Power and its role in conflict

This is the first of three articles addressing issues of power in relation to conflict.

So why should we be concerned with power in relation to conflict?  Because power and its dynamics in relationship are fundamental to any approach to working with conflict.  For example

These days we are supposed to sort out our conflicts in a civilised and rational manner through talk and dialogue.  However, we all know how irrational and 'uncivilised' we can become when we are in conflict over something that matters deeply to us.  Most conflicts become power struggles when they escalate or degenerate.  Perhaps they were power contests from the outset but we just did not know it, admit it or kept it hidden for the sake of appearances or tactical advantage.

Either way, there seems to be a kind of turning point in most conflicts where awareness of difference, and conversation or attempts to influence the other becomes a power struggle, i.e. one or more parties are not open to being influenced or no longer see mutual exchange as a means of resolving their differences.  This is what tends to happen particularly where there is lack of consciousness around power and its use, or a lack of awareness, desire and skill in using alternatives to power contest. 

Nothing gets done without power, yet we don't seem to be able to have rational conversations about it or prepare ourselves for its constructive use.  Power is ugly, unsavoury and not p.c. to discuss it among the franchised and the powerful.  Power and how we got it is kept hidden and secret.  Those with power tend to be embarrassed when attention is drawn to their power and tend to downplay or even deny it.  It is best operated in the background and openly displayed if you really have to.  Open displays of power are seen as crude and unedifying in polite society.  Blatant attempts at power-play by the less powerful will be ridiculed, stamped upon and excluded by distancing - a subtle means of increasing the power differential.  Those in power tend to make challenges very costly by coming down hard on the less powerful to see of their attempts to grasp power and deter others from getting similar ideas.

Constructive and non-oppressive use of power is becoming increasingly important in the world as individual independence and access to sources of power grow and the consequences of misuse or abuse of power become increasingly devastating.  We need this constructive capability in our relationships and in society at large and nowhere does our inability appear more obvious than in how we deal with contention and conflict.  They say the measure of a man, to say nothing of women, institutions or governments, is how he handles power.  So why is it that we are so poor at it? 

Some reasons for power misuse and abuse are clear and we can do something about them.  We need to get on with doing something about them.

So what is power? 

Popular understandings suggest that power is the control, influence and exercise of authority over others; the ability to bend others to our will; to dominate people and situations for the purposes of self defence, self interest; and so on.  The most common approaches to conflict resolution - power contests rely on this view.

Another view is that power is the ability to make things happen, to influence the direction of thinking, action and outcomes - not necessarily about domination and control, which could be seen as a subset of ways of making things happen.  Included here also, is the ability to protect and defend, to block or prevent violation, exploitation, or interference from others, e.g. legal protection of rights by the state.

Yet another view of power is that of personal power - based on for example, one's natural beauty, charisma, energy, intelligence, spirituality, knowledge, skill, values, beliefs and self-awareness and self-control.  Added to these could be social dimensions of power that accrue to the individual as result of their life experience, social and economic status, race, gender, age and so on.  The extent to which one has access to more or less of these personal or social power sources determines how powerful we are, provided that is, we are willing to use it. 

Power is relative in the sense that it is about influence, and in particular, the direction and extent of that influence. For example, what matters in a conflict situation is the nature and quality and extent of my power relative to my antagonist.  I.e. Do I have more or less of it than my opponent and am I prepared to use it?  Relative power is hard to measure exactly because of the different sources of power upon which it is based - it is only potential until exercised and we can only really know when it is used skilfully and wisely or otherwise.

Power therefore, greatly depends on mutual perceptions of antagonists and their respective sources of power.  In the animal kingdom, displays of power or the appearances of power are often enough to sort out a conflict but sometimes that is not enough and antagonists respective power has to be tested to determine the outcome.  The costs of testing relative power in real life can be great to both winner and looser  especially the loser, but either may suffer serious damage and even pay the ultimate price with their lives.  And so it is with human conflict - the cost of testing ones power can entail experiencing considerable damage to both sides.

Yet another view suggests that power is a fundamental form of motivation that cannot be reduced to any other motivation such as hunger, sex, safety, belonging, self-esteem , self-actualisation and so on; that it is more akin to what Maslow called continual needs - freedom and knowledge.  Perhaps it is the same drive that is behind our need for freedom and choice.  It is certainly related to our capacity for will and the qualities of will such as psychological voltage (intensity/ forcefulness), determination, persistence and endurance.  What is clear from the research is that the possession and exercise of power is deeply satisfying and possibly even addictive, the more one accumulates and wields.

Power is a reflection of our ability to organise, focus and direct our own and others energy towards imagined and selected goals or outcomes.  At its best both individual and collective power is grounded in self-discipline and self-regulation.  Failing this it runs the danger of becoming 'power over' rather than 'power with' others, domination and exploitation rather than power-sharing and focusing of collective energies in pursuit of agreed goals.  Power over strategies demand sustained effort to control,  subservience and compliance whereas 'power with' strategies, though more difficult to achieve and maintain, have the potential of releasing far greater energy for achievement.

In conflict we often make the mistake of using our power to focus on the relationship or on the issue/  outcome we desire.  The result is that we often attain one at the expense of the other.  Our power may enable us to achieve our goal but damage or destroy the relationship.  Alternatively, we may sustain the relationship at the expense of our needs or desired outcome.  The ideal may be maintaining a healthy relationship while at the same time achieving our goal, but this requires a subtle and complex use of different kinds of power or perhaps not using the power at our disposal.  This requires wisdom, self control and self discipline as well as skilled interpersonal behaviour.

Nor can effective use of power be reduced to wise control of our personal powers, though that may be a good start.  Social power, including our own, is concentrated, channelled, and distributed by the culture and structure of our families, communities, organisations, countries, etc.  Personal power is limited or extended by such cultures and structures.  We have to contend, in the exercise of our personal power, with the influences of such power-channels in our environments and how they add to, limit or distort our exercise of power - e.g. hierarchies, coalitions, exclusive networks, etc. But despite these shaping forces and channels, power is not a static commodity, it is constantly ebbing and waning, shifting from one person, group or location to another over time, brought about e.g., by human action, reorganisation, and change in environmental conditions.  Power relations are therefore changing all the time, sometimes quickly and obviously, sometimes slowly and imperceptibly. 

Future issues of Healthy Conflict will explore the dynamics of power relations, self empowerment and  the recovery of our power; constructive use of and response to power in working with conflict.