Dynamics of conflict. Stages of its development

Conflict is a way to achieve a kind of unity, even if it is achieved at the cost of destroying one of the parties involved in the conflict (G. Simmel)

The dynamics of conflict development as a sudden or gradual change in relations between interacting participants, depending on the specifics of their interpersonal relationships, the characterological characteristics of the participants and the significance of the goals they pursue, taking into account the reality factors influencing them. In general, the dynamics of conflict development presuppose such phases (stages).

1. Pre-conflict . It is characterized by the accumulation and aggravation of contradictions in the system of interpersonal and group relations. Conflict does not arise instantly; it is preceded by hidden or open socio-psychological processes between individuals either in the consciousness of an individual or in a group, i.e. a conflict situation. A conflict situation is understood as a relatively stable discrepancy over a certain period of time between a person’s intentions (aspirations) and the conditions for their achievement.

An objectively arisen conflict situation can end. Not to receive further development only as a result of changes in objective circumstances. A situation that has arisen subjectively can end either due to objective changes or on the initiative of the opposing parties.

2. Conflict stage. Divided into four phases.

At the zero phase - Incident, reason

– there is a transition from a conflict situation to a conflict.
In the first phase - conflict escalation
- the stage of an expanded conflict, when the aggravation of contradictions between its participants reaches a maximum and the mobilization of all resources occurs: material, political, financial, informational, physical, mental, etc. Negotiations and other peaceful methods of resolving the conflict at this stage are difficult .
Reason gives way to emotions, the original cause and main goal of the conflict may be lost, and new reasons and new goals come to the fore. The conflict becomes spontaneous and uncontrollable. In the second phase - the culmination of the conflict
- one of the parties attacks its opponent in order to resolve contradictions.
This phase of conflict behavior leads to increased confrontation. At the same time, they stimulate the onset of a moment of “revaluation of values.” The third phase
- the phase of choosing ways for further interaction between opponents.
1) given the current balance of power, seek reconciliation, reduce the level of tension in relations, make concessions and thus end the conflict or transfer it again into a hidden form in order to subsequently return to the original conflict situation;
2) further escalation, continuation of the conflict with the involvement of additional (external) resources, bringing it to a higher degree of aggravation.. On the initiative of the participants in the conflict confrontation themselves or an outside force interested in ending the conflict, measures are taken to stop the confrontation, direct the conflict into mutually acceptable framework, resolve it in one way or another.

The third stage is post-conflict , has several phases. Initially, there is a tendency towards normalizing the conflict and eliminating it as such. This happens due to the obvious advantages of one of the parties or the enemy’s fear of suffering excessive damage. Conflictants deplete their resources to such an extent that they inevitably come to the idea of mutual compromise, the need for negotiations among themselves or with the help of a third party. the phase can be characterized by the concept of “consensus”. Consensus is understood not only as one of the possible results of the end of the conflict, but also as a certain state of the organization or its divisions, the opposite of the conflict one. The final phase – summing up, evaluating the results

The end of a conflict means any end or cessation. It can be the result of both mutual reconciliation of the parties, the achievement of a certain agreement between them, and the gradual fading of the confrontation or its escalation into another conflict. The main prerequisite for ending the conflict is the elimination of objective and weakening of the subjective causes that gave rise to the conflict situation.

Methods for resolving conflicts are usually:

Conflict suppression

· prevention, “cancellation” of conflict

· conflict resolution

Causes of conflicts

four main groups can be distinguished into which the causes of conflicts are divided:

Objective reasons
Organizational and managerial reasons
Social and psychological reasons
Personal reasons

Let's talk about each group separately.

Objective causes of conflicts

Objective causes of conflicts are the reasons that determine the formation of a pre-conflict situation. In some cases they may be real, and in others they may be imaginary, representing only a reason artificially invented by a person.

The most common objective reasons include the following:

The collision of spiritual and material interests of people that occurs in the process of life in a natural rhythm.

EXAMPLE: Two people are arguing in a store about who will get the product they like, which remains in a single copy.

Insufficiently developed legal norms that regulate conflict resolution of problems.

EXAMPLE: A manager often insults his subordinate. The subordinate, defending his dignity, is forced to resort to conflict behavior. In our time, no effective methods have yet been developed to protect the interests of subordinates from the arbitrariness of managers. The subordinate, of course, can file a complaint with the appropriate authorities, but most likely this will not yield results. Hence it turns out that in such situations, subordinates have to either make concessions or enter into conflict.

Insufficient amount of spiritual and material goods necessary for normal life and activity.

EXAMPLE: Nowadays in society one can observe all sorts of shortages of various goods, which certainly affects both the lives of people and the characteristics of conflicts between them. Several people can apply for the same promising and well-paid position. This contributes to the emergence of conflicts between people, and the objective cause of the conflict here will be the distribution of material resources.

