How to Answer the Question “How Do You Manage Conflict At Work?” in a Job Interview

7 min readJun 9, 2022

One question that is frequently asked in job interviews is “how do you manage conflict at work?” Read our guide for top tips on how to prepare a flawless response to this question.

What is Workplace Conflict?

Workplace conflict occurs when disagreements arise between colleagues. These disagreements may be caused by opposing ideas, interests, or beliefs. Workplace conflict can take many forms, including

A single disagreement or argument
Chronic difficult relationships
Personality clashes
Verbal abuse
Harassment
Bullying
Discrimination

There are many reasons why a conflict may arise in the workplace, such as disagreements about leadership style, poor coordination between groups/individuals, conflicting work styles and cultural differences.

Why Do Interviewers Ask About Workplace Conflict?

“The quality of our lives depends not on whether or not we have conflicts, but on how we respond to them.” — Thomas Crum

Most professionals will encounter conflict at some point in their working lives. While workplace conflict can be unpleasant and stressful to deal with, it offers a major learning opportunity and is a good test of interpersonal skills. As such, how a candidate answers the question “how do you manage conflict at work” can reveal a lot of useful information about their skills and personality.

From a positive standpoint, the candidate’s response could indicate strong skills in communication and conflict resolution, empathy, a willingness to compromise and level-headedness. Conversely, their answer may also reveal weak communication and interpersonal skills, egotism, poor emotional regulation, and general unprofessionalism. These are valuable insights that allow the interviewer to assess how well the candidate would fit within their team and the wider company culture.

Alternative Phrasings

How do you handle conflict? Give me an example.
Tell me about a time you dealt with a difficult co-worker.
Give me an example of a time when you disagreed with your boss.
How do you deal with differences of opinion when working on a team?
Was there ever a time when you disagreed with a rule, policy or approach and how you handled it.
Tell me about a time you had to respond to an unhappy customer or client

How Do You Manage Workplace Conflict? | An Example of A Behavioural Interview Question

“Behavioral interviewing is a job interviewing technique where candidates are asked to describe past performance and behaviour to determine whether they are suitable for a position. Behavioural-based interviewing provides a more objective set of facts to make employment decisions compared to other interviewing methods.” ~ University of Missouri-Kansas City

“How do you manage conflict at work?” is an example of a behavioural job interview question. This questioning style is based on the concept that past behaviour is the best predictor of future behaviour. Behavioural interviews involve asking the candidate to talk about their past experiences in order to demonstrate their abilities. Behavioural questions are easily recognisable because they follow a similar same format and typically start with “Tell me about a time…” or “Give me an example of…”

Using the CAR Technique to Answer the Question “How Do You Manage Conflict at Work?”

The golden rule when you’re answering behavioural interview questions is to adhere to the CAR Principle: Context, Action, Result. Remember these three steps and you’ll be well on your way to thoroughly impressing your interviewer:

Context: Describe the workplace issue briefly and set the scene for a relevant example.
Action: Explain the actions you took to address the conflict. Be specific and outline your steps and rationale.
Result: Detail the outcome of your action. Offer specific facts relating to the positive outcome of your actions e.g. figures, statistics, quotes etc.

How to Select an Example of Workplace Conflict to Talk About

As part of your interview preparation, you will need to brainstorm an example of workplace conflict. Ideally, your chosen example should have a positive outcome that came about as a direct result of the actions you took. What’s more, your chosen story should also highlight a key learning moment for you in your career.

8 Points to Highlight in Your Answer

Illustrate that you can stay calm in a stressful situation.
Assure your interviewer that you are a good listener who strives to understand the other party’s opposing viewpoint without getting upset.
Show them that you think logically and are willing to compromise when needed.
Highlight that you keep the organisation’s best interests in mind.
Showcase your discretion by mentioning how the conflict resolution took place in a private space.
Demonstrate that you can be accountable for yourself and accept responsibility when appropriate. Don’t be afraid to admit that you were in the wrong, if that’s what happened.
Show that you have learned from the incident and put it behind you.
Show that in spite of your disagreement, you still respect the other party and don’t hold a grudge with them over the conflict.

What Not to Say When Answering “How Do You Manage Workplace Conflict?”

Don’t dodge the question by saying that you have never experienced a work conflict because you get along with everyone.
Similarly, don’t evade the question by giving a vague or general answer.
Don’t mention that you don’t handle conflict well.
Avoid using emotional or negative language as this may make you seem unreasonable or difficult to work with.
Don’t blame others or bash past colleagues or bosses.
Don’t spend too much time talking about the conflict, at the expense of explaining the resolution.
Don’t become confrontational when the interview asks follow-up questions.
Don’t waste time describing unnecessary details.

Sample Answers to the Question “How Do You Manage Conflict at Work?”

“How do you manage conflict at work?”

Based on my professional experience, I think I handle conflict well. I feel conflict arises naturally when people care about their work and have strong opinions about how best to get it done. I admit that in the past, I have become defensive when trying to express my opinion.

These situations can be stressful, so I also need to pay careful attention to my feelings and behaviour. If I find that things are getting intense, I use calming tactics such as mindful breathing and meditation to reflect on the issue and readjust my attitude. This helps me to actively listen to the other person and better understand their point of view without becoming defensive or confrontational.

When I have a conflict at work, my main priority is to find a resolution that is mutually beneficial for everyone involved. In order to achieve this, I need to stay calm and engage in a meaningful dialogue with the other person.

“Tell me about a time you dealt with a difficult co-worker.”

In one of my previous roles, I had a colleague who never finished her work on time. Given the fast-paced nature of the work, this led to backlogs and delays. I often found myself picking up the slack and working harder and later to cover for her. This carried on for about two months and I realised that my co-worker would never change her ways if I kept covering for her.

So, I booked a meeting room so we could discreetly hash out the issue and find solutions. It eventually became clear that she was agreeing to more work than her job description had actually specified. In order to resolve this, we agreed that she needed to have a frank discussion with her line manager in order to clarify expectations.

In the end, her manager agreed to reassign some of her workload to more relevant people. This really helped to alleviate pressure on me, my colleague and our team and we no longer struggled to meet deadlines.

“Tell me about a time you disagreed with your boss.”

When preparing a report about the performance of past projects, my manager asked me to delete data about unsuccessful projects. I was reluctant to do this because I knew that omitting this information would skew the report. I expressed my concerns to my manager, but he insisted that I proceed with removing the data.

After careful consideration, I decided that the best course of action would be to escalate my concerns to the next level of management. They sided with my manager and supported his decision to remove the data.

So, I did as I was told and removed the data. However, I added a line to the report saying that the featured data only represented successful projects. Throughout the incident, I made sure to document the situation with a digital paper trail and to document the situation, in case of a future investigation.

While I understood my manager’s thinking, I was not willing to completely go back on my values. I feel that the actions I took offered an appropriate compromise. As a result of these performance reports, my team did eventually receive a greater budget for future projects.

“How do you deal with differences of opinion when working on a team?”

In my last job, I worked as part of a team to prepare a presentation for a new client. There was a disagreement within the team about how best to approach this task. Some people wanted to hold daily meetings, whereas the others, including myself, thought there was no need for this because we had a log in which we could easily report and track our progress. I felt that the other approach would take up too much valuable time.

Rather than get into an argument, we all got together so everyone got a chance to explain their reasoning for their side. Eventually, we reached a comprise and decided to hold a short daily meeting of no more than ten minutes so all team members could keep up to date with how the presentation was progressing.