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Conflict is a part of discord caused by the actual or perceived opposition of need
Need

A need is something that is necessary for humans to live a healthy life. Needs are distinguished from wants because a deficiency would cause a clear negative outcome, such as dysfunction or death....
s, value
Value (personal and cultural)

A personal and cultural value is a relative ethic value, an assumption upon which implementation can be extrapolated. A value system is a set of consistent value and measures....
s 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 war
War

...
s, revolutions or other struggles, which may involve the use of force
Use of force

The term use of force refers to the right of an individual or authority to settle conflicts or prevent certain actions by applying measures to either: a) dissuade another party from a particular course of action, or b) physically intervene to stop them....
 as in the term armed conflict.






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Conflict is a part of discord caused by the actual or perceived opposition of need
Need

A need is something that is necessary for humans to live a healthy life. Needs are distinguished from wants because a deficiency would cause a clear negative outcome, such as dysfunction or death....
s, value
Value (personal and cultural)

A personal and cultural value is a relative ethic value, an assumption upon which implementation can be extrapolated. A value system is a set of consistent value and measures....
s 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 war
War

...
s, revolutions or other struggles, which may involve the use of force
Use of force

The term use of force refers to the right of an individual or authority to settle conflicts or prevent certain actions by applying measures to either: a) dissuade another party from a particular course of action, or b) physically intervene to stop them....
 as in the term armed conflict. Without proper social arrangement or resolution, conflicts in social settings can result in stress
Stress (medicine)

Stress is a biological term which refers to the consequences of the failure of a human or animal body to respond appropriately to emotional or body threats to the organism, whether actual or imagined....
 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
Conflict resolution

Conflict resolution is a range of processes aimed at alleviating or eliminating sources of conflict. The term "conflict resolution" is sometimes used interchangeably with the term dispute resolution or alternative dispute 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
Competition

Competition is a rivalry between individuals, groups, nations, or animals, for territory, a niche, or allocation of resources. It arises whenever two or more parties strive for a goal which cannot be shared....
 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 but if you have good sportsmenship or are just fair it wont cause undieserable 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
    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....
  • environmental resources conflict
  • group conflict
    Group conflict

    Group conflicts, also called group intrigues, is where social behaviour causes Group of individuals to conflict with each other. It can also refer to a conflict within these groups....
  • ideological conflict
  • international conflict
  • interpersonal conflict
  • intersocietal conflict
  • intrastate conflict (for example: civil war
    Civil war

    A civil war is a war between organized groups to take control of a nation or region, or to change government policies. It is high-intensity conflict, often involving Regular Army, that is sustained, organized and large-scale....
    s, election
    Election

    An election is a decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual to hold formal office. This is the usual mechanism by which modern Representative democracy fills offices in the legislature, sometimes in the executive and judiciary, and for regional government and local government....
     campaigns)
  • intrapersonal conflict (though this usually just gets delegated out to psychology
    Psychology

    Psychology is an academic and applied science discipline involving the science study of human mental functions and behavior. Occasionally it also relies on symbolic hermeneutics and critical theory, although these traditions are less pronounced than in other social sciences such as sociology....
    )
  • organizational conflict
    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....
  • intra-societal conflict
  • military conflict
  • religious-based conflict (for example: Center For Reduction of Religious-Based Conflict).
  • workplace conflict
    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 that may be involved in switching to a...
  • data conflict
  • relationship conflict
  • racial 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
John Paul Lederach

John Paul Lederach is Professor of International Peacebuilding at the University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana, and concurrently Distinguished Scholar at Eastern Mennonite University....
 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
Western culture

File:Clash of Civilizations map.pngWestern culture are terms which are used to refer to cultures of European origin. This terminology originated as a way of describing what was different about the Graeco-Roman culture and its descendants, in contrast to the older neighboring civilizations of the Middle East, which in many ways continued...
, 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 fact
Fact

A fact is something said to be true or supposed to have happened, example: Kiira is mean, FACT. An idea becomes a fact after competent people have tested a hypothesis through the scientific method....
s, goals, methods
Scientific method

Scientific method refers to techniques for investigating phenomenon, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on gathering observable, empirical and Measure evidence subject to specific principles of reasoning....
 or values
Value (personal and cultural)

A personal and cultural value is a relative ethic value, an assumption upon which implementation can be extrapolated. A value system is a set of consistent value and measures....
. 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
Root cause

