Conflict is a state of discord caused by the actual or perceived opposition of needs, values and interests. A conflict can be internal (within oneself) or external (between two or more individuals). Conflict as a concept can help explain many aspects of social life such as social disagreement, conflicts of interests, and fights between individuals, groups, or organizations. In political terms, "conflict" can refer to wars, revolutions or other struggles, which may involve the use of force as in the term armed conflict. Without proper social arrangement or resolution, conflicts in social settings can result in stress or tensions among stakeholders. When an interpersonal conflict does occur, its effect is often broader than two individuals involved, and can affect many associate individuals and relationships, in more or less adverse, and sometimes even humorous way.

Conflict as taught for graduate and professional work in conflict resolution (which can be win-win, where both parties get what they want, win-lose where one party gets what they want, or lose-lose where both parties don't get what they want) commonly has the definition: "when two or more parties, with perceived incompatible goals, seek to undermine each other's goal-seeking capability".

One should not confuse the distinction between the presence and absence of conflict with the difference between competition and co-operation. In competitive situations, the two or more individuals or parties each have mutually inconsistent goals, either party tries to reach their goal it will undermine the attempts of the other to reach theirs. Therefore, competitive situations will, by their nature, cause conflict. However, conflict can also occur in cooperative situations, in which two or more individuals or parties have consistent goals, because the manner in which one party tries to reach their goal can still undermine the other individual or party.

A clash of interests, values, actions or directions often sparks a conflict. Conflicts refer to the existence of that clash. Psychologically, a conflict exists when the reduction of one motivating stimulus involves an increase in another, so that a new adjustment is demanded. The word is applicable from the instant that the clash occurs. Even when we say that there is a potential conflict we are implying that there is already a conflict of direction even though a clash may not yet have occurred.

Types and modes

A conceptual conflict can escalate into a verbal exchange and/or result in fighting.

Conflict can exist at a variety of levels of analysis:

• community conflict
• diplomatic conflict
• economic conflict
• emotional conflict
• environmental resources conflict
• group conflict
• ideological conflict
• international conflict
• interpersonal conflict
• intersocietal conflict
• intrastate conflict (for example: civil wars, election campaigns)
• intrapersonal conflict (though this usually just gets delegated out to psychology)
• organizational conflict
• intra-societal conflict
• military conflict
• religious-based conflict (for example: Center For Reduction of Religious-Based Conflict).
• workplace conflict

Conflicts in these levels may appear "nested" in conflicts residing at larger levels of analysis. For example, conflict within a work team may play out the dynamics of a broader conflict in the organization as a whole. (See Marie Dugan's article on Nested Conflict. John Paul Lederach has also written on this.) Theorists have claimed that parties can conceptualize responses to conflict according to a two-dimensional scheme; concern for one's own outcomes and concern for the outcomes of the other party. This scheme leads to the following hypotheses:

• High concern for both one's own and the other party's outcomes leads to attempts to find mutually beneficial solutions.
• High concern for one's own outcomes only leads to attempts to "win" the conflict.
• High concern for the other party's outcomes only leads to allowing the other to "win" the conflict.
• No concern for either side's outcomes leads to attempts to avoid the conflict.

In Western society, practitioners usually suggest that attempts to find mutually beneficial solutions lead to the most satisfactory outcomes, but this may not hold true for many Asian societies. Several theorists detect successive phases in the development of conflicts.

Often a group finds itself in conflict over facts, goals, methods or values. It is critical that it properly identify the type of conflict it is experiencing if it hopes to manage the conflict through to resolution. For example, a group will often treat an assumption as a fact.

The more difficult type of conflict is when values are the root cause. It is more likely that a conflict over facts, or assumptions, will be resolved than one over values. It is extremely difficult to "prove" that a value is "right" or "correct". In some instances, a group will benefit from the use of a facilitator or process consultant to help identify the specific type of conflict. Practitioners of nonviolence have developed many practices to solve social and political conflicts without resorting to violence or coercion.

Conflict can arise between several characters and there can be more than one in a story or plot line. The little plot lines usually enhance the main conflict.

Causes

Structural Factors (How the conflict is set up)

• Authority Relationships (The boss and employees beneath him/her)
• Common Resources (Sharing the same secretary)
• Goal Differences (One person wants production to rise and others want communication to rise)
• Interdependence (A company as a whole can't operate w/o other departments)
• Jurisdictional Ambiguities (Who can discipline whom)
• Specialization (The experts in fields)
• Status Inconsistencies

Personal Factors

• Communication barriers
• Conflict management style
• Cultural differences
• Emotions
• Perception
• Personalities
• Skills and abilities
• Values and Ethics

The assertion that "conflict is emotionally defined and driven," and "does not exist in the absence of emotion" is challenged by Economics, for example, "the science which studies human behavior as a relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses." In this context, scarcity means that available resources are insufficient to satisfy all wants and needs. The subject of conflict as a purely rational, strategic decision is specifically addressed by Game Theory, a branch of Economics.

