1. CHAPTER 5: Power: The Architecture of Conflict Samed Seyhun

2. CHAPTER OUTLINE 5.1 - POWER AND THE EMERGENCE OF CONFLICT 5.2 - A RELATIONAL VIEW OF POWER 5.3 - POWER AND CONFLICT INTERACTION 5.4 - THE USE OF POWER IN CONFLICT TACTICS 5.5 - THE BALANCE OF POWER IN CONFLICT 5.6 - WORKING WITH POWER

3. 5.1 - POWER AND THE EMERGENCE OF CONFLICT What is power? Power is the ability to influence or control events. It depends on resources parties can employ to influence others and reach their goals. The degree of power participants can apply depends on having the resources and the skill to use those resources effectively to act and to influence others.

4. 5.1 - POWER AND THE EMERGENCE OF CONFLICT Latent Conflict: “Consciousness of opposition” that comes before conflict interaction and lays the groundwork for it. During this stage, no outright conflict exists, but there is a potential for conflict. When individuals foresee disagreement or incompatible goals, it creates a consciousness of opposition. A ‘triggering event’ turns a “consciousness of opposition” into acknowledged conflict.

5. 5.1 - POWER AND THE EMERGENCE OF CONFLICT In the latent stage, parties think in terms of possibilities, while conflict interaction confronts them with real threats and constraints. A triggering event alters people’s response to differences and shapes the particular form conflict takes. Once a conflict is triggered, the moves people make depend on the power they can marshal. Parties’ abilities and willingness to use power and their skill at employing it determine the moves and countermoves that will sustain the conflict.

6. 5.1 - POWER AND THE EMERGENCE OF CONFLICT Power establishes the set of actions that individuals may use and sets limits on the effectiveness of other parties’ moves. Each move reveals to others how willing a party is to use power and what kinds of power that party has. The response to the move reveals whether the use of power will go unchallenged. The shift from latent conflict to the emergence of conflict interaction inevitably confronts the participants with the issue of power.

7. 5.2 - A RELATIONAL VIEW OF POWER In a conflict interaction, parties can use a broad range of resources to exert power. A wide variety of resources can serve as sources of power, including; –material resources (money or strength), –skills, likeability, and –formal position in a group or organization etc.. One party makes a control bid based on real or potential use of resources, and the other party accepts or rejects it.

8. 5.2 - A RELATIONAL VIEW OF POWER Perhaps the most critical aspect of this process is the other party’s acceptance or rejection of the legitimacy or force of the bid. Resources are not valid in any absolute sense. The effectiveness of a resource as a basis of power depends on its endorsement by other parties. If a resource is not valued or validated by others—or if they do not believe the party’s use of the resource is legitimate then the resource will not motivate them to comply.

9. 5.2 - A RELATIONAL VIEW OF POWER Four factors that influence endorsement: Social Categorization The Mystique of Power Interaction Legitimacy

10. 5.2 - A RELATIONAL VIEW OF POWER 1- Social Categorization: The social categorization process creates strong preconceptions about what types of people are usually powerful and what types are generally weak. Expectations about social categories shape perceptions of other parties’ resources and abilities. Comparing executives with welfare mothers. We endorse those we expect to be powerful and do not endorse those we expect to be weak. These associations have several consequences.

11. 5.2 - A RELATIONAL VIEW OF POWER 1- Social Categorization (Continued): For one thing, they make the use of power easier for certain people and more difficult for others. Consistently, members with higher status in society—for example, doctors, lawyers, university students—are more influential than those with lower status—such as laborers and high school students—even if both members had exactly the same resources. there is a self-reinforcing cycle that serves to prove the weak are powerless and further strengthens other people’s tendency to refuse endorsement.

12. 5.2 - A RELATIONAL VIEW OF POWER 2- The Mystique of Power: The use of power also carries a mystique that reinforces endorsement of moves by powerful members. In addition to childhood experiences, the historical connection between kings and queens and the divine contributes to power’s magical aura If power is a magical, unattainable possession, the strong must have special qualities and the weak cannot handle it and should not try. The magical aura about power inspires a certain awe that facilitates its endorsement. In groups, for example, more experienced, older members are often granted this aura or mystique.

13. 5.2 - A RELATIONAL VIEW OF POWER 3- Interaction: Interaction is the primary means through which endorsement is enacted. The response of other parties to a power move has a strong influence on an individual’s endorsement. 4- Legitimacy Endorsements are often openly discussed and decided on. In these cases, parties value certain abilities, knowledge, or personal characteristics and explicitly support the legitimacy of the resource.

