Examples of professional conflicts and their resolution. Types of professional conflicts

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Social science teaches that any social relationship involves conflict. This is how the world works: what is good for a Russian is death for a German. On the basis of mismatch of expectations, goals and interests, disagreements and conflicts arise. How to get out of such situations with minimal losses? Is conflict always bad? Let's try to figure it out by studying examples of professional conflicts: there is a whole branch of social science on this topic.

How does the conflict begin and how is it characterized?

Science defines conflict as a mismatch of motives, goals, expectations. This contradiction can manifest itself not only outside, but also within an individual. Conflict always involves the presence of two or more different points of view.

Emotionally, the conflict is characterized by stress, tension, discomfort, even at the level of 5 feelings. A protracted conflict, turning into a chronic stage, can cause psychosomatic diseases on a personal level or negativegroup processes in society, such as the breakup of a team, a decrease in labor productivity, a strike.

One can also single out a social conflict: examples of professional conflicts in society are not uncommon. These are the infamous class conflicts (in Europe) or caste conflicts (in India).

Professional conflicts do not arise now: examples from history confirm this. For example, the 19th century was rich in discoveries, but which of the inventors was immediately recognized? All pioneers have a conflict with public opinion.

What sciences study conflicts

Conflict of interest is studied by a wide variety of social and human sciences, depending on the level and causes of the conflict. These industries include:

• sociology;
• conflictology;
• social science;
• social studies;
• psychology;
• management;
• political science and others.

Many sciences study conflict from different angles, but why?

Should we study conflict?

"He who is warned is armed," says folk wisdom. That is why knowledge about conflict as a phenomenon can be of great help not only to managers, but to any person.

Intrapersonal conflict at least once experienced by everyone; some may also recall examples of professional conflicts, for example, the controller had to argue more than once with stowaways, and the financial inspector withdefaulters.

Knowing how to get around or mitigate disagreements, how to get out of a controversial situation, you can save a lot of effort, time and other resources. Meanwhile, science has already systematized conflicts according to various criteria.

Types of conflicts and their classification

On the most general basis, conflicts can be conditionally divided into external and internal: the former are associated with society, the outside world, the latter unfold in the internal arena of the individual.

In the group of social conflicts, working disagreements stand out, among which several more types of contradictions can be identified:

• Labor conflicts. They are associated with employment relations in all its manifestations and are resolved mainly by law.
• Organizational conflicts. They are expressed in the inconsistency of the behavior or attitudes of individual employees or groups with the customs and corporate norms adopted in the labor collective.
• Interpersonal conflicts. Regardless of the outward form of expression, such disagreements are based on personal motives.
• Professional conflicts. They are an integral part of the core activity and, as it were, are embedded in the essence of a particular profession.

Professional conflicts are becoming more common: examples from history can tell us about the famous lawyer Koni, whose work consisted entirely of conflicts.

How do labor and professional conflicts compare?

One should not confuse labor and professional conflicts: they only have in common that they arise in the business field. Laborthe conflict implies the existence of an employment contract, in connection with which contradictions arose, for example, the boss decided to change the working hours, and the specialist does not want to switch to a new schedule. Another option is when, under a collective agreement, an employee has the right to financial assistance, but the employer refuses to pay him this payment. In such cases, the employee can apply to the labor dispute commission or to the court, since the dispute is based on a violation of the established norm.

Professional conflicts are not related to a specific place of work or employer, but are cross-cutting for colleagues of the same speci alty. An example is the activity of a teacher, which is full of disagreements with students, their parents, inspectors, and administration. The situations can be different: the results of the control, exams, the correctness of the paperwork, the acceptability of the requirements are disputed. If a teacher changes jobs, it is unlikely that in this way he will exclude conflict situations from his activities, because they are characteristic of the profession.

Professional conflicts

As a rule, professional conflicts are not the result of malicious actions, but are a natural component of the profile activity. Such conflicts arise as soon as a person begins to engage in his special activity.

There are well-known conflict-generating professions, such as a lawyer, controller or tax inspector. It is difficult to imagine a jurist who, with allagrees, or the controller smiling sweetly at a passing stowaway. In general, few people like financial inspectors, nevertheless they are obliged to work and provide the required indicators, as is customary in the domestic system.

Professional situation of conflict requires special stress resistance and a specific personality type. Is it possible for an impressionable and emotional person to choose the profession of a law enforcement officer, for example? You can probably always choose, but whether it will be of any use is the question.

It is assumed that already at the stage of choosing a profession, applicants understand the essence of their future activities. In fact, it turns out to be far from the case, and the presence of conflicts in the chosen work, the youth guesses many years later, in practice.

