Conflict resolution theory and applications

Conflict Resolution: Scenario Analysis

The purpose of this research paper is to find theories and ways on how people deal with conflict on a smaller scale.

Conflict arises from differences. It occurs whenever people disagree over their values, motivations, perceptions, ideas, or desires. A deep personal need is at the core of the problem, such as a need to feel safe and secure, a need to feel respected and valued, or a need for greater closeness and intimacy. The table below summarizes ways of managing conflicts by Unhealthy responses to conflict

Healthy responses to conflict

An inability to recognize and respond to the things that matter to the other person

The capacity to recognize and respond to the things that matter to the other person

Explosive, angry, hurtful, and resentful reactions

Calm, non-defensive, and respectful reactions

The withdrawal of love, resulting in rejection, isolation, shaming, and fear of abandonment

A readiness to forgive and forget, and to move past the conflict without holding resentments or anger

An inability to compromise or see the other person's side

The ability to seek compromise and avoid punishing

The fear and avoidance of conflict; the expectation of bad outcomes

A belief that facing conflict head is the best thing for both sides

It has been said that, "the discovery cannot be purely intellectual but must involve action; nor can it be limited to mere activism, but must include serious reflection " (Freire, 2000, p. 65).

According to author Dorwin Cartwright ('Group Dynamics', 1960) "a democratic society derives its strength from the effective functioning of the multitude of groups that it contains. Its most valuable resources are the groups of people found in its homes, communities, schools, churches, business concerns, union halls, and various branches of government." Research on group dynamics spearheaded after World War II, whereby social scientist began research on critical social problems. People carry out their activities in close interdependence with one another and rely heavily on the productivity of groups. It is important to ask how individuals relate to groups and how groups relate to larger society. Groups affect the behavior, thinking, motivation, and adjustment of individuals and may have large or small influence on its members. Though groups may been seen as a political ideology, it stresses the need for democratic leadership in order to avoid the pitfalls of the decline or disintegration of the group.

According to author Ho-Won Jeong ('Conflict Management and Resolution: An Introduction', 2009 ) "one of the primary tasks of conflict resolution is to avert the recurrence of destructive conflict by qualitatively altering antagonistic relationships…The nature of adverse relationships needs to be transformed by supporting consensus on power sharing, enhancement of individual and group well-being as well as a guarantee of security." In the examples shown below many of the common themes underlying group dynamics relies heavily on the concept of psychological perceptions, well-being and security. Communication in overcoming difference and the efforts to avoid harmful aspects of struggle are tools used in mitigating conflicts and leading to the resolution of these conflicts. Facilitation is often an essential tool in conflict management, whereby the two parties may enter into negotiations or initiate dialogue to promote understanding of difficult issues. The building blocks of conflict resolution also depend on the ability of the group to engage in problem solving to enhance reconciliation and justice. Ultimately, everyone experiences conflict as it may be internal or external, which may sometimes lead to opportunities such as enhanced knowledge and skills or sometimes to violent behavior that may be hurtful to others. Though conflict may be seen as negative it other cases it may lead to positive life outcomes of increased self-awareness and understanding of others.

Conflicts may arise as a result of a lack of trust in oneself or others; it may make people feel afraid, nervous, and overtly cautious. According to author Robert Wandberg ('Conflict Resolution: Communication, Cooperation, Compromise', 2005), "conflict resolution is one way to build or recapture trust in relationships…Along with our actions, our lifestyle choices can lead to conflict. Lifestyle includes the everyday behaviors people choose." The author states that there are six lifestyle areas that could affect internal and external conflicts. These lifestyle areas are defined by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as such: tobacco use, alcohol and other drug use, sexual behaviors that may result in sexually transmitted diseases or unplanned pregnancy, unhealthy eating patterns, lack of exercise, behaviors that result in unintentional or intentional injury. So it follows that one's lifestyle and livelihood affects ones choices. Poor choices may be a result of nature vs. nurture, meaning may be inherent in ones on personal characteristics as well the environment one experiences. According to teen studies, teenagers struggle with areas of the CDC lifestyles. For instance, teenagers might tend to experiment with drugs, smoke tobacco, have sexual intercourse and may experience internal conflicts. Peer pressure is fairly common in teenagers and group dynamics play an important role whether how much influence is exerted to its members.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, can be best described as working on our thoughts, behaviors, and feelings. According to author Daniel Dana, ('Conflict Resolution: Mediation Tools for Everyday Worklife', 2000) once disagreement is personalized and people become involved with their thoughts, behaviors, and emotions, this crosses the line to conflict. Conflict may often be confused with indecision about alternative courses of action, which can be resolved by sound decision making. Disagreements may also be confused as conflicts yet it might be just a form of communication in sharing the task of solving a problem. Actual conflict in the workplace among coworkers arises when their jobs are interdependent, when they experience strong emotions and perceive others at being at fault, and when they act in disruptive ways that causes a business problem.

