Teams and individuals develop specific styles for dealing with conflict, that are based on the desire to satisfy their own concern or the other’s. Effective team members vary their style of handling conflict to fit a specific situation. Each of these five styles is appropriate in certain cases.

1. The competing style reflects assertiveness to get one’s own way, and should be used when quick, decisive action is vital on important issues or unpopular actions, such as during emergencies or urgent cost cutting.
2. The avoiding style reflects neither assertiveness nor cooperativeness. It is appropriate when an issue is trivial, when there is no chance of winning, when a delay to gather more information is needed, or when a disruption would be costly.
3. The compromising style reflects a moderate amount of both assertiveness and cooperativeness. It is appropriate when the goals on both sides are equally important, when opponents have equal power and both sides want to split the difference, or when people need to arrive at temporary or expedient solutions under time pressure.
4. The accommodating style reflects a high degree of cooperativeness, which works best when people realize that they are wrong, when an issue is more important to others than to myself, when building social credits for use in later discussions, and when maintaining harmony is especially important.
5. The collaborating style reflects both a high degree of assertiveness and cooperativeness. The collaborating style enables both sides to win, although it may require substantial bargaining and negotiation. The collaborating style is important when both sets of concerns are too important to be compromised, when insights from different people need to be merged into an overall solution, and when the commitment of both sides is needed for a consensus.

These styles of handling conflict are especially effective when an individual disagree with others. According to research, it suggests that several techniques can be used as strategies for resolving conflicts among people or organizations.

Reference: New Era of Management