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Concept
Conflict (process)
Summary
A conflict is a struggle and a clash of interest, opinion, or even principles. Conflict will always be found in society; as the basis of conflict may vary to be personal, racial, class, caste, political and international. Conflict may also be emotional, intellectual, and theoretical, in which case academic recognition may, or may not be, a significant motive. Intellectual conflict is a subclass of cultural conflict, a conflict that tends to grow over time due to different cultural values and beliefs.
Conflict in a group often follows a specific course. Routine group interaction is first disrupted by an initial conflict within the group, often caused by internal differences of opinion, disagreements between its members, or scarcity of resources available to the group. At this point, the group is no longer united, and may split into coalitions. This period of conflict escalation in some cases gives way to a conflict resolution stage, after which the group can eventually return to routine group interaction or split.
M. Afzalur, a professor at Western Kentucky University, notes there is no single universally accepted definition of conflict. He notes that one issue of contention is whether the conflict is a situation or a type of behaviour.
Citing a review of definitions of organizational conflicts in 1990 by Robert A. Baron, Afzalur notes that all definitions of conflict include known opposing interests and the process of trying to stop the opposing view or views. Building on that, the proposed definition of conflict by Afzalur is "an interactive process manifested in incompatibility, disagreement or dissonance within or between social entities." Afzalur also notes that a conflict may be limited to one individual, who is conflicted within himself (the intrapersonal conflict). Afzalur lists some manifestations of conflict behavior, starting with disagreement followed by verbal abuse and interference.
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Related concepts (3)
Conflict (process)
A conflict is a struggle and a clash of interest, opinion, or even principles. Conflict will always be found in society; as the basis of conflict may vary to be personal, racial, class, caste, political and international. Conflict may also be emotional, intellectual, and theoretical, in which case academic recognition may, or may not be, a significant motive. Intellectual conflict is a subclass of cultural conflict, a conflict that tends to grow over time due to different cultural values and beliefs.
Conflict resolution
Conflict resolution is conceptualized as the methods and processes involved in facilitating the peaceful ending of conflict and retribution. Committed group members attempt to resolve group conflicts by actively communicating information about their conflicting motives or ideologies to the rest of group (e.g., intentions; reasons for holding certain beliefs) and by engaging in collective negotiation. Dimensions of resolution typically parallel the dimensions of conflict in the way the conflict is processed.
Social conflict
Social conflict is the struggle for agency or power in society. Social conflict occurs when two or more people oppose each other in social interaction, and each exerts social power with reciprocity in an effort to achieve incompatible goals but prevent the other from attaining their own. It is a social relationship in which action is intentionally oriented to carry out the actor's own will despite the resistance of others. Conflict theories Conflict theory emphasizes interests, rather than norms and values, in conflict.
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