styles they are less familiar with. The TKI is also widely known.

Weaknesses: The TKI is a forced choice questionnaire, which some users find frustrating. It assumes that all users have similar cultural background. Some trainers report frustration among users from minority backgrounds or in use outside the United States. Its interpretation materials are not extensive. Finally, it is expensive, $10 per copy in quantities, and $16 per copy in single purchase. http://www.kilmann.com/conflict.html

The Kraybill Conflict Style Inventory was developed by Ron Kraybill, then director of Mennonite Conciliation Service, based in Akron, Pennsylvania in the 1980s. Like the widely-used Thomas Kilmann inventory, it identifies five styles of responding to conflict, calling them Directing, Harmonizing, Avoiding, Cooperating, and Compromising. It takes about 15 minutes to take and one to three hours to interpret.

The KCSI has several features not found in the TKI. One is that it gives users two sets of scores, one for "calm" conditions and one for "storm", recognizing that many people's style shifts under high stress. Some people who are high in Directing behaviors in the beginning of a conflict shift into Avoiding as stress mounts. Others may shift from Avoiding to Directing, etc.

An unusual feature of the KCRI is that it is culturally sensitive. Users are instructed to identify whether they are from an individualistic (eg: white, Anglo North American) or collectivistic (eg: black, Hispanic, indigenous) culture, and are given slightly differing instructions accordingly.

Strengths: Like the TKI, the KCSI is fairly quick to administer and interpret. In addition to the features described above, the KCSI has extensive interpretation pages. These include a "Hot Tips" section with many tips for relating to people who favor each style. It has has two pages of suggestions for group discussion. Questions are multiple choice which many users seem to prefer. And at $3.95 in quantity orders or $6.95 in single purchase, the KCSI is less than half the price of competitors.

Weaknesses: The KCSI is a relative newcomer in its full-fledged form, and is less widely known than the TKI. Since it circulated free in an early version for a decade or more, user quantities are unknown, but its publisher estimates 40,000-80,000 users. It has yet to undergo standardization which would enable users to see how it compares to other users.

The early version of the Kraybill inventory, with minimal interpretation pages can be taken online at no cost at http://peace.mennolink.org/resources/conflictstyle/

The full version is available from http://www.RiverhouseEpress.com