Where applicable, there are many components to the emotions that are intertwined with conflict. There is a behavioral, physiological, cognitive component.

• Behavioral- The way emotional experience gets expressed which can be verbal or non-verbal and intentional or un-intentional.
• Physiological- The bodily experience of emotion. The way emotions make us feel in comparison to our identity.
• Cognitive- The idea that we "assess or appraise" an event to reveal its relevancy to ourselves.

These three components collectively advise that "the meanings of emotional experience and expression are determined by cultural values, beliefs, and practices."

• Cultural values- culture tells people who are a part of it, "Which emotions ought to be expressed in particular situations" and "what emotions are to be felt."
• Physical- This escalation results from "anger or frustration."
• Verbal- This escalation results from "negative perceptions of the annoyer's character."

There are several principles of conflict and emotion.

1. Conflict is emotionally defined-conflict involves emotion because something "triggers" it. The conflict is with the parties involved and how they decide to resolve it — "events that trigger conflict are events that elicit emotion."
2. Conflict is emotionally valence — emotion levels during conflict can be intense or less intense. The "intensity" levels "may be indicative of the importance and meaning of the conflict issues for each" party.
3. Conflict Invokes a moral stance — when an event occurs it can be interpreted as moral or immoral. The judging of this morality "influences one's orientation to the conflict, relationship to the parties involved, and the conflict issues".
4. Conflict is identity based — Emotions and Identity are a part of conflict. When a person knows their values, beliefs, and morals they are able to determine whether the conflict is personal, relevant, and moral. "Identity related conflicts are potentially more destructive."
5. Conflict is relational — "conflict is relational in the sense that emotional communication conveys relational definitions that impact conflict." "Key relational elements are power and social status."

Emotions are acceptable in the workplace as long as they can be controlled and utilized for productive organizational outcomes.

Ways of addressing conflict

Five basic ways of addressing conflict were identified by Thomas and Kilman in 1976:^[1][2]

• Accommodation – surrender one's own needs and wishes to accommodate the other party.
• Avoidance – avoid or postpone conflict by ignoring it, changing the subject, etc. Avoidance can be useful as a temporary measure to buy time or as an expedient means of dealing with very minor, non-recurring conflicts. In more severe cases, conflict avoidance can involve severing a relationship or leaving a group.^[3]
• Collaboration – work together to find a mutually beneficial solution. While the Thomas Kilman grid views collaboration as the only win-win solution to conflict, collaboration can also be time-intensive and inappropriate when there is not enough trust, respect or communication among participants for collaboration to occur.
• Compromise – find a middle ground in which each party is partially satisfied.
• Competition – assert one's viewpoint at the potential expense of another. It can be useful when achieving one's objectives outweighs one's concern for the relationship.^[4]

The Thomas Kilman Instrument can be used to assess one's dominant style for addressing conflict.^[5]

Ongoing conflicts

Many NGOs and independent groups attempt to monitor the situation of ongoing conflicts. Unfortunately, the definitions of war, conflict, armed struggle, revolution and all these words which describe violent opposition between States or armed organised groups, are not precise enough to distinguish one from another. For example, the word terrorism is used indifferently by many governments to delegitimate every kind of armed revolt and, at the same time, by many rebel groups to delegitimate the armed repression of sovereign governments.

See also

• Competition
• Conflict management
• Conflict: Middle East Political Simulator
• Conflict (air traffic control)
• Conflict style inventory
• Copenhagen Consensus
• Dispute
• Facilitation
• Game theory
• Negotiationpanget sobra

External links

• Amsterdam Center for Conflict Studies (ACS) - Institute for the interdisciplinary study of conflict and conflict resolution
• Complex Emergencies Database (CE-DAT) - A database on the human impact of conflicts and other complex emergencies.
• Conflict! Radio for Resolution - Examples of actual examples of nonadversarial approaches to addressing conflict
• Debate Conflicts - Open Democracy Conflicts Debate. "Even when guns are silent, the ideas behind them threaten. Warfare and conflict resolution urgently need to be explained, their causes clarified, and creative solutions explored".
• Heidelberg Institute for International Conflict Research (HIIK): Conflict Barometer from 1992 on ? PDF downloads
• How to be a Good Enemy (article) How to manage conflicts in a positive way.
• Insight on Conflict- Database of local peacebuilding projects
• Party-Directed Mediation (mediation of interpersonal conflict) - Download 'Helping Others Resolve Differences: Empowering Stakeholders.'
• What is Distinctive about Church Conflict? - an article looking at conflict within Christian churches.
• Amsterdam Center for Conflict Studies (ACS)

References

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