- What is intergroup conflict?
- Causes of intergroup conflicts
- Resolving Intergroup Conflicts
- Bottom line
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Conflicts are known to all people who, at least once in their lives, have encountered rejection of their point of view or they themselves disagreed with someone’s position. However, conflicts arise not only at the level between individuals, but also between teams, groups, organizations, even entire countries. This allows us to identify the types of intergroup conflicts, the reasons for their occurrence and methods of resolution. Examples of intergroup conflicts sometimes become the history of mankind.
The most striking example of intergroup conflict is war. All people studied history in school, which tells how often people fought to conquer lands, take away wealth and other property, get women and for other reasons. Today, wars are not waged on the physical level, but they take on another form, for example, informational.
An information war is the introduction of information into the masses of people that will not be questioned and criticized, while it will make them weaker, infantile, sick, etc. An information war is waged by one group of people against others.
However, in intergroup conflicts we are talking about small teams, for example, consisting of 3-5 people. When the position of one group contradicts the position of another, and no one is willing to give in or compromise, then conflict arises.
Don't wage war, and then you won't be affected by what happens in it. Quite often people ask questions such as:
- How to ignore criticism from your boss?
- How not to be annoyed because your husband snores?
- How to learn to calmly react to children making noise?
- How not to be offended by other people's actions? Etc.
A person is constantly irritated by something, offended, oppressed, etc. Why? Because he is trying to overcome the world (or rather, those people with whom he coexists).
Stop fighting for the right to be right, and then you will no longer care how right other people are. They may criticize you, think bad thoughts about you, make noise, run, jump in front of you. But you don't care. You are not at war with them. You are not trying to change them in any way. You let them do whatever they want (as long as they don't trespass on your personal territory). It is this position that allows you not to be irritated, not offended, and not to worry about any reason.
Stop fighting for the right to be right. Many people are fighting a similar war. They constantly prove something to someone, teach, read moral lectures. Naturally, in response they hear insults, moralizing and the word “leave me alone,” which offends and angers them even more. While a person is trying to influence someone, he naturally receives rebuff. How else? You, too, rebuff everyone who interferes with your personal territory (what kind of person you should be, how to live, how to behave, etc.). You give instructions to yourself, just as other people have the right to obey only themselves. Therefore, stop waging war, stop trying to change anyone, or set them on the “true path.” It's none of your business. When you are rebuffed, you naturally become irritated.
The only thing that offends and worries is what you are fighting for. If you are not fighting a war, then you don’t care in which corner the socks are or how noisily the children play. You just don't pay attention to all this. You can express your desire, but do not insist on it. other people have the right to obey only themselves, just as you have the right to obey only yourself.
What is intergroup conflict?
The psychological help website psymedcare.ru calls intergroup conflict the confrontation of interests, views, principles and even rules of two or more groups that do not agree with each other. There is no personal or individual here, we are talking about the confrontation of an entire group against another group.
The dispute can take place at various levels:
- For the right to own limited resources.
- For the right to own some goods.
- For the right to influence the life of another team.
- For the right to be considered the main one in any activity.
Vivid conflicts at the group level are disputes between informal groups that are trying to own a certain territory or insist on their vision of the world.
Confrontations are known to all people. Every person at least once in his life has encountered dissatisfaction or the opposite position of another individual. We can say that conflict is an unwillingness to accept someone else’s point of view and insistence on one’s own position. Thus, conflicts occur:
- Interpersonal – when two or more people conflict with each other.
- Intergroup – when the conflict affects the interests of an entire group. Moreover, conflict at this level can occur between teams, between one person and an entire team.
When intergroup conflict occurs, there is no personal element. The dispute is conducted at the level of interests of the whole group, where each person defends the position of his team, and not himself. However, to become part of a group, a person has to resign himself or agree to the rules and position of the group. Otherwise, there is no need for him to join the team. This is why a person from a group can fiercely defend the position of his team, since he completely agrees with it (often the victory of an entire group gives certain successes to each of its members).
