Managing Conflict in Organizations

Managing Conflict in Organizations introduces the origins, forms, benefits, and consequences of organizational conflict to students and practitioners and teaches how best to manage conflict to achieve productive outcomes. Conflict has benefits: it may lead to solutions to problems, creativity, and innovation. In contrast, little or no conflict in organizations may lead to stagnation, poor decisions, and ineffectiveness. This book is a vigorous analysis of the rational application of conflict theory in organizations for organizational behavior students, as well as practitioners looking to practice constructive conflict management in their work. This fifth edition has been thoroughly updated to reflect the latest research in the field and explains the effect that research has on practice, with an expanded range of practical examples and cases. It covers emergent topics such as: Differentials in conflict management styles across generations Technology and its effect on conflict style changes Cross-cultural studies and diversity This text is a valuable resource for students, instructors, and researchers in human resource management and organizational behavior, and a practical handbook for practitioners that manage (or manage upward) their colleagues.

Foreword Preface 1 Social Conflict Construct Contributions from Various Disciplines Organizational Conflict 2 Nature of Conflict Defining Conflict Threshold and Grey-Zone Conflicts Conflict and Competition Classifying Conflict Styles of Handling Interpersonal Conflict 3 Organizational Learning and Effectiveness Nature of Organizational Learning Types of Learning Nature of Organizational Effectiveness Characteristics of the Old Paradigm Problem Solving Conflict Management in the New Paradigm 4 Conflict-Management Design Nature of Conflict Management Contingency Approach Conflict Management Process 5 Intrapersonal Conflict Types of Intrapersonal Conflict Role Role Conflict Role Ambiguity A Model of Role Conflict and Ambiguity Consequences of Role Conflict Managing Intrapersonal Conflict 6 Interpersonal Conflict Prisoner's Dilemma A Model of Conflict Consequences of Interpersonal Conflict Negotiation Managing Interpersonal Conflict Conflict- Management Styles in a Global Setting 7 Intragroup Conflict Types of Groups Effects of Intragroup Conflict Managing Intragroup Conflict 8 Intergroup Conflict Dynamics of Intergroup Conflict Effects of Intergroup Conflict Managing Intergroup Conflict Intervention 9 Ethics and Morality Ethics and Morality Defined Behavioral Perspectives for Conflict Management Ethical Evaluation of Conflict Management Ethics and Leadership Structure Four Methods of Discourse General Appropriateness of the Methods Practical Methods and Conflict Management Styles Stages of Moral Development Empirical Study on Stages and Styles 10 The Measurement of Conflict Development of the ROCI– I Development of the ROCI– II Sample Items of the ROCI– I and ROCI– II New Measurements Scales that are being Developed 11 Epilogue A Design for Managing Conflict Appendix A: Cases Case 1: Allen Manufacturing Corporation Case 2: New Employee at the Credit Union Case 3: Minnis Service Case 4: The Hormel Strike at Austin, Minnesota Appendix B: Exercises Exercise 1: Contract Building Exercise 2: Technique of Role Analysis Exercise 3: Job Design Exercise 4: Transactional Analysis Exercise 5: Managing Interpersonal Conflict Exercise 6: Team Building Exercise 7: Intergroup Problem Solving Exercise 8: Organizational Mirroring Exercise 9: Analysis of Task Interdependence References Author Index Subject Index

M. Afzalur Rahim (Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh) is a University Distinguished Professor of Management, emeritus, and Hays Watkins Research Fellow, Western Kentucky University. He is also the Founding Editor of Applied Management Journal (formerly Current Topics in Management) and is the founder of the International Journal of Organizational Analysis, International Journal of Conflict Management, International Association for Conflict Management, International Association for Applied Management (formerly International Conference on Advances in Management), and Bangladesh Academy of Business Administration. Dr. Rahim has 25 edited books and five for which he is the sole author. He has published 75 journal articles, 53 book chapters, and presented over 100 papers at various conferences. The published works involve 70 different coauthors. He has also produced onemanuals and 16 measurement instruments. In the organizational sciences Dr. Rahim has over 16,900 Google citations. His articles were published, among others, in the Academy of Management Journal, Intelligence, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Management, and Multivariate Behavioral Research. His current research interests are in the areas of cross-cultural conflict management, leaders’ emotional, cultural, and social intelligence.