Ethnic Conflict

An ethnic conflict or ethnic war is a war between ethnic groups often as a result of ethnic nationalism. They are of interest because of the apparent prevalence since the Cold War and because they frequently result in war crimes such as genocide. Academics explanations of ethnic conflict generally fall into one of three schools of thought: primordialist, instrumentalist or constructivist. Intellectual debate has also focused around the issue of whether ethnic conflict has become more prevalent since the end of the Cold War, and on devising ways of managing conflicts, through instruments such as consociationalism and federalisation.

Theories of ethnic conflict
The causes of ethnic conflict are debated by political scientists and sociologists who generally fall into one of three schools of thought: primordialist, instrumentalist, and constructivist. More recent scholarship draws on all three schools in order to increase our understanding of ethnic conflict.

Conflict Transformation

Conflict transformation is the process by which conflicts, such as ethnic conflict, are transformed into peaceful outcomes. It differs from conflict resolution and conflict management approaches in that it recognises "that contemporary conflicts require more than the reframing of positions and the identification of win-win outcomes. The very structure of parties and relationships may be embedded in a pattern of conflictual relationships that extend beyond the particular site of conflict. Conflict transformation is therefore a process of engaging with and transforming the relationships, interests, discourses and, if necessary, the very constitution of society that supports the continuation of violent conflict".

Conflict transformation approaches differ from those of conflict management or conflict resolution. Whereas conflict transformation involves transforming the relationships that support violence, conflict management approaches seek to merely manage and contain conflict, and conflict resolution approaches seek to move conflict parties away from zero-sum positions towards positive outcomes, often with the help of external actors.

Conflict transformation theory is often associated with the academics and practitioners Johan Galtung and John Paul Lederach.

Culture Conflict Theory

Sociology of Deviant Behavior
Sociology 3200-Robert Keel, Instructor

As indicated in our class discussion following the development of Social Disorganization Theory at the University of Chicago during the early Twentieth century, questions concerning the accuracy of a broad, integrated and consensual value and normative system emerged. Rather than conceptualizing deviance as a problem of the stress and strain related to a weakening of social control, the idea, rooted in a Marxist image of social inequality and competition, of the social system being constituted by diverse cultural groups with conflicting interests, values, and norms emerged. Within the Conflict perspective, deviance is conceptualized not as abnormal behavior brought on by faulty socialization or normative ambiguity, but as a normal, political process brought about by inter-group struggle for dominance.

Thorsten Sellin (1938) emphasized the cultural diversity of modern industrial society. For Sellin, law embodied the normative structure of the dominant cultural/ethnic group. The criminal law contains the "crime norms," inappropriate behavior and its punishment, reflecting the values and interests of the groups successful in achieving control of the legislative process. The "conduct norms" of other, less powerful groups reflecting their specific social situations and experiences often come into conflict (Culture Conflict) with the crime norms. This leads to the production of deviant or criminal definitions surrounding the everyday behavior of the individual members of these less powerful groups. Sellin indicated that as society diversified and became more heterogeneous, the probability of growing and more frequent conflict, therefore deviance, would increase.

George Vold (1958) continued to expand on these ideas. Rather than attempting to explain crime as individual law violation, Vold suggests an understanding of the social nature of crime as a product of group struggle. Humans are by nature social beings, forming groups out of shared interests and needs. The interests and needs of groups interact and produce competition over maintaining and/or expanding one groups position relative to others in the control of necessary resources (money, education, employment, etc.). This competition is expressed as a political struggle/conflict with the group most efficient at controlling political processes obtaining the authority to pass laws that limit the fulfillment of minority group needs.

In 1969, Austin Turk developed a general conflict theory of crime. Turk draws on the analysis of modern society presented by Ralf Dahrendorf. Dahrendorf expanded on Marxism's emphasis on the social relations of production as a key to understanding power and focused on the struggle in a modern industrial society for institutional authority. This is power that is embedded in the structural relations characteristic of a given society, legitimate power often divorced from ownership of productive forces, power in the social institutions that dominate everyday life; the authority vested in groups who control key positions in religious, educational, governmental, and even family relations. This authority can be linked to economic position, but it is not necessarily dependent upon it. Turk:
...examines authority-subject relationships within institutions with little concern for overarching or overlapping authority-subject relationships across institutions. Within this general framework,

Turk focuses on legal conflict and criminalization. Specifically, he asks the following two questions:


