PRECONCEPTIONS ABOUT CONFLICT I:Pedagogical development, Pressures against Innovation

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Conflict Management HRM624

Lesson 4

PRECONCEPTIONS ABOUT CONFLICT I

Quotations

An ounce of mediation is worth a pound of arbitration and a ton of litigation.

Joseph Grynbaum

The courts of this country should not be the places where the disputes end after alternative methods of

resolving disputes have been considered and tried.

Justice Sandra Day O'Connor

Introduction

This lecture deals with the discussion about the misperceptions about conflict. Before we proceed the

following points regarding conflict must be clear in mind. We have discussed them in the previous lectures.

Interpersonal conflict is all around us. We confront interpersonal conflict when we decide who will do the

house work, attend staff meetings, negotiate for a raise, or discipline a child. Any time we deal another

person, the possibility of incompatible goals raises the possibility of conflict. We must remember that

· Conflict is not the opposite of the order

· Interpersonal conflict is to be distinguished from inner conflict

· Conflict is an escalated but natural competition between two or more parties.

· Conflict is an unusual occurrence

· Extreme form of conflict is violence and violence generally hurts weaker parties.

Misperception in Interpersonal Conflict

There are certain misperceptions about interpersonal conflict

a. Ubiquitous and invisible

b. Importance of recognizing

Impairs our ability to respond to conflict

Impairs our ability to choose ADR processes and providers

Pedagogical development

The craft metaphor of pedagogical development

· Narrow experiences create narrow beliefs and assumptions

· Bronfenbrenner's theory (bioecological systems theory) defines complex "layers" of environment,

each having an effect on the development of persons and their consequential disagreements or

conflicts.

· Development of knowledge base in favour of ADR and clarify the advantages of non-adversarial

approaches.

Pressures against Innovation Social Ecology

· Macro system reflects dominant values and perceptions

· Individuals gain practice and proficiency

· Individuals transmit dominant values and perceptions to children

· Efficacy of dominant values and perceptions seems "obvious"

· Individuals perpetuate dominant values and perceptions

Bio-ecological Systems Theory

Bronfenbrenner, an eminent developmental psychologist, named the overall social structure that acts as a

source of blueprints for individuals the macrosystem. The macrosystem includes the important institutions

in which we operate- the court system, the governmental structure and so on. In his influential theory of

Conflict Management HRM624

Social Ecology, Bronfenbrenner postulated that there is a synergistic relationship between the macrosystem

and the individual.

This theory looks at a child's development within the context of the system of relationships that form his or

her environment.

Bronfenbrenner's theory defines complex "layers" of environment, each having an effect on a child's

development. This theory has recently been renamed "bioecological systems theory" to emphasize that a

child's own biology is a primary environment fueling her development. The interaction between factors in

the child's maturing biology, his immediate family/community environment, and the societal landscape

fuels and steers his development. Changes or conflict in any one layer will ripple throughout other layers.

To study a child's development then, we must look not only at the child and her immediate environment,

but also at the interaction of the larger environment as well.

The macro system is structured to reflect the cultural belief systems of its inhabitants-that is because a

society is composed of its individual members, and their collective efforts maintain the macro system. The

macro system's structure generates situations in which individuals, to survive and do well, must adopt

blueprints and use tools consistent with the overall cultural belief systems.

Components of Mastery of Environment

Following are the components of mastery

· Idea, plan or roadmap.

· Skills, strategies, tool (a tool box of mastery).

· Proficiency-the ability to competently apply the right tools (skills and means) to a given situation to

execute the plan of action.

· Apparent superiority of status quo.

a. Practice creates high degree of efficiency

b. Testing new ways will necessarily lack efficiency

c. The failures of innovations are taken as the inferiority of innovation over the existing

practice, rather than to the lack of efficiency.

Pressures against Innovation

Here are some pressures against Innovation.

a. We lack proficiency in using new ways and tools.

b. Poor and inefficient outcomes result.

c. Poor and inefficient outcomes likely to be attributed to the innovative ideas or means.

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