Conflictology is a branch of science that studies the causes of the origin, development, escalation, resolution of conflicts at all levels with their subsequent completion. Solving a certain number of problems that give rise to confrontation often helps to overcome difficulties that were previously identified in connection with establishing the essence of confrontation and the object of conflictology. The subject of conflictology is conflicts, which are considered by it as a contradiction between subjects, confrontation, and also confrontation as processes characterized by a certain structure and conditions of occurrence.
Conflictology as a science
One of the most important phenomena of today's existence and political life is confrontation, which is expressed by a clash of sides, contradiction, and confrontation. Since the life of an individual in society is filled with duality and differences of opinion, this often leads to a clash of positions, both of individual individuals and large groups, as well as groups of small groups.
The formation of conflictology
In the history of human civilization, there have been and continue to be many confrontations of all kinds. Some clashes arose between individual subjects, for example, as a result of the struggle for resources, while others involved several peoples and powers at the same time. Often even entire continents were involved in confrontations. People have long sought to resolve emerging contradictions, dreaming of a utopian society in which there is no place for confrontation. The emergence of statehood also testifies to humanity’s attempt to create a multifunctional mechanism aimed not only at prevention, warning, but also at resolving contradictions.
Conflict is considered the leading cause of death in the twentieth century. In the last century, as a result of two world wars, local military conflicts, constant armed struggle for the possession of resources and power, numerous suicides, murders, and differences between individuals, about three hundred million people died.
The globalization of the world as a whole, the increase in the dynamism of life and the speed of changes that occur, the complication of the existence and relationships of subjects, the increase in stress levels, tension - all this can be attributed to the factors that influenced the emergence of conflictology as a separate scientific direction.
The emergence of conflictology as a separate scientific branch occurred in the last century.
Conflictology today is a separate branch of science that studies the patterns of origin, development, resolution of various types of confrontations, as well as the principles and methods of constructively resolving contradictions.
The object of this branch of science is the whole variety of contradictions that permeate human existence in the process of his interaction with society.
The subject of conflictology is everything that characterizes the emergence, development and end of any social confrontation. The fundamental goal of conflictology is research, the study of all types of confrontations, and the intensive development of a theoretical framework.
Conflictology is a branch of knowledge that, to study conflicts, is objectively forced to use methods used by other scientific fields. And first of all, psychological methods, such as studying the products of activity, experiment, survey, observation, expert method, sociometric analysis, game method, testing. To study confrontations observed between large groups and states, the method of mathematical modeling is more often used, since the experimental analysis of these confrontations is complex and time-consuming.
Conflictology is characterized by a close relationship with related branches of science: it takes a lot from various directions and at the same time enriches them. First of all, conflictology has as much as possible in common with sociological science and social psychology, since these areas of knowledge study the interaction of people. It is also closely interconnected with history, which explains the reasons for human behavior. In addition, conflictology is characterized by dependence on political science, etiology, economics and a number of other social sciences that specify the nature, mechanisms, patterns of development and consequences of conflicts of various types. In addition to the listed areas of knowledge, this range of sciences can be supplemented by jurisprudence, which studies legal models of interaction between individuals.
The problems of conflictology as a separate field of knowledge are associated with the enormous influence of psychological science on it. Psychology is increasingly influencing modern conflictology due to the significant role of psychological causes in the origin and escalation of conflicts.
Coercion as an outcome of conflict
This method is the worst, since in the process of its action the interests of one of the parties are completely ignored. This type of conflict resolution - although it is very difficult to call it a way out of the situation - is often inherent in married life. One of the partners may believe that he has the right to force the other to perform any actions at his own discretion - for example, washing clothes during the time designated for rest. Of course, the second spouse may agree to carry out this order, but inside himself he will feel humiliation, which only gives rise to a series of responses and a desire for revenge.
The method of coercion is also often used in relations between a manager and a subordinate. Unfortunately, many managers do not understand the limits of their authority, or their motives do not actually coincide with the productive values of certain companies. By unreasonably infringing on the interests of the employee, the manager will receive nothing but constant staff turnover, poorly performed work or sabotage.