1. Under what conditions are authority-subject cultural and behavioral differences transformed into legal conflict?


2.Under what conditions do those who violate laws (norms of the authorities) become criminalized? In other words, under what circumstances are laws enforced? (Liska, 1987: 178)

Turk's answer to these questions is summarized a set of six propositions. (The following is taken from Liska, 1987:178-180)

In answer to the first question above:
Proposition 1: Conflict between authorities and subjects occurs when behavioral differences between authorities and subjects are compounded by cultural differences.
Proposition 2: Conflict is more probable the more organized are those who have an illegal attribute or engage in an illegal act.
Proposition 3: Conflict is more probable the less sophisticated the subjects.
The probability of enforcement can be conditionalized as:
Proposition 4: The probability of enforcement of legal norms increases as the congruence between the cultural and behavioral norms of authorities increases.
Proposition 5: The lower the power of the resisters (subjects), the higher the probability of enforcement.
Proposition 6: The lower the realism of norm violators (resisters), the higher the probability of enforcement. (emphasis added)

Conflict Theory and The Critique of Society

Marx, modern Marxism, the Frankfurt School, and C. Wright Mills

The writers in this group are distinguished by their view of society as divided hierarchically into exclusive groups

The possibility of an ideal social order

They shared a critical perspective – used social science to criticize society, the ruling class in particular

Social analysis should not separate their work from their moral commitments

See their theories as a force for change

Objectivity is impossible – every writer has experiences socialization

Are certain their standards, subjective as they are, are the correct ones

Focus of critique is the way wealth, status, and power are distributed in society

Society is divided by a small group powerful and privileged people and an exploited mass of people

Unicausal theory: see people’s circumstances as primarily determined by one set of institutions, most often the economy or property relations

They do not believe that society must necessarily be segmented and unequal

Contrast the “irrational present” with a “rational future” in which human potential will be fulfilled

Assume their values reflect true human nature

Focus also on Praxis: social change in which an ideal society would be created

C. Wright Mills was the most influential American critical sociologist

The New Left was heavily influenced by Marx

Conflict Theory, Intellectual Roots

The basic elements of conflict theory were set out by Karl Marx and Max Weber who shared two basic concerns:

Conflict theory in sociology is the creation of :

KARL MARX


Marx came to see his own writing as upending Hegel – replacing Hegel’s emphasis on mind as the crucial determinant of history with his own materialist philosophy

Communist Manifesto: sets out a program for a revolutionary government and outlines his theory of social structures and social change

People have a clearly defined nature – species being

If people do not behave in accordance with these interests it means that they have been deceived about what their “true interests” are by a social system that works in others’ favor

His analysis focuses on the conflicts between different social groups with different interests

He was interested in the link between the nature of ideology and the interests of those who develop them

The “ruling ideas” are the ideas of the ruling class

Emphasized the primacy of technology

The determining force in people’s lives was their relationship to property

Max Weber

Weber wanted to identify the origins of essential characteristics of modern society but viewed modern rationality as an “iron cage” of bureaucracy

Viewed people’s behavior as large self-interested

Stressed the importance of values and goals specific to a society

In the Protestant Ethic: suggested that the Calvinists’ desire to save their souls found expression in the goal of accumulating wealth, seen as evidence of god’s favor, but actually enjoying wealth would be a sinful indulgence

Analyzed the way people maneuver in pursuit of advantage in terms of both particular values and circumstances and more general sociological categories

Formulated the concept of Ideal Types

Concerned with power and the way people obtain domination over others

Authority: legitimate domination – certain people have a right to be obeyed

Charismatic: authority rests on a leader’s personal qualities

Traditional: also personal but based on tradition

Rational-Legal: derived from formal rules

Viewed the economy as important but not the sole determinant of both social structure and people’s chances in life


Stressed the importance of class, party and status groups

Class: people who share the same position economically

Party: an association that exists to secure power or attain ideal or material advantages for its members
Status group: lies in shared distinctiveness – such as college professors

Viewed ideas and values as having an independent effect on history

Emphasized the importance of legitimacy – the belief that someone’s position and the system incorporating it are right and proper

Conflict Theory

Conflict theory can be divided into two distinct traditions:

Marxism and Neo-Marxism:


Believes social scientists have a moral obligation to critique society

Refusal to separate analysis from judgment or fact – can’t be objective

Belief that society could be constructed in such a manner that conflict could be eliminated – utopian version of society

