Interpersonal conflict has been defined as:

“An expressed struggle between at least two interdependent parties who perceive incompatible goals, scarce resources, and interference from the other party in achieving their goals”.

Unpicking this a little, it means that for a disagreement to become a conflict, there needs to be:

• Some element of communication: a shared understanding that there is a disagreement
• The well-being of the people involved needs to depend on each other in some way. This doesn’t mean that they have to have equal power: a manager and subordinate can be equally as interdependent as a married couple
• The people involved perceive that their goals are incompatible, meaning that they cannot both be met
• They are competing for resources
• Each perceives the other as interfering with the achievement of their goals.