A root cause is an initiating cause of a causal chain which leads to an outcome or effect of interest. Commonly, root cause is used to describe the depth in the causal chain where an intervention could reasonably be implemented to change performance and prevent an undesirable outcome....
. 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
Facilitator

A facilitator is someone who helps a group of people understand their common objectives and assists them to plan to achieve them without taking a particular position in the discussion....
 or process consultant
Process consultant

In organization development, a process consultant is a facilitator who helps a group deal with issues involving the Group process in a meeting, rather than the tasks....
 to help identify the specific type of conflict. Practitioners of nonviolence
Nonviolence

Nonviolence is a philosophy and strategy for social change that rejects the use of physical violence. As such, nonviolence is an alternative to passive acceptance of oppression and armed struggle against it....
 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.

on the hand,conflict also defines as natural disagreement resulting from individuals or groups that differ in beliefs, attitudes, values or needs. It can also originate from past rivalries and personality differences. Other causes of conflict include trying to negotiate before the timing is right or before needed information is available. The following is the causes of conflict: • communication failure • personality conflict • value differences • goal differences • methodological differences • substandard performance • lack of cooperation • differences regarding authority • differences regarding responsibility • competition over resources • non-compliance with rules (LO)

Causes

Structural Factors (How the conflict is set up)
  • Authority
    Authority

    In government, authority is often used interchangeably with the term "power ". However, their meanings differ: while "power" refers to the ability to achieve certain ends, "authority" refers to a claim of legitimacy , the justification and right to exercise that power....
     Relationships (The boss and employees beneath them)
  • Common Resources (Sharing the same secretary)
  • Goal Differences (One person wants production to rise and others want communication to rise)
  • Interdependence
    Interdependence

    Interdependence is a dynamic of being mutually responsible to and sharing a common set of principles with others. This concept differs distinctly from "dependence" in that an interdependent relationship implies that all participants are emotionally, economically, ecologically and or morally "interdependent." Some people advocate Freedom or i...
     (A company as a whole can't operate w/o other departments)
  • Jurisdiction
    Jurisdiction

    In law, jurisdiction is the practical authority granted to a formally constituted legal body or to a political leader to deal with and make pronouncements on legal matters and, by implication, to administer justice within a defined area of responsibility....
    al Ambiguities (Who can discipline whom)
  • Specialization (The experts in fields)
  • Status
    Status

    Status is a state, condition or situation. In common usage it may refer to:*Social status*Economic status*HIV status*Status *Status quo*Status symbol...
     inconsistencies


Personal Factors
  • Communication
    Communication

    Communication is commonly defined as "the imparting or interchange of thoughts, opinions, or information by speech, writing, or signs...",, 1: an act or instance of transmitting and 3 a: "a process by which information is exchanged between individuals through a common system of symbols, signs, or beha...
     barriers
  • Conflict management style
    Conflict management style

    A conflict management style is the pattern of behaviour an individual develops in response to conflict with others such as differences of opinion....
  • Cultural differences
  • Emotions
  • Perception
    Perception

    In psychology and the cognitive sciences, perception is the process of attaining awareness or understanding of sense information. It is a task far more complex than was imagined in the 1950s and 1960s, when it was predicted that building perceiving machines would take about a decade, a goal which is still very far from fruition....
  • Personalities
  • Skills and abilities
  • Values and Ethics
    Ethics

    Ethics is a word for a philosophy that encompasses proper conduct and good living. It is significantly broader than the common conception of ethics as the analyzing of right and wrong....


The assertion that "the conflict is emotionally defined and driven," and "does not exist in the absence of emotion" is challenged by Economics
Economics

File:Ballard Farmers' Market - vegetables.jpgEconomics is the Social sciences that studies the Production theory basics, Distribution , and Consumption of Good and Service ....
. In this context, scarcity
Scarcity

Scarcity is the problem of infinite Fundamental human needs and wants, in a world of finite resources. In other words, society does not have sufficient productive resources to fulfill those wants and needs....
 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
Game theory

Game theory is a branch of applied mathematics that is used in the social sciences , biology, engineering, political science, international relations, computer science , and philosophy....
, 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
    Value (personal and cultural)

    A personal and cultural value is a relative ethic value, an assumption upon which implementation can be extrapolated. A value system is a set of consistent value and measures....
    - 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 and are used at the approiate timing.

