Methods for diagnosing conflicts in an organization

Conflicts cover all spheres of people's life, the totality of social relations, social interaction. The conflict, in fact, is one of the types of social interaction, the subjects and participants of which are individuals, large and small social groups and organizations. Conflict interaction involves the confrontation of the parties, i.e. actions against each other.

The conflict grows out of the conflict situation, which is the basis of the conflict. A conflict situation is a situation in which the incompatibility of the actions of one side with the norms and expectations of the other is manifested and realized by the parties.

2.1 Conflict diagnosis

Conflict management should be preceded by the stage of its diagnosis, i. determination of the main components of the conflict, the causes that gave rise to it. In most cases, the diagnosis involves determining:

The origins of the conflict, subjective or objective experiences of the parties, ways of “fighting”, contradictions of opinions, events, affected needs and interests;

Biographies of the conflict, ie. its history, the background against which it progressed, the escalation of the conflict, the crises and turning points in its development;

Participants in conflict interaction: individuals, groups, units;

Positions and relations of the parties, their interdependence, roles, expectations, personal relationships;

Initial attitudes to the conflict - whether the parties themselves want and can resolve the conflict, what are their hopes, expectations, attitudes, conditions, or is the conflict provoked specifically in the interests of one of the parties, which constantly maintains a level of tension.

Methods for diagnosing organizational conflicts.

The main methods for diagnosing conflicts:

Descriptive and analytical methods: description and analysis of specific conflict situations according to the schemes proposed by the researcher (comparative-historical, systems approach, logical analysis, etc.)

The main parameters are closer to research than to diagnostics:

obtaining new knowledge;

orientation to a larger amount of new knowledge;

part of the object is being examined

interpretation is obligatory: explanation is the result of the study.

Diagnostics of organizational conflicts according to L.Grinkhelg's model.

1. The subject of the dispute.

Whether it is a “matter of principle” or whether it touches on individual disagreements of the parties. Deviating from one's own principles is difficult, so to the extent that the conflict is related to individual differences of the parties, it lends itself more easily to constructive resolution.

bet size. -

what is the value of what can be lost by a participant in the conflict in the event of an unsuccessful outcome for him. Greenhalg believes that people may exaggerate the real value of a "bet" if they are engaged in a win-oriented confrontation or if the outcome of the conflict could set a precedent for subsequent situations.

The nature and degree of interdependence of the participants in this conflict.

Does the participants bind “strict rivalry”, when the gain of one side means the loss of the other, in connection with which there is a strong tendency to follow only their own interests, or can a solution be found in which the parties can mutually benefit from resolving the conflict. Zero-sum relationships (one side wins at the expense of the other) make conflict difficult to resolve.

The nature of the relationship between the parties.

Whether they are episodic (limited to a given situation - a single transaction) or the participants in the conflict have long-term relationships. The latter circumstance will contribute to a more successful search for a solution.

The structure of the parties.

For organizational conflicts, an important characteristic from the point of view of the ease or difficulty of resolving conflicts is such a characteristic as the presence of strong leaders of the opposing sides. A strong leader is able to unite his supporters to reach an agreement. Greenhalg cites the experience of working with unions in decision-making situations for organizational innovation. Strong leaders may take a tough negotiating stance and bargain hard, but ensure that agreements are kept. In the case of a weak leader, his position may be challenged by members of the group who disagree with him, as a result of which resistance to change and conflicts on this basis may become chronic.

Participation of a third neutral party

Even if the third party is not actively involved in the dialogue between the parties to the conflict, its very presence can restrain some destructive manifestations, primarily of an emotional nature, in the conflict interaction of the parties. The positive influence will potentially be stronger, the more prestigious. Influential, credible and neutral is the third party.

Perceived progress of the conflict

Is there a possibility of an equal "price" of the conflict for both sides, or does one of them feel more affected. The latter circumstance complicates the search for a way out. Although this score is determined subjectively, the parties want to be convinced that the overall score is roughly equal and that everyone has already suffered enough.

2. Experimental studies of conflict

The largest number of methodological procedures for the experimental study of the conflict was proposed by representatives of the behaviorist pradigm. Among the experimental game procedures developed by them are matrix games (such as the "prisoner's dilemma", coalition games (involving the formation of coalitions by the participants within the group), locomotion games (with the movement of the parties in the direction of the task or the goal chosen by the participants) and social trap games (social tasks -dilemmas).

To study conflict interaction in the laboratory, business game tasks are used that are related to the distribution of common resources or the need for joint care of them. We can talk, for example, about general finance.

However, all these tasks can be used to study the behavior of people in conflicts or to teach them certain ways of behaving, choosing strategies, etc. But you can't use them to diagnose real conflicts, because when diagnosing, you're dealing with integrity, and not with separate aspects of the conflict.

Another variant of the methodological procedure for the experimental study of conflicts is the creation of real conflict situations between participants in the experiment in the laboratory. Usually, the subject needs to complete some task, and a figurehead - a participant in the experiment - interferes with him. Thus, the choice of a strategy of behavior, the response of participants to a conflict situation is studied.

