Tasks: Conflict Resolution

Work in groups and discuss the following scenarios.

Scenario 1:

Two of your friends are in love with the same person. Whenever they meet, they fight. They are asking their friends to choose between them.

1. Referring to Glasl’s model: What level would you say this conflict is at? Is there anything you can do to resolve the conflict?

Scenario 2:

You have got a new job working for a Norwegian tourist information centre. You were hired to guide tourists and use your local knowledge and language skills to create fun and engaging tours. You have a signed work contract saying that you're hired as a guide. You have enjoyed the work immensely for the first four weeks. Now, your boss wants to expand your duties: they are asking you to serve food in a café at the tourist centre, and clean the customer toilets.

1. How would you react to the change in your work tasks?

2. Is the change likely to create conflict between you and your boss?

3. What strategy would you use to avoid/resolve a conflict with your boss over this issue.

4. Is there likely to be a judicial solution to the issue, or will you just have to accept the change in order to keep your job?

Scenario 3:

A pupil isalways handing in work late, asking for continuations, and showing up late for class. After a while, the teacher starts making jokes about how the pupil is always late, or not completing the work. The pupil smiles at the teacher’s jokes, but you notice that it creates a bad atmosphere in class: everyone is a bit afraid of doing anything wrong, in case the teacher will start making jokes about them.

1. Is there a conflict in this example? If so, at what level would you say the conflict is, and who is the conflict between?

2. What would you do to resolve the conflict?

3. If you needed help to resolve the conflict, who would you turn to?

Scenario 4:

One of your friends hates a boy in your class because he bullied him for years. While the boy is at school, your friend sabotages the brakes on his motorcycle.

1. What level would you say that this conflict is at?

2. Is it likely that you can do anything to resolve the conflict? Who would you turn to for help?

3. What your friend did could potentially cost the boy his life. What should you do in this situation?

Scenario 5:

Your country is at war. You learn that soldiers are crossing a bridge at dawn. If they are able to cross the bridge, they will attack your home-town. You are an explosives expert, and you have explosives to blow up the bridge but no fuse to ensure that you can make it to safety.

1. What would you do in this situation?

2. What level is this conflict at?

Scenario 6:

You are the boss of a publishing company, and you have just hired a new editor. She has more qualifications than you, and she likes to show off everything she knows all the time. You feel that she is trying to upstage you, and that she thinks she would be better at your job than you are. You feel that you should put this woman in her place: You do not listen to her in meetings, you pitch her good ideas as your own, and you joke about her behind her back.

1. What level would you say this conflict is at?

2. What can you do to resolve the conflict?

3. Is it likely that you will want to resolve the conflict?

4. What can the woman do to resolve the conflict?

Work in pairs.

Research an international conflict and make an overview of the conflict. Discuss what level the conflict is at, using Glasl's model. Present your findings to another pair. You could also write and hand in a discussion paper where you present your findings.

Choose one of the tasks and write a longer text.

1. What can we learn about conflict resolution by reading fiction? Write a discussion paper where you refrence at least two literary works.

2. How do conflicts contribute to creating suspense in films? Write a discussion text where you make reference to at least three films.

3. Anyone who has used social media knows how easy it is to say the wrong thing and be interpreted in the wrong way. Why is it so easy to interpret someone as having bad intentions when reading online posts? Why is the conflict level on social media so high? Write a discussion text where you reference appropriate examples from social media.

4. Can international conflicts be avoided? Write a discussion text where you introduce an international conflict and discuss whether it could have been avoided or solved more amicably.

5. Conflicts may become especially bitter when they arise between people who once loved each other. Write a text where you discuss what measures parents who are going through a breakup or a divorce should take to shield their children from the conflict.