Hi all! What stages of conflict development exist, what is their sequence and how to get out of them? You will learn about this and many other interesting things from this article.
Every person encounters conflict situations with loved ones, relatives or work colleagues. This often happens due to a lack of understanding of the logic of disagreement. There are even scientists who study these situations - conflictologists. They identified 3 main stages of the conflict.
Conflict implies versatility and mobility underneath. Quarrels are different, so there is no one exact concept. Thanks to the knowledge from this article, you will be able to get out of any conflict situation, you will understand all the stages of conflict resolution.
Stages of conflict
Pre-conflict
It is the initial stage when hostility has not yet formed. There was just some nonsense where one spoke out and the other didn’t hold back. At first glance, there's nothing wrong with it. But the conflict is coming together piece by piece. The grains accumulate and tension begins to build between people. If you start acting right away, the discord can be neutralized. Neglecting this nuance will only complicate the situation.
Over time, the tension will reach such a level that an awkward look, gesture or word will be enough and an emotional explosion will occur, turning into a conflict.
Conflict
Discord refers to circumstances in which people lose control of themselves. Some may start screaming, others will get into fights, and there are also those who withdraw into themselves and simply endure everything. Including people who go to the courts for help, or try to find common ground in order to get rid of a problematic situation. These actions depend on the character of the person and his life experience. The more educated the opponents, the higher the likelihood of ending a quarrel without the use of physical force.
The good news is that feuds don't last forever. When the main intensity of passions subsides, opponents simply go about their business, with their conclusions about what happened. In most cases, conclusions are made based on emotions, which is why they are not always considered as they should be.
Post-conflict
The situation is analyzed by its participants. Whether the desired result was achieved or not. If expectations are not met, conflict phobia may arise. A quarrel that occurs can completely destroy a relationship or, conversely, serve to strengthen it. In some cases, the destruction of relationships entails a series of new conflicts. While strengthening relationships, we can conclude that a quarrel does not entail anything terrible, since after it the relationship only strengthens.
A quarrel not out of nowhere has similarities with a living organism. It has the ability to progress, feeding on the emotions of the participants, creating a certain step towards development, experiencing recessions and increases in energy.
Internal conflict: causes, types and ways to get rid of it
Conflictologists divide the stages of conflict development into 3 stages:
- Pre-conflict contains 2 stages: origin and maturation.
- Enmity is divided into 3 stages: incident, conflict, development of circumstances.
- Post-conflict contains stage 1: consequences.
The main thing is to understand that in the enmity itself there is an opportunity to take control of emotions and use common sense to neutralize a meaningless conflict.
Causes of conflicts
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Conflict situations are provoked by various factors, which are divided into groups:
- Personal. They depend on a person’s reaction to changes happening around him, his ability to communicate, and conduct a dialogue. Usually conflict is provoked by emotionally unstable people who are not prepared to work in a team. When they don’t know how to resolve disagreements peacefully, they can’t win them over, and it’s impossible for them to reflect the emotions of their interlocutor;
- Social. Associated with behavioral characteristics, established standards, accepted norms. Disagreements arise when there is a conflict between people belonging to different generations, the incompatibility of interlocutors in character, temperament, and adherence to different values. Having a leader who creates his own agenda that conflicts with the overall goals of the organization can lead to negative consequences. Discord in the team occurs even when a new employee appears, if his adaptation is delayed;
- Objective. They arise when people’s values and interests collide. Problems can be real or fictitious, existing only in the imagination. That is, a person assumes the presence of a difficulty, gets himself worked up out of nowhere, which happens in the absence of communication and lack of information;
- Organizational. Occur in the course of professional activity. Associated with the employee’s inadequacy for the position held, when he is unable to cope with the responsibilities. An example is situations provoked by managers if they incorrectly distribute work among subordinates, cannot establish relationships between them, and incorrectly formulate tasks.
The factors provoking conflicts are not limited to the listed reasons. Knowing the motive is the first step towards getting out of it. It is important to determine the type of conflicts, whether they are objective or subjective, in order to understand the tactics of behavior and not lead to the emotional development of the intense phase of the conflict.
favorable ending to a conflict situation
Conflict situations are inevitable both in life and in a professional environment. There is no need to avoid or evade them; it is important to establish communication and know the sequence of stages of the conflict and ways to get out of them with minimal losses.
Stages of conflict development
Below is a conflict resolution diagram.
Origin
To recognize a quarrel at the very beginning, you need to have excellent intuition or a significant amount of experience. At the first symptoms of manifestation, the situation can be resolved. One of the best ways is conversation between people. Thanks to him, you can reduce tension and come to a constructive resolution of the situation.
