Conflict and Technology Assignment
BRIEF: CONFLICT AND TECHNOLOGY ASSIGNMENT
Richard Gilmore
School of Business, Liberty University
Author Note
Richard Gilmore
I have no known conflict of interest to disclose.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Richard Gilmore
Email: rgilmore2@liberty.edu
Conflict and Technology Assignment
Executive Summary
Conflict can be defined as a disagreement of different opinions and goals from opposite parties.
According to Lewis Coser (1957), conflict is the clash of values and interests, the tension between what
is, and what some groups feel ought to be (Said, 2021). A little bit of conflict can be healthy but a lot can
be painful for both sides. According to Lederach (2015), conflicts in relationships at all levels are the way
life helps us to stop, assess, and take notice. As human beings, when we are engaged in conflict, there is
an opportunity of responding faster, innovating, and changing outcomes (Lederach, 2015). Conflict
keeps relationships and society truthful, thriving, and enthusiastically approachable to human desires,
goals, and development. According to Lederach (2015), transformation provides a clear and important
vision because it brings into focus the horizon toward which we journey the building of healthy
relationships and communities, locally and globally (Lederach, 2015). Transformation is about change
hopefully for the better.
Professional Analyze
According to Lederach (2015), conflict transformation is to envision and respond to the ebb and flow of
social conflict as life-giving opportunities for creating constructive change processes that reduce
violence, increase justice in direct interaction and social structures, and respond to real-life problems in
human relationships (Lederach, 2015). Conflict transformation is a chance for both parties to find a
peaceful solution to any disagreements. Conflict transformation provides the disputed parties with
enough time and space to accept each other as well as it brings to the rivals' table more applicable
solutions far away from the goals and interests of the leaders (Said, 2021). If utilized properly, conflict
transformation will meet all requests, concerns, doubts, and objectives of individuals from both parties.
Conflict transformation explorations promote justifiable change by creating a certain focus that
identifying personal, social, organizational, and cultural aspects of human involvement that resulted in
the social conflict. A conflict transformation viewpoint could possibly help management have a better
Conflict and Technology Assignment
view outside the box of conflict situation. It pulls managers to understand the deep relationships that
bond homogeneous employees in order to identify the opportunities for building social networks of
bridging social capital that replaces the group’s tight bonding social capital (Valentino, 2017). Individuals
that employ conflict transformation should have a desire to identify and understand the issue at hand
within the settings of more forms of human bonding that is intended to bridge the gap in a diverse work
environment. Transformational conflict managers see conflict as an opportunity to stop, take stock, re-
group, self-evaluate, and re-assess how they plan, organize, lead, and control (Valentino, 2017).
Supervisors need to acknowledge, strategize, and employ transformational programs that focus on the
situation, subject, and the reasoning of the conflict. It transforms violent conduct into a peaceful one
through a combination of multi-actor and multitrack approaches with short, medium and long-term
perspectives (Muchanyuka, 2021). This method can correct past conflicts so new ones are not created.
Higher management has to take a more active role in conflict transformation because lower-level
employee look to them for guidance. Unlike other approaches which see conflict as something negative
that must be overcome or reduced, the transformative approach rather sees conflict as a catalyst for
social change through its double dimension: conflict creates stress in social relations, but it also offers
the potential to help overcome, change and transform conflicting relationships towards more
harmonious, constructive and balanced ones (Rodríguez and Inturias, 2018). In other words, conflict has
helped discovers concerns or issues between sides and brought them to the light which means changes
are needed to allow peace. Many authors and researchers have different views on conflict
transformation. Conflict transformation is a huge subject, and many people have different opinions on
its definition. According to Young (1990), conflict transformation is to generate strategies that impact on
these three areas in which power is concentrated in- environmental management and territorial control:
institutions and economic and legal frameworks, people and their networks, and discourses, narratives
and world views. Each of these areas have been key in the cause of conflict either locally or globally
Conflict and Technology Assignment
(Rodríguez and Inturias, 2018). Matthew 18:15-17 ESV states, “If your brother sins against you, go and
tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he
does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the
evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses
to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.” The verses mean for
individual to converse with another and talk about things that are a concern and needs to be addressed.
Matthew 5:9 ESV states, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” Conflict
transformation is about finding peaceful solution between both parties which God wants his children to
accomplish. According to Robert A. Baruch Bush and Joseph P. Folger (2005), transformative outcomes
occur when parties feel more in control of their own destiny, as well as when parties are able to openly
acknowledge the experience and or emotions of the other party (Jameson, Sohan, and Hodge, 2014).
Emotions are a big factor when utilizing conflict transformation. Each party must empathize with the
other for an agreement to be established. A careful implementation of the people-to-people approach
of conflict transformation will lead to positive change, or at least will place the first cornerstone of a win-
win situation for the sake of peace, to protect this and the next generations (Said, 2021). The ultimate
goal of conflict transformations is the achieve to peace through understanding, empathy, and share
goals. Not everyone involved in the conversation is going to be satisfied but the key is to let everyone
voice their opinion and find middle ground. Deuteronomy 1:17 ESV states, “You shall not be partial in
judgment. You shall hear the small and the great alike. You shall not be intimidated by anyone, for the
judgment is God's. And the case that is too hard for you, you shall bring to me, and I will hear it.”
Everyone should be heard no matter their position at the meeting table.
Conflict and Technology Assignment
References
Jameson, J. K., Sohan, D., & Hodge, J. (2014). Turning Points and Conflict Transformation in Mediation.
Negotiation Journal, 30(2), 209-229. Retrieved from
https://go.openathens.net/redirector/liberty.edu?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-
journals/turning-points-conflict-transformation-mediation/docview/1614423110/se-2
Lederach, J. (2015). Little Book of Conflict Transformation. Simon & Schuster. Retrieved from
https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/books/9781680990423
Muchanyuka, M. R. (2021). The Zimbabwean Response to RENAMO Incursions: A Conflict Transformation
Perspective. Strategic Review for Southern Africa, 43(2), 130-154.
https://doi.org/10.35293/srsa.v43i2.368
Rodríguez, I., & Inturias, M. L. (2018). Conflict transformation in indigenous peoples’ territories: doing
environmental justice with a ‘decolonial turn’. Development Studies Research, 5(1), 90-105.
https://doi.org/10.1080/21665095.2018.1486220
Said, F. G. N. (2021). The Art of Engineering Peace: The Role of History in shaping and Transforming the
Palestinian-Israeli Conflict. Palestine - Israel Journal of Politics, Economics, and Culture, 26(1),
156-164. Retrieved from https://go.openathens.net/redirector/liberty.edu?
url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/art-engineering-peace-role-history-
shaping/docview/2545668655/se-2
Valentino, C. (2017). Conflict Transformation not Conflict Management: the key to Sustainable Diversity
Management. The Journal of Health Administration Education, 34(2), 243-255.
https://go.openathens.net/redirector/liberty.edu?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-
journals/conflict-transformation-not-management-key/docview/2097623962/se-2
