Continuum of Conflict Management Approaches - Essay Example

? Continuum of Conflict Management Approaches Continuum of conflict management approaches The term conflict in simple terms refers to a disagreement between different parties who perceive threats in respect to their pertinent concerns, interests and needs among others. By their very nature, conflicts involve feelings of betrayal, anger, fear, revenge, anxiety and animosity among other similar feelings, often resulting to serious problems including fighting between involved parties, wars, and even genocides at their worst. Conflict management on the other hand refers to the process of identifying conflicts early, and dealing with them in a sensible, consultative and fair manner. The process involves the use of such skills as effective communication, analytical kills, problem solving and negotiation skills and a critical focus on areas of interest for all parties involved (Moore, 2003). With conflicts ranging from interpersonal disagreements, disagreements in organizations and work places, team conflicts to tribal and racial conflicts either over natural resources, over ideological and religious persuasions among other reasons, many scholars, state governments and welfare organizations have invested enormously in resolution and management options. There are many scholarly materials on management and resolution of different types of conflicts, giving pre-eminence to natural resource and governance conflicts, since they are the most prevalent forms of conflicts across the globe. Others focus purely on small magnitude conflicts involving individuals, families, teams and small groupings in work places, sporting arena or collages. Whether small disagreements between individuals, internal conflicts in a state, a country or international conflicts, resolution and management strategies are universal, varying only in the manner of their application, this is case specific. Among the many strategies formulated by different scholars and experts in the field, is the conflict management continuum presented in 2003 by Moore, offering management approaches that range from avoidance of conflicts on one end to violence on the other extreme end. According to Moore in the continuum, avoidance on the left end presents the soft form of conflict management, with the subsequent strategies becoming increasingly progressive, directive and eventually coercive towards violence at the right end of the continuum. The continuum consists of seven different means of conflict management divided into four sub categories. These categories include informal decision making by conflicting parties, under which there are three means namely conflict avoidance, negotiation and mediation. The next category is the informal third party decision- making, which involves resolution of conflicts by use of arbitration. The third category is legal authoritarian third party decision-making, which involves adjudication through legal court processes. Finally, there is extralegal coerced decision-making category, which includes non-violent direct action and violence at the right end of the continuum. Conflict avoidance refers to a style of conflict management that uses non-confrontational means to resolving problems. Common strategies under this approach include passive behaviours like withdrawing from contentious issues, especially if the issues are not very important to warrant confrontations. It is particularly useful in avoiding conflicting situations in work places, homes and other similar places where genuine errors, slight misunderstandings or differences in perceptions and opinions occur often. Either party choose to avoid engaging in arguments and conflicting situations especially if the resultant negative consequences outweigh positive outcomes offered by a quick proactive resolution. This technique is particularly useful in situations that require additional information on the contentious issue in order to make clearer decisions. The major flaw of this strategy is that it may form a favourable environment for the conflict to grow bigger and gain substantial grounds that make it difficult to resolve (Moore, 2003). Sociologist note that unresolved issues easily damage relations, since resentment and mistrust reigns between the parties. In addition, this strategy is capable of damaging personal goals and aspirations as people give up too much while others may develop a habit of taking advantage of the situation, benefitting from the avoidance of others. In the event that avoidance of conflicts is no longer an option, either because of long term implications or rise of the conflict, the continuum offers other informal decision making approaches of negotiations and mediation. Negotiation involves launching bargain process between opposing parties on voluntary basis, encouraging parties to consider needs, interests and genuine concerns. A third party may be useful to initiate the process if they are hard for parties to start on their own or have reached an impasse. On the other hand, the process of mediation uses a third party satisfactory to all parties. This third party helps in resolving differences through non-violent means. These means include reconciliation and forgiveness. Worth noting, the mediator has no powers or authority over any of the parties, but has limited roles to facilitation of negotiations. At the end of the process as the case with negotiations, decision-making is primarily for the parties involved, who enter into a mutual agreement and implement it without any external influence. As the conflict persists past the first category of the continuum, informal third party decision-making, which involves arbitration, sets in. Arbitration involves submission of the contentious issue by conflicting parties to a mutually agreeable third party to decide on their behalf. This process is informal and private procedure, which is limited to the terms of reference agreed upon by the parties and the arbitrator. This is quite different from adjudication, which is the next process in the continuum, falling under formal legal decision-making category. Adjudication involves a shift of the resolution process to the public domain, with disputing parties hiring lawyers to represent them as advocates in a court of law. Cases are argued out before a judge, magistrates or other legal authorities working for the state’s legal system, who take in to consideration all the arguments, concerns and claim from every disputant, norms and universally accepted societal values in reference to existing legal statutes before making a ruling. Its greatest advantage is that decisions reached in the conclusive ruling of by a public judge are binding and normally put an end to the conflict. The down side of the process is that it creates a winner and a loser, since judges premise decisions on either party being right or wrong. This does not go well in creating harmonious living between disputants. The last category in the continuum is external coerced decision making, which involves use of non-violent direct action and violence as the last resolve. This comes after conflict management process becomes extralegal if court processes fail to offer an acceptable solution. With no- violent direct action, coercion takes centre stage in persuading parties to submit or comply with agreed decisions, sometimes resulting to undesirable actions to force the other party into compliance (Moore, 2003). Violence, the last step in the continuum, is usually undesirable, with one party imposing its will on the other, and forcing it to comply with its assertions no matter how damaging they may be. In conclusion, conflict management at whatever level is a crucial undertaking, which calls for sobriety and commitment by all parties involved. From a social viewpoint, the continuum presents an understanding that conflicts do not necessarily have to result in undesirable endings, by proposing informal process of avoidance, negotiation, mediation and arbitration in the left end of this continuum. Legal authoritative means are also useful in resolving conflicts although they are insensitive to social community dynamics and may result in acrimony, propagating the conflict further. The right end of the continuum presents the most undesirable means of conflict management, which include forceful means like war, colonization and the like. It is therefore important for conflict mangers to concentrate efforts on the left side of the continuum to ensure that disputing parties live harmoniously after the dispute is settled. References Moore, W. C. (2003). The mediation process: practical strategies for resolving conflict. Michigan: Jossey-Bass Publishers. . Read More