Conflict Management Technique in Private Commercial Banks of Bangladesh: An Application of Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Handling Model

In the current business environment employees in the banking sector face multitude challenges and obstacles in their daily jobs. These threats offer unique challenges for the management to manage their organizations well. The challenges that take place in banking organization will affect the employees in one way or another. As such, employees might be faced with conflict due to challenges such as differing needs, beliefs, values and goals among group members in the organization. The purpose of this study is to determine the conflict management strategies adopted by private commercial banks in Bangladesh through the application of Thomas-Kilmann’s conflict handling model. Conflict is a common occurrence in organizations. Conflict occurs for various reasons in banking sector. The managers must be able to understand why and when conflict arises and in what situation conflict frequently occurs.  Employees have different perspective for choosing different conflict management strategies. Descriptive research design was used in the study. Data were collected from 50 respondents from 5 private commercial banks in Bangladesh. Questionnaire was used as main data collection instruments. The data collected from the field were analyzed using descriptive statistical techniques such as percentages and frequencies. The findings of the study suggested that the private commercial banks in Bangladesh use all the five conflict management strategies of Thomas-Kilmann model such as avoiding, competing, accommodating, compromising and collaborating. But the strategy that was most frequently used is collaborating strategy. Collaborating in conflict management means trying to find the best solution for all parties involved. When several parties collaborate to resolve a conflict, they openly express their concerns and work to find a mutually beneficial solution. Collaboration leads to creative problem-solving and respect amongst coworkers in an organization. This style finds the root of a problem, such as personal conflicts, and attends to the situation in the least confrontational manner of any conflict-management style. But in other hand collaborative efforts tend to take the most time compared to other conflict resolution styles as in this style both parties try to solve their problem. As banking sector of Bangladesh is highly competitive, the employees may focus on long term relationship while resolve conflict. Recommendation also made focusing on management as well as employee role for effective conflict handling. collaborative workplace culture and responsive management can play very crucial role in this regard. Keywords: Conflict management, collaborating, compromising, avoiding, accommodating and competing. JEL Codes: M1