Experiments with provoking conflicts in natural conditions.

Studies of this kind most often model short-term interaction, in addition, such studies are quite problematic from the point of view of ethical standards.

At the same time, practical conflictologists (L.N. Tsoi), who are engaged in management consulting, use this method to work with real conflicts. A methodological principle was formulated for using conflict in order to identify all existing contradictions in views, values, ideas, theoretical constructs, etc. The modeling of the conflict (this method Choi called the "conflict method"_) is based on the regularity of the stages of development of the "natural" unfolding and escalation of the conflict situation.

"Conflict-method" is a way of cognition and a way of building rational activity, as well as mastering conflict reality in order to identify contradictions and minimize destructive elements in a conflict, to translate the conflict into a socially positive channel.

This method allows:

Identify the main contradictions between the conflicting parties;

to diagnose the situation at the micro level;

in accordance with the material obtained, to separate the "empty" rock from the valuable one;

give the necessary means of working with this material to the participants in the conflict;

minimize destructive consequences, etc.

From the moment when conflictologists turned to the practical issues of conflict regulation, the task of diagnosis basically arose, and it was then that they turned to the actual diagnosis of real conflict situations. And here, rather, survey methods dominate.

3. Survey methods.

Diagnostic methods:

3.1 Diagnosis of conflicts at the personal level:

Most of the methods are built within the framework of subject positive methodology (obviously, this is due to the fact that most of them are based on methods taken from social psychology - tests, sociometry).

Erina S.I. Scale for diagnosing role conflict among the leaders of the primary production team.

The presence of a psychological conflict among managers, the degree of its severity, the zones of the leader's activity that cause conflict experiences are revealed. The manager is offered a questionnaire with a set of judgments with which he must agree or disagree. Depending on his choice, a conclusion is made about the presence of intrapersonal conflicts in him.

The subject of study in this class of methods is also the behavioral strategies of the participants in the conflict:

The T. Thomas test is aimed at identifying the repertoire of behavioral tendencies in conflicting situations. A person is offered 30 pairs of judgments, each of which reflects one of the possible strategies of behavior strategies. The subject chooses from each pair the one that he considers more appropriate to his typical behavior. As a result, it is possible to determine to what extent the strategies of competition, cooperation, avoidance, concessions or compromise are represented in the repertoire of a person. The formulations of judgments are "cleared" from the situational context and therefore make it possible to diagnose precisely personal tendencies towards the predominant use of certain strategies.

A similar questionnaire, aimed at studying the strategies chosen by the leader in conflict situations, was developed by A.A. Ershov. He identifies 4 main areas of value orientations among the leaders of primary organizations, which are updated in conflict situations:

orientation to work and its efficiency;

focus on oneself, one's views and experience;

orientation to official subordination, rights and obligations.

The methodology consists of 12 conflict situations, for each of which four solutions are offered. corresponding to the four possible orientations.

Projective tests to determine behavior strategies in conflict situations.

F. Rosenzweig test. It consists of pictures describing an incident between characters, and the subject is asked to identify himself with one of them. The words of the partner in the figure contain some kind of accusation (explicit or implicit) against the respondent or prevent the satisfaction of his needs. The subject's responses are categorized according to a special scheme, and this makes it possible to determine how a person usually reacts to a frustrating situation: by looking for someone else to blame, by self-accusation, or in some other way.

On the basis of this test, the test "Business situations" (20 drawings) was developed, depicting conflict situations in the organization.

The use of psychological tests to determine the level of personality conflict:

Questionnaire by A. Bass and A. Darki. (1957) Designed to determine the individual level of aggressiveness of a person. Aggression is considered by the authors as a complex phenomenon that manifests itself in various forms of aggressive and hostile reactions: physical, indirect, verbal aggression, irritability, resentment, etc. The questionnaire makes it possible to determine individual indices of aggressiveness and hostility.

Questionnaire Cattell.

Questionnaire G. Eysenck.

Determination of the level of anxiety according to the Spielberg questionnaire.

A common problem with the use of all these techniques for diagnosing specific conflicts in organizations is that since they were created by psychologists and based on psychological techniques and tests, then the concept of the norm embedded in them (where it exists at all) is either related to the psychological norm - the boundaries of the manifestation of one or another feature in the general population, or it is a task of the norm within the framework of the value-normative approach, when the concept of the norm is laid down by the author of the concept .

3.2 Diagnosis of conflicts at the interpersonal level.

Most often, the traditional method of sociometry is used for this (usually in the form of a survey):

Lebedev A.N. Methodology for predicting interpersonal conflicts in teams.

Parameters of mutual assessments, the most significant in terms of conflicts:

level of professional training;

attitude to work;

the level of development of moral qualities;

level of ability to lead a team;

the level of development of innovative qualities.

In the proposed procedure, employees evaluate their colleagues by these parameters, comparing them with each other (ranking).

Disadvantages of the technique:

value-normative approach;

halo effect.