Maturation
At this stage, the conflicting parties already have an idea of the ripe conflict and in what area it manifested itself: friendship, relationships, family, money, and the like... At this point in time, the situation is analyzed, allies are selected and enemies are identified. Having decided on the formation of the group, conflict energy begins to grow. From time to time, initial skirmishes begin to occur, not so significant, not carrying great consequences. At this stage, the best way to resolve a conflict situation is the intervention of an authoritative person from both parties to resolve the situation.
Incident
In most cases, the parties to the conflict realize what happened only at this stage. At this moment, it is already clear who plays the role of the victim, who is the executioner, and who is the judge, and so on... The worst thing is that the conflict can flare up from a banal statement, an unaccounted comma, and the like... The way out of the situation will be to focus on the cause of the conflict, and not on small ones its premises.
Conflict
The stage is filled with aggression, rudeness, anger - all the signs of conflict are observed, resulting in an unpleasant experience and fear of conflicts. When faced with a situation, information is exchanged. In the workplace, injustice is recognized in the duties performed, in the family there are hidden discontents that have been silent for years, and the like... Here it will already help to realize that the best outcome of any quarrel is a truce.
Development of enmity
The essence of the dispute remains the same, but the behavior of the participants in the quarrel changes. To the point of changing roles. Where the executioner is, he finds himself in the role of the victim. At the moment the tension between opponents subsides, the parties try to immediately end the quarrel, since its presence is unpleasant for everyone. Here it is important to be reasonable, show politeness and try to find common ground.
Stages of conflict resolution.
Stage 1.
Psychological preparation for conflict resolution
When a conflict arises, it is first necessary to identify the true motives of the conflicting parties, which are carefully hidden or manifested in the form of claims. The true cause of the conflict should be formulated and the source of its occurrence should be identified.
It is sometimes difficult and impossible for the conflicting parties to be objective, or at least for one of them, since the conflict can be initiated by one of the parties either provocatively, or unintentionally, or out of ignorance (low qualifications). In such cases, the unbiased position of a third party can play a decisive role - the immediate supervisor of the parties to the conflict, a conflict resolution specialist from the HR service, a friend, family members, or work colleagues.
A conflict situation gives rise to a difficult psychological atmosphere in which each party seeks support from the environment, disrupting the normal business environment in the team. For example, he consults with a friend, colleagues, immediate supervisor, and consults with HR specialists. To identify the true causes of the conflict, it is especially important to soberly assess your actions, be objective and honest, at least with yourself. Such actions by the conflicting parties at this stage can extinguish the conflict at the very beginning of its occurrence.
It should be remembered that ending a conflict does not always lead to the disappearance of the causes of its occurrence. In such cases, after a certain time, the conflict may flare up with renewed vigor. Therefore, it is necessary to formulate the problem that gave rise to the causes of the conflict, and this is not easy to do. For example, problems: the enterprise chronically does not receive materials and components from suppliers on time, which leads to a decrease in sales volumes of manufactured products, which means there is no money to pay wages. A conflict arises between workers and management, the cause of which is non-payment of wages. This problem gives rise to a whole chain of conflicts in the divisions of the organization. Conflicts that were forgotten because they were stopped but not resolved suddenly awaken.
Stage 2.
Determining the true problem that caused the conflict
Conflicts, as a rule, appear in a form that either hides the true cause of their occurrence or gives them an unexpected appearance. Often the problem that gave rise to the cause of the conflict does not lie on the surface and it is necessary to study the situation, and sometimes conduct research in order to determine the true problem that caused the conflict and formulate it.
Sometimes relationships in a team are so intertwined that it is quite difficult to identify the true cause. Therefore, you need to be patient and explore all sides of the conflict. Often the parties to the conflict cannot or do not want to know the true cause of the conflict. In such cases, this should be handled by a specialist from the conflict resolution unit of the organization’s personnel management service.
It is impossible to resolve the conflict until the meaning of the true problem is understood, its essence is not formulated clearly and understandably for both conflicting parties. This stage ends with the formulation of the problem.
Stage 3.
Search for possible solutions to the conflict
Establishing the truth of the problem that caused the conflict is the most important prerequisite for its successful resolution. Just a prerequisite, not a guarantee.
Often, conflicting parties use knowledge of the true problem that caused the conflict to gain victory, despite being wrong, and fight to the bitter end. One of the parties either misleads the third party resolving the conflict, if it is not represented by an HR specialist, or wears down the opposing party and seeks to end the conflict on terms favorable to itself. But this victory is illusory. The second side is hiding and waiting for the moment to resume the conflict in a situation favorable to it and settle scores. Thus, this conflict cannot be considered resolved. With such a “victory,” as well as with an unresolved conflict, relations between the warring parties remain aggressive. Aggression in some cases can be carefully hidden.
