Your company is downsizing. If you advocate a plan to lay off ...

[shenderson6]

Your company is downsizing. If you advocate a plan to lay off employees equally from each department (10 percent from marketing, 10 percent from production, etc.), which response to conflict are you using?
 
  A) Forcing
  B) Accommodating
  C) Avoiding
  D) Compromising
  E) Collaborating

Question 2

Participants become conditioned to seek expedient, rather than effective, solutions. You are probably using which approach to resolve conflict?
 
  A) Forcing
  B) Avoiding
  C) Compromising
  D) Accommodating
  E) Collaborating

[mohan]

Answer to Question 1

Answer: D
Explanation: A) Incorrect. The forcing approach is an attempt to satisfy one's own needs at the expense of others. In this case it would be an attempt to make others accept the majority of the layoffs.
B) Incorrect. The accommodating approach satisfies the other party's concerns while neglecting one's own. It emphasizes preserving a friendly relationship at the expense of critically appraising issues.
C) Incorrect. Avoiding is used when both the issue and the relationship are unimportant. It sidesteps the conflict and avoids a solution. In this case it would be failing to make the layoffs because you don't want to address the difficult issue.
D) Correct. The compromising response is intermediate between assertiveness and cooperativeness. It is an attempt to obtain partial satisfaction for all partieseach is asked to make sacrifices to obtain a common gain.
E) Incorrect. The collaborating approach is an attempt to address fully the concerns of all relevant parties. This should be implemented when both the issue and relationship are important because it is the only win-win strategy.

Answer to Question 2

Answer: C
Explanation: A) Incorrect. The forcing approach is an attempt to satisfy one's own needs at the expense of others. It is used when the other party is uncooperative and is not seeking a solution.
B) Incorrect. Avoiding is used when both the issue and the relationship are unimportant. It sidesteps the conflict and avoids any solution, let alone an effective one. In the long term, it causes frustration for others because problems never seem to be resolved.
C) Correct. The compromising response is intermediate between assertiveness and cooperativeness. It is an attempt to obtain partial satisfaction for both parties; both are asked to make sacrifices to obtain a common gain. It is often the fastest way to a solution.
D) Incorrect. The accommodating approach satisfies the other party's concerns while neglecting one's own. It emphasizes preserving a friendly relationship at the expense of critically appraising issues.
E) Incorrect. The collaborating approach is an attempt to address fully the concerns of both parties. This should be implemented when both the issue and relationship are important because it is the only win-win strategy.