Process of Managing Conflict

The five stages in the conflict management process are

The Process of Managing Conflict

Stage I: Potential Opposition or Incompatibility

This stage states that the presence of certain conditions gives birth to conflict.  Not all conditions lead to conflict, but one of these pre-requisites is required for conflict to come to surface. For conflict to come to surface, the preconditions may be put under the following three categories.

• Communication
• Structure
• Personal Variables

These conditions are considered as causes or even as sources of conflict.

Communication: Communication though is good for resolving conflicts it may give rise to conflicts too. This can turn out to be an effective source of conflict. It does manifest conflicting forces that come from linguistic difficulties, misconceptions, misunderstandings and noise that exists in the channels of communication. 

Barriers to communication such as differing word connotations, use of technical terms, exchange of insufficient information and noise in the channels of communication are potential forces of conflict. Too much and too less communication both increase the risk of conflict. Up to a certain point, an increase in communication level is useful, but when there is over-communication, it increases the potential for conflict.

Stage II: Cognition and Personalization

This second stage does not come into force unless and until the conditions stated in the first stage affect a party negatively. The