This document provides an overview of conflict prevention and management strategies. It defines key terms like conflict prevention, management, and resolution. It explains that while conflict prevention aims to resolve issues before escalation, it can be difficult to determine when and how to intervene. The document then outlines various strategies for preventing, managing, and resolving conflicts, including defining goals, improving communication, compromise, problem-solving, and addressing underlying issues. It also discusses the roles of peacekeeping, settlement, and transformation in conflict situations.
This document provides an overview of conflict prevention and management strategies. It defines key terms like conflict prevention, management, and resolution. It explains that while conflict prevention aims to resolve issues before escalation, it can be difficult to determine when and how to intervene. The document then outlines various strategies for preventing, managing, and resolving conflicts, including defining goals, improving communication, compromise, problem-solving, and addressing underlying issues. It also discusses the roles of peacekeeping, settlement, and transformation in conflict situations.
This document provides an overview of conflict prevention and management strategies. It defines key terms like conflict prevention, management, and resolution. It explains that while conflict prevention aims to resolve issues before escalation, it can be difficult to determine when and how to intervene. The document then outlines various strategies for preventing, managing, and resolving conflicts, including defining goals, improving communication, compromise, problem-solving, and addressing underlying issues. It also discusses the roles of peacekeeping, settlement, and transformation in conflict situations.
This document provides an overview of conflict prevention and management strategies. It defines key terms like conflict prevention, management, and resolution. It explains that while conflict prevention aims to resolve issues before escalation, it can be difficult to determine when and how to intervene. The document then outlines various strategies for preventing, managing, and resolving conflicts, including defining goals, improving communication, compromise, problem-solving, and addressing underlying issues. It also discusses the roles of peacekeeping, settlement, and transformation in conflict situations.
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PPM 315: Conflict Management in
Projects
Lecture: Conflict Prevention and
Management Learning Objectives By the end of this lecture, the learner should be able to: Define the terms conflict prevention and management Explain why conflict prevention is difficult Explain the various strategies and ways of conflict prevention and management Apply conflict management strategies in real life situations Definitions – Conflict Prevention Prevention denotes anticipation of something about to happen and doing something to ensure it doesn’t happen. But theoretically, you cannot prevent a non-existent conflict. Conflict prevention is the idea that action should be taken to prevent violent conflicts from breaking out in the first place, rather that responding once violence has broken-out. We can compare conflict prevention to fire fighting: the designers of buildings hope that the occupants will not start fires, but they do not place all their trust on the good sense of the occupants; instead, they invest in sprinklers, fire alarms, fire extinguishers and other measures designed to prevent the risk of fires raging out of control, that is they introduce ‘preventors’ of fire. Conflict Prevention Hence conflict prevention; aim to resolving a conflict at hand or to prevent escalation, ensures that casual grievances do not escalate to full blown conflicts; or tries to curtail re-emergence of violent exchanges; or both. Conflict prevention as an approach relies heavily on accurate analysis of any latent or minor dispute in the hope of identifying appropriate strategies for resolution or intervention Though human beings have the technical capacity and ability to identify conflict before they explode, as well as the knowledge of the extreme costs of inaction (in terms of life, social cohesion and regional instability), conflict prevention remains in the realm of theory more than practice. Why is conflict prevention difficult?
a) Difficult in judging when a particular party intends a pre-
emptive action, i.e. cause a conflict b) Deciding at what stage of a possible conflict to intervene is also problematic c) What is right – humanitarian, moral or other – does anyone have to intervene even before an attack occurs? d) How do you ensure that intervention does not cause more conflict? e) Might such excuses not lead to unjustified attack on others/to even score/to attack for your own gain? ‘My home is my castle’ - no man has the right to enter my home without permission. Conflict Management Conflict management is the practice of being able to identify and handle conflicts sensibly, fairly, and efficiently. Also known as conflict resolution, involves having a workplace that precludes conflict and a management team that successfully handles and resolves workplace issues Strong conflict management skills are an advantage in most positions, as conflict is virtually impossible to avoid. The aim for professionals in the workplace should not be to avoid conflict, but to resolve it in an effective manner Prevention of Conflicts a) Goal structure: Goals should be clearly defined and the role and contribution of each unit towards the organizational goal must be clearly identified. b) Reward System: The compensation system should be such that it does not create individual competition or conflict within the unit. c) Trust and communication: The greater the trust among the members of unit, the more honest and open the communication among them would be. d) Co-ordination: Co-ordination is the next step to communication. Properly coordinated activity reduce conflict. Wherever there are problems in coordination, a special liaison office should be established to assist such coordination. Managing Conflicts 1. Ignoring the conflict. In certain situations, it may be advisable to take a passive role and avoid it all together. From the manager’s point of view, it may be specially necessary when getting involved in a situation would provoke further controversy or when conflict is so trivial to warrant manager’s attention 2. Smoothing: Smoothing simply means covering up the conflict by appealing for the need for unity rather than addressing the issue of conflict itself. An individual with internal conflict may try to “count his blessings” and forget about the conflict. If two parties have a conflict within the organization, the supervisor may try to calm things down by being understanding and supportive to both parties and appealing them for co-operation. Managing Conflicts cont’d…. 