Modular methodology for diagnosing interpersonal conflicts.

A.Ya.Antsupov. A.I.Shipilov.

Based on sociometric methodology.

Two basic modules that allow you to evaluate the attitude towards employees on the part of each of your work colleagues. Comparing the answers to the first two questions makes it possible to:

identify real and potential conflict dyadic relationships in the group;

quantify the intensity, severity of the conflict.

Additional modules are used depending on the goals of studying the team and allow you to evaluate:

the quality of work of each member of the group;

moral qualities of each member of the group;

professional knowledge of group members;

the degree of his assistance to colleagues;

efforts to achieve personal and group interests;

the nature of the fulfillment of these promises.

The survey procedure involves the filling in by each member of the team of a special form (sociometric card), which lists all members of the group.

The assessment is given on a ten-point scale from +5 to -5

Methodology for diagnosing relationships in a group

The questionnaire is a sociometric card on which all members of the team are recorded, and then the respondent makes positive or negative choices according to certain 14 criteria.

The disadvantage of such a design of a sociometric card is that the respondent is forced to mark even those individuals about whom he does not have a definite opinion.

The processing of the information obtained during the study occurs through several channels.

Firstly, at the first stage, sociograms are constructed that clearly show the connections within the team. Sociograms allow you to identify the presence of microgroups in the team of the unit, to identify leaders, outsiders, i.e. socio-psychological structure, since the main emphasis is on the informal aspect of social ties.

Such an analysis also makes it possible to single out tense moments in the relationships between members of the team, which are fraught with the emergence of conflict situations in the present and in the future.

Secondly, the chosen form of the sociometric card, when in fact each member of the team one way or another determines his negative or positive attitude towards all his colleagues, with certain shortcomings, still allows you to determine the “rating” of each member of the team”, since 14 selection criteria come down to 4 parameters:

Leadership;

Compatibility (the ability to establish favorable relationships with colleagues);

Reliability (degree of trust in a team member);

Thirdly, based on the data obtained, sociometric indices are calculated.

Diagnosis of intergroup conflicts in the organization.

1. Methods focused on subject methodology in the block of description of the real state of the object, as a rule, are based on polling methods. at the same time, the block of tasking the proper is value-normative.

A technique for identifying contradictions in the formal structure as the causes of conflicts. The main areas of possible contradictions in the organization were identified

Each empirical indicator assumes four possible situations that reveal it, each of them is assigned a certain number of points. Employees answering the questionnaire choose situations specific to their department. Then the average value for each indicator is calculated, and on this basis the division profile is built.

Formation of a normative criterion:

the norm is set on the basis of an expert survey: the heads of the department act as experts (questionnaires and interviews). On the basis of the received data, a reference profile of the unit is formed, which is then compared with real profile received as a result of processing the questionnaires of employees.

However, the mismatch block is speculative.

2. The class of diagnostic methods, as a rule, is focused on the problematic methodology in the description of the object, but in the block of setting the due, the situational approach (problem-situational) is more common.

Methods for obtaining information: game methods

semi-formalized interviews

sometimes a survey.

Positional analysis (A.I.Prigozhin)

PA is a diagnostic technique that allows you to identify positionality, to determine the lines that divide the organization into groups of employees who are in positional conflict with each other.

The essence of PA is the definition of those lines that divide the organization into a set of social. groups that are in positional conflict with each other or have different interests that interact with each other.

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6.1.5. Conflict diagnostics

Diagnosis (from the Greek. diagnostician

– dispositional

– situational

1)

2)

3) methods of anamnesis and self-assessment

ideographic Nomothetic

- strengthening their positions;

- achieved goals;

- Opponent's actions.

- typology of conflict.

Table 6.3

Diagnosis (from the Greek. diagnostician– capable of recognizing) is understood as the ability to recognize methods aimed at “grasping” integrity; it is inextricably linked with analysis and synthesis.

In the scientific literature, there are several approaches to diagnosing conflicts, each of which has developed its own specific methods. The most common are sociological and psychological approaches. Recently, at the junction of these two sciences, a socio-psychological approach to the study of conflicts has been formed.

The specificity of the socio-psychological approach lies in the study of the reflection of conflicts in the mind of the individual, psychological reasons its occurrence, course and resolution. The problems of unambiguity and adequacy of understanding the components of the conflict by the conflicting parties, subjective experiences of the conflict situation, awareness of its causes and actors are studied.

In the psychology of conflict, the following approaches to its study are widely used:

– dispositional- based on the search for the causes of conflict in dispositions, conflicting personality traits, its attitudes;

– situational- considering the conflict behavior of the individual as a result of the exclusive influence of situational factors, independent of internal motivation.

