Resolving Intergroup Conflicts
Conflicts are natural between people and groups. However, their resolution remains important here. If the team sees a conflict with other organizations, then it must make efforts to resolve the dispute. And the desire to cooperate will help in this.
Since organizations often fight for the same thing or are directly dependent on each other, they should remember that the safety of the activities of their opponents will allow them to continue to exist personally. Thus, you need to cooperate - this means taking into account the opinions of your opponents, taking care of their interests, without giving up your position.
Types of conflicting personalities
Psychological incompatibility is one of the most important causes of disputes. How to resolve communication problems in a team can be understood after analyzing the behavior of the participants.
An aggressive member of society will disrupt the general mood, will in one form or another impose his own views on others and will not take into account the wishes of others. The main types of such persons:
- Demonstrative. She will show off in front of others, she is emotional and treats people the same way they treat her. There is little rational grain in her behavior, but she is able to adapt to the emerging reality. As a rule, he does not like to work long and painstakingly; he often stimulates the emergence of a controversial situation, but does not admit it.
- Rigid, non-plastic personality. This type is inflexible and straightforward; his self-esteem is greatly inflated, which prevents him from adapting to changes in the social environment in a timely manner. The inability to accept someone else's point of view, suspiciousness and painful sensitivity provoke many disputes.
- Uncontrollable. He is characterized by aggressive and defiant behavior, he does not control himself, is unpredictable and blames others for his failures. In his work and implementation of his plans, he is unconstructive and does not correlate his actions according to the circumstances. He does not know how to analyze his own experience.
- Ultra-accurate. Such a person works very meticulously and is demanding of those around him to the point of being nagging. He has increased anxiety, sensitivity to minor details and comments from surrounding colleagues. He is capable of stopping communicating with someone because of a minor offense and, despite emotional restraint, will really suffer from failures and miscalculations, sleep poorly and get sick.
- Conflict-free. This type, suffering from internal contradictions, suggestibility and instability, is not suggestible, does not think about actions and is inconsistent. Focuses on quick results and always strives for a compromise.
Thus, people with a low level of self-esteem, self-confidence, and lust for power can be considered the most conflict-prone. Group members with a critical attitude towards their own person, tolerance and trust in the positions of others can be considered non-conflict.
Structure and specificity of the conflict
L. Coser is considered the founder of the conflict paradigm in general in the humanities. One of the strengths of his theory is the recognition of the fact that there are examples of conflicts of positive functional significance. In other words, Coser argued that conflict is not always a destructive phenomenon; there are cases when it is a necessary condition for creating internal connections of a particular system or a condition for maintaining social unity.
The structure of a conflict is formed by its participants (opponents, warring parties) and their actions, the subject, conditions/situation of the conflict (for example, a crush on public transport) and its outcome. The subject of the conflict, as a rule, is closely related to the needs of the parties involved, for the satisfaction of which the struggle takes place. Generally speaking, they can be combined into three large groups: material, social (status-role) and spiritual. Dissatisfaction with certain needs that are significant for an individual (group) can be considered as a cause of conflicts.
Causes of intergroup conflicts
Intergroup conflicts can arise for various reasons. There are organizations that depend on each other's activities, so they will constantly intervene and control processes that are not carried out by them, but affect their activities. If organizations exist nearby, but do not in any way influence each other, then conflicts between them will be minimal.
A dispute may arise because one group was rewarded while the other also participated in the process of achieving success. If unequal rewards occur, then the “disadvantaged” will fight.
Limited resources have almost always been the cause of conflict between groups of people. Each group defends its need to obtain specific resources, which implies infringement of the interests of other groups.
Since organizations are made up of people, some teams may become conflicted due to the fact that they overestimate their own importance and benefit to others.
Differences in group status can also cause conflict. Typically, groups with lower status consider themselves disadvantaged, while those with higher status consider themselves elevated and not in need of others.
When a person starts working, he stops conflicting. But if conflicts arise between subordinates, it means that they are poorly loaded with work. A person has no time for conflicts when he has a job. While a person is working, he is completely immersed in what he is doing. But events unfold completely differently when a person does not have a job and is bored. From doing nothing, he begins to look for a job, which is expressed in squabbles, gossip and conflicts in the workplace. This should be understood by every manager who wants the atmosphere in the workplace to be productive and not conflicting.