Karl Marx, Neo-Marxism, Frankfurt School, C.Wright Mills, Pierre Bourdieu

Weberian Conflict Theory:

Considers conflict to be an inevitable and permanent aspect of social life

Rejects the idea that social science can’t be objective

Interest in establishing a scientific social science

Ralf Darendorf, Lewis Coser, Randall Collins

Workplace Conflict

Workplace conflict is a specific type of conflict that occurs in workplaces. The conflicts that arise in workplaces may be shaped by the unique aspects of this environment, including the long hours many people spend at their workplace, the hierarchical structure of the organization, and the difficulties (e.g. financial consequences) that may be involved in switching to a different workplace. In this respect, workplaces share much in common with schools, especially pre-college educational institutions in which students are less autonomous.

Causes:
According to Boston University FSAO, "Causes for workplace conflict can be personality or style differences and personal problems such as substance abuse, childcare issues, and family problems. Organizational factors such as leadership, management, budget, and disagreement about core values can also contribute." Colorado University cites as primary causes of workplace conflict poor communication, different values, differing interests, scarce resources, personality clashes, and poor performance.

Consequences:
Unresolved conflict in the workplace has been linked to miscommunication resulting from confusion or refusal to cooperate, quality problems, missed deadlines or delays, increased stress among employees, reduced creative collaboration and team problem solving, disruption to work flow, decreased customer satisfaction, distrust, split camps, and gossip.

Solutions:
Tosi, Rizzo, and Caroll suggested that improving organizational practices could help resolve conflicts, including establishing superordinate goals, reducing vagueness, minimizing authority- and domain-related disputes, improving policies, procedures and rules, re-apportioning existing resources or adding new, altering communications, movement of personnel, and changing reward systems. Most large organizations have a human resources department, whose tasks include providing confidential advice to internal "customers" in relation to problems at work. This could be seen as less risky than asking one's manager for help. HR departments may also provide an impartial person who can mediate disputes and provide an objective point of view.

Ways of Addressing Conflict

Five basic ways of addressing conflict

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.

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.

Accommodation – surrender one's own needs and wishes to accommodate the other party.

Causes of Conflict

Structural Factors

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

Personal Factors

Skills and Abilities
Conflict management style
Personalities
Perception
Values and Ethics
Emotions
Communication barriers
Cultural Differences

Organizational conflict

Organizational conflict is a state of discord caused by the actual or perceived opposition of needs, values and interests between people working together. Conflict takes many forms in organizations. There is the inevitable clash between formal authority and power and those individuals and groups affected. There are disputes over how revenues should be divided, how the work should be done, and how long and hard people should work. There are jurisdictional disagreements among individuals, departments, and between unions and management. There are subtler forms of conflict involving rivalries, jealousies, personality clashes, role definitions, and struggles for power and favor. There is also conflict within individuals — between competing needs and demands — to which individuals respond in different ways.

Group conflict

Group conflicts, also called group intrigues, is where social behaviour causes groups of individuals to conflict with each other. This conflict is often caused by differences in social norms, values, and religion.

Emotional Conflict

Emotional conflict is the presence in the subconscious of different and opposing emotions relating to a situation that has recently taken place or is in the process of being unfolded, accompanied at times by a physical discomfort and in particular by tension headaches.

Conflict Management Training: General Information

The Conflict Management Training focuses on communication skills and self-awareness that are integral in improving the quality of our work environment. Communication breakdowns resulting from misperceptions, and the differences in working styles and approaches often predominantly occupy our attention.


Phase 1. Improve Communication/Active Listening Skills. The initial phase involves the development/improvement of communication and active listening skills. The benefits of different communication techniques such as paraphrasing, empathizing will be discussed.

Phase 2. Identify Different Working Styles. One source of conflict in the workplace has been our different working styles. If we look at these differences as assets, not as barriers, the composite enhances our abilities to achieve even more. We generally fall into one of four working styles. You will identify your personal working style and practical approaches on how you can best relate to the other styles.

Phase 3. Identify and Develop Your Own Conflict Management Style. It only follows, that if there is a variety of different working styles, that we also have varied styles or strategies for addressing conflict. You will identify your dominant conflict management strategy. We will also explore the five different conflict management strategies describing the corresponding trade-offs, and their appropriate usage in different situations.