The most common in psychology are the following methods of diagnosing conflicts:

1) experimental construction of conflict predominantly in laboratory conditions. The experiment is currently rarely used to study behavior in a conflict situation, but role-playing games and simulated conflict situations are integral part socio-psychological training "Business communication";

2) study of "conflictogenic" phenomena in groups: predisposition to aggressive behavior of individuals, the presence of microgroups with a negative orientation, etc. For this purpose, various personality questionnaires and tests are used, as well as variants of sociometry. This technique reveals the employee's self-assessment of behavior and should be supplemented by research on the objective characteristics of the employee's conflict behavior;

3) methods of anamnesis and self-assessment- a description of specific conflicts or conflict situations that have already taken place. The personalities of the participants in the conflict, the causes, behavior in the conflict, the nature of its completion are subjected to a detailed analysis.

More effective complex use various methods, which would allow to complement each other and eliminate shortcomings in the application of a particular method.

The ratio of nomothetic and ideographic approaches to the description and explanation of human behavior in conflict is promising.

ideographicthe method of research is focused on the description and explanation of a complex whole. The description must be complete and specific, a single element, i.e. a person, must be presented as a unique phenomenon. Nomothetic Research, on the other hand, is focused on discovering general laws, valid for any particular case. The underlying structures and processes are revealed through experimental procedures.

The sociological approach includes the following diagnostic methods:

1) revealing the structure social conflict, which includes the subjects of the conflict (conflicting parties); relations of the conflicting parties; the subject of the conflict; external social environment;

2) a universal scheme for the conceptual description of the conflict, i.e. a description of the verbal and non-verbal behavior of the parties to the conflict in relation to:

- creating your own image;

- creating the image of the enemy;

- strengthening their positions;

- weakening the position of the enemy;

- achieved goals;

- targets that prevent the strengthening of the enemy's position;

- Opponent's actions.

This is a theoretical model based on such general terms as the essence, classification, structure, function, genesis, evolution, dynamics, system-informational description, warning, resolution, research and diagnostics;

3) diagnosis of the structural elements of the conflict, which includes 27 stages and concepts: the full composition of the participants in the conflict, determining the role of each participant, clarifying the motives of the conflicting parties; clarification of the subject of the conflict, the interests of the parties, their goals, the correspondence of the goals to the interests of the conflicting parties, the dynamics, reason, cause, stage of the conflict, the type of conflict behavior and attitudes towards one or another behavior in the conflict of its parties, clarification of the duration, sharpness of the energy, psychophone of the conflict, its prices, comparing it with the price of exiting the conflict, determining the appropriate model for resolving the conflict in this case, etc.;

4) definition of the main phases of the conflict: pre-conflict state - conflictogen - tension - the basis of the conflict - conflict - forcing tension - conflict resolution. These phases are studied at the methodological level, the moments of transition from one state of conflict to another are described;

5) diagnostics of the formal structure of the confrontation of the parties within the framework of the legal institutionalization of the conflict: the definition of a conflict situation, the compilation of a classifier and fixation legal status interacting parties, specifying their requirements for the final result of the conflict, etc. up to the analysis and forecast of actions in emergency situations;

6) conflict mapping: each participant in a conflict situation fills out a conflict map on his own or together with partners (Fig. 6.1).

Rice. 6.1. An example of a description of a conflict map between older and younger employees regarding the upcoming downsizing

Filling out the conflict map consists of three stages:

– to determine the general nature of the problem;

- identify and name the main participants;

– determine what the needs and concerns of each member or group are.

The compiled map of the conflict makes it possible to determine the degree of conflicting interests and actions of the participants in the conflict, its main subjects and to choose the form and methods of resolving the conflict;

7) drawing up a conceptual scheme for the study of social conflict. The conflict is considered within four main categories:

- the structure of the conflict (factors and causes, opponents in the conflict, subject, incident, conditions for the course of the conflict, goals pursued by the opponents);

- the dynamics of the conflict (the emergence, awareness of the objective conflict situation, the transition to conflict behavior, conflict resolution);

– conflict functions (integration social organization, signaling a bad state of affairs, supporting innovation and creativity, improving the psychological climate, problematizing a calm existence, stabilizing relationships, learning and cognition);

- typology of conflict.

The description and analysis of the conflictological situation involves a combination of different approaches and methods of analysis (Table 6.3).

Table 6.3

Approaches to the analysis of various elements of a conflict situation in an organization

Diagnostics of the conflict in the organization begins with the registration of the fact of the conflict, its typicality or exclusivity, breadth of distribution and causes. The causes of the conflict are indicated by its participants in written or oral form.

Correlation of a real conflict with the presented classification makes it possible to determine the area of ​​its distribution, the structures responsible for its occurrence and to select specific methods of conflict resolution.

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Methods for diagnosing conflicts

Conflict diagnostics - knowledge of the main parameters of conflict interaction (the composition of participants, the object of disagreement, the nature and severity of contradictions, the “scenario” for the development of interaction) with the aim of managerial influence on the opposing parties.

The ultimate goal of diagnosing conflicts is to obtain new and reliable knowledge about conflict interaction, to develop on their basis practical advice that would actually improve constructive conflict management.

When investigating conflicts, it is necessary to consider them as complexly organized objects, consisting of hierarchically connected subsystems and entering, in turn, as subsystems | into systems of more high level. It is important to identify all the variety of elements that make up the structure of the conflict, the connections between them, as well as the relationship of the conflict under study with external phenomena in relation to it.