Organizational and managerial causes of conflicts

Organizational and managerial reasons are the second group of causes of conflicts. To some extent, these reasons can be called more subjective than objective. Organizational and managerial reasons are interconnected with processes such as the creation of various organizations, groups, teams, as well as with their functioning.

The main organizational and managerial reasons are:

Structural-organizational reasons - their meaning lies in the fact that the structure of the organization does not meet the requirements that the activity in which it is engaged puts forward for it. The structure of the organization should be determined by the tasks that it solves or plans to solve, in other words, the structure must be adapted to them. But the catch is that bringing the structure to meet the tasks is very problematic, which is where conflicts arise.

EXAMPLE: When designing an organization, as well as in forecasting its tasks, mistakes were made; During the course of an organization's activities, the tasks facing it constantly change.

Functional-organizational reasons - as a rule, are caused by a lack of optimality in the connections between the organization and the external environment, various departments of the organization or individual employees.

EXAMPLE: Conflicts may arise due to a discrepancy between the rights of an employee and his responsibilities; discrepancy between wages and the quality and quantity of work done; discrepancy between logistics and the volume and features of the tasks assigned.

Personal-functional reasons - due to insufficient compliance of the employee, based on the professional, moral and other qualities required by the position he occupies.

EXAMPLE: If an employee does not have the qualities required by the organization, conflicting relationships may arise between him and senior management, colleagues, etc., because the mistakes he makes can affect the interests of everyone with whom he interacts.

Situational and managerial reasons are a consequence of mistakes made by managers and their subordinates in the process of solving the tasks assigned to them (managerial, organizational, etc.).

EXAMPLE: If an incorrect management decision is made, a conflict may arise between its executors and authors; Similar situations arise when an employee does not complete the task assigned to him or does it improperly.

Social and psychological causes of conflicts

The socio-psychological causes of conflicts are based on the socio-psychological prerequisites inherent in interpersonal relationships. They are also divided into several types:

An unfavorable socio-psychological climate is a situation in which there is no value-orientation unity and a low level of cohesion among people.

EXAMPLE: In an organization or any group of people, a negative atmosphere, depression, negative attitudes of people towards each other, pessimism, aggression, antipathy, etc. prevail.

Anomie of social norms is the inconsistency of social norms accepted in an organization or society. It can give rise to double standards - situations when one person demands from others what he himself does not follow.

EXAMPLE: In an organization there is a person who gets away with everything, while another is required to perform unimaginable tasks and be held accountable for every action.

The discrepancy between social expectations and the implementation of social roles and the fulfillment of functionality appears due to the fact that one person may already have formed expectations, and another person may not even be aware of it.

EXAMPLE: A manager expects a subordinate to perform his duties in a specific way, but has not brought him up to date. The subordinate performs the work as it should happen in his understanding. As a result, the manager’s expectations are not met, which is what causes the conflict.

Generational conflict is usually associated with different behavior patterns of people and differences in their life experiences.

EXAMPLE: An elderly person believes that young people should behave in a certain way, corresponding to the idea that is fixed in his mind. Young people, in turn, behave in a way that is right from their point of view. Conflict may arise as a result of this discrepancy.

Communication barriers - in other words, misunderstanding between people, which can arise either unconsciously, due to the inability to communicate effectively and focusing only on one’s interests, or deliberately, to make it difficult for a partner to communicate.

EXAMPLE: threats, lectures, commands, orders, accusations, humiliation, moralizing, logical arguments, criticism, disagreements, interrogations, clarifications, distractions, deliberate withdrawal from the problem and everything that can disrupt another person’s train of thought and force him to prove his point position.

Territoriality – refers to the field of environmental psychology. Territoriality means the occupation by one person or group of people of a specific space and taking it and everything that is in it under their control.

EXAMPLE: A group of young people comes to the park and wants to take a bench where people are already sitting. They demand to give up their place, which can cause a conflict, because others may not give up their place. Another example would be the introduction of troops into the territory of a country in order to occupy certain positions there, subjugate it to one’s control, and establish one’s own rules.

Presence of a destructive leader in an informal structure - If there is a destructive leader in an informal organization, he, intending to achieve personal goals, may organize a group of people who will obey his instructions, rather than the instructions of the formal leader.

EXAMPLE: You can remember the movie “Lord of the Flies” - according to the plot, the following situation occurred: a group of boys who found themselves on a desert island chose one of the guys as a specific leader. At first, everyone listened to him and followed his orders. However, later one of the guys felt that the leader was behaving ineffectively. Subsequently, he becomes an informal leader and lures the boys to his side, as a result of which the boy, who was the formal leader, loses all authority and power.

