Conflict, Competition and Collaboration

 

COMPETITION

Competition is the most important form of social struggle. According to Anderson and Parker, “Competition is that form of social action in which we strive against each other for the possession of or use of some limited material and non-material goods.” According to Sutherland, Woodward, and Maxwell, “Competition is an impersonal, unconscious continuous struggle which, because of their limited supply, all may not have.” Competition is a form of interaction. It is the struggle for a position to gain economic status. It occurs whenever there is an insufficient supply of anything that human beings desire – insufficient in the sense that all cannot have as much of it as they wish. Sometimes competition happens because of limited
supply and also difficult for equal distribution.

“Competition performs that broad function of assigning to each individual in his social world. Competition is a progressive force that fulfills and does not necessarily destroy.” We can further say that fair competition is conducive to economic as well as social progress. Competition provides individuals with better opportunities to satisfy their desires for new experiences and recognition. It believes in achieved status. Sometimes competition has some negative function. It may lead to frustration. It may lead to a monopoly. It may lead to conflict. It may create emotional disturbances.

It may develop unfriendly and unfavorable attitudes among the persons or groups toward one another. Unfair competition indeed has the most disintegrating effects. Sometimes unlimited competition leads to monopoly. Competition and cooperation differ in many respects. No society is exclusively competitive or exclusively cooperative. The social system is a balance between competitive and cooperative forces. But some competition is healthy and fair.

Characteristics of Competition

The characteristics of the competition are:

• Competition is an impersonal struggle. Park and Burgess defined competition as “interaction without social contact.” We can say it is the inter-individual struggle that is impersonal. It is usually not directed against any individual or group in particular.
•  Competition is universal. No society is devoid of competition. Not only this, the degree of competition may vary from society to society. It is very common for society as well as culture.
• Competition is considered as conducive to progress. Competition provides individuals with better opportunities to satisfy their desires for new experiences and recognitions. Both associative and non-associative dimensions of social processes indicate competition.
• Competition is mainly an unconscious activity but personal competition or rivalry is a conscious activity.
•  Competition may create emotional disturbances.
•  Competition is an innate tendency.
•  Competition is a social phenomenon.
•  The degree of competition is determined by social values and social structure.

 Value of Competition

Competition is indispensable in social life. Competition performs many powerful functions in society. Sometimes competition is extremely dynamic. It performs five positive functions.

• It helps to determine the status and location of individual members in a system of hierarchy.
• It tends to stimulate economy, efficiency, and inventiveness.
• It tends to enhance one’s ego.
• It prevents the undue concentration of power in an individual or group of individuals.
• It creates respect for the rules of the same group.

CONFLICT

Conflict is a conscious action. It is a deliberate intent to oppose it. We can say that conflict is universal. Not only this, conflict lacks continuity. Besides this, it is a personal activity. According to Gillin and Gillin, “Conflict is the social process in which individuals or groups seek their ends up directly challenging the antagonist by violence or threat of violence.” Green defined, “Conflict is the deliberate attempt to oppose, resist and coerce the will of another or others.” Conflict is a competition in its more occasional, personal and hostile forms. It is a process of seeking to obtain rewards by eliminating or weakening competitors. It is inherent in every society or social system. Conflict is noted when an
individual or a group seeks to attain its end. Conflict is the opposite of cooperation. Conflict may lead to antagonism, violence or threat to peace. Conflict is also regarded as a non-associative social process.

 Causes of Conflict

According to Freud and some other psychologists, the innate instinct for aggression in man is the main cause of conflicts. Generally, it arises from a clash of interest within groups and societies and between groups and societies. The significant causes are:
 The individual difference – It is true that we, the human being, are not alike by nature, attributes, interests, personalities, etc. These differences may lead to conflict among human beings.
Cultural differences – The culture of a group differs from the culture of the other group. The cultural differences among the groups sometimes cause tension and lead to conflict.

Differences of opinion regarding interest – In fact, the interests of different people or groups occasionally clash. For example, we can say that the interests of the employers and employees vary in many respect which may ultimately lead to conflict among them.
Social change – Social changes occur off and on in every society. Conflict is an expression of social disequilibrium. Social change is the cultural log that leads to conflict.

Characteristics of Conflict

The characteristics of conflicts are:

• Although conflict is universal it’s nature varies from society to society. No society is characterized exclusively by conflict.
• Conflict is a conscious action. To achieve the respective goals the members oppose one another.
• Conflict leads to social change. It is mainly an expression of disequilibrium.
•  It primarily remains a personal activity. Sometimes it acquires greater intensity and involves many people. At first, it is manifested at the level of a particular group but ultimately it involves the entire society.
• Asymmetrical social, political and economic relations coupled with the sense of relative deprivation as the root cause of social conflict. Sometimes conflict is the life of society and progress emerges from a struggle in which each individual, class or institution seeks to realize its idea of good.
•  We the people are organized into groups to seek a common goal, the probability of conflict increases.
•  All conflicts are not the same.
•  We face conflicts on all levels as we have disagreements with family, friends, and co-workers.
•  Conflict is an ever-present process in human relations.
•  Unmanaged conflict is a threat to the survival of the group and ultimately tends to make the group less effective.
• Conflict can occur within groups (intra-group conflict) and among groups (inter-group conflict).