Training in Conflict Management

About the Training Programme

The ACCORD Conflict Management Series is a set of three-day courses that aim to provide an overall understanding of conflict and conflict analysis, and to impart the skills to become an effective conflict resolution practitioner.

About the Training Programme

For over ten years, ACCORD have been active throughout the African continent building capacity in government, business and civil society to transform destructive conflicts and build security.
These training courses draw on our accumulated experience. Conflicts have become more complex, whether inter-personal, organisational, inter-group or inter-state in nature – complicated by issues of technology, power relations, access to economic resources, gender, race and ethnicity. Complexity brings with it the challenge to resolve multi-faceted conflicts, and demands creativity and extraordinary insight.
ACCORD attempts to bring African solutions to the African challenges that we face. While attempting to keep abreast of international trends, we are very conscious also of our African perspective. We make a point of using African methodologies, resources and experience within our training approach.

School Conflict Management Training

A Comprehensive Approach to Resolving Conflicts in Schools


Need help in resolving conflicts…

With students?

With co-workers?

With family?

Do you want to teach your students conflict management skills to improve your classroom climate?

Interested in starting a whole - school program?

Comprehensive age appropriate resources guide full of lessons.

Graduate Credit available.
A School conflict management program helps to create a school environment that fosters prevention and de-escalation of conflicts and that establishes procedures for the effective, nonviolent resolution of conflicts that occur in school settings. To be effective, a comprehensive program must address more than just student conduct. Conflict management attitudes and skills must also be an integral part of school curriculum and instruction, as well as the total school culture. This workshop will help participants to look at the many and varied components of an effective program and help them develop a plan to begin using the skills in their own school setting.

Conflict Management and Conflict Styles

Most people don't really think about how they approach conflict. It just happens. When conflicts arise we tend to play out our roles like scripts based on our behavioral and conflict styles. Effective conflict management can only be achieved when an individual begins to really see how her or his conflict style is actually self-destructive.
Our conflict management workshops examine conflict styles and allow participants to really see their own self-destructive behavior patterns. Through behavioral style assessments, interactive discussions, role play and effective training, we help workshop participants to change the way they view and handle daily conflict. The result is a re-alignment of attitudes and a tremendous increase in teamwork. When your people really begin functioning as a team everyone will feel
the difference.

Adult Children Learning to Grow Up

Most of us don't like to admit it, but we often revert to childish behaviors during conflict. We have learned to disguise our motives and actions with a facade of maturity, but we're not fooling anyone.
Emotional immaturity is at its worst during conflict. Have you ever seen a manager or employee throwing a temper tantrum? Adult forms of pouting, name-calling, bullying and whining can be found in nearly every workplace around the world. And these traits are never mentioned in resumes and are seldom detected during the interviewing process.

"Why Do I Have to Be the One Who Changes?"
The earliest conflict behaviors children develop are blame, defensiveness and rationalization. These behaviors continue through adulthood and become the greatest obstacles to personal change and growth. "Why should I change? My boss is the problem!" We tend to blame others, defend ourselves, and rationalize our emotionally immature behavior.
In order to change, you have to want to change. Our conflict management workshops give participants an objective, personal view of the results of their behaviors. Our behavioral and communication style assessments are unbelievably accurate, and function as a mirror for participants. Since the whole group is in the workshop, no one is singled out. We examine the results of childish, ineffective conflict styles both in the workplace and in your personal life. And participants often really see themselves accurately for the first time.
If you expect me to work at changing myself, you have to answer the question, "What's in it for me?" Our workshops do just that. Effective conflict management improves the value of your relationships; with your boss, co-workers, friends spouse or partner, children and all the members of your family. When you really begin to see how your behaviors are sabotaging your own life, the question, "What's in it for me?" is answered. These are the seeds of wisdom and wisdom is the beginning of change.

