Conflict
Conflict is actual or perceived opposition of
needs, values and interests. A conflict can be
internal (within oneself) or external (between
two or more individuals). Conflict as a
concept can help explain many aspects of so-
cial life such as social disagreement, conflicts
of interests, and fights between individuals,
groups, or organizations. In political terms,
"conflict" can refer to wars, revolutions or
other struggles, which may involve the use of
force as in the term armed conflict. Without
proper social arrangement or resolution, con-
flicts in social settings can result in stress or
tensions among stakeholders. When an inter-
personal conflict does occur, its effect is of-
ten broader than two individuals involved,
and can affect many associate individuals and
relationships, in more or less adverse, and
sometimes even humorous way.
Conflict as taught for graduate and profes-
sional work in conflict resolution (which can
be win-win, where both parties get what they
want, win-lose where one party gets what
they want, or lose-lose where both parties
don’t get what they want) commonly has the
definition: "when two or more parties, with
perceived incompatible goals, seek to under-
mine each other’s goal-seeking capability".
One should not confuse the distinction
between the presence and absence of conflict
with the difference between competition and
co-operation. In competitive situations, the
two or more individuals or parties each have
mutually inconsistent goals, either party tries
to reach their goal it will undermine the at-
tempts of the other to reach theirs. There-
fore, competitive situations will, by their
nature, cause conflict but if you have good
sportsmanship or are just fair it won’t cause
undesirable conflict. However, conflict can
also occur in cooperative situations, in which
two or more individuals or parties have con-
sistent goals, because the manner in which
one party tries to reach their goal can still
undermine the other individual or party.
A clash of interests, values, action