Modern conflictology does not develop its own tools, but widely uses methods and techniques developed in other branches of knowledge (Fig. 2.1).

Rice. 2.1. Methods for diagnosing conflicts

Observation- direct and immediate registration by the conflictologist of events and conditions in which they take place. It is used to study conflicts of various levels - from intrapersonal to interstate. As a method of collecting primary information about the object under study through purposeful, organized, direct perception and recording of conflict events, observation has a number of advantages. Observation makes it possible to evaluate the effect of many factors in the conflict, their "weightiness" and the effectiveness of the impact. When observing, the naturalness of the conditions in which the conflict proceeds is preserved. It is possible to study the conflict in dynamics.

Question 3 However, observation as a method of studying the conflict also has disadvantages: the private nature of the observed situation; mutual fusion of observer and conflict. The observer becomes, to one degree or another, a participant in the conflict and his psyche undergoes changes that are inherent in the warring parties (distorted perception, negative emotions, search for a fair position, etc.). The facts obtained in this way bear the imprint of a personal, subjective assessment. It is also necessary to take into account the impact on the results of the study of the conflict personal experience, knowledge, attitudes, emotional state of the observer. The disadvantages can also include the complexity of processing the results of the observation.

Sociometry- a socio-psychological test for assessing interpersonal emotional ties in a group, developed byAmerican social psychologist and psychiatrist J. Moreno, in conflictology is used to identify tense relationships in small group. Sociometry is based on the definition by each member of the group of his attitude towards others according to the proposed criteria.

Various modifications of sociometry have been developed: the coordinate-sociogram method makes it possible to single out conflict couples, indifferent personalities, microgroups with positive and negative statuses in official and unofficial communication in the studied groups; spatial sociometry allows you to identify group members with whom the subject has a closer relationship; the color relationship test can be used in cases where the respondents have a mindset to hide their conflict relations in the group from the researcher, etc.

Studying documents - the study of information for a retrospective analysis of conflicts, recorded in a handwritten or printed text, on a computer diskette, film, etc.

Survey- currently the most common in the study of conflicts and includes a variety of scales for diagnosing the presence of a conflict and its severity, test procedures that identify the chosen strategies of behavior in conflicts. For example, the scale-questionnaire F. Fiedler - Yu. Khanin, consisting of pairs of words opposite in meaning (antonyms), allows you to describe the atmosphere in the group and obtain information about the level of its conflict.

Test Procedures make it possible to identify the strategies of behavior in conflicts chosen by the subject (for example, the K. Thomas questionnaire * shows to what extent strategies of rivalry, cooperation, avoidance, concessions or compromise are represented in human behavior). With the help of the well-known F. Rosenzweig questionnaire (consisting of pictures describing some incidents between characters in which the subject is asked to identify with one of them), it is possible to identify the extent to which a person tends to react to situations characterized by the collapse of plans, hopes, and the search for someone to blame outside , self-accusation and other known types of reactions. There is a modification of the test, created on the basis of Rosenzweig's methodical idea, adapted to the organizational conditions of our culture.

In modern practice, a wide range of survey methods are used to identify the interaction of conflicting parties.

Experiment.Experimental study of the conflict is based on modeling conflict situations, mainly in laboratory conditions, and fixing human reactions to these situations. Among the developed experimental game procedures are matrix games (such as the "prisoner's dilemma"), negotiation games (in which participants communicate with each other, trying to achieve unilateral or mutual gain), coalition games (involving the formation of coalitions by participants within the group), locomotion games (with the movement of the parties in the direction of the task or the goal chosen by the participants) and social trap games (social tasks-dilemmas), as well as more complex conflict situations that simulate real collisions (for example, a series of studies by M. Sheriff)*. However, such studies of conflicts are associated with difficulties of an organizational nature, some of which are unacceptable from a moral point of view. In addition, complex shapes human behavior in reality turn out to be much richer than their “staging”, there is no certainty that the relationships revealed in the game situation will manifest themselves in real conflicts. These difficulties have led to the fact that the experiment is currently quite rarely used to study intragroup and interpersonal conflicts.

System-situational analysis - study of conflicts by units. As a unit of analysis, a conflict situation is used - the smallest integral, indivisible part of the conflict, which has all its main properties, has certain content and dynamic characteristics, temporal and spatial boundaries. In the course of the study, all the main and secondary participants in the conflict are identified. Spatial boundaries of conflict interaction are determined. Phases are distinguished in the development of the conflict, during which the nature of the interaction of its main participants does not qualitatively change. After defining the spatialtime and content boundaries of the conflict situation, its system analysis is carried out. The use of a conflict situation as a unit of analysis makes it possible to standardize, store and accumulate information about real conflicts. The conflict situation makes it possible to study the characteristics of conflicts not “in general”, but on the basis of systematization of certain information about the behavior of specific people and social groups. Conflict situations can be analyzed retrospectively (studying documents, interviewing participants and witnesses of the conflict) and directly during the actual development of events. To conduct a situational analysis, a special form is developed, which reflects the main characteristics of the conflict that are of interest to the conflictologist *.