Next, the next area where coercion is used is the relationship between parent and child. And here, as in previous examples, an authoritarian parent will not achieve any positive results by constantly imposing his will. He will either raise a person with many psychological complexes, which will result in his own failure as a parent and an adult in general. Either - in the near future or in the more distant future - he will be faced with the fact that the child will begin to show rebellion.
Conflictology is a branch of knowledge, theoretical understanding and practical application of the information received. Therefore, it is possible to apply methods of resolving disagreements developed by conflict experts in any specific area - from international relations to family relations.
Social conflictology
The emergence of conflictology as a separate branch of knowledge is due to endless contradictions occurring within the individual, between individuals and groups of subjects, caused by the social heterogeneity of society, differences in the level of material security and income, social inequality, divergence of goals and expectations. Due to the originality and uniqueness of each individual, the individuality of any social community, conflicts become an integral component of social existence.
Social conflictology is a branch of knowledge that studies intrapersonal contradictions, interpersonal confrontations and confrontations from the position of their social determination, since in society any conflict is predetermined not only by exclusively psychological factors, but also to some extent by social ones. For example, inter-role contradiction within a person arises due to the existence of the need to fulfill several social roles that either do not agree or contradict each other. These roles may make mutually exclusive demands, which inevitably leads to the emergence of severe internal conflict. Despite the fact that the described cases are of interest to psychological science due to the presence of a connection with deep unrest, personal experiences and provoke psychological trauma, they are also considered the subject of study of social conflictology, which is most characterized by interest in the social component of the conflict. Individuals entering into confrontation are also analyzed from a social-typical position, in other words, as bearers of specific social qualities and characteristics, holders of roles, representatives of individual social groups.
Social conflictology specializes in the analysis of group and personal interests involved in interpersonal confrontation, needs, values and behavioral motivations manifested in the conflict, and studies various types of social deprivation (deprivation of values, spiritual and material goods necessary for an individual). It is believed that social deprivation is ultimately the underlying cause and source of confrontations.
The subject of social conflictology is conflict, considered as “the maximum permissible case of aggravation of social confrontation, expressed in a variety of forms of confrontation between individuals and various groups, aimed at achieving socio-economic, spiritual, political interests and objectives, neutralizing or eliminating a real or imaginary enemy and not allowing the opponent to realize his own interests.”
The origin, spread and attenuation of social conflict are determined by the presence, nature and level of formation of social contradictions. Society is always full of contradictions. They are found in the political and economic sphere, ideology, cultural and moral guidelines and spiritual norms. A classic example of divergences in economic orientation is the contradiction that arises between the social nature of labor and the private form of appropriation of the produced product. In political life, an example is the opposition of interests in the battle for power. In the sphere of culture, there is a contradiction between customary values, the foundations of society and innovative ideas, new normative ideas.
The heterogeneity and multiplicity of contradictions causes a variety of social confrontations, which differ in the reasons that provoked them, in the subjects involved, in the subject and object, in the nature of their origin, in the method of distribution, in the mechanism of resolution, in the degree and severity of the flow.
A specific aspect of the sociological analysis of a conflict is its analysis as a subject-object relationship. Because conflict, on the one hand, is a subjective state or action, because social subjects, namely individuals, collectives, groups of individuals, communities, classes and entire states, take part in it and act as the driving forces of its escalation. But on the other hand, any confrontation also involves objective contradictions that exist regardless of the desire or will of the participants in the confrontation, manifesting themselves through their feelings, thoughts and actions. Each conflict flares up around a specific object, for example, status, property, power, cultural ideals, spiritual values.
Thus, social conflictology examines confrontation in such a way as to find out the reason for the development of objective contradictions to the level of open confrontation between subjects of interaction in certain social conditions.
The discipline of conflictology, as a separate sociological direction, studies all types of confrontations, but primarily social confrontation, from the perspective of studying its subject-object components in their interaction, discovers the causes of the formation, development and extinction of conflict, applies sociological methods of analyzing the nature of the emergence of confrontations as a pattern of social nature .
Fundamentals of conflictology
Social sciences are designed to reflect the state of society. Although this does not always happen adequately, they reflect the needs of society. Modern society is most prone to various kinds of confrontations, but at the same time it also strives for cooperation and harmony. The current society is in need of civilized methods for resolving emerging confrontations and tensions. All this necessitated the emergence of a new branch of knowledge – conflictology.
