Guest Blogger—The Underlying Relationship Between the TKI and the MBTI® Assessments
posted by rkilmann
As the co-author of the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument (TKI), here is the ninth of my ongoing series of blog entries for CPP ICON Success.
Many years ago (1975), I published a research study with Ken Thomas that correlated the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®) assessment with the TKI assessment. We wanted to know if certain enduring personality traits would predispose people to use certain conflict-handling modes more than others.
We found that people who are extraverted are more likely to use collaborating, while people who are introverted are more inclined to use avoiding (as a statistically significant correlation, not as a one-to-one relationship). It seems that collaborating requires a little extra energy in interacting with others (sharing ideas and discussing concerns), while avoiding naturally involves an element of shyness or aloofness in an interpersonal situation.
In addition, we found that the thinking preference is related to competing, while the feeling function is related to accommodating (again, as a statistically significant correlation). Perhaps the thinking preference allows a person to keep an emotional distance from the other person: to pursue his own needs at the expense of the other. Meanwhile, the feeling person’s empathy for the other person might compel her to satisfy the other’s needs more than her own.
For decades, I’ve been making use of both assessments in training and consulting projects, so people can become more aware of their proclivities for using certain conflict modes too much and others too little-based on their MBTI preferences. With that awareness, people can then consciously compensate with their conflict-handling behavior. For example, an introvert can knowingly put out some extra effort in order to engage another in a collaborative discussion (when the necessary conditions for collaborating are evident). Similarly, a person who prefers feeling can knowingly assert her needs (when competing is called for) when her natural tendency would be to automatically accommodate the other person’s needs.
For the original article that reported the correlations between the MBTI and TKI assessments, including a figure that visually summarizes their relationships, go to http://kilmanndiagnostics.com/interpersonal.html.
Please note: If you or your clients are interested in receiving advanced training for the TKI tool and conflict management (which also makes extensive use of the MBTI and psychological types), Kilmann Diagnostics offers an eight-hour, live, online course to do just that. You can get more information about this online course by visiting http://kilmanndiagnostics.com.