Load your subordinates with work for which they receive money. This will save you from unnecessary scandals between employees. Because people tend to get bored at work when there is no work, they begin to create additional troubles for themselves. If you don't give them a job, then they will invent one for themselves. And since people take the easiest path, the effortless activity is conflict. It immediately becomes interesting to discuss someone, to follow someone, to accuse someone of something.
People without work will always find something to do. And it’s one thing when such situations occur at subordinates’ homes. But when it comes to work, conflict situations only harm the work process.
The difference between tension and conflict within a role
We all go through a certain process of socialization. From a young age, children repeat the actions of adults, thereby adopting experience and role-playing behavior. Everyone goes through the process of socialization differently, some have had good experience since childhood, others have not seen anything positive. When a person grows up, he begins to behave according to his position and role. And here role tension can arise - the subject is simply not ready for the demands that the public places on him. To eliminate such tension, students undergo practical training, teenagers learn household management skills, and so on.
Tension increases and leads to conflicts when opposing roles are layered on top of each other. For example, a girl is passing exams, being a successful student, and trying to care for a child, having recently taken on the role of mother.
Why does role conflict occur?
The clashes between people, their expectations and ideas, largely depend on the formed norms and rules of society. If a person does not conform to established stereotypes and rules, as well as legal norms for regulating behavior, he experiences a role conflict. You need to understand that it does not appear out of nowhere. First, a person’s action occurs (within the framework of his activity), then his behavior is analyzed from the outside based on the listed mechanisms, then an assessment is given.
Mechanisms of psychological defense during clashes of expectations
Role conflict brings discomfort to a person, because any interference in his inner world is regarded as an encroachment on the security and recognition of the individual. Therefore, during such clashes, protective mechanisms of the psyche are triggered, helping the subject maintain internal harmony.
- Separation of roles. A person deliberately temporarily stops performing one of the roles, thereby giving himself the opportunity to rest and “reboot”. But, at the same time, he continues to respond to the requirements that relate to the performance of this role.
- Rationalization. It occurs when the subject wishes, but due to certain circumstances, cannot behave according to the expectations of others. Defending against a significant role, the human psyche looks for its negative aspects in order to prevent role conflict. Examples of such defense are often found among schoolchildren, people who cannot achieve their goals.
Resolution methods ↑
Before we begin to consider ways to resolve conflicts between an individual and a group, it is important to study the characteristic features of this confrontation:
- The structure of the emerging contradiction . It, as in other types of conflicts, consists of subjects, basis and images. The subjects of interaction in this case are the individual and the group. The basis is a clash of motives (personal and group). Images of conflict – individual and group views and assessments.
- The reasons that prompted the conflict . Without their understanding, constructive resolution of contradictions is impossible.
- Forms of manifestation of conflict . Methods for resolving a disagreement that have arisen are based on how group members express their dissatisfaction with the behavior of the person involved in the conflict. And also on how the individual himself acts.
There is a certain scheme for how to resolve conflict between an individual and a group. It consists of management stages and management actions corresponding to each stage:
- Forecasting conflict . If you approach the implementation of all actions correctly, then even at this stage you can resolve the conflict by simply not allowing it to happen. This requires studying the psychological and individual characteristics of group members, individual work with formal and informal leaders, collecting, taking into account and analyzing group opinions and their values. It is important to understand the harbingers of an emerging conflict and its first symptoms. Examples of such rudiments can be: critical statements addressed to an individual who has decided to oppose the group, restriction of communication with this individual.
- If a conflict can be predicted, then it can be prevented . To do this, it is worth carefully analyzing the causes of the conflict and taking certain measures. They can be both pedagogical (explanation, conversation, reminder of the rules of behavior within a social group) and administrative (transfer of conflict participants to different units, fines, etc.).
- If a conflict does occur, then it needs to be properly regulated . To do this, it is first important that all participants recognize its reality. After this, work is carried out with both subjects of conflict interaction to find possible ways out of it.
- The final stage is the resolution of the contradictions that have arisen . There are two ways here: either the individual who has entered into a conflict admits his mistakes and corrects them, or he leaves the group.
