Introduction:
Conflict positive or negative? Weeks (1994) explains how conflict can be seen through a positive lens and not only as a negative thing. This paper will include with what Weeks explains about conflict compared to other definitions of conflict and how this different definitions and understanding could have possible implications.
Definitions and Weeks perspective:
Weeks (1994, 1) did an exercise where you had to give the first word that comes to mind when you hear the word conflict, by doing this I soon realized how my view of conflict was negative. After I read further, I soon realized that conflict is not always negative and can also be seen as positive.
In politics, conflict is more clearly defined. Conflict happens when two or more engage in a fight over different opinions in values, power and resources and the aims is
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Implications:
When we only view conflict in a negative way we often damage the change that we have to resolve the differences in an approach that could have been effective (Weeks, 1994, 4).
Different definitions on conflict can result in a fear of conflict. In my experience, never have I thought that conflict could be positive. My only thoughts about it was fighting and disagreements and relationships being shattered. Looking at this definition some people will avoid conflict in order to maintain the peace (Weeks, 1994, 19).
Looking at the different definitions from different authors, we can see that there is conflict in the different opinions of the authors. This may imply that every author has a different perception, depending on the situation they find themselves in or the topic they write about.
Different conflict definitions result in people thinking negatively about conflict instead of seeing it as an opportunity to grow and develop personal skills.