Thus, Bruce's desire to leave the company was a surprise. Lastly, there was a failure to adequately communicate David's firing quickly. By waiting, Kalinsky opened the situation up to Bruce's interference, which in turn only made the situation worse. Each of these four communication problems contributed to the situation that Kalinsky faced, with two investors seeking to leave the company, including one he did not envision leaving. Many of the conflict styles used in this case by Kalinsky met with failure. His avoidance of the conflict with David only served to make the problem worse. It festered, and resulted in bad blood between the two. Moreover, it compromised Kalinsky's ability to oversee his company's operations, nearly costing him the firm's biggest client. This initial conflict could potentially have been resolved through collaboration. The needs of all three men could have been discussed. This would have provided Kalinsky with a framework for getting the needed results out of David. It is only that he allowed David a high degree of autonomy that the latter developed a sense of entitlement to that autonomy.

The accommodation style also failed. Kalinsky had attempted to allow David to run things his own way, in part to accommodate a perceived need of Bruce. Ultimately, this backfired since Kalinsky did not address his own needs. The accommodation phase ended when Kalinsky attempted to...

Forcing would have been the ideal method of conflict resolution had Kalinsky utilized that method a few years previous, when he still held a significant amount of formal and informal authority over David. By the time Kalinsky tried to force David, the power relationship between the two had changed; Kalinsky should have moved towards compromise at this point.
In the end, the compromise tactic was the most effective. However, it should not have come to compromise. Kalinsky should have used force as his mechanism for resolving the conflict during the conflict's early stages. Kalinsky was weakened at the time, however, by events in his personal life and by the distraction of the IRS audit. As a result, the conflict went through several more stages, all of which were needless.

Works Cited:

Williams, S. (n.d.). Conflict management -- Style and strategy. Leader Letter. Retrieved November 29, 2009 from http://www.wright.edu/~scott.williams/LeaderLetter/conflict.htm

No author. (2009). Negotiation types. Negotiations.com. Retrieved November 29, 2009 from http://www.negotiations.com/articles/negotiation-types/

Green, M. (n.d.). Choosing a conflict management style. Ohio Commission on Dispute Resolution and Conflict Management. Retrieved November 29, 2009 from http://disputeresolution.ohio.gov/schools/contentpages/styles.htm