Difficulties in the socio-psychological adaptation of new team members arise in many cases when a new person joins an organization, company or any other group of people. In such situations, the stability of the team is disrupted, which makes it susceptible to negative influences both from within and from the outside.

EXAMPLE: A new person comes to the established team of a department of an organization, with his own characteristics and qualities. People begin to take a closer look, adapt, check each other, arrange all kinds of “tests”. In the process of such interaction, conflict situations of various kinds may arise.

Responsive aggression is characteristic mainly of weak and defenseless people. It manifests itself in the fact that a person’s indignation is directed not at its source, but at the people around him: relatives, friends, colleagues, etc.

EXAMPLE: A young man works as a manager in a company. But due to his character and personality traits, everyone makes fun of him, “teasing” him, sometimes not in a very friendly way. But he cannot answer anyone, because... weak by nature. His indignation is sublimated into aggression, which he takes out when he comes home on his relatives - he shouts at them, swears at them, starts quarrels, etc.

Psychological incompatibility is a situation when people are incompatible with each other according to some psychological criteria: character, temperament, etc.

EXAMPLE: Family quarrels and scandals, divorces, domestic violence, negative atmosphere in the team, etc.

Personal causes of conflicts

The personal causes of conflicts are closely related to the psychological characteristics of the people involved. As a rule, they are determined by the specifics of the processes occurring in the human psyche during his interaction with the outside world and people around him.

The types of reasons presented include the following:

A person’s assessment of another’s behavior as unacceptable - the nature of each person’s behavior depends on his personal and psychological characteristics, as well as his mental state, attitude towards another person or situation. A person’s behavior and communication can be regarded by a partner either as acceptable and desirable, or as unacceptable and undesirable.

EXAMPLE: Two people met in a new company. One of them is used to communicating in a purely rude manner, which the rest of the company members already treat normally, while for the other such behavior is unacceptable, as a result of which he expresses his indignation about this. People come into confrontation and a conflict situation arises.

Low level of socio-psychological competence - manifests itself in situations where a person is not prepared to act effectively in conflict situations or has no idea that many non-conflict methods can be used to get out of a pre-conflict situation.

EXAMPLE: A fierce argument arises between two men on some sensitive topic. But while one of them can give arguments in his favor and resolve the dispute verbally and without aggression, the other is used to resolving all issues with his fists. As soon as the situation begins to heat up, one resorts to physical contact - a conflict situation arises, although before that it could be characterized as pre-conflict and a lot of ways could be applied to it to get around the “sharp corners”.

Insufficient psychological stability - makes itself felt when a person is not able to adequately respond to the influence of stress factors during social interaction.

EXAMPLE: The cause of the conflict here can even be a banal “crush” in the morning in transport - one person accidentally steps on another’s foot, the second in response begins to be indignant and insult the first.

An insufficiently developed ability to empathize is the cause of conflict when one person is unable to understand the emotional state of another and empathize with him.

EXAMPLE: A wife comes home from work in a dejected state, she is upset about something, upset, she needs to talk it out, share her experiences. The husband does not pay any attention to this, continues to watch TV or read the newspaper. The wife, not feeling any attention, begins to be indignant about this and a family quarrel begins.<

Inflated/lowered level of aspirations can cause conflict when a person has inadequate self-esteem or assessment of his own strengths and capabilities.

EXAMPLE: low or high self-esteem, self-confidence, lack of self-confidence, the desire to avoid responsibility, the desire to constantly complain or complain about life, etc.

The causes of conflicts we have considered are the most common in everyday life, but they are not exhaustive. Of primary importance in this matter are the situations that serve as causes for conflicts. In some cases, situations can contribute to their appearance, and in others - contribute to their inhibition.

Now we should move on to a question that concerns an already emerging and developing conflict, namely: consider the stages of its development and dynamics.

Beginning of the conflict

Analyzing the essence of the conflict, we come to establish its time boundaries, namely, the moment of beginning and end. Determining these points is important for distinguishing a conflict from a pre-conflict, as well as developing strategies for resolving one or another type of conflict.

The beginning of a conflict is the initial act of opposition between the parties.

In order for a conflict to occur, three conditions must coincide:

conscious and active actions to the detriment of another participant or group of participants, and here both physical actions and actions in the form of information transfer can be carried out;
awareness of the direction of these actions against an opponent or group of opponents;
In response to the actions taken, the opponent takes a response action against the first participant.

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As a rule, when one of the interacting parties takes aggressive actions, the other takes a passive position. There may be no conflict in cases where one of the parties is planning a conflictual counteraction, but at the same time performs only mental actions, and not physical ones. Conflict can end in any form, with different outcomes. However, in any case, its completion implies the cessation of the opponents’ actions towards each other.