The art of managing everyday conflict : understanding emotions and power struggles

Power struggles are a common occurrence in everyday life, affecting individuals in every stage of life. Those involved in conflicts often have no idea how to resolve them. This book discusses the hows and whys of conflict and provides easy-to-use solutions for most situations, and its focus is on the role of emotion. According to the authors, conflict results from the way in which one views one's personal power, views largely influenced by personal emotions. The authors, therefore, begin by a close consideration of personal emotions. They offer ways to pinpoint emotions and understand how they bring about the classic roles of the conflict Victim, Persecutor, Instigator, and Rescuer. The authors examine how emotions can serve productive purposes and how they can be used to minimize and eliminate serious conflict. The text includes vignettes, anecdotes, personal inventories, illustrations, and concrete exercises. We all have power struggles affecting each of us in every stage of our life, nearly every day. We all get wrapped up in conflicts, but often have no idea how to resolve them. This book dicusses the hows and whys of conflict and provides easy-to-use solutions for most situations. The focus is on the role of emotion. Conflict results from the way in which we view our own power, and our views on power are largely influenced by our emotions. So we must begin by looking closely at our emotions. Fisher and Sharp guide us to pinpoint those and see how emotions move us into playing one of the classic roles in conflict - Victim, Persecutor, Instigator or Rescuer. And we learn how emotions can play productive purposes; how they can be used to minimize and remove serious conflict in our lives. The text includes vignettes, anecdotes, personal inventories, illustrations and concrete exercises. While general readers will find this text of interest, it will also provide valuable information for students of psychology, sociology, business management, human resources and family studies. Power struggles are a common occurrence in everyday life, affecting individuals in every stage of life. Those involved in conflicts often have no idea how to resolve them. This book discusses the hows and whys of conflict and provides easy-to-use solutions for most situations, and its focus is on the role of emotion. According to the authors, conflict results from the way in which one views one's personal power, views largely influenced by personal emotions. The authors, therefore, begin by a close consideration of personal emotions. They offer ways to pinpoint emotions and understand how they bring about the classic roles of the conflict scenario: Victim, Persecutor, Instigator, and Rescuer. The authors examine how emotions can serve productive purposes and how they can be used to minimize and eliminate serious conflict. The text includes vignettes, anecdotes, personal inventories, illustrations, and concrete exercises.We all have power struggles affecting each of us in every stage of our life, nearly every day. We all get wrapped up in conflicts, but often have no idea how to resolve them. This book dicusses the hows and whys of conflict and provides easy-to-use solutions for most situations. The focus is on the role of emotion. Conflict results from the way in which we view our own power, and our views on power are largely influenced by our emotions. So we must begin by looking closely at our emotions. Fisher and Sharp guide us to pinpoint those and see how emotions move us into playing one of the classic roles in conflict - Victim, Persecutor, Instigator or Rescuer. And we learn how emotions can play productive purposes; how they can be used to minimize and remove serious conflict in our lives. The text includes vignettes, anecdotes, personal inventories, illustrations and concrete exercises.While general readers will find this text of interest, it will also provide valuable information for students of psychology, sociology, business management, human resources and family studies. "This book discusses the "hows" and "whys" of conflict and provides easy-to-use solutions for most situations." "Since conflict results from how we view our own power, and emotion is at the core of these views, we must begin by looking closely at our emotions. Fisher and Sharp guide us toward pinpointing our emotions and seeing how they move us into playing one of the classic roles in conflict: Victim, Persecutor, Instigator, or Rescuer. They also describe how emotions can have productive purposes, and how they can be used to minimize and remove serious conflict from our lives." "This book includes vignettes, anecdotes, personal inventories, illustrations, and concrete exercises, making it perfect for general readers and students of psychology, sociology, business management, human resources and family studies."--Jacket Cover Page 1 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Dedication 6 Contents 8 Illustrations 10 Preface 12 1 Introduction 16 2 Hierarchical Power Systems and How They Cause Conflict 24 3 Equity Power Systems and How They Remove Conflict 36 4 The Problem with All-or-Nothing Situations 44 5 The Players 56 6 The Role of Emotion 74 7 Communicating Emotion 84 8 Emotions Viewed as Strong or Powerful 90 9 Emotions Viewed as Weak or Less Powerful 110 10 Conflict and Power Struggles within the Self 128 11 Power and the Family 138 12 Power and Intimate Relationships 166 13 Power in the Workplace 190 14 Understanding Power Struggles and Conflict 200 15 So, What Do I Do Now? Conflict Resolution Strategies 220 16 Putting It All Together 242 Appendix: Comprehensive List of Emotions 244 Notes 246 Bibliography 248 Index 250

Helps us understand the obvious and subtle roles of emotion in conflict, as well as the role of our perception of power, and to use that knowledge for reducing the incidence and seriousness of everyday conflicts in families, friendships, relationships, at work and in educational settings.

It was late in March when Suzanne came home with a shopping bag and Glen, her husband, greeted her coolly.