Question 4. Mathematical modeling. Mathematical modeling with the involvement of modern computer technology makes it possible to move from simple accumulation and analysis of facts to forecasting and evaluating events in real time as they develop. The mathematical model of the conflict is a system of formalized relationships between the characteristics of the conflict, divided into parameters (reflects external conditions and slightly changing characteristics of the conflict) and variable components. Among mathematical models used in conflictology - probability distributions, Markov chain, goal-directed behavior models, simulation models. To date, the greatest progress has been made in the analysis and description of conflicts with the following properties: the number of participants in the conflict is two, the number of ways of action of each participant is finite, and their individual goals are diametrically opposed. These restrictions, as well as the non-obviousness of the goals and strategies of the participants in conflicts, significantly reduce the range of situations of real interpersonal interaction to which the descriptions created by mathematicians are applicable.

The above methods for collecting and analyzing information are used conflictologists to study organizations, small groups. Intrapersonal and interpersonal conflicts often require completely different kinds of techniques. .

personality tests . To date, psychology has not yet developed a questionnaire or test specifically designed fordetermining such an integral property of a personality as conflict, reflecting the frequency of entry into interpersonal conflicts. Therefore, experts use a number of proven tests that record the severity of qualities, properties and states that indicate an increased conflict of the individual. Among the most commonly used generally recognized tests and questionnaires, which allow to identify certain aspects of personality conflict and determine its level, include:

test A. Bass - A. Darki (designed to determine the individual level of aggressiveness of a person);

diagnostics interpersonal relationships T. Leary (makes it possible to determine the prevailing type of attitude of the individual towards others);

G. Isaac's personality test (allows you to identify the type of personality temperament using two scales - "extroversion - intro-version" and "neuroticism - stability");

Cattell's 16-factor personality questionnaire (allows you to identify psychological features that affect conflict - secrecy, practicality, cruelty, severity, ambition, etc.);

the scale of reactive and personal anxiety by Ch. Spielberger - Yu. Khanin (designed to measure anxiety as an emotional state and as a personality trait);

technique "Qsorting” by H. Zalen - D. Stock (allows you to measure the manifestation of such behavioral tendencies as dependence - independence, sociability - lack of sociability, desire to fight - avoidance of struggle), etc.

Personality tests are used for research purposes and as sources of information about the participants in the conflict, but in the strict sense they are not methods for studying the conflict itself.

In modern conflictology, traditionally much attention is paid to qualitative methods that carry out the semantic interpretation of data. Moreover, along with general scientific qualitative methods (analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, etc.), empirical qualitative methods: case study method ( case studies ) - study of a single concrete conflict and reconstruction existing theory on the basis of the conclusions drawn; expert survey - a survey of a competent group of persons;method of studying focus groups.

The complexity of such a phenomenon as conflict and the variety of approaches to its understanding determine the variety of methodological approaches and techniques for studying conflict.

Conflict diagnostics - knowledge of the main parameters of conflict interaction (composition of participants, object of disagreement, nature and severity of contradictions) with the aim of managerial influence on the opposing sides.

The purpose of diagnostics is to obtain new and reliable knowledge about conflict interaction, the development of practical recommendations on their basis, which would really improve the constructive regulation of conflicts.

When investigating conflicts, it is necessary to consider them as complexly organized objects, consisting of hierarchically connected subsystems and entering, in turn, as subsystems into higher-level systems.

Modern conflictology does not develop its own tools, but widely uses methods and techniques developed in other branches of knowledge.

1. Observation - direct and immediate registration of events and conditions in which they take place. They are used to study conflicts of various levels - from intrapersonal to interstate.

2. Sociometry - a socio-psychological test for assessing interpersonal emotional ties in a group; in conflictology it is used to identify tense relationships in a small group. Sociometry is based on the definition by each member of the group of his attitude towards others according to the proposed criteria.

3. The study of documents - the study of information for a retrospective analysis of conflicts, recorded in handwritten or printed test(employment contracts, contracts between organizations, job descriptions, specific orders and orders, explanatory notes, reports, etc., depending on the situation), on a computer diskette, film, etc.

4. Poll - currently the most common in the study of conflicts and includes a variety of scales for diagnosing the presence of a conflict and its severity, test procedures that identify the chosen strategies of behavior in conflicts.

5. Experiment. The experimental study of conflict is based on modeling conflict situations, mainly in laboratory conditions, and fixing a person's reaction to these situations. The experiment is currently quite rarely used to study intragroup and interpersonal conflicts.

6. Mathematical modeling. It allows you to move from simple accumulation and analysis of facts to forecasting and evaluating events in real time from development. The mat model of the conflict object is a system of formalized relationships between the characteristics of the conflict, divided into parameters and variable components.

Vyshepechisl methods isp-Xia for the study of organizations, small groups. Intrapersonal and interpersonal conflicts often require methods of a completely different kind.