14. 5.3 POWER AND CONFLICT INTERACTION The use of power imposes constraints on others. A power move usually brings about a reduction of other parties’ options by limiting the moves they can make, eliminating a possible resolution to the conflict, or restricting their ability to employ countervailing power. These constraints influence the direction the conflict takes; they make certain behaviors or styles desirable or, alternatively, impossible. They shape parties’ perceptions of each other, kindling hope or desperation, cooperation or competition.

15. 5.3 POWER AND CONFLICT INTERACTION As the conflict evolves and changes, so do the constraints under which participants operate. The other parties’ responses to moves set further constraints, the responses to the countermoves set still further constraints, and so on, until the conflict is no longer wholly controlled by either party but is a collective product.

16. 5.4 THE USE OF POWER IN CONFLICT TACTICS Four different modes of power: 1- Some tactics operate through the direct application of power: They are intended to compel others to respond regardless of what is wanted. These tactics bring physical, economic, and political resources directly to bear to force others to comply. 2. Other tactics involve a direct and virtual use of power: They attempt to elicit others’ compliance by communicating the potential use of direct force. In direct and virtual use of power, parties openly display their resources and ability to employ them. Threats and promises are probably the best examples of this tactic.

17. 5.4 THE USE OF POWER IN CONFLICT TACTICS Four different modes of power (Continued): 3. Some tactics involve the indirect use of power: Someone may attempt to employ his or her power to shape interaction without ever making the use of power explicit. In the indirect mode, power or the potential to use it remains implicit and tacit. 4. Still other tactics may constitute a hidden use of power: In this mode, tactics use power to hide or suppress potential issues. The actual consequences of power are hidden because the issue is decided before it even develops or emerges.

18. 5.4 THE USE OF POWER IN CONFLICT TACTICS Fundamental principles and processes involved in the “non-direct” power modes by considering three important and common tactics: 1- Threats and Promises: Threats and promises directly link resources-rewards and punishments-with influence attempts and therefore offer a clear illustration of the essential features of the implied use of power. The basic properties of threats and promises apply for all direct tactics. Most important, they depend on the person’s ability to project the potential consequences of a direct move.

19. 5.4 THE USE OF POWER IN CONFLICT TACTICS Fundamental principles and processes involved in the “non-direct” power modes by considering three important and common tactics: 2- Relational Control: There are as many possible relational messages as there are different types of relationships. These messages can convey implicitly that someone feels inferior or superior to another person, that he or she is irritated, likes someone, etc.. Relational control is an important form of influence because people often accept previously defined relationships without question.

20. 5.4 THE USE OF POWER IN CONFLICT TACTICS Fundamental principles and processes involved in the “non-direct” power modes by considering three important and common tactics: 3- Issue Control: Issue control occurs in face-to-face interaction. Two types of power resources come into play in issue control. Parties may make definite moves that direct other parties’ attention away from an issue. Control over what information people have access to is the most common means for accomplishing this.

21. 5.5 THE BALANCE OF POWER IN CONFLICT When power is unbalanced between parties, the stronger and weaker parties both face dilemmas as they make moves and step through difficult conflict situations. For most cultures, maintaining equality of opportunity is valued. When parties do not have equal control over the situation, several problems can result. Although being the stronger party may seem desirable, it creates certain dilemmas. Using the very resources that contribute to strength may undermine their endorsement due to the resistance and resentment of weaker parties.

22. 5.5 THE BALANCE OF POWER IN CONFLICT Stronger parties also tend to assume that the weaker party is complying only because he or she is forced to. This creates a sense of distrust of the weaker party and encourages the stronger party to continue forcing, further undermining the relationship between the parties. Imbalances of power also encourage the weaker party to give up on cooperative solutions, effectively guaranteeing repeated cycles of forcing. A continuing imbalance of power may encourage the weaker party to feel powerless and devalue his or her resources.

23. 5.6 WORKING WITH POWER Measures to Manage Power Constructively: 1- Diagnosing Power Determine possible resources available to parties and who holds them. Identify power through its effects. Identify conservatism—where the system resists change—often a sign of power structures. Look for unique versus shared power resources.

24. 5.6 WORKING WITH POWER Measures to Manage Power Constructively: 2- Fostering Shared Power Ensure all parties have shared goals. Develop common bases of power that all parties have access to. Reach agreement on norms concerning what types of power can be used and how it can be used. Make parties aware of how endorsement of power resources works. Encourage lower power members to band together as a counterweight to higher power members.

25. 5.6 WORKING WITH POWER The first prerequisite to working with power is to understand how it operates in the situation. Indicators of who has power and the impacts it has on the conflict include who controls power resources and might use them, conservatism, and the effects of power. One important aspect of power is whether the parties have unique resources. Once parties (and third parties) understand how power operates, they can move to change the situation.

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