Conflict occurs when interdependent parties perceive incompatible
goals, scarce resources, and interference in achieving their goals and
express this struggle outwardly. It has perceptual, emotional, behavioral,
and interactional
dimensions.
Although conflict can cause bad feelings, lower cohesiveness,
or even group disintegration, it can also stimulate member involvement
and understanding, increase cohesiveness, and produce better decisions.
An opinion
or innovative deviate expresses disagreement and may cause or experience
discomfort, but contributes to critical thinking.
Types of conflict include substantive (task-oriented),
affective (over personality and power differences), procedural (over how
the group operates),
and inequity (over unequal workloads or contributions by members). One
type can lead to another in an actual conflict situation.
A distributive orientation to managing conflict assumes
winners and losers, but an integrative orientation assumes the possibility
of a win–win
solution. Degrees of cooperation and assertiveness underlie the five common
conflict management styles of avoidance, accommodation, competition, collaboration,
and compromise, and the tactics used with each style.
Ethical principles governing appropriate conflict-management
include expressing one’s views sensitively, focusing on the issues,
and, while expressing disagreement, challenging the idea but not the person. Disagreements
should be based on substance, not innuendo. Members should respond nondefensively,
with a spirit of inquiry, and remain open-minded to contradictory ideas.
Finally, members should avoid fight-to-the-death conflict resolution strategies.
Group members should try to use procedures, such as the
principled negotiation procedure, that are ethical and help parties find
solutions satisfactory
to all.
If a group cannot achieve consensus, other options include
mediation by the leader or voting. Forcing or third-party arbitration,
where someone decides for the group, is a last resort.
Common Ground dialogue can be used to discuss polarizing
public issues, such as abortion, by helping participants discover genuinely
shared values that can lessen tension and violence.
