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Conflict in groups has been broken into several types. Three types of group conflict are known as substantive, procedural and affective conflict. Shubb (1999) defines these types of group conflict. Substantive conflict can be a result of differences over procedures, ideas/opinions, or reasoning processes. Engaging in substantive conflict increases the productivity of a group. Ideas are tested, and evaluated on their merits, using evidence, logic and reasoning in this process. Affective conflict is due to issues of: fairness, dissatisfaction of social needs (such as needs for inclusion, control & affection), emotional states, and/ or perceptions. Procedural conflict is characterized by disagreement over a course of action that should be taken to reach a goal. These different types of conflict are categorized by the situation in which they occur. Another way to examine conflict is by the style in which the individual team member deals with the conflict. .
According to Lloyd (1996), there are five styles of conflict: avoidance, accommodation, competition, compromise and collaboration. Avoidance is a means of dealing with conflict in which the individual withdraws from the conflict. This can be done subtly by merely doing nothing or obviously, by leaving the location of the conflict. Accommodation is when the individual gives in, in order to minimize the conflict. Both avoidance and accommodation are styles of dealing with conflict where little headway can be made towards that individual's goal. Competition is an extreme approach to conflict. This is where an attempt is made to dominate the outcome of the conflict. In this style, only one participant in the conflict can be the winner. The other team members are left with the possibility of being a loser. Compromise is a conflict style that seeks to find the middle ground. This approach requires that all participants in the conflict give up a little of what they wanted.
