Types and Sources of Conflict

Conflicts vary by setting (where the conflict is happening) and by source (what is driving the conflict). Both diagnostic dimensions help a school head choose the right management approach.

Four types by setting

Four types of conflict are named by the level at which the conflict occurs.

Interpersonal conflict

Interpersonal conflict is between two individuals. Varied personalities may result in incompatible choices and opinions. It is a natural occurrence and can help in personal growth or in developing relationships with others.

The most common type. Two people in disagreement. In a school: two teachers, a teacher and a coordinator, a parent and a teacher, the principal and a deputy.

Interpersonal conflict is workable. Two people can sit down and address their differences. The path to resolution is well-defined.

A school head’s intervention in interpersonal conflict is often direct mediation. She brings the two parties together, helps them articulate their positions, helps them find a path forward.

Intrapersonal conflict

Intrapersonal conflict occurs within an individual. The experience takes place in the person’s mind. It is psychological and involves the individual’s thoughts, values, principles, and emotions. The inability to read inner struggles can make it difficult to handle.

Intrapersonal conflict is conflict within one person. A teacher torn between her loyalty to the school and her loyalty to a colleague who is being criticised. A principal torn between cost-saving and educational quality. A parent torn between trust in the school and concern about her child.

Intrapersonal conflict often shows up as inconsistent behaviour. The person says one thing and does another. Or her decisions seem irrational because she is responding to internal tension that she cannot articulate.

A school head’s role with intrapersonal conflict in others is to support, not solve. She cannot resolve someone else’s internal conflict. She can create space for them to work through it, ask supportive questions, and respect their process.

Intragroup conflict

Intragroup conflict happens among individuals within a team. Its causes are incompatibilities and misunderstandings between people on the same team. Within a team, this kind of conflict can help in coming up with decisions that allow the team to reach its objectives.

Intragroup conflict is within one team. Three teachers in the same grade-level team disagreeing. The senior leadership team divided on a major decision. A committee unable to reach consensus.

Intragroup conflict can be productive (if it surfaces different perspectives and produces better decisions) or destructive (if it fractures the team).

The team development stages (covered earlier) help here. A team in storming has intragroup conflict and needs it to progress. A team that should be in performing but is still in conflict has stalled and needs different intervention.

Intergroup conflict

Intergroup conflict arises among different teams within an organisation. It is due to the varied goals and interests of those groups, rivalry over resources, or boundaries that a group sets to establish its own identity.

Intergroup conflict is between teams. In a school: primary section versus secondary section. Academic department versus administrative department. Boys’ section versus girls’ section. Day shift versus evening shift.

Intergroup conflict often has structural causes (resource competition, boundary disputes, status differences) more than personal causes. The same individuals, in different teams, would have the same conflict.

A school head’s intervention in intergroup conflict often requires structural changes, not just relational ones. Resource allocation rules, boundary clarification, shared goals that span teams.

Three sources of conflict

Daniel Katz (1965) gives a useful classification of three sources.

Economic conflict

Economic conflict involves competing motives to attain scarce resources. Each party wants to get the most that it can. Behaviour and emotions are directed toward maximising gain.

Economic conflict is about resources. Money, time, space, equipment, staff, attention.

In a school: two departments arguing over budget allocation. Two coordinators competing for the best classrooms. Staff complaining about pay disparities.

Economic conflicts are addressable through resource decisions. They are hard when the resources are truly scarce; they are easier when the resources can be expanded or shared.

Value conflict

Value conflict involves incompatibility in ideologies: the preferences, principles, and practices that people believe in.

Value conflict is about beliefs and principles. What is right? What matters? What kind of school should this be?

In a school: a teacher who values strict discipline versus one who values warm relationships. A parent who values academic rigour versus one who values whole-child development. A principal whose vision differs from the board’s.

Value conflicts are the deepest and the hardest. They are not resolved by resource allocation or by policy adjustment. They require either agreement on a shared framework or separation.

A school head should be honest about value conflicts. Pretending they are about something else (resource allocation, personality) delays resolution. Naming them as value conflicts allows real work.

Power conflict

Power conflict arises when each party wishes to maintain or maximise the amount of influence it exerts in the relationship.

Power conflict is about who has influence. Who decides? Who is consulted? Whose voice counts?

In a school: a senior teacher who feels her influence is being eroded by a new coordinator. A deputy head who feels excluded from senior decisions. A long-serving teacher resisting a new principal’s authority.

Power conflicts are often invisible. The presenting issue may be about resources or about values, but the underlying conflict is about influence. A school head who can read the power dimension diagnoses conflicts more accurately.

Most conflicts are mixed

Most conflicts are not of a pure type but involve a mixture of sources. For example, union-management conflict typically involves economic competition, but may also take the form of a power struggle and often involves different political values.

Real conflicts usually have multiple sources. A budget argument may have economic, value, and power dimensions all at once. A staff conflict may have all three.

A school head should be careful not to label a conflict as purely one source. Treating a mixed conflict as if it were single-source produces partial resolution at best.

A useful diagnostic: for any significant conflict, ask all three source questions.

1. Is there an economic dimension? What resources are at stake?
2. Is there a value dimension? What beliefs are in conflict?
3. Is there a power dimension? Whose influence is at stake?

Addressing all three dimensions resolves the conflict more durably.

The combined diagnostic

A school head has now built up several lenses for diagnosing a conflict.

1. What kind of conflict is it? (Awareness model: open, latent, false, no conflict)
2. Is it functional or dysfunctional? (Task, process, or relationship)
3. What level is it at? (Interpersonal, intrapersonal, intragroup, intergroup)
4. What are its sources? (Economic, value, power, often mixed)

Working through these questions takes a few minutes. It produces a much more accurate picture than reactive intervention. The intervention itself becomes more targeted and more likely to work.

Flashcard

What are the four types of conflict by setting and the three sources of conflict?

Tap to reveal

Answer

Four types by setting: Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, Intragroup, Intergroup.

1. Interpersonal. Between two people.
2. Intrapersonal. Within one person.
3. Intragroup. Within one team.
4. Intergroup. Between teams.

Three sources (Daniel Katz, 1965): Economic, Value, Power.

1. Economic. Competition for scarce resources.
2. Value. Incompatibility in beliefs and principles.
3. Power. Competition for influence.

Most real conflicts mix all three sources. A school head should run the diagnostic on any significant conflict before intervening: type, source, and any additional dimensions from the Awareness model and the functional/dysfunctional distinction.