Discuss the four stages of the conflict process. Do all persons involved in conflicts experience all four stages of conflict? Why or why not? How does the conflict process affect the quality of the conflict resolution?

In a much more integrated and connected society conflict is inevitable. Businesses, due in part to globalization are now heavily focused on international operations. This often requires a global team with varying cultural and societal norms. Due to the amalgamation of different cultures, beliefs and systems, conflicts are often inevitable. Typically, the conflict process consists of four primary stages which are frustration, conceptualization, action and outcome. Most people in involved in conflicts experience all four of these stages albeit in varying degrees and magnitude.

The first stage of frustration, groups of individuals are may experience a goal of objective being blocked within the organization. This often result in frustration which typically manifests itself with anger. Frustration often results from conflicting perceptions of different parties. These misperceptions are often highest during periods of extreme stress. Hospitals often have a large degree of frustration due to the large amount of stress and potential misconceptions involved with the job. Patients, nurses, doctors and other staff members may experience this first stage due to various circumstances that occur within the job environment (Behfar, 2007)

The next state of conflict is conceptualization. Here different interpretations of the same facts can cause conflict. In addition, the different belief as to the important elements within the factual information provided can also cause conflict. Due...

Technology has exacerbated this conflict stage as individuals are inundated with inaccurate information that is designed to grab headlines and reader attention. In addition, most people no longer look to interpret the facts presented to them for any biases or errors in judgement. Instead many individuals simply take the information as given and do not look to investigate further. This stage of conflict reached its apex in the recent presidential election. Here, followers of Donald Trump believed the election was stolen from Trump due to massive election fraud. However, after countless hours of investigation, no evidence was found of widespread voter fraud. Instead, of reviewing the evidence provided, many of Trumps supporters instead marched and protested at the capital, leading to massive amounts of damage and even death. Here the conflict stage of conceptualization was used in a negative manner by Trump supports who simply did not look at the overwhelming evidence presented against their claims. Instead, they chose to ignore the evidence and take action against others. To a much lower extent this can happen in the corporate or group environment as well. Here, business politics, desire for promotions, or simply a desire to be liked by others can lead to biases in the interpretation of facts. This conceptualization can often lead to incorrect decisions (Ayoko, 2014).

The third step in the process in action. This stage of…