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Internal and External Conflict

The concepts of internal or external conflict are highly broad ways to categorize conflict in general. External conflict, in very general terms, refers to threats that originate outside of the person or organization. Internal conflict refers to threats that arise from the organization (or person) itself.

  1. Features (Internal)

    • Internal conflict can have several meanings. It can indicate conflict that occurs within a person. This is often typified in moral dilemmas or questions of loyalty. It can also mean conflict within larger entities, such as firms or countries. In many cases, these conflicts have to do with basic moral values or questions of identity. Internal conflict can affect a country as easily as it can affect a person. The big difference is the number of people and the geographic scope of the problem.

    Features (External)

    • External conflict refers to objects outside of the self that threaten the progress towards a goal. For a larger entity, it refers to problems outside of the organization, things that the organization has little control over. For a country, to use an example, external conflict might refer to enemies abroad, competing states or even the economic system that puts certain states at a disadvantage.

    Function

    • Like all conflict, external or internal conflict can be constructive or destructive. Constructive conflict would include those struggles that help a society or a person develop a strong sense of self in the face of anxiety or external threats. Destructive conflict refers to struggles that lead to dissolution. Civil war for a country or schizophrenia for an individual are extreme expressions of destructive conflict.

    Effects

    • Conflict can bring out the best in people. Internal conflict can easily lead to more developed, firm and moral people who have stood their ground in the face of serious conflicts of loyalty. For larger entities, internal conflict can act as a means to air grievances and come to some kind of workable consensus. External conflict can make a group, such as a family or country, strong and develop a sense of internal solidarity in the face of an external enemy.

    Significance

    • Internal conflict usually means that something is wrong. It is up to the person or institution to take action to overcome the problem. This type of conflict can serve as a warning sign that the system needs repair. External conflict forces the individual or organization to take decisive action to defend itself, or reorganize its being to deal with the external threat.

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