7. Personality tests. To date, psychology has not yet developed a questionnaire or test specifically designed to determine the conflict of personality.

Conflict diagnostics - knowledge of the main parameters of conflict interaction (composition of participants, the object of disagreement, the nature and severity of contradictions, the "scenario" for the development of interaction) with the aim of managerial influence on the opposing sides.

The ultimate goal of diagnosing conflicts- obtaining new and reliable knowledge about conflict interaction, developing practical recommendations on their basis that would really improve the constructive regulation of conflicts.

When investigating conflicts, it is necessary to consider them as complexly organized objects, consisting of hierarchically connected subsystems and entering, in turn, as subsystems into higher-level systems. It is important to identify all the variety of elements that make up the structure of the conflict, the connections between them, as well as the relationship of the conflict under study with external phenomena in relation to it.

Modern conflictology does not develop its own tools, but widely uses methods and techniques developed in other branches of knowledge.(Fig. 2.1).

Rice. 2.1.

observation. Direct and immediate registration by the conflictologist of events and conditions in which they take place. It is used to study conflicts of various levels - from intrapersonal to interstate. As a method of collecting primary information about the object under study through purposeful, organized, direct perception and recording of conflict events, observation has a number of virtues. In the course of observation, the conflict is perceived directly. This can be ensured by participation in the conflict (the observer acts as one of the opponents) and the perception of the conflict from the outside (witness, secondary participant, mediator). Observation makes it possible to evaluate the effect of many factors in a conflict, their "weightiness" and the effectiveness of their impact. When observing, the naturalness of the conditions in which the conflict proceeds is preserved. It is possible to study the conflict in dynamics.

However, observation as a method of studying conflict has flaws: particular nature of the observed situation; mutual influence of the observer and the conflict. The observer becomes, to one degree or another, a participant in the conflict, and his psyche undergoes changes that are inherent in the warring parties (distorted perception, negative emotions, the search for a fair position, etc.). The facts obtained in this way bear the imprint of a personal, subjective assessment. It is also necessary to take into account the impact on the results of studying the conflict of personal experience, knowledge, attitudes, and the emotional state of the observer. The disadvantages can also include the complexity of processing the results of the observation.

Sociometry - a socio-psychological test for assessing interpersonal emotional ties in a group, developed by the American social psychologist and psychiatrist J. Moreno, is used in conflictology to identify tense relationships in a small group.

Sociometry is based on the definition by each member of the group of his attitude towards others according to the proposed criteria.

Various modifications of sociometry have been developed: coordinate sociogram the method makes it possible to single out conflict couples, indifferent personalities, microgroups with positive and negative statuses in official and unofficial communication in the studied groups; spatial sociometry allows you to identify group members with whom the subject has a closer relationship, and those with whom he has an indifferent or conflict relationship; relationship color test can be used in cases where the respondents have a mindset to hide from the researcher their conflict relations in the group, etc.

Study of documents. The study of information for a retrospective analysis of conflicts, recorded in a handwritten or printed text (employment contracts, contracts between organizations, job descriptions, specific orders and instructions, explanatory notes, reports, etc., depending on the situation), on a computer diskette, film and etc.

Survey- currently the most common in the study of conflicts and include a variety of scales for diagnosing the presence of a conflict and the degree of its severity, test procedures that identify the chosen strategies of behavior in conflicts (often according to hypothetical situations of interaction that are presented to the subject). For example, the scale-questionnaire F. Fiedler - Yu. Khanin, consisting of pairs of words opposite in meaning (antonyms), allows you to describe the atmosphere in the group and obtain information about the level of its conflict.

Test procedures make it possible to identify the strategies of behavior in conflicts chosen by the subject (for example, the K. Thomas questionnaire, which allows you to identify the extent to which the person's repertoire includes strategies for rivalry, cooperation, avoidance, concessions or compromise). With the help of the well-known F. Rosenzweig questionnaire (consisting of pictures describing some incidents between characters in which the subject is asked to identify with one of them), it is possible to identify the extent to which a person tends to respond to frustrating situations by looking for someone to blame outside, self-accusation and other known types reactions. There is a modification of the test, created on the basis of Rosenzweig's methodical ideas, adapted to the organizational conditions of our culture.

In modern practice, a wide range of survey methods are used to identify the styles of interaction between the conflicting parties.

Experiment. Experimental study of the conflict is based on modeling conflict situations, mainly in laboratory conditions, and fixing human reactions to these situations. Among the developed experimental game procedures are matrix games (such as the "prisoner's dilemma"), negotiation games (in which participants communicate with each other, trying to achieve unilateral or mutual gain), coalition games (involving the formation of coalitions by participants within the group), locomotion games (with the movement of the parties in the direction of the task or the goal chosen by the participants and social trap games (social tasks-dilemmas), as well as more complex conflict situations that simulate real collisions (for example, a series of studies by M. Sheriff). For more details about the experiments, see study of conflicts, see Grishina N.V. Psychology of conflict. - St. Petersburg: Peter, 2002. However, such studies of conflicts are associated with difficulties of an organizational nature, some of them are unacceptable from a moral point of view. In addition, complex forms of human behavior in reality turn out to be much richer than his "staging", there is no certainty that the relationships revealed in the game situation will manifest themselves in real conflicts. These difficulties have led to the fact that the experiment is currently quite rarely used to study intragroup and interpersonal conflicts.

