Veronica Phillips 

Conflict Management Styles : The Aggie Honor Code 

March 6th, 2016 

There are many conflicts that affect our generation and the decisions that we make in our everyday lives but when being a student at Texas A&M University, the Aggie Honor Code is a decision that can affect who you are and become a conflict with those surrounding you. The Aggie Honor Code is a conscious decision students make to respect it and not lie, cheat, or steal, and tolerate those who do, or to disobey it at any given time. There have been several students that I know personally who have disobeyed the Aggie Honor Code and this decision has become a major conflict within our relationship. When beginning to learn that some of my close friends disobeyed the Aggie Honor Code, I resolved the conflict by using the avoiding style.  The conflict management avoiding style is shown that, “avoiding style results in a lose-lose outcome because both parties refrain from communicating their needs, so neither has any needs met”. I chose to use this conflict style because I believed if I avoided the situation it would not affect me and would show my friends that I did not condone in in their actions. As time progressed, I noticed how them disobeying the Aggie Honor Code begin to affect our friendship with the everyday decisions they made that involved lying, cheating, and tolerating those who do. This became a known conflict within our friendship that needed to be discussed and resolved. When discussing this conflict we had, I begin by using the Competing Style/Contending. I used this style because I believed if I explained and expressed my sympathy, it would get my friend to understand that disobeying the Aggie Honor Code is affecting our friendship. As time progressed in our discussion, we decided to resolve the conflict by not being friends anymore and not letting the decisions we make that we do not agree upon affect us individually. Although there may be various opinions regarding the Aggie Honor Code, it is a decision that can affect you, your life, and those surrounding you when not obeying it.

Ctation: Antonioni, David (1998),"RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE BIG FIVE PERSONALITY FACTORS AND CONFLICT MANAGEMENT STYLES", International Journal of Conflict Management, Vol. 9 Iss 4 pp. 336 - 355