The formation and development of conflictology fell in the mid-sixties of the last century. Its subject was the interpretation of the processes of life, functioning and formation of social systems using the category of conflict, meaning a collision, confrontation of subjects pursuing dissimilar, often even opposing tasks, aspirations, interests and goals.
Modern conflictology is a theoretical and applied science, that is, its content consists of such levels of knowledge as the theoretical interpretation of conflict as a social phenomenon, the study of its functions and place in the system of social interactions, the analysis of its essence, dynamics, conditionality of social relations, the study of specific types of conflicts , arising in various aspects of social life (family relationships, team), technology for their resolution.
The key specific feature of this discipline is its complexity. After all, conflicts are an integral part of human interaction.
Contradictions exist in all areas of social life, as well as at absolutely all organizational levels of society. As a result, followers of various social branches of science are interested in conflicts. Political scientists, sociologists, economists, psychologists, lawyers, managers, administrators, as well as scientists studying the exact sciences, study various aspects of social conflicts, their development and ways to prevent them. The goal, which unites all related areas of knowledge, is to discover and explain the mechanisms that govern social processes related to contradictions and their dynamics, to prove the possibility of foreseeing the behavioral acts of subjects in situations of confrontation.
Modern conflictology is rich in a variety of methods, which are conventionally divided into:
— methods of analysis and assessment of personality (testing, observation, survey);
— methods of studying and assessing socio-psychological phenomena in communities (sociometric method, observation, survey);
— methods for diagnosing and analyzing contradictions (analysis of activity results, observation, survey);
— methods of managing confrontations (cartography method, structural methods).
In addition, conflict management methods are divided into subjective and objective methods. Subjective methods presuppose an understanding of conflict as a completely natural social phenomenon. Objective – consider the conflict taking into account its assessment by the experiencing individual and opposing agents. Both methods only in unity are capable of providing accurate knowledge about the reality of the conflict. Their combined use makes it possible to understand the subjective aspect and the objective side of the confrontation, as well as the behavioral response associated with it.
General characteristics of the structure of conflictology. Study of conflict in history and military affairs
Definition 1
The structure of conflictology is those component branches of knowledge within which the study of certain aspects of conflicts takes place, ensuring the integrity of knowledge about the subject studied within the framework of conflictology.
Carrying out a general description of the structure of conflictology, it should be noted that currently, according to various estimates, there are up to eleven branches of knowledge within which conflicts are studied. As a result, at the present stage, conflictology has developed as an interdisciplinary science that has incorporated diverse experience in studying the causes, conditions and ways of resolving conflicts in society.
Finished works on a similar topic
Course work The structure of conflictology 470 ₽ Essay The structure of conflictology 270 ₽ Test work The structure of conflictology 250 ₽
Receive completed work or specialist advice on your educational project Find out the cost
Thus, one of the branches of knowledge that studies the most active and destructive forms of conflicts is military science. As part of it, at the end of the 20th century. its own theory of military conflict was formed, including a definition of the essence, classification of types of military conflicts, as well as methods of their management and resolution.
The need to formulate an appropriate concept was due to the fact that the classical category of military science - “war”, as a complex socio-political phenomenon embodied in the struggle of states, nations or social groups using methods of armed violence, became too complex for detailed scientific study and understanding.
As a result, an approach was formed, according to which the war began to be viewed as a complex set of individual military conflicts of varying degrees of intensity, each of which individually was better amenable to analysis.
In a similar way, historians also came to the problem of understanding the conflict - having studied wars and international confrontations for many centuries, scientists only in the 70s. XX century they began to talk about the need to identify an independent category of conflict, as a prerequisite and basic element of the corresponding wars.
Do you need to select scientific articles for your academic work? Specify a topic and receive a response in 15 minutes get help
As a result, at the present stage, historians study the following categories of conflicts:
- international conflicts as a component of relations developing between states;
- regional conflicts in which groups of states are involved (most often developing countries);
- ethnic conflicts;
- historical conflicts themselves, studied using methods of specific historical analysis. That is, attempts are being made to understand the conflicts that occurred in previous centuries based on the possibility of a comprehensive study of the trends and conditions that took place in the corresponding periods.