Social norms have evolved in different circumstance, hence leading the way to different cultures. Here, we explore the evolution social norms that lead to the development of thoughts, behaviors, and feelings. According to author John Wear Burton ('Conflict Resolution: its Languages and Processes', 2006), "historically, the more privileged and influential members of societies have played a major role in determining norms, and in having them observed by others." The issue of social class plays a role in conflict resolution as it determines the amount of education obtained, the capacity to problem solve, and negotiate. The most basic distinction is between the powerful and the powerless. Various social and political theories propose that social classes with greater power attempt to cement their own ranking above the lower classes in the hierarchy to the detriment of the society overall.

Scenario 1: An analyst at an investment bank has just submitted a financial presentation to the Managing Director. She's been working from 9AM to 7PM this workday and is asked to wait at the office until 2AM for his revisions. The deadline with the client is not until three weeks from today, yet the Managing Director wants the presentation done by tomorrow. Further, it's a Saturday and by company standards and policy every analyst is required to work on Sundays as well. So the analyst is working on his/her only day off. This has been a frequent occurrence for the past several months partially because there has been an increase in deal flow and partially due to the fact that the Managing Director prefers to also work from home. The analyst decides to wait, knowing he/she will have to work throughout the whole night.

Scenario 2: A mentally ill patient sees his/her psychotherapist and is asked to perform the Rorschach inkblot test to better assess his/her personality characteristics, emotional functioning and to better aid the therapy. The patient has lived his/her entire life as an expatriate moving from one country to the other every four to five years since childhood. he/she has lived in South America, Europe and South-East Asia. The psychotherapist is a European national and has never treated patients outside of Europe. The psychotherapist gives the patient bad news about the test. The patient disputes the results on account of cultural differences, which influence texture, color, form responses. The psychotherapist contests this and explains to the patient that the inkblot test is based on complex algorithms and psychological interpretation. The patient decides to leave and seek treatment elsewhere.

Scenario 3: A newly hired recruit just relocated to a new city and is working as a research intern for a business intelligence news corporation that operates at market hours. After three months on the job, the intern has received little to no training and has mistakenly overlooked and failed to notice that one of their competitors has published a press release on a particular stock he/she was assigned to follow. The supervisor is unforgiving and in irritation tells her/him to "go back to wherever it is you came from! We do things differently here. Go water the plants if you cannot do the work" and sends an email to all the analysts regarding the mistaken event. The intern does not report his/her manager to the human resources department about the remark as it is his/her first job and he/she needs the experience.

Scenario 4: A University professor teaching ethics is frustrated with his Chinese students because they have difficulty in speaking English. The professor always marks down their grades for grammatical syntax and spelling. During class he makes a remark saying "We're in America, you should learn to speak English" to one of his international students. The student becomes embarrassed and finds it even harder to answer. There is a long period of silence as the professor continues to mock her/him. Is this prejudice? If so, shouldn't a professor rise above his own prejudices? The student does not report the ethics professor to the Dean of the Department.

Scenario 5: A race car instructor believes women drivers are dangerous. At work, twenty four students show up with a ratio of 4:1 between students and race car instructors. Among the students there are one third of them women with racing experience already. The race car instructor asks his colleague if he can avoid assigning him any of the women drivers because he does not want to slow down his own group of students. One of the women overhears them speaking. To prove the non-believing instructor wrong, she asks to be placed in his group as she wants to be among the fast drivers. She also tells the non-believing instructor that she heard what he said earlier to his colleague and black-mails him that if he didn't comply she would report him to the Chief Instructor. Fearing for his job, the woman is then placed in his group.