System-situational analysis of the conflict. Involves the study of conflicts by units. As a unit of analysis, a conflict situation is used - the smallest integral, often indivisible conflict, which has all its basic properties, has certain content and dynamic characteristics, temporal and spatial boundaries. In the course of the study, all the main and secondary participants in the conflict are identified. Spatial boundaries of conflict interaction are determined. Phases are distinguished in the development of the conflict, during which the nature of the interaction of its main participants does not qualitatively change. After determining the spatial, temporal and content boundaries of the conflict situation, its system analysis is carried out. The use of a conflict situation as a unit of analysis makes it possible to standardize, store and accumulate information about real conflicts. The conflict situation makes it possible to study the characteristics of conflicts not "in general", but on the basis of the systematization of specific information about the behavior of specific people and social groups. Conflict situations can be analyzed retrospectively (studying documents, interviewing participants and witnesses of the conflict) and directly during the actual development of events. To conduct a situational analysis, a special form is developed, which reflects the main characteristics of the conflict that are of interest to the conflictologist. For more details on the situational method of conflict research, see Antsupov A.Ya., Shipilov A.I. Conflictology. - M.: UNITI, 2003.

Math modeling. Mathematical modeling with the involvement of modern computer technology makes it possible to move from simple accumulation and analysis of facts to forecasting and evaluating events in real time as they develop. Mathematical model conflict is a system of formalized relationships between the characteristics of the conflict, divided into parameters (reflect external conditions and slightly changing characteristics of the conflict) and variable components. Among the mathematical models used in conflictology are probability distributions, Markov chains, goal-directed behavior models, and simulation models. To date, the greatest progress has been made in the analysis and description of conflicts with the following properties: the number of participants in the conflict is 2, the number of ways of action of each participant is finite, and their individual goals are diametrically opposed. These restrictions, as well as the non-obviousness of the goals and strategies of the participants in conflicts, significantly reduce the range of situations of real interpersonal interaction to which the descriptions created by mathematicians are applicable.

The above methods of collecting and analyzing information are used by conflictologists to study organizations and small groups. Intrapersonal and interpersonal conflicts often require methods of a completely different kind.

Personality tests. To date, psychology has not yet developed a questionnaire or test specifically designed to determine such an integral personality trait as conflict, reflecting the frequency of entry into interpersonal conflicts. Therefore, experts use a number of proven tests that record the severity of qualities, properties and states that indicate an increased conflict of the individual. Among the most commonly used generally recognized tests and questionnaires, which allow to identify certain aspects of personality conflict and determine its level, include:

• · test A. Bass - A. Darki ( designed to determine the individual level of aggressiveness of a person),
• · diagnostics of interpersonal relations T. Leary(makes it possible to determine the prevailing type of attitude of the individual towards others);
• · G. Eysenck's personality test(allows you to identify the type of personality temperament using two scales - "extroversion-introversion" and "neuroticism-stability");
• · 16 factor personality questionnaire Cattell(allows you to identify psychological characteristics that affect conflict - secrecy, practicality, rigidity, severity, ambition, etc.);
• scale of reactive and personal anxiety Ch. Spielberger-Yu. Khanina(designed to measure anxiety as an emotional state and as a personality trait);
• methodology "Q-sort" H. Zalena-D. stock(allows you to measure the manifestation of such behavioral tendencies as dependence-independence, sociability-non-sociability, desire to fight - avoidance of the fight), etc.

Personality tests are used for research purposes and as sources of information about the participants in the conflict, but, in the strict sense, they are not methods for studying the conflict itself..

In modern conflictology, traditionally much attention is paid to qualitative methods that carry out the semantic interpretation of data. Moreover, along with general scientific qualitative methods (analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, etc.), empirical qualitative methods appeared: the case-study method - the study of a single concrete conflict, and the reconstruction of the existing theory based on the conclusions drawn; expert survey - a survey of a competent group of persons; method of studying focus groups.

The complexity of what phenomenon as a conflict and the variety of approaches to its understanding determine the variety of methodological approaches and techniques for studying the conflict.

Control questions and tasks for chapter 2:

• 1. What are the main features of the conflict?
• 2. Define conflict.
• 3. How does conflict differ from other types of social contradictions?
• 4. List the main functions of the conflict.
• 5. What is characteristic of a functionally positive conflict in an organization?
• 6. What are Negative consequences conflict in the organization?
• 7. Determine the meaning of conflict classification.
• 8. What are the main features, types and types by which conflicts are grouped in organizations.
• 9. Name the main methods used in diagnosing conflicts. Explore their strengths and weaknesses.