Page 51 - eBOOK ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR FULL REPORT (eISBN)

6.6 Stages in Conflict Process

The conflict process has five stages: potential opposition or incompatibility, cognition and
personalization, intentions, behavior, and outcomes.

a) Stage I: Potential opposition or incompatibility

The first stage in the conflict process is the existence of conditions that allow
conflict to arise. These cause or create opportunities for conflict to rise. These

conditions have been condensed into three general categories

● Communication
● Structure

● Personal variables

b) Stage II: Cognition and personalization

The second stage is conflict must be perceived by the parties to it whether or not
the conflict exists is a perception issue. If no one is aware of a conflict, then it is

generally agreed that no conflict exists.

c) Stage III: Intentions

Intentions come between people’s perceptions and emotions and help those who

are involved in the potential conflict to decide to act in a particular way. One has

to infer what the other person meant in order to determine how to respond to a
statement or action. A lot of conflicts are escalated because one party infers the
wrong intentions from the other person.

There are five different ways a person can respond to the other party’s statements or

actions.
● Competing. One party seeks to satisfy his own interests regardless of the

impact on the other party.

41 | P a g e