Tasks of conflictology
The development of conflictology as a separate field of knowledge has necessitated the development of its main tasks, which are formed within the framework of the goals pursued by conflictology. The objectives of the science of conflict involve the development of a system of measures aimed at achieving its goals.
The discipline of conflictology is characterized by the presence of the following key goals:
The main goals of conflictology are:
— study of all confrontations that act as a scientific object, intensive development of the theoretical base;
— creation of an education system, popularization of conflict knowledge in society;
— organization of practical work on forecasting, preventing and resolving conflicts.
The objectives of conflictology are problematic issues that are meaningful and expressed by conflictologists, the consistent solution of which will contribute to the achievement of the fundamental goals of conflictology.
Analysis of confrontations involves, first of all, the creation of a theoretical basis for conflicts, which will make it possible to establish the nature of contradictions, highlight the classification and systematize them.
The tasks of conflictology should also include prevention and measures to prevent confrontations, as well as methods for resolving and managing contradictions.
Preventing confrontations involves working with potential conflicts. It is based on predicting confrontation.
Prevention of confrontations is ensured by any activity focused on the development of the intellectual and communicative culture of the community of people, on the formation of certain norms in teams.
Prevention is often referred to as the process of preventing conflict escalation, but these are different processes. Preventing conflict is avoiding it at the moment it arises. For this purpose, a method of manipulation is used, which gives a temporary effect and essentially does not resolve the conflict, it only temporarily dulls it. If confrontation avoidance is used, it may occur later.
Resolving a conflict is the prevention of violent acts, the achievement of agreements, the implementation of which is more beneficial to the participants than the continuation of the conflict confrontation. Therefore, resolving confrontations involves managing them. Conflict management involves providing maximum opportunities for self-regulation of confrontation.
Thus, the tasks of conflictology lie not only in the cognitive-theoretical plane, but also in the utilitarian-practical one. That is, the fundamental task of conflict science is to help human subjects understand what to do about conflicts. This is the main problem of conflictology.
The essence of conflict, the object and subject of conflictology. The main goals and objectives of conflictology.
Topic 1. Conflictology as a science
Plan:
Studying lecture notes (read carefully);
1. The essence of conflict, the object and subject of conflictology. The main goals and objectives of conflictology.
2. Dynamics of conflict
3. Classifications of conflicts
Tasks to determine the level of knowledge on the topic
1. Give answers to questions (briefly);
2. Solve situational problems.
3. Homework
The essence of conflict, the object and subject of conflictology. The main goals and objectives of conflictology.
Contradictions, conflicts, crises experienced by a person, on the one hand, are a source of development of the individual and society, on the other hand, the main cause of death.
Conflictology is the science of the patterns of occurrence, development and completion of conflicts, as well as their management, i.e. principles, methods and techniques for resolving them.
Conflict is one approach, as a clash of parties, opinions, forces, i.e. very widely. Another approach is to understand conflict as a collision of opposing goals, interests, positions, opinions or views of opponents or subjects of interaction.
Among the essential features of the conflict, the following stand out:
· Any contradiction;
· Opposition of its subjects;
· Experiencing negative emotions.
The totality of counteraction and experience of negative emotions is called social tension, which manifests itself at the level of relationships and interactions quantitatively (increasing the number of destabilizing factors and situations) and qualitatively (in the content of expectations and relationships between subjects).
The object of conflictology is conflicts in general.
The object of conflictology includes three types of conflicts : social, intrapersonal, and animal conflicts.
The subject is the main characteristics of conflicts, the patterns of their occurrence, development and completion.
The subject of conflictology
is an ideal model of conflict interaction, its theory, the basis of which is the conceptual apparatus with its central link - the category of conflict.
The object of conflictology
is social life itself, all the endless variety of real, “living” conflicts from childhood quarrels to world wars that fill the social life of the past and present.
Between the object and the subject of conflictology, like any other science, there is not only a relationship, but also a certain distance, which through the efforts of scientists can gradually be reduced, but can never be completely overcome due to the limited capabilities of human cognition. However, scientists constantly strive to ensure that their theoretical conclusions are as consistent as possible with objective reality. The achievement of these goals, as evidenced by the entire history of science, is largely determined by the tools and research methods used by scientists.
