What is a conflict?
No two individuals are alike or have the same ideas or interests and often there is a different perception of any concept from person to person. The difference in the thought process, nature and attitude may end up in a conflict and fight. This may also result in heated arguments, physical abuses and change in the status of relationship. From emotional point of view, when one person undermines the goal or capability of others it causes restlessness, tension and mental disturbance and severe displeasure. At times, conflict arises when one indulges purposefully in disrupting the growth or attainment of goals of others.
Stages of conflict-
Conflict is not something which comes all of a sudden. It happens over some point of time after a series of discussions or events. Conflict includes several stages like latent stage, perceived stage, felt stage and the manifestation stage and the last stage called aftermath stage describes the conditions that prevail after the conflict.
Latent stage-
This is the initial stage, where the parties involved are not even aware of what is going around them. There are certain conditions where a conflict might arise depending on the emotions of the people involved in it. Factors like communication, tone and volume, certain decisions and intentions that interfere in others’ perception and overt behavior can escalate into an actual conflict.
For instance, take you are an authorized dealer in supplying uniforms, and you have taken orders for the same in different schools. But accidentally you mistook the order placed by school X to be the order of school Y and the orders have been sent. At this stage, both the parties are unaware of the fact that a conflict would arise.
Perceived stage-
This is the phase next to latent stage and at least one of the parties involved is aware of the situation and could sense the brewing of a conflict. At this stage, it is important to step in and take actions to clarify things by discussing in a calm demeanor as what went wrong and attempting to rectify it.
In the above said example of a uniform dealer, when you have realized your mistake by checking the customer order’s details and know the fact that the client or the customer would be annoyed after opening the package, actions should be taken on your part to resolve it. It would be right if you call the customer and intimate him about the mistake on your part, both of you could have a discussion and chalk out a plan to rectify the error.
Felt stage-
At this stage, both the parties involved have realized that something went wrong and are agile and anxious about the situation. You, as a dealer are anxious about supplying the wrong product and the customer at his end must be worried after realizing the fact that the delivered goods are not appropriate to the actual orders placed by him.
Manifest stage-
At this stage, the conflict has manifested to its full form and the parties involved should behave in a responsible way to rectify the error and ease the situation. It is obvious that this phase could witness aggression, sabotage, and withdrawal. An open discussion or communication is essential to arrive at an agreement and addresses the difference in an amicable and genuine way.
In the case of our example of a uniform dealer, the dealer should take initiatives on the first hand to resolve the issue. You could make a phone call to the customer apologizing for the mistake on your part and attempt to resolve the issue either by refunding the money or replacing the product supplied as per the needs of the customer.
Post-conflict or the aftermath stage-
This is the phase after the conflict and it completely depends on how a conflict is handled or resolved resulting in a positive or a negative repercussion in the relationship of the people involved or the organization. If the conflict is resolved in an aggregable way by both the parties it leads to a positive result and on the other hand, if the conflict is handled in a reckless way it is sure to end up having a negative effect. To have a positive result the parties involved should be cooperative and try to focus on the current issue and situation instead of roping in the things previously perceived and dealt with. In case of leaving the matter unresolved it may give a momentary settlement but is expected to explode in a more serious way later. This is called as the aftermath conflict stage.