The Style Matters Conflict Style Inventory - Take Two

Help people working in challenging circumstances optimize their responses to conflict 

Stress and tension are through the roof right now, and many HR managers and organizational trainers are looking for tools to help their clients cope. A conflict style inventory is a cost-effective tool for this.  Users take a short test and get a report they can use for self-study or discussion with colleagues. 

There's many options out there - the venerableThomas Kilmann Conflict Mode Inventory (1974), the HRD Dealing with Conflict instrument, the Conflict Dynamics Profile, and more.  All share a common feature: they're old and out of date: 1) They use out-dated frameworks unable to show how stress bends human behaviors and 2) they assume users come from the same cultural background as the authors.  

Style Matters, developed by Dr. Ron Kraybill through decades as a trainer, professor of conflict resolution and Senior Advisor to peace processes for the UN in Africa and Asia, is the only conflict style inventory that reflects up-to-date understanding of stress and cultural diversity.  

So what's your "typical" response to conflict? 
If you're like most people, probably an honest answer would be, "Well, it depends."  When you're calm, you probably respond one way.  When you're upset or anxious, it probably looks a little different.  Or maybe very different.  That's your Storm Shift, and if it's is big, it's critical for self-management to be aware of this.

Everyone doesn't come from the same cultural background.
Are you from a background not in the mainstream white professional culture? If so, odds are there's another reason you might answer, "It depends".   Mainstream American culture says, "In conflict, just deal with the issues." But many cultures think about another question first, who's involved.  You may have been taught from an early age to pay careful attention to status, gender, education, and age in deciding how to respond when differences arise.  

High stress and high human diversity are reality for most people.  
Learning tools should be informed by the realities of the people who use them.  Style Matters is the only conflict style inventory that brings up-to-date understandings of stress and diversity into the conversation. 
1) Style Matters is based on research of the last 30 years revealing the vast impact of stress on behavior.   Back in the 1970s, when most other inventories were developed, authors had no awareness of the impact of stress.   Style Matters helps users assess how their behaviors vary from Calm and Storm and offers guidance on what to do about this.
2) Style Matters gives users options that recognize the reality of cultural diversity, making it effective as a learning tool for people from a variety of cultural backgrounds

What is Style Matters?

Style Matters is an online and in-print tool to facilitate self-assessment and conversation among partners and teams about communicating in times of difficulty.  Users need about 15 minutes to answer twenty questions and then reserve an eight page score report with a detailed summary of their personal patterns.   The report highlights personal strengths, raises cautions regarding the limitations of the user's preferences, and offers specific, detailed suggestions for optimizing their responses.  A special section of the report is addressed to team members or partners of the users, inviting users to engage others around them in conversation about how to handle difficult moments,   

The score report contains links to free resources on the Style Matters website, making it easy for users to gain additional information online.

Style Matters was developed by Dr. Ron Kraybill, a professor of conflict resolution and facilitator of peace processes for the UN and other agencies in Europe, Africa, and Asia.  As a young conflict resolution trainer in the 1980s, Kraybill was impressed by the usefulness of the Thomas Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument, a product of the 1970s, in enabling learners to quickly assess and optimize their patterns in conflict.   

However Kraybill saw that a percentage of users found the TKI intensely frustrating.  "I wouldn't choose either of these options!" was a complaint often raised, especially by people from backgrounds outside the American mainstream.  Living and working abroad for much of the period 1989-2015, Kraybill spent twenty years devising and refining an alternative. 

Who uses Style Matters?

Human Resources departments in business and organizations.

Organizational consultants.

Government agencies, including units of the US military and US State Department.

Religious groups and seminaries where religious leaders are trained.

Conflict resolution professors and trainers.

Mediators.

Couples in domestic partnerships.

Is Style Matters Psychometrically Validated?

Yes, twice! Once in a 2005 doctoral study by Jean Chronis Kuhn, at Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions.  In 2009-2010 researchers in the Communications Department at West Chester University of Pennsylvania did validation and reliability testing with 300 subjects, the results of which were incorporated into the present version of Style Matters.  Findings were published in a peer-reviewed essay by M.E. Braz, B. Lawton, R. Kraybill, & K. Daly, K., "Validation of the Kraybill Conflict Style Inventory," submitted to the 2010 Annual Convention of the National Communication Association, San Fransisco, CA. A related essay by Mary Braz and Bessie Lawton, "Kraybill Conflict Style Inventory Validation" was published in the Humanities and Science University Journal, 2, 2012, pages 9-24.

Riverhouse ePress actively supports objective scholarly research into conflict styles by providing access to Style Matters at no cost to serious academic research projects, while maintaining a policy of complete objectivity regarding findings.