Conflict Management Styles

The self-assessment of Conflict Management Styles evaluates conflict management styles. Conflict management styles indicate that each style has a role to play in management but that the best overall conflict management style approach is collaboration. A fifteen-question survey score determines each style (competing, collaborating, compromising, avoiding or accommodating). From my survey, I was the highest or equal with competing, collaborating, avoiding and accommodating and average in compromising. The averaged scores of the three non-management 300 students compared to my scores are as follows: competing was 10.3 and I scored an 11, collaborating average was 10 and I scored an 11, avoiding average was 8 and I scored a 9, accommodating average was 8 and I scored an11, and compromising average was 8.6 and I scored an 11

Rating

Self-Assessment Survey

Tom

Karen

Jennifer

Chris

1
4
1
3
1
3
1
3
2
3
2
3
2
4
2
4
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
4
3
4
2
4
3
4
3
5
3
5
3
5
3
5
3
6
3
6
3
6
3
6
3
7
4
7
4
7
4
7
3
8
4
8
3
8
4
8
4
9
3
9
3
9
4
9
2
10
3
10
3
10
3
10
3
11
4
11
4
11
3
11
3
12
4
12
3
12
3
12
2
13
4
13
3
13
4
13
2
14
4
14
3
14
2
14
2
15
4
15
4
15
3
15
2
1,2,7 =
11
1,2,7 =
10
1,2,7 =
11
1,2,7 =
10
8,10,13 =
11
8,10,13 =
9
8,10,13 =
11
8,10,13 =
9
3,5,9 =
9
3,5,9 =
9
3,5,9 =
10
3,5,9 =
8
4,11,14 =
11
4,11,14 =
9
4,11,14 =
7
4,11,14 =
8
6,12,15 =
11
6,12,15 =
10
6,12,15 =
9
6,12,15 =
7

Managing Conflict

There are five steps to managing conflict. These steps are:

• Analyze the conflict
• Determine management strategy
• Pre-negotiation
• Negotiation
• Post-negotiation

Step 1: Analyze the conflict.The first step in managing conflict is to analyze the nature and type of conflict. To do this, you'll find it helpful to ask questions.

Answers may come from your own experience, your partners or local media coverage. You may want to actually interview some of the groups involved. Additional information regarding analyzing conflicts can be found in the Guide to Information and Resources.

Step 2: Determine management strategy.Once you have a general understanding of the conflict, the groups involved will need to analyze and select the most appropriate strategy. In some cases it may be necessary to have a neutral facilitator to help move the groups toward consensus.

Step 3: Pre-negotiation.To set the stage for effective negotiation, the groundwork must be laid. The following should occur prior to negotiation.

Step 4: Negotiation.

Interests - When negotiating be sure to openly discuss interests, rather than stated positions. Interests include the reasons, needs, concerns and motivations underlying positions. Satisfaction of interests should be the common goal.
Options - To resolve conflicts, concentrate on inventing options for satisfying interests. Do not judge ideas or favor any of the options suggested. Encourage creativity, not commitment.
Evaluation - Only after the partners have finished listing options, should the options be discussed. Determine together which ideas are best for satisfying various interests.
Written agreement - Document areas of agreement and disagreement to ensure common understanding. This helps ensure that agreements can be remembered and communicated clearly. Commitment - Every partner must be confident that the others will carry out their parts of the agreement. Discuss and agree upon methods to ensure partners understand and honor their commitments.

Step 5: Post-negotiation.Once negotiation is complete, the group will need to implement the decisions made. Some key steps include:

The Ingredients of Conflict.

• Needs - Needs are things that are essential to our well-being. Conflicts arise when we ignore others' needs, our own needs or the group's needs. Be careful not to confuse needs with desires (things we would like, but are not essential).
• Perceptions - People interpret reality differently. They perceive differences in the severity, causes and consequences of problems. Misperceptions or differing perceptions may come from: self-perceptions, others' perceptions, differing perceptions of situations and perceptions of threat.
• Power - How people define and use power is an important influence on the number and types of conflicts that occur. This also influences how conflict is managed. Conflicts can arise when people try to make others change their actions or to gain an unfair advantage.
• Values - Values are beliefs or principles we consider to be very important. Serious conflicts arise when people hold incompatible values or when values are not clear. Conflicts also arise when one party refuses to accept the fact that the other party holds something as a value rather than a preference.
• Feelings and emotions - Many people let their feelings and emotions become a major influence over how they deal with conflict. Conflicts can also occur because people ignore their own or others' feelings and emotions. Other conflicts occur when feelings and emotions differ over a particular issue.

Conflict of interest

A conflict of interest is a situation in which someone in a position of trust, such as a lawyer, insurance adjuster, a politician, executive or director of a corporation or a medical research scientist or physician, has competing professional or personal interests. Such competing interests can make it difficult to fulfill his or her duties impartially. A conflict of interest exists even if no unethical or improper act results from it. A conflict of interest can create an appearance of impropriety that can undermine confidence in the person, profession, or court system. A conflict can be mitigated by third party verification or third party evaluation noted below—but it still exists.

