Morton Deutsch: Constructive and Destructive Conflict

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Morton Deutsch Constructive and Destructive
Conflict

• Neil Ferguson

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Morton Deutsch

• Deutsch, M. (1973). The Resolution of Conflict.
  New Haven, CT Yale University Press.
• Deutsch, M. (1994). Constructive Conflict
  Management for the World Today. The International
  Journal of Conflict Management, 5, 2, 111-129.
• Deutsch, M. (1994). Constructive Conflict
  Resolution Principles, Training and Research.
  Journal of Social Issues, 50, 1, 13-32.

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Destructive Conflict

• Characterised by
• spiralling intensification
• broadening of the issues
• ethnocentrism

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Destructive Conflict

• Destructive conflict can result from these
  processes
• Competitive processes involved in an attempt to
  win the conflict.
• Processes of misperception and biased perception.
• Processes of commitment arising out of the
  pressure for cognitive and social consistency.
• Anarchic social situation.
• Inner conflicts.

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Productive Conflict

• Brings rewards to both parties, similar to
  creative thinking and it requires
• The arousal of an appropriate level of
  motivation.
• Conditions that allow the reformulation of the
  problem.
• Concurrent availability of diverse ideas.

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Conflict Resolution Co-operative Problem Solving

• Deutschs crude law of social relations The
  characteristic processes and effects elicited by
  a given type of social relationship (cooperative
  or competitive) tend also to elicit that type of
  social relationship

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Co-operative Problem Solving

• Why is cooperative problem solving likely to lead
  to productive conflict resolution?
• It aids open and honest communication.
• It encourages the recognition of the legitimacy
  of the others interests and the need to gain a
  solution responsive to the needs of each side.
• It leads to a trusting, friendly attitude which
  increases sensitivity to similarities.

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• Cooperative problem solving is more likely to
  produce the criteria necessary for productive
  conflict, full utilisation of all resources and a
  win-win solution for all sides.
• For example, examine the available strategies
  that have been shown to work.
• Superordinate goals.
• Contact
• Media, information

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Third Parties

• Helping the conflicting parties identify and
  confront the issues in conflict.
• Helping provide favourable circumstances and
  conditions for confronting the issues.
• Helping remove the blocks in the communication
  process so that mutual understanding may develop.
• Helping establish such norms for rational
  interaction as mutual respect, open
  communication, the use of persuasion rather than
  coercion, and the desirability of reaching a
  mutually satisfying agreement.
• Helping determine what kinds of solutions are
  possible and making suggestions about possible
  solutions.
• Helping make a workable agreement acceptable to
  the parties in conflict.
• Helping make the negotiators and the agreement
  that is arrived at seem prestigious and
  attractive to interested audiences, especially
  the groups represented by the negotiators.

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What not to do in a Conflict

• Do not define the conflict as a win-lose
  situation, when it is possible for both to win.
• Avoid violence and the use of threats even when
  one is very angry.
• Avoid attacking the others pride, self-esteem,
  security, identity or those with whom they
  identify.
• Dont confuse your positions with your
  interests
• Avoid ethnocentrism understand the reality of
  cultural differences
• Dont neglect your own or the interests of
  others.
• Dont avoid conflict face it.
• Avoid black and white thinking as well as
  stereotyping and demonizing the other during
  heated conflict.

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What to do in a Conflict

• Find common ground between oneself and the other.
• Listen and communicate honestly and effectively
  so that underlying feelings as well as thoughts
  are clearly understood, and check continually
  ones success in doing that.
• Take the perspective of the other.
• Social problem solve. This involves doing several
  things
• Reframe the conflict so that it is perceived as a
  mutual problem requiring cooperation.
• Define the conflict through the identification of
  the incompatible actions, values, interests,
  goals, needs, or beliefs.
• Diagnose the conditions that reduce or enhance
  the incompatibilities.
• Search for or invent fair options that lead to
  mutual gain.
• Evaluate and select among the options the one
  that is viewed as fair and best meets the
  legitimate needs of the parties involved.
• Develop methods for dealing with difficult
  conflicts so that one is not helpless or hopeless
  when confronting those who are more powerful or
  those who use dirty tricks.
• Know oneself and how one typically responds in
  different sorts of conflict situations so that
  one can control habitual tendencies that may be
  dysfunctional.