Phases of Conflict Employees in an organization do not shift from being harmonious to being argumentative A trait where people attack only the topic and not the self-concept of the person.and divergent. Louis Pondy noted that people in organizations will move into five distinct phases (Figure 12.5). The first phase is called latent conflict. In this phase, the situation is ripe for conflict to occur because of some incompatibility or interdependence. The second phase is perceived conflict. This happens when one or more parties acknowledge that there are incompatibility issues present. The third phase is called felt conflict and occurs when the parties figure out how to handle conflict and some possible different outcomes. The fourth phase is manifest conflict in which goals are executed. The last phase is the conflict aftermath. In this last phase, conflict has been resolved in some manner, and there may be consequences involved for the parties. After this stage, the individuals might perceive each other, their relationship, and/or the organization differently