Conflict

:For the anarcho-punk band, see Conflict (band).

Types and Modes of Conflict

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

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Conflict can exist at a variety of levels of analysis:

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• intrapersonal conflict (though this usually just gets delegated out to psychology)
• interpersonal conflict
• group conflict
• organizational conflict
• community conflict
• intra-state conflict (for example: civil wars, election campaigns)
• international 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.)

Related Topics:
Marie Dugan - John Paul Lederach

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Theorists have claimed that parties can conceptualise 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:

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• 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.

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Several theorists detect successive phases in the development of conflicts.

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Practitioners of nonviolence have developed many practices to solve social and politial conflicts without resorting to violence or coercion.

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