Dealing with Conflicts in Social Work – A Discussion on Thomas-Kilmann Model Applicability in Social Work

Dealing with conflicts is not one of the major discussions of social work practice and theory, although, as argued in this article, the purpose of social work is to operate with conflicts. Generally, conflicts can occur in diverse situations such as at the individual level, with service users and other professional partners, or when working with groups and communities, and even at the social level with state institutions. Taking into consideration the complexity of concept, this article provides a typology of conflicts within profession and also discusses a potential theoretical model of intervention when approaching conflicts within social work. Thomas-Kilmann Model/ Instrument (TKI) has been extensively used in the last few decades within social sciences as a veritable tool on how to deal with conflictual situations, but not used in social work. Therefore, the paper serves as an initial discussion for further empirical studies and theoretical considerations.


Keywords: conflicts, social work conflicts, Thomas-Kilmann Model