Conflict Management Strategies for the Equal Opportunity Difficult Person in the Sexually Harassing Workplace

Gender influences the types of behavior exhibited and received by individuals in conflict. There is a body of literature that suggests that there are situations in which traditional conflict management strategies will not be effective. These contexts involve interactions with the difficult personality, someone for whom the rules of rational conduct do not apply. These dysfunctional individuals maintain constant, difficult patterns of behavior during conflict and can disrupt the workplace. The purpose of this article is to examine the behavior of sexually harassing individuals in the workforce as they exhibit characteristics of the difficult personality and to provide appropriate recommendations for the implementation of effective conflict management strategies for coping with these individuals.