Conflict resolution

Conflict is a serious disagreement or argument, typically a protracted one between people or  nations.   A strong disagreement can lead to violence.

Violence is the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against a person, or against a group or community, that either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, Mal-development or deprivation.  This definition associates intentionality with the committing of the act itself, irrespective of the outcome it produces.

The main causes of conflict may be

Individual Difference

 

Inn society, men are not alike in their nature, attitudes, ideal, interest and aspirations. Due to this difference, they fail to accommodate themselves which may lead to conflict among them.

Cultural Difference: Culture is the way of life of a group. It differs from society to society. The culture of one group differs from the culture of the other group. These cultural differences among the group, sometimes cause tension and lead to conflict, example in Ghana the culture of the Ashanti's is different from the Ewe's.

Clashes of Interests: The clash of interests of different people makes conflict inevitable. The interests of the workers clash with the government, hence it leads to strike action on the part of the worker.

Social Change: Conflict also arises due to the difference between rates of social change. The change in the moral norms of a society and man's hopes, aspirations and demands leads to conflict The conflict between the old and new generations is owing to social changes. Conflict is an expression of social disequilibrium.

Types of conflict

Personal Conflict

Personal conflict occurs on personal level. It arises when the aims of two individuals clash with each other. The competition among students who wish to be President of the Student Representative Committee (SRC), or people competing for the same position in the work place

Ethnic Conflict:

Ethnic conflict is mostly due to the physical differences. Some ethnic groups consider themselves superior over other groups and there are also ethnic groups which feel that they are inferior to others. The feeling of superiority or inferiority is the root cause of ethnic conflict.

  

Political Conflict

Political conflict arises when different political parties with their own ideologies try to achieve their interest. The main cause of this kind of conflict is power which they want to capture. Example is the conflict between the New Patriotic Party (NPP) which believes in the capitalist ideology and National Democratic Congress (NDC) which is a social Democrats and their current conflict over votes in the 2012 general election is an example.

Conflicts can be resolved in different ways such as Family, religion, Traditional, national and international bodies.   In Ghanaian society, family is the highest priority of every one, to keep the family bond together by being keepers of each other, therefore conflicts are and can be resolved the by family head, who brings the two parties involved in the conflict to a hearing by the family leaders, this is to ascertain the cause or the source of the conflict.  The leaders on hearing each side will meet separately to analyse critically the issues and then bring their verdict.  One important thing to note is that family unity and bond supersede individual interest and should not be broken by any member.

Conflict can also be resolve by religious leaders.  They base their argument on the religious beliefs of the parties and the fact that we must live in peace with all men.  No religion advocates for conflicts that can degenerate to violence.

Traditional chiefs are more important than ever before. While neglected and without real administrative authority, traditional leaders now works hand in hand with politicians for conflict resolution, through mechanisms and methods hitherto only applied in the traditional context.  In Ghana there is a traditional court in Ghana that help to resolve issues such accommodation, marital and family conflicts that proves difficult to solve by the family heads.

Conflict are not healthy in which ever environment it occurs, either t work place, home, church, town, city or a nation.

A strong disagreement can lead to violence if not resolved properly hence creating a bad living condition for people. It can lead to instability, increased stress, reduced productivity, and in some cases sickness like hypertension.  It can lead to negative impact on children’s mental health, poor role-modeling for children, timidity, children worry about taking sides hence leads to wayward children.

Let us avoid conflict by learning to resolve our differences.