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IAI Actuarial Core Principles · Business Management · Using data, company functions, people skills, influence and clear communication

In a Bengaluru reinsurer, two actuaries, Karthik and Neha, disagree strongly on a lapse assumption. Each insists on their own figure and the project is stalling. Their manager wants a lasting solution that meets the underlying concerns of both. Which conflict-handling approach, in the Thomas-Kilmann sense, does this describe?

The approach is collaborating: both parties work together to find a solution that meets each one's underlying concerns, for instance by testing both lapse assumptions against data. Compromising only splits the difference, and competing, accommodating or avoiding either impose a winner or leave the issue unresolved.

  1. ACollaborating, working jointly to find a solution satisfying both parties' concernsCorrect
  2. BAvoiding, postponing the discussion indefinitely
  3. CAccommodating, asking Neha to give in to preserve harmony
  4. DCompeting, the manager imposing a decision by authority
  5. Compromising, splitting the difference with neither side satisfied

Explanation

Collaborating seeks a solution that fully addresses both parties' underlying concerns, for example by testing both assumptions against experience data. Compromising gives partial satisfaction to each, while competing and accommodating make one side win. Avoiding leaves the problem unresolved.

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