Life-Cycle of a Conflict

Life-Cycle of a Conflict

A conflict is not a static situation, but a dynamic one. It is a process, taking time to
evolve. The intensity level differs over the life-cycle of a conflict.  to understand how, where and when to apply different and appropriate strategies and measures of conflict management.

• Life-cycle 1. Beginning: A conflict begins to take form as the differences
surface between the conflicting parties, and people begin to take sides. There
is a clear delineation of people in terms of ‘us’ and ‘them’.

• Life-cycle 2. Early growth: The conflicting parties express their hostility openly.
Each side increases its demands, and its sense of grievance swells. Each side
looks for allies and seeks their moral support.

• Life-cycle 3. Deadlock: Each of the conflicting parties regards itself as having
a just cause and it could lead to two possible situations: (a) a stalemate causing
hurt or loss to one party or (b) ‘a mutually-hurting stalemate’ caused by exhaustion
of strength and resources on the part of both the parties.

• Life-cycle 4. Looking for a way out: When the conflict reaches a stage where
both parties suffer losses, they look for a way out of the impasse. This may
necessitate mediation and arbitration by a third party.

• Life-cycle 5. Settling the dispute or resolving the conflict? Settlement
implies a compromise or temporary truce by both the parties over the dispute.

But, seldom does it lead to a solution in which the two parties can collaborate
resolving the conflict. Conflict resolution, on the other hand, looks at the
underlying causes of the conflict and deals with them, so that the conflict does
not recur in future.