Scenario 6: A high school English teacher is gay and rumors about him have spread to the students. The teacher has a Phd in English literature and modern languages and has had a ten-year tenure with the school. While class is in session, one of the students starts laughing and talking amongst his friends. The teenager makes a snide remark about gay people out loud. The teacher overhears this and gives him a warning for interrupting the class.

Scenario 7: A landlord of a four-plex never receives rent on time from one of his/her tenants. The tenant is a single working mother of two children. According to the lease agreement, rent should be made at the first of every month. Since, the tenant is a freelance contractor she has trouble paying on time. The landlord decides to call the tenant at work, then escalates to visiting her home and is at her door demanding the rent due while threatening to evict her. The tenant decides to call the police for harassment.

Scenario 8: An aspiring writer posted a story on the Internet. Under copyright laws, this story belongs to the writer noting a copyright line. However, a few months after posting the story, the writer sees the same story, with a different title and someone else claiming authorship printed in a magazine. The writer sues the magazine and the alleged new author for pirating the story. The magazine fires the new author and makes her/him pay for the legal expenses.

Scenario 9: A professional athlete is late for practice. In a hurry the athlete trips on his neighbor's un-kept bushes protruding in his front yard. The athlete is unable to play for the season on account of a broken ankle. The athlete sues his neighbors for his/her personal injury medical expenses and for the opportunity cost and salary for the season he/she will not be working. His neighbors disagree to pay for any severance damages since they claim it was the athlete's fault he/she neglected to pay attention.

Scenario 10: A beggar approaches a man wearing an expensive suit and asks for some spare change. The rich man decides to tell the beggar that if he gives to one he must give to all the beggars that ask him for money, that there are shelters in place to go to if he is hungry and in frustration remarks by saying "you'll just spend it on drugs or alcohol." The beggar insists and the rich man pushes him to the side. The beggar reacts with anger and pushes the rich man in retaliation. The rich man calls the police for charges of battery against the beggar. There are no witnesses.

Scenario 11: An analyst at a credit rating agency is pressured by his supervisor to give a client company of theirs a favorable rating. The analyst knows that the client's long-term outlook is negative and believes it should be downgraded. The supervisor makes it known to the analyst that if he does not give them a favorable outlook, they might lose business with this particular and important client company. The supervisor decides to take the analyst off the case and puts him on probation for subordination. Instead, the supervisor grants the client a 'positive outlook' rating. The analyst calls a whistle-blowing hotline to report wrong doing.

Scenario 12: A mortgage sales banker decides on approving a subprime loan. The mortgage banker is incentivized by the bonus and percentage he/she will receive in closing the deal. Eight months later, the mortgage banker asks his/her friend, who is a real estate appraiser, to value to the home of his/her former client. The mortgage banker asks his/her friend to increase the valuation of the client's real home value so that they may refinance and gain equity from the value of their house. In the meantime, the mortgage banker receives a refinancing percentage fee and a substantial gift from his/her client.

Scenario 13: Your friend is getting married but you cannot attend the wedding as flight and hotel tickets are too expensive. You decide to send your friend an expensive wedding gift via international shipping. You are given a tracking number. The package has not arrived and your friend has not received their gift. The tracking number for your package says it has been delivered on time. The post office has lost your package. You confront the post office clerk in anger and make a scene.

Scenario 14: A private banker for a prominent bank is approached by a small business owner seeking a small to medium sized loan. The owner is in the wine importing and exporting business and needs capital for the cargo shipment expenses from Italy to the U.S.A. The business model is reasonable and sound but the business owner has a poor personal credit history and had already declared bankrupt once seven years ago. The private banker decides not to approve the loan. In exchange for an approval, the small business owner decides to bribe the banker.

Scenario 15: An economist for an international organization is compiling a country geographic and political risk index. The economist realizes that he/she is missing data for certain emerging market countries. his/her superior asks her/him to assume a best possible judgment yet tells him there is no need to publish his assumption in the disclaimer. Assumptions should always be published in the technical document. The economist goes against his superior's demands and explains to his superior that it is a liability to the organization not to do so.