ZEZ Company is in the business of designing and printing bottle labels for soft drinks distributors. The company is, at present, facing very difficult times as recessionary economic conditions have had a negative impact on the demand for its customers' products, which in turn is having a knock-on effect on the demand for ZEZ Company's labels.  As a result, the senior management team has been investigating how the company can become more efficient to make sure its future survival. 

Discuss the different conflict handling strategies that could be used in managing the conflict in ZEZ Company.

There are a number of dissimilar ways of handling conflict. A useful way of determining the alternative approaches has been developed by Thomas who identified five conflict handling strategies based on two conflict management dimensions. These having of the degree of assertiveness in pursuit of one's interests and the level of cooperation in attempting to justify others' interests. The strengths of each of these in a particular situation can be regarded as lying along two continuums respectively:

The five identified strategies are:

Avoidance

Accommodation

Compromise

Competition

Collaboration