Hi, I'm Julie Tietz, and welcome to Conflict Resolution-- Putting the Pieces Together. Today, we're going to talk about the tension stage of conflict. So let's get started by defining the tension stage of conflict, and that is the stage of conflict in which parties find communication with each other difficult or impossible, consistently attribute negative motives and traits to each other, and may attempt to enlist allies.
Conflict can be modeled as going through a series of stages, and these describe the intensity and nature of parties' behaviors and attitudes as the conflict continues. And there are several ways in which conflict can be broken down into these stages, but all models look at pre-conflict, conflict, and post-conflict periods in a broadly similar sense.
Before we go on to the tension stage of conflict in depth, let's cover the previous stages. We have pre-conflict, and that is the stage in which parties' needs are not being met, but they're unaware of the relationship between them. Now we have the discomfort stage, and that's where parties become aware that their needs are not being met but really aren't sure exactly how that fits. And the feeling is really vague, and there aren't any concrete details.
Next we have the incident stage. And this typically is where the conflict begins, but it also can begin at other stages as well. In the incident stage, the parties become aware of each other's roles and their needs not being met through concrete occurrence, so a specific event. Next is the misunderstanding stage, and this is where parties are communicating but are beginning to adopt negative views about each other. And now, that leads us to our tension stage, so let's talk about that little bit more in detail.
In the tension stage of conflict, parties are consistently attributing negative motives and traits to the other or blaming or demonizing them, so are always thinking of negative ways in which they are trying to be against us. We also begin to enlist allies to help us in the conflict, so we're trying to get people to see our point of view, and to be on our side, and to see the other side as wrong. Communication is also difficult or nearly impossible in the tension stage. So we may be exchanging emails, few words here and there, but it takes a lot for us to muster up this communication.
Remember that in conflict resolution, it's important to begin the resolution process at the earliest possible stage because this tends to make conflict resolution easier. Let's use the example of your boss and two of your most productive members of your team have not been performing to your standards or their standards.
And so you go and you talk to other people on your team-- on the team, rather, and find out that the two have been having a conflict over a discrepancy in the numbers on this on the spreadsheet. And neither one of them thinks that it's their fault. And so they begin to get other people on the team to see their side, and are constantly saying negative things about each other, and saying that their intentions are not good.
And so you take these two members aside, and you point out to them, hey, we all make mistakes in the number sometimes. It doesn't matter if it's either side. Remember how you worked together so effectively on our last project, and we need you to do the same thing together again. This intervention may have the conflict resolved.
So now that we've covered the tension stage of conflict, let's go over the key points. All models of conflict resolution look at pre-conflict, conflict, and post-conflict. Conflicts may escalate or de-escalate through stages, and these stages represent degrees of intensity.
In the tension stage, communication is difficult. Negative attributions are given towards each party in the conflict. And we also attempt to enlist allies to be on our side. Early intervention in conflict resolution results in easier resolution of the conflict.
Thanks for taking the time out to view this tutorial, and I hope to catch you again next time.