“Conflict is a process that begins when one party perceives that another party has negatively affected, or is about to negatively affect, something that the first party cares about” (Robbins and Judge 2017). There are various types of conflict as well as conflict management methods throughout the film.
There was a sense of insecurity amongst Lea Anne’s friends, family, Michael’s classmates, and etc. towards Michael. Having being such freakish genetics and as well as being if not, the only black kid at the school, he stands out from the crowd yet in a distressing way. Michael’s physical appearance made him an outcast in society. This affected his ambition and drive to succeed well in all aspects of life which include football, school, friends, and family. Him being in the state of rejection by society and it hindering his goal of being a part of a group, a family, is considered interpersonal conflict.
Michael has been passed down from one teacher to next, barely passing each class. The teachers passed the responsibility of having Michael to the next grade teacher because they did not want the burden of having him repeat their class again. None of his teachers had hope for him and thought that he was just going to eventually drop out of school altogether. They just saw him as a waste of time and didn’t expect him to have a bright future, in which he eventually surpassed their expectations towards the end of the movie. One of his teachers assigned him an assignment in which he had to formulate a poem. Michael named the poem “White Walls”:
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Teacher: I look and I see white everywhere. White walls, white floors and a lot of white people. The teachers do not know, I have no idea of anything they are talking about. I do not want to listen to anyone especially the teachers. They are giving homework and expecting me to do the problems on my own. I have never done homework in my life. I go to the bathroom and look in the mirror and say this is not Michael Oher. (Neikhrie, 2009)
Having been the only black kid among a school comprised of just white people, Michael felt like an outsider, a sense of alienation. Michael agrees with the teachers, that he will end up nowhere in life due to is lack of intelligence for school. This type of thinking has shoved him down a deeper hole of unworthiness.
Conflict may create either a positive or negative outcome. Conflicts in which create a positive impact of a group is functional conflict while dysfunctional conflict is the complete opposite. An example of functional conflict is found in one of the scenes in the film where Leigh Anne Touhy realized that not only has she helped Michael achieve all of Maslow’s Hierarchal of Needs, which has turned his whole life around but also had become aware that her life has changed throughout the journey. “Friend: I think what you are doing is so great, to open up your home to him. Honey, you are changing that boy’s life. Leigh Anne Touhy: No, he is changing my life” (Neikhrie, 2009).
After realizing that in order for Michael to play collegiate football at the collegiate level, he must pass his classes. Lea Anne ended up getting Miss Sue to be Michael’s tutor in order to help his grades up. This example is a functional conflict. Everyone wants to see Michael succeed in school. His team needs him to win more games and his foster parents want him to strive for a chance to play in the NFL. Lea Anne knew that Michael was never really motivated, to begin with when it came to school so she got Miss Sue to change his behavior on his dedication for his education. Like in organizations, if coworkers are performing a task in an inefficient and ineffective manner and do not change their ways, the company hence stays static. But, if one coworker was to show his colleagues a better method of performing the same tasks to produce a better outcome for the organization as a whole then a functional conflict exists. Lea Anne implemented the new method for Michael’s studying habits by having a conscientiousness tutor to show him discipline as well as guide him to educational success.
There is dyadic conflict shown within the movie when it came to Michael and Lea Anne interacting with the thugs in the projects. Michael had gotten into an altercation with a former childhood friend named Alton that talked about Lea Anne and Collins sexually. He did not avoid the conflict as he started to fight the bad-mouthed thug after it got to his emotions. The fight as initiated from felt conflict within Michael, as what Alton said frustrated him and set the stage for a hostile environment. The thug did not follow Michael’s negotiation to stop talking about Michael’s family so the outcome was a physical fight. Michael loved his family more than anything else, so he could not hold back his anger. Michael was known to have a 98 percentile in protective instincts, this came out to light during the argument between the two. In his mind, the only thing that matters is protecting his family. Later on, in the movie Lea Anne ends up bumping heads with the same thug while trying to look for as he ran away the night before. Alton threatens to hurt Michael if he comes back around again. ‘Alton: You hear me, bitch? Leigh Anne Touhy: No, you hear me, BITCH!. You threaten my son, you threaten me. You so much as a cross into downtown, you will be sorry. I’m in a prayer group with the D.A., I’m a member of the N.R.A. and I’m always packing. Alton: Whatchu packin? .22? A little Saturday night special? Leigh Anne Touhy: Yep. And it shoots just fine every other day of the week too” (IMbd, 2009). There seems to be an intergroup conflict which consists of Michael and Lea Anne versus the thugs from the projects.
