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„‚ CONDITIONS THAT HINDER EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION

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Conflict is universally deprecated, and yet it is everywhere. In fact, there are some<br />

institutions that are created to build in and control (or “institutionalize”) conflict among<br />

opponents, such as American legal institutions that regulate union-management<br />

relations.<br />

We have continuing conflict because human society is not a tightly integrated entity<br />

but a loosely knit social organization. Moreover, human society is integrated not on a<br />

biological but on a mental level. Its integration must be constantly maintained through<br />

psychic processes such as socialization, consensus building, and cooperative behavior. It<br />

rests on the common and extra-personal goals possessed by society’s members, goals<br />

that cannot come from the biological nature of human beings but only from<br />

communicative contact between people. Goals thus differ greatly from one society to<br />

another because they are part of the differences between cultures, thereby providing the<br />

first major basis of conflict, ethnocentrism—the dislike of people with a different culture<br />

and different ultimate goals (Davis, 1949).<br />

Communication between people or groups in conflict tends to be suspended<br />

because of the sense of threat and an increased concern for internal solidarity. For<br />

example, when union-management conflict is intense, union leaders avoid all except the<br />

most official and circumscribed contact with employees in order to avoid criticism.<br />

Although it is sometimes believed that conflict is caused by poor interpersonal<br />

communication or that conflict arises because people do not understand one another, the<br />

roots of conflict often lie deeper. Many conflicts are grounded in the mutually<br />

inconsistent goals of groups. In these situations, increased contact and improved<br />

communication may intensify conflict by making groups highly aware of their<br />

differences, increasing their fears, and revealing opposing goals that seem unchangeable<br />

(Broom & Selznick, 1958).<br />

As for internal and partial conflict, every group strives to eliminate it insofar as<br />

possible because conflict precludes the degree of cooperation needed for efficiency.<br />

However, it is not possible to eliminate all conflict because, despite the presence of<br />

shared norms and goals, there are goals that relate to each person alone. People are never<br />

carbon copies of one another even when similarly socialized.<br />

As available means are scarce, a person usually attains his or her personal goals at<br />

the expense of another; hence, conflict easily arises unless it is partly controlled by<br />

banning outright physical conflict and internecine interactions. Society reserves for itself<br />

the use of force and forbids it for purely individual private ends. Any permissive use of<br />

force is likely to be closely circumscribed, ritualized, and structured so as not to result in<br />

the death of opponents. Sporadic outbursts of conflict that occasionally occur are not<br />

likely to last long but can seldom be entirely eliminated (Davis, 1949).<br />

However, the suppression of open conflict does not mean that partial forms of<br />

conflict have been eliminated; it means simply that conflict is less than total. For<br />

example, there are many ways of getting the best of an opponent without actually doing<br />

him or her bodily harm: the opponent may be downgraded in his or her job, banished to<br />

378 ❘❚<br />

The Pfeiffer Library Volume 6, 2nd Edition. Copyright ©1998 Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer

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