Managing conflict is time-consuming and inevitable.

One classic study estimated that managers spend 20% of their time managing conflicts (Thomas & Schmidt, 1976). A more recent study sug­gests that the actual hours spent managing workplace conflict for all employees (not just managers) is around 5%, or 2.1 hours per week (CPP, 2008).

More important, unresolved and poorly managed conflict in organizations is costly. The 2.1 hours per week is the equivalent of $359 billion in paid working hours (CPP, 2008). In addition, there are other cost factors such as opportunity costs, reduced decision quality, loss of skilled employees, restruc­turing, sabotage/theft/damage, lowered job motivation, lost work time, litigation costs, and health costs. Some of the findings related to costs from CPP’s study of 5,000 employees in nine different countries (Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States) include the following:

• 27% have experienced or witnessed a con­flict escalate into a personal attack

• 25% have been ill or missed work due to a conflict

• 1 in 10 has seen conflict lead to project failure

• 1 in 6 has witnessed a recent conflict escalate in duration or intensity

For these reasons, and the potential benefits that conflict can produce, conflict has been a popular topic of research and practice in the workplace.

Organizational conflict is often referred to as an expressed struggle or disagreement between and among people who work together to achieve common goals. Organizational conflict is often described as occurring in a particular workplace setting, such as a place of business, or an organizational sector, such as manufacturing or health care delivery.

In addition, organizational conflict is often researched in terms of levels of analysis mov­ing from micro to meso to exo to macro. The micro includes the individual perceptions and attitudes of employees and managers and the interpersonal communication among cowork­ers and managers. The meso includes the orga­nizational climate and family interactions that shape the way we work and think about work. The exo considers the policies and structures of organizations. The macro is the larger politi­cal, historical, cultural, ethical, and economic features that shape organizational life. The majority of chapters in this section also con­sider multiple levels of analysis. Organizational conflict does not take place in a vacuum, and organizational scholars often look at these multilevel aspects in any phenomenon.

All of these chapters consider different types of organizational conflict, and a couple of them focus on particular organizational sectors. We begin with the chapters that focus more solely on the micro- and mesolevels in negotiation and workgroup conflict.

The opening chapter of this section (Chapter 11) examines negotiation in the workplace. Teucher, Brett, and Gunia explain that negotiation is a social process used when achievement of goals cannot be done without cooperation of others. They provide a focused review of research around the notion of joint gains. They include four lenses that have been used to study negotiation and achieving joint gains. The first lens is outcome and centers on the outcome of negotiation, and the key ques­tion is “How can we conceptualize negotia­tion strategy and outcomes?” The second lens is process or the achievement of joint gains; the key question is “How does negotiation strategy affect joint gains?” The third lens is culture and emphasizes cross-cultural varia­tion in strategy and joint gains: “How does culture affect negotiation strategy and joint gains?” The final lens is time or the develop­ment of negotiation strategy over time: “What are the dynamics of negotiation strategy?” Teucher et al. review the key conclusions in each of these lenses and also the potential connections between the lenses. They explore these lenses using the case study of IBM’s $1.75 billion sale of their PC-manufacturing to the Chinese company Lenovo.

In Chapter 12, Garner and Poole examine conflict in workgroups, which are the basic building blocks of today’s organizations. The authors explain that a workgroup is a set of three or more people who carry out common tasks in an organization. Garner and Poole identify three scholarly traditions for the study of workgroup conflict.

In Chapter 13, Lutgen-Sandvik and Fletcher identify a unique type of conflict in the workplace—bullying. Workplace bullying is a pattern of communication that involves repeated hostile behaviors and has severe per­sonal and organizational consequences. The authors explain that bullying is communal and involves bullies, targets, and bystanders. Lutgen-Sandvik and Fletcher use multiple goals theory and conflict management tactics to identify a framework of motivation to study the three involved parties. The authors review research on the profiles, motivations, and tactics for each of the parties to identify core patterns in workplace bullying with the goals of creating understanding about bullying conflicts and being able to identify effective interventions. They use a case study of a bully at a youth development center to weave a compelling thrice-told tale of bullying from the perspective of bullies, targets, and bystanders. They also identify future research directions in this area.

