Resolution of Team Divergence: Conflict Resolution Strategies

Accommodating

Accommodating seeks to find out what the other person wants and gives it to them. It ignores your own needs and wants to preserve the peace and positive interactions. It seeks to place the needs of another ahead of your own convenience. As an example, a Thai buyer for his company, at the request of a supplier, purchased more of the product than needed during a difficult time for the supplier. While the buyer did not need the extra supplies, he recognized that it helped his supplier maintain his level of orders in a difficult time. It helped build trust between the two for future interactions (Hall, 2005).

Accommodating believes that all success cannot be measured in the profit and loss statement. It seeks to build relationships of trust and cooperation. However, accommodation can be problematic if one person continually insists on another team member accommodating his every need. If this is the case, the person who is constantly accommodating may come to resent the demanding individual.

On a GV team, a team member may offer to take over a part of the project if a deadline falls on a religious holiday of an international team member. The team members seek to accommodate what is happening in the other members' culture and adjusts that assignment schedule to fit those needs. It may also occur if one part of the team feels it is subservient (or superior) to another and insists that the other part of the team accommodates all of its needs.