Conflict Development, STRUCTURE AND STAGES OF CONFLICT DEVELOPMENT...

SECTION II. Developing conflict

Chapter 4. STRUCTURE AND STAGES OF CONFLICT DEVELOPMENT

4.1. Conflict structure

Comparison and generalization of various conflictological concepts proposed by foreign and domestic scientists show that, as a rule, the main structural components of any social conflict include the subjects of the conflict, the relations between them, as well as that subject (or a controversial issue, a problem), which is its cause (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Conflict structure

Structural characteristics reflect the components without which the existence of a conflict is impossible: the removal of any such element from the conflict space either brings the conflict to nothing, or substantially changes its character. Under the structure of conflict is understood the totality of the stable links of the conflict, ensuring its integrity, identity to itself, difference from other phenomena of social life, without which it can not exist. Each conflict has objective content and subjective significance. The structure of the conflict is a dynamically interconnected whole system and process.

The objective content of the conflict includes:

- the subjects of the conflict;

- the subject of the conflict;

- a conflict object;

is the source of the conflict.

The subjective components of the conflict are:

- the motives of the parties;

- conflict behavior;

- images of the subject of the conflict.

There are other approaches to the analysis of the structural components of the conflict. For example, L.A. Petrovskaya proposes to include in the conceptual scheme of the psychological analysis of the conflict the parties to the conflict, the conditions of its flow, the images of the conflict situation, the possible actions of the parties to the conflict, the outcomes of conflict actions. N.V. Grishina refers to the structural components of the conflict the parties to the conflict, the conditions of the conflict, the subject of the conflict, the actions of the participants in the conflict, the outcome of the conflict.

4.2. Sources of conflict

Sources of conflict are phenomena, events, facts, situations that precede the conflict and, under certain conditions of activity of the subjects of social interaction, cause it. Sources of conflict can be objective and subjective.

Objective sources, as a rule, lead to the creation of a pre-conflict situation. Sometimes they can be real, and sometimes imaginary, only an occasion, invented by a person.

Subjective sources begin to act when the pre-conflict situation develops into conflict. Practically in any pre-conflict situation, a person has a choice of ways (conflict or one of the non-conflict) resolution of the conflict. In a conflict, objective and subjective sources are difficult to distinguish.

The most common objective sources include the following:

- a natural clash of material and spiritual interests of subjects in the process of life activity

- poorly developed legal rules governing non-conflict resolution of problems;

- a lack of significant for normal life of the subjects of material and spiritual goods.

A separate group consists of objective sources of conflicts occurring within the framework of interaction of entities that are united in an organization. These sources, in comparison with other objective sources, the element of subjectivism is inherent in a somewhat greater degree.

Organizational and management sources of conflicts are associated with the creation and functioning of groups, collectives, organizations.

Structural-organizational sources of conflicts are inconsistency of the structure of the organization with the requirements of the activities it is engaged in.

Functional-organizational sources of conflicts - non-optimal functioning of the organization's connections with the external environment, as well as links between the structural elements of the organization and between individual employees.

Personally-functional sources of conflict are associated with incomplete compliance of the employee with professional, moral and other qualities of office.

Situational and administrative sources of conflicts include mistakes made by managers and subordinates in the process of solving managerial and other tasks.

Socio-psychological sources of conflict are associated with loss and distortion of information in the process of interpersonal and inter-group communication.

Personal sources of conflict - the individual psychological features of its participants, the specific nature of the processes occurring in the human psyche in the course of its interaction with other people and the environment.