The following types of intergroup conflict are distinguished:
- Group comparison, when a group puts itself above another group.
- Deindividualization of mutual perception, when the group’s relationship to another group is built on the principle of “us – them.”
- Group attribution.
At what level does the conflict occur?
- Between the leader and subordinates.
- Between informal groups.
- Between the administration and trade union organizations.
- Between microgroups of one large organization.
- Between different organizations.
Intergroup conflicts take the following forms:
- Rivalry is when teams compete with each other to win a trophy and become the best.
- Collision – causing harm to each other.
- Avoidance is the withdrawal of one group from a collision with another.
- Evasion is when one or both groups avoid confrontation.
- Dominance is when one group has more opportunities or advantages, causing it to dominate another.
- Assimilation is the assimilation by one group of the way of life, rules, and laws of another.
- Accommodation is when one group gets used to and adapts to the constant pressure of another.
Peculiarities
Conflicts in groups and between them have the following features , which are taken into account when searching for resolution methods:
- the ability to involve masses of people in it, regardless of their desire,
- the nature of the deployment has a logic of construction, regardless of the conscious aspirations of the participants,
- is there structural violence,
- direction, each conflict has some purpose, the need to achieve a certain result, the behavior of its members, obtaining the necessary resources, power,
- belonging to a particular institution, political, economic, ethnic,
- additional sources in the form of belonging to a specific social group,
- the persistence of a conflict situation even after the grounds for it disappear, while the damage caused to society or an organization in intergroup conflicts is higher than in interpersonal conflicts.
Causes of intergroup conflicts
Intergroup conflicts can arise for various reasons. There are organizations that depend on each other's activities, so they will constantly intervene and control processes that are not carried out by them, but affect their activities. If organizations exist nearby, but do not in any way influence each other, then conflicts between them will be minimal.
A dispute may arise because one group was rewarded while the other also participated in the process of achieving success. If unequal rewards occur, then the “disadvantaged” will fight.
Limited resources have almost always been the cause of conflict between groups of people. Each group defends its need to obtain specific resources, which implies infringement of the interests of other groups.
Since organizations are made up of people, some teams may become conflicted due to the fact that they overestimate their own importance and benefit to others.
Differences in group status can also cause conflict. Typically, groups with lower status consider themselves disadvantaged, while those with higher status consider themselves elevated and not in need of others.
When a person starts working, he stops conflicting. But if conflicts arise between subordinates, it means that they are poorly loaded with work. A person has no time for conflicts when he has a job. While a person is working, he is completely immersed in what he is doing. But events unfold completely differently when a person does not have a job and is bored. From doing nothing, he begins to look for a job, which is expressed in squabbles, gossip and conflicts in the workplace. This should be understood by every manager who wants the atmosphere in the workplace to be productive and not conflicting.
Load your subordinates with work for which they receive money. This will save you from unnecessary scandals between employees. Because people tend to get bored at work when there is no work, they begin to create additional troubles for themselves. If you don't give them a job, then they will invent one for themselves. And since people take the easiest path, the effortless activity is conflict. It immediately becomes interesting to discuss someone, to follow someone, to accuse someone of something.
People without work will always find something to do. And it’s one thing when such situations occur at subordinates’ homes. But when it comes to work, conflict situations only harm the work process.
Kinds
What is group conflict? Group conflicts are divided into subjects and objects. They are also distinguished by the method of confrontation, the size of the group, and reasons. Therefore, it is difficult to identify a single classification.
By subject:
- national,
- territorial,
- class,
- class,
- professional,
- generations,
- related.
By object:
- socio-economic,
- political and legal, when there is a division of power and influence,
- ideological.
Conflicts can be distinguished by the way they manifest themselves, obvious or hidden. To what extent are they understood by group members and are they adequately perceived?
Conflicts can be aimed at constructive goals or destructive ones. They also differ in their methods of regulation.
Read about pedagogical conflicts and ways to resolve them here.
