Conflict that occurs in society can be resolved leaving the two parties involved with closure of the problem. Most conflict can be managed instead of resolved completely. Not only can conflict be managed or resolved but also there are identified ways of responding to the nature of conflict. Thomas (1979, 90) states that there are five styles that you can be faced with when confronted with conflict. These are avoidance, compromise, competition, accommodation and collaboration. .
Avoiding conflicts and hoping that they will "go away" is one of the five styles listed by Thomas. This encompasses putting problems under consideration or on hold, invoking slow procedures to stifle the conflict and the use of secrecy to avoid confrontation. Compromise is the use of negotiation or the looking for deals and or trade offs and finding satisfactory or acceptable solutions. Competition is the creation of win lose situations, the use of rivalry, the use of power play to get ones ends and the forcing of submission. Accommodation is giving way or submission and compliance. The last of Thomas styles is collaboration, which is a problem-solving stance. It includes confronting differences and sharing ideas and information, search for integrative solutions, finding situations where all can win and seeing problems and conflicts as challenging. .
Any of these styles may be adhered to and acknowledged at the appropriate time. Each of these styles could be used as appropriate to the situation. These can all have both positive and negative effects depending on the situation. We may choose to avoid the conflict with a partner if we feel that the relationship should be maintained and is more important than the conflict at hand. We may even adopt a more competitive style if a decision is to be made quickly and the goal is more important than the relationship. Most conflict theorists write about conclusion according to the situation of conflict.