We advocate five key elements of in a strategy for making conflict management a core competency
in any organisation:
- developing conflict literacy
- measuring conflict styles
- building conflict management skills
- involving top management
- using conflict-focused team building and intervention.
These elements can be applied in a flexible manner, so that they can be adapted to the special conditions and needs of a given organization. Organizations can focus these elements on issues that have a special priority for them, such as innovation, retention, and productivity. They can introduce them in ways that fit their culture and overall strategy. They can also combine them with other training and team-building initiatives that are already under way. However they are introduced, these elements provide powerful concepts, skills, data, personal and group insights, and constructive norms that can make conflict management a strategic advantage for an organization—with resulting
improvements in productivity, decision making, and retention.