Group Communication, Conflict And
What is conflict? Is it the clash of personalities? Is it a difference of opinion? Is it a misunderstanding? Is it the attempt to right a wrong? Is it a contest for scarce resources? Group members engage in conflict for all these reasons. It seems that everyone knows conflict when they see it. Yet, when individuals experience conflict, they find it difficult, at best, to understand it and deal with it. The same is true for those who study it.
How and Why Groups Engage in Conflict
Group communication researchers pay special attention to how conflict is expressed, created, and managed through communication. While they recognize numerous causes for conflict, they focus on the variety of ways in which group members use messages to express conflict. Researchers' special interest lies in how people use messages to manage the "causes" of conflict, such as the scarcity of resources, differences between personalities, differences between ideas, and even differences about how to handle differences.
Group communication researchers are keen to learn the ways in which communication itself contributes to conflict. Consider how group members' beliefs about conflict can differ depending on their habits for handling conflict. One group member may handle conflict through avoidance.
This is a free page. This page contains 201 words. This
article contains 2,147 words (approx. 7 pages at 300
words per page).
Read the rest of this Article with our Group Communication, Conflict And Access Pass.