 Effects of Conflict

Conflict sometimes creates positive and sometimes creates a negative impact. The effects of conflict are many and manifold. It is varied as well as unpredictable. We can say that the conflict may have the following effects: Increases tension within or between the groups

•   Disrupt normal activities
• Weaken group activities
•  Harmful to individuals
•  Help to restructure the group
• Help to form new groups
•  Gives a positive result
•  Improves decision-making process
•  Increase bitterness
•  Increase alienation
•  Become violent
•  Help to gain recognition
•  Increase unity and cohesion
•  Strengthen group boundaries
•  Help to form a new group.

Thus, we can say that conflict has both positive and negative effects. Conflict indeed happens in any set-up and it creates an impact on group members.

 Types of Conflict

Conflict may be of various types, viz,
1) Overt and covert: Overt conflict has some manifestation but covert conflict or latent conflict primarily remains invisible.
2) Personal and corporate: Personal conflict occurs within the group due to hostility, jealousy, etc., on the other hand, corporate conflict occurs among the groups within a society or between two societies.
3) Temporary and perpetual: When conflict occurs among the individuals in the bus or the shop or the road are called temporary conflict, on the other hand when conflict occurs between two rival groups, then it is called perpetual conflict. Conflict is not a continuous process. It may stretch for some time. In every conflict, there is an intermittent period of peace and social harmony. According to Gillin and Gillin, conflict can be divided into five types, viz.,

•  Personal conflict – It is the conflict between two persons within the same group.
• Racial conflict – It is the result of the feeling of racial superiority or inferiority.
•  Class conflict – It is the conflict between two classes.
•  Political conflict – It is the conflict between parties of political power.
•  International conflict – It is the conflict between the two nations.

 

COOPERATION

Cooperation is an integrating activity and is believed to be the opposite of competition. The word “cooperation” is derived from the two Latin words “co” meaning together and “operate” meaning to work. It is thus a joint activity in pursuit of common goals or shared rewards. It is a goal-oriented and conscious form of social interaction. It involves two elements –

(i) common end and
(ii) organized effort.

It is the process by which individuals or groups combine their effort, in a more or less organized way for the attainment of a common objective.

Generally, co-operation means working together for a common objective. In many festivals, volunteers work together to collect money from different parts and want to organize the program successfully and everybody want to stretch forward their hands to celebrate the occasion successfully. Among the members of the group,there seems to be an indication of the good interaction process. All of them behave in a co- operative manner. Co-operation is brought about by several factors which
includes the following:

•  the desire for individual benefits
• desire to give and share
•  the total decision on common purposes
•  situational necessity and
•  desire to achieve larger goals.

Types of Cooperation

We can classify cooperation into five categories, viz.
i) Direct cooperation
ii) Indirect cooperation
iii) Primary cooperation
iv) Secondary cooperation and
v) Tertiary cooperation

i) Direct cooperation: The essential characteristics of this kind of cooperation are that people do in the company the thing which can also do separately. In this category, cooperating individuals do things of common interest together and perform identical functions. Playing together, worshiping together are examples of direct co-operation.
ii) Indirect cooperation: In this type of cooperation individual work towards a common end each has his specialized functions. Thus, we can say that indirect cooperation is obtained when people perform dissimilar tasks towards a common end, i.e., each has its specialized role to play. In modern society, it is the indirect cooperation which is more in play than the direct cooperation because technological changes require specialization of skills and functions.
iii) Primary cooperation: There is an identity of interest between the individual and the group. It is the cooperation that is found in primary groups such as family. Not only family but also peer groups are also called primary cooperation where people have to choose face-to-face relations. We can also say that the interest of the individual merge with the interest of the primary group.
iv) Secondary cooperation: This type of cooperation is generally found in the secondary group, viz., government, industry, church, and trade union, etc.
v) Tertiary cooperation: This is the interaction between the various big and small groups to meet a particular situation. Here the individual or group who wants to compete with one another, come together and cooperate for a specific purpose. In such a type of cooperation, the attitudes of the cooperating parties are purely opportunistic.

 Role of Cooperation

It is a universal phenomenon. Cooperation for human beings is both a psychological and social necessity. Individual, as well as collective goals, can not be achieved without cooperation. Cooperation is essential for the maintenance of social order. We can not do anything without cooperation if we are to live as members of society. Family members cooperate in terms of sharing the economic, emotional and social requirements of one another. All the activity in every family is done cooperatively.