The main goals of conflictology are:
1. study of all conflicts that are the object of science, intensive development of conflict theory;
2. creation of a system of conflict management education in the country, promotion of conflict management knowledge in society;
3. organization in Russia of a system of practical work of conflictologists on forecasting, preventing and resolving conflicts;
To achieve the first goal - the development of methodology, theory, methods of conflict management - it is necessary to solve the following substantive and organizational tasks:
1. Overcoming the extreme disunity of private conflictology sciences, familiarizing conflictologists with all branches of conflictology and forming an independent science on this basis.
2. Conducting interdisciplinary conflict research.
3. The establishment of the scientific specialty “conflictology” in the Higher Attestation Commission of the Russian Federation, perhaps first as one of the specialties within the framework of psychology, sociology or political science.
4. Regular holding of scientific and scientific-practical conferences dedicated to methodological, theoretical and methodological problems of conflict management.
5. Creation of a systematic database of empirical data, including the results of situational analysis of real conflicts of all types.
6. Organization of the publication of the scientific journal “Problems of Conflictology”, broader reflection of fundamental problems of science in other periodicals devoted to conflicts.
7. Expansion of scientific contacts with the global community of conflictologists, publication in Russia of the most significant works of foreign authors in this field.
8. Creation of the Institute of Conflictology within the system of scientific institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences on the basis of the Center for Conflictology Research, already operating since 1992.
The solution to the second goal - Creation of a system of conflict management education in the country, promotion of conflict management knowledge in society - can be achieved by solving the following tasks:
· expanding the list of educational specialties at universities for which the course “Fundamentals of Conflict Management” will be a mandatory academic discipline. Since any specialist, especially a manager, is constantly faced with conflicts, this course should be studied by graduates of all educational institutions;
· introduction of the course “Fundamentals of Conflict Management” in secondary specialized educational institutions, vocational schools, general secondary schools;
· introduction of the educational specialization “Conflictologist” within the framework of psychology, sociology, and political science. Subsequently, the introduction of an independent educational specialty;
· introduction of the academic discipline “Fundamentals of Conflict Management” in the system of advanced training for specialists in all sectors of the national economy, especially for managers;
· publication of textbooks and other educational literature on conflict management by the most famous foreign authors;
· publication of popular scientific works on conflictology, completed by psychologists, sociologists, political scientists, philosophers, lawyers, etc., who deal with the problem of conflict, i.e. based on an interdisciplinary principle.
The organization in Russia of a system of practical work of conflictologists on forecasting, preventing and resolving conflicts provides for the third goal of conflictology - solving the following main tasks:
· development of methods and technologies for assessing the risk of conflicts in the main spheres of life and activity of society;
· creation of separate groups and centers uniting conflictologists involved in practice in forecasting, preventing and resolving real conflicts;
· creation of the Association of Russian Conflictologists, the main task of which will be the development of applied, theoretical and methodological problems of conflictology;
· development of universal interdisciplinary methods for analyzing real conflicts and creating on this basis a database that allows one to evaluate current conflicts and compare them with similar completed ones.
The role of conflictology in the development of domestic society
In our country, for the first time, the problem of conflict is highlighted as an independent branch of knowledge. By the beginning of 1998 22 doctoral and 203 candidate dissertations have been defended in the country, more than 311 books have been published on the problem of conflicts in various fields of human activity.
The set of concepts of conflictology can be divided into the following groups:
1) the structure of the conflict,
2) dynamics of the conflict,
3) conflict resolution (conflict management),
4) typology of conflicts.
The combination of these concepts reveals both the object and the subject of the science of conflict. Let's consider these four groups of concepts.
The structure of any object is understood as the totality of its parts, elements and connections,
relationship between them, ensuring its integrity.
The main elements of conflict interaction are:
1) the object of the conflict,
2) participants in the conflict,
3) social environment, conflict conditions,
4) subjective perception of the conflict and its personal elements.
1 Object of conflict . Every conflict has its own reason; it arises over the need to satisfy some need. The value that is capable of satisfying this need and because of the mastery of which conflict arises is its object. The object of conflict can be material, social and spiritual values.