Resolving Intergroup Conflicts
Conflicts are natural between people and groups. However, their resolution remains important here. If the team sees a conflict with other organizations, then it must make efforts to resolve the dispute. And the desire to cooperate will help in this.
Since organizations often fight for the same thing or are directly dependent on each other, they should remember that the safety of the activities of their opponents will allow them to continue to exist personally. Thus, you need to cooperate - this means taking into account the opinions of your opponents, taking care of their interests, without giving up your position.
All people know from their own experience what quarrels are. But very few people know how to conduct these very debates. Often people use shouting, swearing, and insults towards their opponents. There are often cases when people, when resolving a dispute, take into account only one opinion, completely rejecting the second. Also, quarrels often end in resentment and separation from loved ones. All this makes people negative about arguments, although they are simply part of any relationship where two people and even entire groups meet. After all, in essence, a conflict is a collision of two points of view that in some way contradict each other. And only those who know how to conduct an argument correctly treat the next situation calmly when their opinion is refuted by the opinion of another person.
Quarrels and disputes are an integral part of the life of any group. Therefore, you should learn to communicate with each other in such situations in order to spend time not on proving that you are right, but not on finding a compromise solution.
The first thing required of groups is a willingness to listen. In controversial situations, people sin by not listening to anyone but themselves. This is what leads to an even greater escalation of the conflict situation, because the participants start shouting so that they can finally be heard. You should learn to understand not only your desires, but also to hear the opinion of your interlocutor.
The second is communication at the level of “We-sentences”. In other words, you say everything that concerns you, not your opponents. Build your sentences in such a way that your interlocutors hear about your desires and feelings that overwhelm you. For example, “We feel irritated when you don't tell us about changes” or “We feel tired when you yell at us.” Talk about yourself, not about your opponent's shortcomings. It is the fact that you try to point out your opponents' mistakes that causes them to become defensive and not listen to you. Therefore, do not look for flaws in others, just tell us about yourself and your feelings that overcome you in certain situations.
Third, a friendly and calm tone. Yelling will not solve the problem. A raised tone only forces opponents to increase their speaking volume. And this again leads to the fact that you only hear yourself and do not hear your interlocutors. Therefore, try to conduct any disputes in a friendly and calm tone. Even if your opponents begin to shout, do not allow yourself to shout. Speak calmly and respectfully, because you have only one goal...
Your goal in any dispute or conflict situation is to find a solution. Don’t turn a quarrel into a squabble where everyone can shout and blame each other. Pursue the goal of finding a compromise solution that will suit both. And to do this, you need to follow all three rules described above - listen and talk only about your desires and feelings in a calm and friendly tone. Then any disputes that are inevitable in relationships between people will pass quickly, without unnecessary nerves and in a friendly manner without any losses.
List of used literature
1. Antsulov A. Ya.; Shipilov A.I. Conflictology: Textbook for universities. 3rd ed. – St. Petersburg: Peter 2007 – 496 pp.: ill.- (Series – Textbook for universities).
2. Babasov E. Conflictology Textbook for universities. 2nd ed. Publishing house: amalfei 2012 324s.
3. B. Volkov; N. Volkova. Conflictology Textbook for universities. 3rd ed. Publishing house Academic project 2010 416 pp.
4. Kozyrev G.I. Fundamentals of conflictology:
- textbook M. Publishing House "Forum": INFRA - M. 2007. 320s. (professional education).
5. Kurbatov V.I. Textbook for universities. Phoenix Publishing House. Series Higher Education 2009 448p.
6. Lazukin A.D. Conflictology. Tutorial. Omega-L Publishing House. High School Library Series; 2011. 160 p.
7. Ratnikov V.P. Conflictology textbook for university students studying in economics and management (06000) and humanitarian and social specialties (020000);
2nd ed., revised. and additional M. UNITIDANA, 2007 – 511 p.
8. Svetlov V.; Semenov V. Conflictology Textbook Publishing house St. Petersburg. Series Study Guide. 2011 352s.
