Question: In examining phases of conflict interaction, some critical events activate latent conflict. This triggering event turns a consciousness of opposition into acknowledged conflict. Obliviously any number of events are potential triggers in this case: the student government president could announce that the UP Board's budget will be cut by 25%, a member who has been appointed as next year's editor of one of the publications may request a special meeting on the subject to plan accordingly, or a board member may write a formal letter that argues strongly for the elimination of the science journal if publication cutbacks are necessary.
Any of these incidents could be triggering events for conflict interaction by stimulating parties who perceive incompatible goals to move toward obtaining their objectives and to anticipate and elicit countermoves by those who hold opposing stands. Once parties are acting on behalf of their positions, conflict interaction can move through cycles of withdrawal, joking, problem solving, heated arguments, proposals and counterproposals, as so on, in all their many forms.
The triggering event signals a transition in the way people think and act about the conflict. Whereas latent conflict is sustained by perceptions of differences, conflict interaction is sustained by the moves and countermoves of the participants. In the latent phase, people think in terms of possibilities, while conflict interaction confronts them with real threats and constraints. Just as a critical incident changes the general tenor of the groups climate, a triggering event alters people's response to differences and shapes the particular form conflict takes. Your thoughts?