Conflict Resolution

Conflict resolution is the process of attempting to resolve a dispute or a conflict. Successful conflict resolution occurs by listening to and providing opportunities to meet the needs of all parties, and to adequately address interests so that each party is satisfied with the outcome. Conflict Practitioners talk about finding the win-win outcome for parties involved, vs. the win-lose dynamic found in most conflicts. While 'conflict resolution' engages conflict once it has already started , 'conflict prevention' aims to end conflicts before they start or before they lead to verbal, physical, or legal fighting or violence.

Value Conflicts

Value conflicts are caused by perceived or actual incompatible belief systems. Values are beliefs that people use to give meaning to their lives. Values explain what is "good" or "bad," "right" or "wrong," "just" or "unjust." Differing values need not cause conflict. People can live together in harmony with different value systems. Value disputes arise only when people attempt to force one set of values on others or lay claim to exclusive value systems that do not allow for divergent beliefs. It is of no use to try to change value and belief systems during relatively short and strategic mediation interventions. It can, however, be helpful to support each participant's expression of their values and beliefs for acknowledgment by the other party.

Structural Conflicts

Structural conflicts are caused by forces external to the people in dispute. Limited physical resources or authority, geographic constraints (distance or proximity), time (too little or too much), organizational changes, and so forth can make structural conflict seem like a crisis. It can be helpful to assist parties in conflict to appreciate the external forces and constraints bearing upon them. Structural conflicts will often have structural solutions. Parties' appreciation that a conflict has an external source can have the effect of them coming to jointly address the imposed difficulties.

Interest Conflicts

Interest conflicts are caused by competition over perceived incompatible needs. Conflicts of interest result when one or more of the parties believe that in order to satisfy his or her needs, the needs and interests of an opponent must be sacrificed. Interest-based conflict will commonly be expressed in positional terms. A variety of interests and intentions underlie and motivate positions in negotiation and must be addressed for maximized resolution. Interest-based conflicts may occur over substantive issues (such as money, physical resources, time, etc.); procedural issues (the way the dispute is to be resolved); and psychological issues (perceptions of trust, fairness, desire for participation, respect, etc.). For an interest-based dispute to be resolved, parties must be assisted to define and express their individual interests so that all of these interests may be jointly addressed. Interest-based conflict is best resolved through the maximizing integration of the parties' respective interests, positive intentions and desired experiential outcomes.

Data Conflicts

Data conflicts occur when people lack information necessary to make wise decisions, are misinformed, disagree on which data is relevant, interpret information differently, or have competing assessment procedures. Some data conflicts may be unnecessary since they are caused by poor communication between the people in conflict. Other data conflicts may be genuine incompatibilities associated with data collection, interpretation or communication. Most data conflicts will have "data solutions."

Relationship Conflicts

Relationship conflicts occur because of the presence of strong negative emotions, misperceptions or stereotypes, poor communication or miscommunication, or repetitive negative behaviors. Relationship problems often fuel disputes and lead to an unnecessary escalating spiral of destructive conflict. Supporting the safe and balanced expression of perspectives and emotions for acknowledgment (not agreement) is one effective approach to managing relational conflict.

Conflict

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 fight 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.

Conflict Management - articles and tools for success

Occasional conflict is a sad truth for most organisations, but it is one issue that you can take strategic steps to both avoid and resolve within your business. Below are a wealth of articles that will help you to gain the skills that you will need to tackle conflict in your company.

Workplace Conflict Exposed

It’s all a matter of whether you work with turtles, sharks, teddy bears, foxes or owls! Why is it important to be able to identify the different personality styles in your workplace, or for that matter, your own? Identifying the turtles, sharks, teddy bears, foxes or owls in your business puts you in a better position to make positive use of individual personalities and turn workplace conflict around.

Managing Change Without Conflict And Disruption

Change is inevitable but is often difficult to introduce to staff in the workplace. Exactly what you say and how you say it can make a major impact on how change is handled in your company.Employees often view any change with conflict, scepticism, negativity and disruption. To avoid such negativity you need to convince your workers that change is needed and that the proposed change is the right change for them and the business. Discuss proposed changes with them in advance. Reassure them regarding the expected effects of the change and seek their support and co-operation in introducing it.