In Chapter 14, Kirby, Wieland, and McBride review the extensive literature on “conflict” between working and family/ personal life.

Chapter 15 examines conflict in schools; this is an organization that is not often studied by organizational conflict scholars but is criti­cal given the focus on training people how to manage conflict constructively. Jones begins by explaining the problem of violence in schools and attributes a large part of the problem to the fact that students are not taught how to deal with conflict and, in particular, to develop the emotional and social competence of youth. The chapter accomplishes three goals. First, she reviews and critiques programs under the umbrella of conflict resolution education, which includes peace education, multicultural educa­tion, and social and emotional learning. Second, Jones highlights a few exemplary programs to identify “best practices” in conflict resolution education. Finally, she offers guidelines for creating and implementing conflict resolution education systems with a focus on teacher education and global initiatives. She presents the Conflict Resolution Education in Teacher Education program as a model.

In Chapter 16, Jameson and Albada review conflict in another specific organizational context: health care. The goal of the authors is to summarize and critique the literature on conflict communication in health care delivery at three overlapping levels of analy­sis: interpersonal, group, and organizational. The authors address this goal in three core sections. First, they synthesize the cause of conflict between health care providers and patients and family members. The causes of conflict between providers and patients are generally attributed to providers’ “bedside manner,” expectations of patients’ roles and decision making, power, and contributions of the patient’s characteristics and illness. The conflict issues between patients and family members are information based, institutional/ structure oriented, and relationally oriented. Second, they examine conflict among health care providers in health care teams and within health care organizations and identify the core issues as the following: status inequi­ties, organizational/professional culture, com­peting discourses, communication structure, tensions of autonomy and connection, and role ambiguity. Finally, Jameson and Albada address conflict prevention and management in health care delivery. The prominent forms include training for improved communication skills; education and training for physicians, nurses, and patients; coaching/mentoring; and dispute system design.

In the final chapter of this section (Chapter 17), McAllum and Simpson focus on conflict management systems, or the structures, poli­cies, and procedures an organization creates to address conflict. They utilize a system perspective to identify the differences in the philosophy of different conflict management systems. They analyze three clusters of conflict strategies that can be adopted or adapted by organizations. The first is law based, a con- frontive and closed system that aims to con­front transgressions of rights and focuses on processes. The second is management based, an internally contained system that aims to solve problems and focuses on outcomes. The third is participation based, an open system that aims to encourage collaboration and focuses on relationships. They compare and contrast the key elements of these clusters in terms of the following: objects (people, structures, processes, and policies), attributes, internal relationships, environment, and aim of the system. The authors use a New Zealand health care organization case study involving multilevel conflict within an organization to illustrate these different approaches.

In sum, these chapters illustrate the wide variety of conflict communication that is addressed in organizational contexts. Organizational conflict can emphasize the microlevel interaction as well as the broader policy and societal-level structures. The chap­ters in this section demonstrate both the negative and positive features in organizations and provide a rich tapestry of organizational conflict life. Furthermore, they illustrate the importance of collaboration for managing conflict and achieving coordinated goals.

References

CPP. (2008). Workplace conflict and how busi­nesses can harness it to thrive. Mountain View, CA: Author. Retrieved from http://img.en25.com/Web/CPP/Conflict_report.pdf

Deetz, S. (2001). Conceptual foundations. In F. M. Jablin & L. L. Putnam (Eds.), The new handbook of organizational communication: Advances in theory, research, and methods (pp. 3-46). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Thomas, K., & Schmidt, W. (1976). A survey of managerial interest with respect to con­flict. Academy of Management Journal, 19, 315-318.