There are no winners in a conflict, as they bring losses to both sides. A conflict can only be resolved based on knowledge of the true problem that caused the conflict. The conflicting parties cannot be completely satisfied with the result of the conflict resolution, but the most important sign of the conflict resolution is the fact that the relations of the conflicting parties can remain normal.
Life and reality are so complex that a conflict can have several causes, develop in a variety of directions, and the resolution of a conflict situation can occur in different ways. In a word, a conflict can have several solutions.
The firmness of the positions of the conflicting parties, adherence to principles and inflexibility are necessary qualities that play a positive role in resolving conflicts. However, in real conflict conditions, the ability to retreat, to replace confrontation with compromise is required, and this circumstance creates the need to choose from a variety of options the most acceptable solution to the conflict for both parties and in a given situation. Therefore, the parties to the conflict need to be able and have the desire to find such options and master the methods of choosing the most suitable real way for resolving the conflict under the given conditions.
Stage 4.
Development and selection of conflict resolution options
The warring parties themselves can develop options for resolving the conflict independently or with the involvement of a third party. The third party, as noted above, can be a friend, a family member, work colleagues, the immediate supervisor of the opposing parties, or a conflict resolution specialist in the personnel management service of the organization where the conflicting parties work.
It is not easy to choose the most realistic one for the given conditions from the developed options for resolving the conflict. As a rule, the best option for one side is unacceptable for the opposite side. Therefore, it is more correct to talk not about the best, but the most realistic option, acceptable to both sides, which causes the least losses to each side. In any real scenario, both sides lose something, but this is the only way to follow the path of resolving the conflict, to bypass the deadlock. At the same time, conditions are created for the transition from conflict confrontation to the process of settlement and resolution of the conflict.
Involving HR specialists in the conflict resolution process will help develop various options for resolving it and select the most acceptable option for both warring parties. If the opponents are experienced people. Then they will be able to successfully do this themselves, remember all the conflicts that occurred in their lives, and write down options for resolving them or type them on the computer. You can evaluate the most acceptable option for resolving a conflict and select the most rational one using various traditional selection methods that have been used in personnel management practice. For example, the method of paired comparisons.
Stage 5.
Conflict resolution process
A conflict cannot be resolved if the opposing sides do not communicate. At the initial stage of conflict resolution, when both sides are so heated that they do not want to see each other, communication through an intermediary is possible. A third party acts as a mediator, who informs the stubborn people about options for resolving the conflict.
Communication is the most important tool in conflict resolution. After messages from a third party have mitigated the conflict, the warring parties meet to discuss acceptable options for resolving it. Without contact between the parties and informing about their intentions, the conflict will never be resolved. Through communication, every action of one side is communicated to the opposing side. Communication clarifies the positions of the parties, makes them transparent and understandable: whether it is oral or written.
It should be remembered that anger, nervousness, and an offensive tone of communication interfere with the resolution of the conflict, delay, and sometimes make the process of its resolution impossible.
The ability to listen to the opposite side, understand your opponent and the mediator is a necessary condition for successful conflict resolution. This quality is especially important for the third party to the conflict. The nature of man is such that he cannot listen to someone who does not hear him. Few people can truly listen, especially in a conflict situation. When the opposite side speaks, the other side does not listen to it (although it pretends to listen), but prepares, formulates proposals and conditions that it will present after the opponent finishes speaking. This cannot be called communication.
During the communication process, you need to make sure that the other party understands you. If the behavior of the other party does not correspond to your proposal and the emotional speech continues, then you are not heard. You need to be patient and continue to formulate your proposal over and over again, involving a third party in the communication, until it is understood.
Stage 6.
Completion of the conflict resolution process
During the conflict resolution process, the parties objectively evaluate each other and make efforts to maintain pre-conflict relationships: between employees and administration, between colleagues, between suppliers and consumers, etc.
To resolve the conflict, it is necessary for both parties to recognize that each of them is an individual, that each has their own interests, that each has a desire to resolve the conflict while maintaining normal business relationships. If there is no desire to preserve the relationships established before the conflict, then there is no interest in resolving it.
The conflict is considered resolved if, after its resolution, the relationship between the conflicting parties remains intact (with the exception of lawsuits, which leave an unpleasant aftertaste and break relationships). This is achieved provided that in the process of conflict resolution, all three parties (the two conflicting parties and the mediator) behaved creatively, and not as outside observers.