Ways of addressing conflict


Five basic ways of addressing conflict were identified by Thomas and Kilman in 1976:
  • 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.
  • Collaboration
    Collaboration

    Collaboration is a recursive process where two or more people or organizations work together toward an intersection of common goals ? for example, an intellectual endeavor that is creative in nature?by sharing knowledge, learning and building consensus....
     – 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
    Compromise

    In arguments, compromise is a concept of finding agreement through communication, through a mutual acceptance of terms?often involving variations from an original Objective or desire....
     – find a middle ground in which each party is partially satisfied.
  • Competition
    Competition

    Competition is a rivalry between individuals, groups, nations, or animals, for territory, a niche, or allocation of resources. It arises whenever two or more parties strive for a goal which cannot be shared....
     – 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.


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

Ongoing conflicts

Many NGOs and independent groups attempt to monitor the situation of ongoing conflicts. Unfortunately, the definitions of war
War

...
, conflict, armed struggle, revolution
Revolution

A revolution is a fundamental social change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time....
 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
Terrorism

Terrorism, according to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, is the systematic use of terror, "violent or destructive acts committed by groups in order to intimidate a population or government into granting their demands." At present, there is no internationally agreed upon definition of 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

  • Cost of conflict
    Cost of conflict

    Cost of Conflict is a tool which attempts to calculate the price of conflict to the human race. The idea is to examine this cost, not only in terms of the deaths and casualties and the economic costs borne by the people involved, but also the social, developmental, environmental and strategic costs of conflict....
  • Competition
    Competition

    Competition is a rivalry between individuals, groups, nations, or animals, for territory, a niche, or allocation of resources. It arises whenever two or more parties strive for a goal which cannot be shared....
  • Conflict management
    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....
  • List of ongoing conflicts worldwide with cumulative fatalities
  • Conflict: Middle East Political Simulator
    Conflict: Middle East Political Simulator

    Conflict: Middle East Political Simulator, often known as ConfMEPS or simply Conflict, is a turn-based government simulation game....
  • Conflict (air traffic control)
  • Conflict style inventory
    Conflict style inventory

    A conflict style inventory is a written tool for gaining insight into how people respond to conflict. Typically, a user answers a set of questions about their responses to conflict and is scored accordingly....
  • Copenhagen Consensus
    Copenhagen Consensus

    Copenhagen Consensus is a project that seeks to establish priorities for advancing global welfare using methodologies based on the theory of welfare economics....
  • Dispute
  • Facilitation
    Facilitation

    The term facilitation is broadly used to describe any activity which makes tasks for others easy. For example:* Facilitation is used in business and organisational settings to ensure the designing and running of successful meetings....
  • Game theory
    Game theory

    Game theory is a branch of applied mathematics that is used in the social sciences , biology, engineering, political science, international relations, computer science , and philosophy....
  • Negotiation
    Negotiation

    Negotiation is a dialogue intended to Dispute resolution, to produce an agreement upon courses of action, to bargain for individual or Collective bargaining, or to craft outcomes to satisfy various interests....
  • Protracted social conflict
    Protracted social conflict

    When the group identity is threatened or frustrated, intractable conflict is almost inevitable. Protracted social conflict, as Edward Azar termed it, denotes hostile interactions between communal groups that are based in deep-seated racial, ethnic, religious and cultural hatreds, and which persist over long periods of time with sporadic outbreaks o...
  • Conflict (narrative)
    Conflict (narrative)

    Conflict is a necessary element of fictional literature. It is defined as the problem in any piece of literature and is often classified according to the nature of the protagonist or antagonist, as follows:...


External links

  • - Institute for the interdisciplinary study of conflict and conflict resolution
  • - A database on the human impact of conflicts and other complex emergencies.
  • - Examples of actual examples of nonadversarial approaches to addressing conflict
  • - 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)
    Heidelberg Institute for International Conflict Research

    The Heidelberg Institute for International Conflict Research at the Department of Political Science at the University of Heidelberg is a private organization dedicated to research, documentation and analysis of national and international political conflicts....
    : from 1992 on – PDF downloads
  • (article) How to manage conflicts in a positive way.
  • - Database of local peacebuilding projects
  • - Download 'Helping Others Resolve Differences: Empowering Stakeholders.'
  • - an article looking at conflict within Christian
    Christian

    A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism#Christian view religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus and interpreted by Christians to have been prophesied in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament....
     churches.
  • (ACS)
conflict is also a mutual state of mind opposing in different ways to two diferent forces or persons.