2 Participants in the conflict can be individuals, social groups, organizations, states, coalitions of states. The main participants in the conflict are the opposing parties or opponents. They form the core of the conflict. When at least one of the main parties withdraws from the confrontation, the conflict ends. Depending on the nature of these parties, conflicts can be divided into four
type:
1) intrapersonal
, in which one aspect of personality is opposed to another aspect of it; such is the conflict experienced by Shakespeare's Hamlet;
2) interpersonal
, in which one personality opposes another, as is the case in Gogol’s story “How Ivan Ivanovich and Ivan Nikiforovich Quarreled”;
3) personality
-
a group
, a vivid example of which is presented by Griboyedov in his play “Woe from Wit”;
4) and finally, conflict group
-
a group
, the bearers of which can be both small and large social entities, for example, nations, classes, states.
In addition to the main parties to the conflict, there may be other participants who play secondary roles in it. These roles can be both significant and insignificant, up to the roles of the so-called “people from the crowd.”
The roles of the parties to the conflict are not the same. They differ from both sociological and psychological points of view.
From a sociological
points of view, they can differ significantly in their social significance, strength, influence, which is especially clearly revealed when an individual collides with the state. Of course, in a conflict of this kind, the forces of the participants are far from equal, as evidenced by the tragic fates of the “dissidents” who actively opposed the Soviet state. According to their social significance, the roles of the participants in the conflict are arranged in the following order:
1)
individuals acting on their own behalf,
2)
followed by teams,
3)
social strata,
4)
state.
However, the significance and influence of the parties to the conflict do not always correspond to the indicated sequence. As history shows, the role of individuals not only in the life of individual organizations and groups, but also in the destinies of entire nations and states can be very great.
The role of individual participants in the conflict is not the same with psychological
points of view; in this regard, it can be sublime, even heroic, or it can also be base and unsightly. Each participant can be guided during the development of the confrontation by his own motives, goals, interests, values and attitudes.
Both the social significance of the participants and their goals and attitudes appear especially clearly only when the conflict reaches a high degree of development. It is at this time that the “moment of truth”
in the development of the conflict, it becomes clear who is who among its participants.
3 But in addition to the participants in the conflict, the totality of which constitutes its microenvironment, the macroenvironment, those specific historical socio-psychological conditions, also plays an important and sometimes decisive role in its development.
in which it is deployed.
The concept of social environment
defines the ground on which conflict arises and develops. This concept includes not only the immediate, but also the distant, broader environment of the conflicting parties, the large social groups to which they belong, national or class, as well as society as a whole.
4 But the nature of the conflict depends not only on the objective conditions in a given country, large or small group, but also on the subjective perception
or
the image of the conflict
that is created by individuals or groups acting in a given conflict situation.
This image or perception does not necessarily correspond to the true state of affairs, the actual situation. These images and perceptions of people can be of three
types:
1) ideas about themselves,
2) the perception of other participants in the conflict,
3) images of the external environment, large and small, in which the conflict unfolds.
It is these images, ideal pictures of a conflict situation, and not the objective reality itself, that are the direct basis for the behavior of conflictants.
Of course, in general, these images and pictures are generated by objective reality. However, as Immanuel Kant noted, our knowledge reflects not only objective nature, but also includes our own human nature as its integral part. Therefore, the relationship between our images, ideas and reality is very complex and not only never fully corresponds to it, but can also seriously diverge from it, which serves as another source of conflict.
It should be borne in mind that whatever our images, perceptions, ideas about the conflict situation, the conflict will not begin until they are realized in appropriate mutual actions.
The objective and subjective causes of the conflict, arising both on its near and distant approaches, as well as the composition of the participants, determine the set of possible courses of action and behavior of the parties. Since each action of one of the participants in the conflict causes a corresponding reaction, they influence each other and interact.
Determining the temporal, spatial and systemic boundaries of the conflict is an important prerequisite for successful regulation and prevention of its destructive outcome.
The maturation of the causes, the formation of the composition of the participants in the conflict, their interaction and one or another outcome of the conflict take time. Therefore, any real conflict is not a one-time act, but a process
often very long.
