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Abstract. Dealing with conflicts is not one of the major discussions of social work practice and theory, although, as argued in this article, the purpose of social work is to operate with conflicts. Generally, conflicts can occur in diverse situations such as at the individual level, with service users and other professional partners, or when working with groups and communities, and even at the social level with state institutions. Taking into consideration the complexity of the concept, this article provides a typology of conflicts within profession and also discusses a potential theoretical model of intervention when approaching conflicts within social work. The Thomas-Kilmann model/instrument (TKI) has been extensively used in the last few decades within social sciences as a veritable tool on how to deal with conflictual situations, but not used in social work. Therefore, the paper serves as an initial discussion for further empirical studies and theoretical considerations.
Keywords : conflicts, social work conflicts, Thomas-Kilmann model
Introduction
Social work is a profession which aims to achieve social well-being. According to IFSW's definition (2014), social work has the mission to act in favor of social justice, social change and social cohesion. Moreover, the ethical principles of the profession underline the role of social workers as agents of change who engage in actions of challenging discrimination, institutional oppression, unjust policies and practices (IFSW, 2014). These are only some of the macro-actions that directly generate conflicts (e.g. social workers vs power holders/political climate), because, in fact, a social change requires to challenge status quo which frequently shows resistance to change. This proves the fact that social work encourages not only social change but also conflicts, when there is the need to fight in favor of social justice or defending human rights. However, for a better understanding on how conflicts can appear within and around social work, there is the need to discuss the concept of conflict and situations when it manifests.
Conflict - conceptualization
In broad terms, a conflict defines a situation of disagreement or resentment between two or more parts, when their goals or interests seems to be incompatible (Deutsch, Coleman, 2014; Kelley et al., 2003; Nicholson, 1992). A definition that can resonate well to social work is provided by Lewicki et al. (1997), who...