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Conflict is a wide concept. Therefore, there are many definitions. According to the Cambridge English Dictionary, conflict is a serious disagreement between people, organizations, or countries with opposing opinions or principles. (Conflict, 2021)
Thomas Chung and Rich Megginson define conflict as, ‘the struggle between incompatible or struggling needs, wishes, ideas, interests or people. Conflict arises when individuals or groups encounter goals that both parties cannot obtain satisfactorily’. According to David L. Austin, ‘It can be defined as a disagreement between two or more individuals or groups, with each individual or group trying to gain acceptance of its view or objectives over others’. (Nicolson, 2021)
The conflict has existed since humanity. People have different education, personalities, views, perceptions, ideologies, habits, needs, expectations, values, experiences, and mentalities. With all these differences it is almost impossible to avoid a conflict.
Most of the time we tend to think about conflict from a negative aspect (it is destructive, harmful, stressful, and can affect mental health and well-being). A conflict has many benefits when it is managed properly: teaches flexibility, leads to solutions, improves communication, helps us to set limits, allows verbalizing needs and seeing things from a new perspective, etc. (Campbell, 2016)
There are five basic functions that conflicts serve within a group or among different groups: connection, definition, revitalization, reconnaissance, and replication. (Challoner, 2021)
When we speak about conflicts it is important to look at forms of expression ‘ how we express our emotions for agreements or disagreements, and how we behave in certain situations (present position clearly, calmly, honestly, or using aggressive language, loud voice). Kristin Behfar, along with other collaborators, has developed a new measure of conflict expression designed specifically to tap into how team members express conflict along two dimensions. Directness refers to how explicit individuals are in expressing concerns verbally and non-verbally, as well as how often they bring concerns straight to the relevant party, rather than through a third party. Oppositional intensity refers to the strength or amount of energy, used to express concerns. (Redding, 2014)
Egg. In one of my job, I had a small conflict with a colleague. I was his superior. The person was much older than me and didn’t use a computer (saying he doesn’t know how to use it). It is important to mention a few things: we worked in a research institute; the person had his own office; while everybody kept busy, he always had time to walk around and stay outside getting fresh air. So, first of all, I spoke to him and explained this can’t continue, we need to do some changes because it is not correct for others. Then I moved to his office a young person (to help and advise if he struggles with the computer and to be sure the older person not going to leave his workplace place too often). As a compromise, I accepted that for some time he can do some paperwork in handwriting and I would help him to type.
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