In this regard, the analysis of the conflict involves not only consideration of its structure and statics, but also the study of the dynamics, stages and phases of its development.
Dynamics of conflict
three can be distinguished
main
stages of conflict development :
1) latent stage (pre-conflict situation),
2) the stage of open conflict,
3) stage of conflict resolution (completion).
1 On hidden (latent)
stage, all the basic elements appear that form the structure of the conflict, its causes and main participants, i.e. there is a basic basis of prerequisites for conflict actions, in particular, a certain object of possible confrontation, the presence of two parties capable of simultaneously laying claim to this object, the awareness of one or both parties of the situation as a conflict.
At this “incubation” stage of conflict development, attempts may be made to resolve the issue amicably, for example, to cancel the order of disciplinary action, improve working conditions, etc. But in the absence of a positive reaction to these attempts, the conflict moves into the open stage.
2 A sign of the transition of the hidden (latent) stage of conflict to open is the transition of the parties to conflict behavior.
As noted above, conflict behavior represents the externally expressed actions of the parties. Their specificity as a special form of interaction is that they are aimed at blocking the enemy’s achievement of his goals and the implementation of their own goals.
Other signs of conflicting actions are:
• expansion of the number of participants;
• an increase in the number of problems that form a complex of causes of conflict, a transition from business problems to personal ones;
• a shift in the emotional coloring of the conflict towards the dark spectrum, negative feelings, such as hostility, hatred, etc.;
• increase in the degree of mental tension to the level of a stressful situation.
The entire set of actions of the participants in the conflict at its open stage is characterized by the terms escalation,
which is understood as the intensification of the struggle, the increase in the destructive actions of the parties against each other, creating new preconditions for a negative outcome of the conflict.
The consequences of escalation, which depend entirely on the position of the parties, especially the one that has greater resources and strength, can be of two types
species.
In case of incompatibility of the parties, the desire to destroy the other party, the consequences of the open stage of the conflict can be catastrophic, leading to the collapse of good relations or even to the destruction of one of the parties.
Conflict resolution
In another case, with the mutual desire of the parties to relieve the tension, mutual concessions, and restore cooperation, the conflict enters the stage of resolution and completion.
Theoretical support for practical resolution, regulation, and conflict is the most important goal of conflictology.
Various strategies, methods, techniques for managing conflict, narrowing its boundaries, and finding ground for agreement constitute the content of a special section of this textbook. Here we point out two
Possible ways to resolve the conflict:
1) transformation of the objective factors that gave rise to the conflict;
2) transformation of the subjective, psychological side, ideal images of the conflict situation formed by the parties.
However, the effectiveness of these methods may vary. Their use can lead to either complete or only partial resolution of the conflict.
Partial resolution
conflict is achieved when the external conflict behavior of the parties stops, but the internal, so-called cognitive and emotional sphere that gave rise to the conflict behavior has not yet been transformed. Thus, the conflict is resolved incompletely, only at the behavioral level, when, for example, administrative sanctions are applied to both parties to the conflict, but the objective cause of the conflict is not eliminated.
Full resolution
conflict is achieved only when both components of the conflict situation are transformed - both at the external and internal levels. Such a complete result is achieved, for example, when all fair demands of the conflicting party or both parties are satisfied by finding additional resources.
It should always be borne in mind that the most difficult task of conflict management at the resolution stage is the transformation of the subjective image, the ideal picture of the conflict situation among the conflicting parties. The problem of transforming existing values, motives and adopting new ones requires a high level of psychological training and experience in managing conflict situations from a manager or mediator.
It should also be noted that the conflict does not always go through all of the indicated stages: latent (hidden), open and resolving. Thus, an objectively existing conflict situation may not be noticed or understood by those whose interests it has infringed. Then, naturally, the conflict will not begin. A conflict will not begin even if, after its objective causes arise, they are immediately eliminated.
Exploring a variety of conflict prevention
at its early stages - another important task of conflictology; solutions.
Another group of concepts in the categorical apparatus of conflictology are concepts that define the main types of conflicts and their typology.
The need to classify conflicts is dictated by the research interests of deeper insight into their essence, as well as the practical needs of the most effective regulation of their various types. The classification depends on the criteria that are taken as its basis.
