Theory and Research in Conflict Management

The twelve essays collected here offer a wide-ranging look at the latest theory and research in conflict management. Organized around six broad topical areas, the volume explores organizational conflict, communication and conflict, negotiation and bargaining, mediation and arbitration, conflict in the public sector, and international conflict. Interdisciplinary in scope, the essays are designed to help human resources professionals, industrial psychologists, managers, and students of organizational behavior learn to manage conflict by identifying ways to maximize its positive effects while minimizing its negative and potentially disruptive influences. Each of the six sections includes two chapters and an introduction by one of the leaders in the conflict management field. Among the topics addressed are the goal interdependence approach to communication in conflict, applied communications research in negotiation, comparing hardline and softline bargaining strategies, consistency in employee rights, the effect of payoff matrix induced competition, and mediation in the People's Republic of China. The final two sections examine conflict in the public sector and international conflict, with individual chapters on managing conflict in the policy process, the theoretical dimensions of environmental mediation, relationships of hierarchy, and deterrence and the management of international conflict. Taken together, these essays provide a comprehensive overview of the current state of theoretical and applied work in conflict management.

M. AFZALUR RAHIM is Professor of Management at Western Kentucky University and Founder and current President of the International Association of Conflict Management. He is the editor of the International Journal of Conflict Management and his previous works include Managing Conflict: An Interdisciplinary Approach (Praeger, 1989), and Managing Conflict in Organization (Praeger, 1985).