It is natural as human beings for us to have conflicts especially when working amongst teams. "In our marriages or relationships, with our children, with friends, with co-workers, in politics-we all accept conflict as a normal part of the equation". (Swenson, 2000 p.215). There are many types of conflicts such as emotional conflict and cognitive conflict to name a few. There are many reasons that conflicts arise in every day life. These conflicts may be as simple as who should speak first in a presentation, or as complex as team members not doing their share of the work load in the group. Why these conflicts occur and how we deal with them are crucial to creating a resolution and moving on to better ourselves.
Emotional conflict, also known as A-type conflict, usually occurs when it is personal. You can become very defensive and resentful. According to Guetzkow & Gyr in "Tolls for Teams" it is rooted in anger, personal friction, personality clashes, ego, and tension. Emotional conflicts usually occur in teams when someone fears another's increasing powers or trying to lessen the threats from other group members.
Cognitive conflict, also known as C-type is just the opposite of emotional conflict in that it is impersonal. C-type conflict tends to be more confrontational rather than about anything else. Group members often find this type of conflict when discussing plans and projects. Although conflicts are considered to be a negative thing it is said that between the two types of conflicts it is best to have C-type because even though there is a conflict you can tend to be more productive because the group members are forced to consider the ideas of the other group members.
How to deal with these types of conflicts can be very challenging. When trying to rectify an A-type conflict you simply need to turn it into a C-type conflict. The best way of doing that is to try and let the conflicts emerge out of there shell.