3. Compromising: A compromise in the conflict is reached by balancing the demands of the conflicting parties and bargaining in a give and take position to reach a solution. Each party gives up something and also gains something. The technique of conflict resolution is very common in negotiations between the labour unions and management. 4. Forcing: As Webber puts it, “the simplest conceivable resolution is the elimination of the other party –to force opponents to flee and give up the fight –or slay them.” This is technique of domination where the dominator has the power and authority to enforce his own views over the opposing conflicting party. This technique always ends up in one party being a loser and the other party being a clear winner. Managing Conflicts cont’d…. 5. Problem solving: This technique involves “confronting the conflict” in order to seek the best solution to the problem. This approach objectively assumes that in all organizations, no matter how well they are managed, there will be differences of opinions which must be resolved through discussions and respect for differing viewpoints. In general, this technique is very useful in resolving conflicts arising out of semantic misunderstandings. Peace keeping
The official United Nations account of peacekeeping, the blue
helmets, defines peacekeeping as follows: “ an operation involving military personnel, but without enforcement powers, undertaken by the UN to help maintain or restore international peace and security in areas of conflict.” Peacekeeping is only used after a conflict has escalated to stage 4, when a conflict is defined as destructive. Peacekeeping should be coordinated with other intervention strategies to contribute to peaceful process beyond violence control. Peacekeeping actors working in the area of operation at the micro- level should facilitate settlement processes or facilitate resolution activities (building trust, developing cooperation and communication) and coordinating with peacemaking and peace building efforts at the macro-level. It’s mandate is drawn from UN’s Responsibility to Protect (R2P). Conflict Settlement
A settlement, in this definition, suggests agreement over the
conflict issues, which involves compromise or concession from both sides Using this approach, neither side may be able to achieve all of their goals, but the initial disappointments may be offset by the mutuality of the compromise All parties to the bargaining process approach the goal of settlement with their own interests to be promoted or safeguarded and their own agendas to be addressed Third parties in the settlement-type processes legitimately use pressure, inducements and/or threats (hard power tactics) to control the parties to agree to a compromise solution Conflict settlement Settlement is the quickest solution to a difficult or violent situation. However, its effectiveness is temporary because the underlying relationships and structures that have caused the conflict are not addressed. In practice, conflicts that have reached settlements are often re-opened later when feelings produce new issues or renewed dissatisfactions about old ones, or when the third party’s guarantee runs out. Conflict Resolution Is a more comprehensive approach based on mutual problem- sharing between the conflicting parties The parties cooperate with each other to redefine their conflict and their relationship They solve the conflict themselves by jointly finding their own solution, becoming their own guarantors of the agreement. Rather than compromising or bargaining away their goals, they engage in a process of information-sharing, relationship building, joint analysis and cooperation. The role of third party is one of facilitation without coercion or the use of hard power (power to command, order or enforce cooperation) persuasion. Soft/persuasive power refers to power to induce, legitimize or inspire cooperation. Conflict Resolution cont’d… Resolution of conflicts implies that the deep-rooted sources of conflict are addressed, changing behaviors so they are no longer violent, attitudes so they are no longer hostile, and structures so they are no longer exploitative. The term refers to the process (or the intention) to bring these changes, and to the completion of the process. The process of conflict resolution includes becoming aware of a conflict, diagnosing its nature and applying appropriate methods in order to: Diffuse the negative emotional energy involved; Enable the conflicting parties to understand and resolve their differences; Resolve the differences so as to achieve solutions that are not imposed, which have been agreed by all the key parties, and which address the root cause of the conflict. Conflict Transformation Is a developmental term that indicates the deepest level of change in the conflict resolution process It focuses on the dynamic processes through which conflict becomes violent, rather than focusing narrowly on how to bring a violent conflict to as a cease-fire or settlement. An emphasis on the transformative aspects of conflict helps us to understand the changes that occur in individuals, relationships, cultures and nations as a result of the experiences of violent conflict Transformation is also used to refer to a specific approach to violent conflict that focuses on the changes needed at many different levels of society in order to create long-term peace. This approach aims to transform a conflict from one of violence and destruction into a constructive force which produce change, progressively removing or reducing the social and structural conditions from which the conflict and violence have arisen Conflict Transformation cont’d… Conflict transformation includes the process of peace building, which underpins the work of peacemaking and peacekeeping by addressing structural issues and the long-term relationships between conflicting parties. On the cultural level, transformation is linked to the idea of “Peace building-from-below”, which seeks to identify, promote and build on the resources and mechanisms within a given cultural setting for dealing with conflict.