An Extension and Further Validation of the Potential for Conflict Index

Abstract

The Potential for Conflict Index (PCI) was developed to facilitate understanding and applicability of leisure, recreation, and human dimensions findings to managerial concerns. The PCI ranges from 0 (minimal potential for conflict) to 1 (maximum potential for conflict) and simultaneously describes a variable's central tendency, dispersion, and shape using a graphic display. This article (a) describes applications of the original formulation of the PCI (PCI₁) to illustrate the statistic's practical utility, (b) introduces the second generation of the PCI (PCI₂) and discusses enhancements incorporated in this version, (c) describes efforts to validate the PCI₂, and (d) offers suggestions for continuing the empirical validation process. Programs for calculating, graphing, and comparing PCI₂ values are freely available from http://welcome.warnercnr.colostate.edu/~jerryv.

Keywords:

• consensus
• disagreement
• potential for conflict index
• ratings

The authors would like to thank Roy Dvorak for developing the stand alone version of PCI. We also thank the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments on earlier versions of this article.

Notes

Cns(X_i ) = 1−0.5(Σp_i log₂((X_i−μ)/d)) where X is any finite discrete random variable with probability distribution p(x), the sum is over levels of X, log₂ is log base 2, d is the range of X and μ is the mean of the random variable or some other measure “used as a strength” (Tastle et al., 2005).

The stand alone version, PCI_2sa, was written in PHP (a scripting language). This version requires an Internet connection, but does not require any additional software to calculate the observed PCI₂ or generate the simulation statistics.