Conflict Management as a Competency of a Social Manager

Social relations at different times have been filled with misunderstandings and contradictions. Since the emergence of society, its development, and especially, in times of socio-political, economic and cultural transformational changes, conflicts have been inevitable. Clashes and wars caused by ideological, ethnic, territorial, resource and other contradictions have arisen throughout the historical development of mankind. The consequences of various kinds of conflicts make us think about ways to resolve them, prevent them, predict them in order to prevent and make them impossible, as well as mitigate their con- sequences. For a long time, the search for methods and technologies for managing conflicts at the level of the organization, society, and interpersonal relationships has remained relevant in the world. No less rel- evant is the formation of conflict competence for managers of different levels and individual individuals, regardless of the field of professional activity.
The problem of predicting, identifying and resolving conflicts has become particularly relevant in the conditions of martial law and during the full-scale war in Ukraine. The war has increased the range of social problems that are prerequisites for the emergence of conflicts. Conflict management involves understanding its essence, the need for it as a tool for change, knowledge of methods of regulation, fore- casting, prevention, etc.
The relevance of the work lies in the need to develop and consolidate regulatory, legal and organi- zational management mechanisms for the implementation of technologies for non-conflict interpersonal interaction in various spheres of social practice; carrying out activities aimed at studying conflict-gener- ating, destabilizing factors in various spheres of social activity; developing behavioral strategies (algo- rithms) for participants in social conflict; preventing conflict situations and disseminating positive expe- rience in preventing social conflicts in various spheres of life. Conflict is a positive moment in social de- velopment when it contributes to social progress and is a driver of modernization and improvement of the social system.
Given the diversity of social challenges and contradictions, social problems born of war, an im- portant skill of a social manager should be the ability to manage, regulate, and resolve conflicts. The multifunctionality of social managers in providing services involves mastering conflict management as a new competence, the necessity of which is prescribed in clause 6 of the Higher Education Standard for specialty 232 ‘Social Welfare’ for the second (master’s) level of higher education: ‘The ability to establish social interaction, cooperation, prevent and resolve conflicts.’
The paper examines the essence and place of conflict in the system of social contradictions, its types and functions. The demand for conflict management as a new competence of future social managers in war conditions is updated. Conflictological competence is considered as a component of socio-psycholog- ical and communicative competence, as well as a separate type of professional competence. It is proven that conflict competence is a characteristic of a specialist’s awareness of conflict, his ability to identify conflict, predict, prevent and resolve it regardless of the ways of their formation. Conflict competence consists in the knowledge of psychological difficulties, as well as in the ability to overcome them, to con- structively and successfully resolve conflict situations. Realizing the inevitability of conflicts, the im- portance of finding new innovative ways to resolve them is emphasized. Special attention is paid to such tools and technologies of conflict management as mediation, online mediation. Among the digital commu- nication technologies that are used in the world and are actively implemented in domestic social protection institutions, the technologies of online dialogue, online mediation, online dispute resolution, a system of joint work and exchange of electronic documents are given.
The purpose of the article is to study the mechanisms of formation of conflict management compe- tence in social managers, as the ability to establish social interaction, cooperation, prevent and resolve conflicts.
Domestic and foreign historiography has highlighted the problem of conflict in a number of scien- tific works. The opinions of many authors are focused mainly on the destructive factors of conflict, their classification and methods of resolution. The works of scientists who see in conflict a positive (construc- tive) function that helps to carry out diagnostics of society (relationships), consolidate people with com- mon interests, renew social relations by establishing new norms and values, relieve psychological tension or reduce its intensity deserve attention.
Modern thorough scientific and practical achievements in various branches of conflictology, in- cluding social conflictology by O. Bandurka, I. Bekeshkina, L. Gerasina, M. Getmanchuk, T. Yakhno and other scientists should be continued and improved taking into account the constantly changing world, new conflicts and threats, including the war in Ukraine.
Despite the existing research on this topic, there is a lack of works that would combine all aspects of the proposed topic, including the specifics of training social workers - future managers of social conflict resolution.