How And Why You Should 'Tell It Like It Is'

Communicating to staff during any organisational change, restructure or merger is tough. Senior managers can lose touch with front-line issues or be fearful of communicating with their staff until they have "all the answers."Staff will understandably be preoccupied with their own fate. They want their managers to “tell it like it is " but instead they are given carefully calculated messages. These communications can range from PR spin - to scare talk - to blind optimism. These types of messages can seriously erode the staff's perception of management's credibility.

Conflict Management Techniques

OVERVIEW:
Conflict is largely a perceived phenomenon. Itis our perception of the situation that determines if aconflict exists. It is useful to assess our predominantconflict management style(s) because we tend to get stuck inone or two styles and apply them inappropriately. Theemphasis is not on judging any style right or wrong. Eachperson determines their predominant conflict managementstyle.

OBJECTIVES:
Identify personal management style(s), developan awareness of strategies used in each conflict managementstyle.SHARK - Competing - is assertive and uncooperative. An individual pursues his or her own concerns at the otherperson's expense. This is a power oriented mode in whichone uses whatever power seems appropriate to win ones ownposition. When to use Competition:
1. When you know you are right.
2. When you need a quick decision.
3. When you meet a steamroller type of person and you need to stand up for your own rights.

TEDDY BEAR - Accommodating - is unassertive anduncooperative. This is the opposite of competing. When accommodating, anindividual neglects his/her own concerns to satisfy theconcerns of the other person. There is an element of self-sacrifice in this mode. When to use accommodating:
1. When the issue is not so important to you but it is to the other person.
2. When you discover that you are wrong.
3. When continued competition would be detrimental - "you know you can't win."
4. When preserving harmony without disruption is the most important - "it's not the right time."

Basics of Conflict Management

Clarifying Confusion About Conflict
Conflict is when two or more values, perspectives and opinions are contradictory in nature and haven't been aligned or agreed about yet, including:

1. Within yourself when you're not living according to your values;
2. When your values and perspectives are threatened; or
3. Discomfort from fear of the unknown or from lack of fulfillment.Conflict is inevitable and often good, for example, good teams always go through a "form, storm, norm and perform" period. Getting the most out of diversity means often-contradictory values, perspectives and opinions.

Conflict is often needed. It:

1. Helps to raise and address problems.

2. Energizes work to be on the most appropriate issues.

3. Helps people "be real", for example, it motivates them to participate.

4. Helps people learn how to recognize and benefit from their differences.Conflict is not the same as discomfort. The conflict isn't the problem - it is when conflict is poorly managed that is the problem.

Conflict is a problem when it:

1. Hampers productivity.

2. Lowers morale.

3. Causes more and continued conflicts.

4. Causes inappropriate behaviors

Conflict Management

Conflict management refers to the long-term management of intractable conflicts. It is the label for the variety of ways by which people handle grievances — standing up for what they consider to be right and against what they consider to be wrong. Those ways include such diverse phenomena as gossip, ridicule, lynching, terrorism, warfare, feuding, genocide, law, mediation, and avoidance. Which forms of conflict management will be used in any given situation can be somewhat predicted and explained by the social structure — or social geometry — of the case.

Conflict management is NOT the same as conflict resolution. The latter — conflict resolution — refers to resolving the dispute to the approval of one or both parties, whereas the former — conflict management — concerns an ongoing process that may never have a resolution. For example, gossip and feuds are very common methods of conflict management, but neither entails resolution. Neither is it the same as conflict transformation, which seeks to reframe the positions of the conflict parties.

Scientific study of conflict management (also known as social control) owes its foundations to Donald Black, who typologized its elementary forms and used his strategy of pure sociology to explain several aspects of its variation. Research and theory on conflict management has been further developed by Allan Horwitz, Calvin Morill, James Tucker, Mark Cooney, M.P. Baumgartner, Roberta Senechal de la Roche, Marian Borg, Ellis Godard, Scott Phillips, and Bradley Campbell.

Utilizing a multidisciplinary approach and avoiding semantic discussions, we could also state that the father of conflict management is Thomas C. Schelling, an American economist and Nobel Prize winner, who authored the Strategy of Conflict in 1960. Schelling’s main goal was to lay the foundation for a theory of conflict that would include the fields of economics, psychology, sociology and the law. Conflict is an omnipresent trait of human societies since it is almost impossible to find two parties with entirely overlapping interests, thus a general theory for bargaining and negotiation to address conflict is useful not only in the field of international politics or business management, but also at the personal and intimate level.