Types of behavior in a conflict situation

Social sciences in the process of research have identified several typical strategies for behavior in conflict situations:

• Rivalry. Now one of the most popular methods, undeservedly elevated to the rank of socially approved. An attempt to introduce such a system into the school curriculum does not stand up to criticism, because in essence this model is based on the forceful satisfaction of one's own interests to the detriment of others.
• Adaptation beautifully veiled under the term "adaptation". One of the most common ways of behavior in large corporations, in the context of the total imposition of the norms of corporate culture, regardless of the attitudes of an individual employee. It is expressed in disharmonious sacrifices of one's own interests for the sake of another.
• Compromise. Acts on the principle of "neither you nor me." Such a strategy cuts off the interests of all parties and does not fully satisfy any of them.
• Avoidance is a model for the lazy and fearful. With this type of behavior, the subject avoids both interaction with others and the pursuit of personal goals - a sort of scientific "indifference".
• Cooperation. Seems like the only constructive way out. This is a third option that satisfies the interests of all parties involved. It is this way out that makes conflict a source of development.

Varieties of professional conflicts

In this category, subgroups of emerging contradictions can be distinguished according to various criteria:

• by field of activity: legal, service, medicine, public administration and other industries;
• according to the direction of the load: physical (fatigue, irregular day) and moral (making difficult decisions, responsibility for others, forced violation of other people's limits, and others);
• by nature of occurrence: natural (when a doctor is forced to hurt a patient by giving a therapeutic injection) and artificial (associated with the costs of the state system, when the state inspector, unwittingly, is forced to engage in bureaucratic collection of unnecessary documents).

Further analysis will help to identify other types of professional conflicts, buttheir criteria will be different.

Examples of professional conflicts

There are many of them in the service sector, for example, when repairing household appliances, in a tailoring studio, in a hairdresser. At first glance, a fertile and monetary work, why not a warm place? No luck: working with people always involves potential conflict arising from customer dissatisfaction with the services provided.

The civil service is also not cloudless, because the special status of a civil servant imposes a considerable responsibility on him. In addition, not everyone is ready to comply with the requirements of this or that public institution, and in such a situation, the profile representative of the state is forced to take measures that may conflict with the interests of the participants in the system.

For example, it is difficult to imagine a taxpayer who voluntarily and happily pays taxes to the state. However, the tax authorities are taking all measures to receive such payments, sometimes even forcibly.

A military or law enforcement officer becomes a particularly striking example of a professional conflict: moral and physical, natural and artificial conflicts are simultaneously intertwined here. What is worth one case of the use of weapons, not to mention hostilities or the detention of a suspect.

The profession of a judge is just as conflictogenic, because one of the parties will always be dissatisfied with the decision, considering it illegal. Examples of professional conflicts in Russia are not badthe profession of a statesman illustrates: criticism of them is inevitable.

Domestic and professional conflicts: what are the differences?

From the names themselves it follows that such disagreements arise in different areas of social life and for dissimilar motives. How do everyday conflicts differ from professional ones?

Household situations are associated with situations of cohabitation, violation of the rules of the hostel, good neighborliness, and in the working environment - non-compliance with the norms of behavior in the team, creating inconvenience to employees.

If professional conflicts are inherently the costs of a certain activity, then domestic conflict is usually provoked or deliberately fomented.

Domestic conflicts can be avoided with the good will of the parties and a tendency to compromise, while it is impossible to exclude professional ones.

Career guidance is one of the ways to get an idea of possible conflict situations

Such a subject has been known to everyone since school, and to this day it has not lost its relevance. Career guidance consists not only in determining a person's propensity for a particular activity, but also in familiarizing him with the profile of the chosen profession, its content and content, as well as the risks and benefits.

Career guidance with the help of psychological tools helps to determine whether a particular activity is suitable for the test person, because for each job profile there is a preferred personality type.

Even if the leading direction of activity is identified, within its framework there can be many professions with differentconflictogenicity, which are only within the power of a certain personality type. You can ask a client a question: "Give an example of a professional conflict in the chosen profession," and it will immediately become clear how fully the person imagines this activity.

Psychological portrait of a professional

Determining the compliance of the chosen profession with the personality psychotype, it is advisable to start with a list of professional conflicts in a particular activity. For example, a conflict with a consumer (for a hairdresser), with a counterparty (for a lawyer), with authorities (for a lawyer), with public institutions (for a religious figure), with pupils (for a teacher).

Based on these data, it is necessary to find out which character traits are desirable for such activities, and which are not acceptable at all. For example, for a lawyer, perseverance is important, for a teacher, endurance, for a hairdresser, compliance.

High stress resistance is good in any profession, because such a person is able to quickly switch from one mode to another and not take negative things personally.

How to reduce stress from professional conflicts

Here every professional can find their own recipe if they wish. Of course, there are well-known:

• Experience is the son of difficult mistakes. Over time, psychological protection from stress factors is developed, thereby reducing the level of stress.
• Setting for conflict as an inevitable part of your favorite profession.
• Detachment is a state of consciousness in which professional situations seem to be observed from the outside and have nothing to do with a specialist. Simply put, it's not so offensive that it doesn't concern you personally.

Obviously, conflict isn't so bad if it's handled in the right way. It hardly makes sense to synonymize conflict with negativity, because the potential of stress, according to the laws of physics, can be used for the benefit of oneself and society.