Preface

Conflict is frequent in our lives (CPP, 2008;

Folger, Poole, & Stutman, 2013; Wilmot & Hocker, 2011). Conflict is “an expressed struggle between at least two interdepen­dent parties who perceive incompatible goals, scarce resources, and interference from others in achieving their goals” (Wilmot & Hocker, 2011, p.

In addition to being frequent, conflict has important consequences for the parties directly involved, as well as the witnesses to conflict. The negative consequences are the ones often associated with conflict (rather than the positive or uncertain outcomes). These consequences include relationship dis­solution, direct economic costs, opportunity costs, dissatisfaction, violence/death, discord, project failure, and trauma. For example, a report in 2007 estimated that Africa had costs of $300 billion (of about $18 billion per year) related to armed conflicts (Hillier, 2007).

On the other hand, conflict has positive outcomes such as opportunities for self­understanding, creating of new ideas, learning about others, seeing different perspectives, rela­tional development, identifying and addressing problems, and improving communication skills. A report identified 75% of people in the workplace were able to see these positive consequences of conflict (CPP, 2008). Many communication scholars emphasize that the consequences of conflict are due to the way the conflict is managed (e.g., Folger et al., 2013; Wilmot & Hocker, 2011).

What it means to manage conflict con­structively or destructively is a complex issue. A simplistic answer is that constructive con­flict is done cooperatively, while destructive conflict is done competitively. However, this superficial assessment belies the many factors involved in a conflict. There is a proliferation of research about conflict theory and practice. Much of this research examines the multi­tude of factors involved in conflict situations. The amount of research makes it difficult to synthesize key principles and practices of constructive conflict management in a simple manner. These chapters aim to provide this synthesis in a variety of specific contexts.

This particular Handbook emphasizes con­structive conflict management from a commu­nication perspective. This perspective places primacy in the message as the focus of conflict research and practice. The means to express conflict is through communication (verbal and nonverbal messages); likewise, the means to manage and address conflict is through communication. In this preface, we discuss the purpose, intended audience, and organi­zational framework of this volume. We also highlight changes in this second edition from the first edition. In describing the organiza­tional framework, we also introduce the first three chapters, since these serve as general overviews for the four main sections.

Purpose, Audience,

and Changes for This Volume

In the first edition, our general purpose of the Sage Handbook of Conflict Communication was threefold: (1) to assemble in one resource the knowledge base of the field of conflict communication; (2) to identify the best theo­ries, ideas, and practices of conflict communi­cation; and (3) to provide the opportunity for scholars and practitioners to link theoretical frameworks and application tools. This mul­tipronged purpose grew from our focus on communication and the intended audience.

We have not changed our purpose for the second edition. The threefold purpose continues to work well. However, the second edition presents an opportunity for authors to update research in their respective areas. We conducted a library search of major databases in a variety of fields. The search parameters included the dates of January 1, 2006, to April 2012 (at the time of this writing), in any language (although the database tool includes mostly articles in English), and schol­arly publications (including peer-reviewed journal articles, books, book chapters, and trade publications). The results using specific search terms were the following: (a) conflict: 636,264; (b) conflict and communication: 149,149; (c) interpersonal conflict: 4,207; (d) organizational conflict: 763; (e) community conflict: 782; and (f) intercultural or interna­tional conflict: 3,422. The limited search of these general terms illustrates that significant research has been conducted since the publi­cations of the original Handbook. Thus, it is ix an opportune time for authors to update the review of research in their areas.

The first edition had three primary con­stituencies: (1) academics who will use it as a resource for their scholarship; (2) instructors who will use it as a main or supplementary text in advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in conflict communication; and (3) practitioners who are responsible for a variety of conflict management processes and systems in a variety of settings and who are interested in bridging theory and practice (e.g., orga­nizations, political entities, mediation, coun­seling, courts, etc.). The second edition still seeks to include these audiences, and yet we add one more key audience: students. While instructors choose to use the Handbook in the courses, we certainly want students to be able to understand and apply the information they read.

The multiple constituencies present a chal­lenge to the authors of the Handbook. The authors handled this challenge brilliantly.

To this end, we asked authors to address the threefold purpose of the Handbook as they completed their review. We asked them to consider the latest theory/research and the best known practices rather than separating these components. In addition, we asked authors to consider three stylistic suggestions for each of the chapters: (1) visual models/figures and tables to synthesize and/or illustrate the review; (2) real-life examples/case studies to illustrate the research; and (c) accessible lan­guage at a level of beginning graduate student (i.e., to appeal to advanced undergraduates and newly starting graduate students). The authors used these stylistics approaches in various ways that are complementary to their research areas. The result is a richly textured Handbook with the latest theorizing efforts/ research findings and best practices in the four conflict communication domains and, concur­rently, is accessible to a larger audience than the first edition.

Finally, we also have some changes in content. Reviewers of the first edition rec­ognized some holes in the volume and made suggestions of new chapters and topics for coverage.

There were also other topics that reviewers suggested, and we had some difficult choices in deciding what to include as full chapters due to space limitation. In the end, there were some topics that we felt warranted coverage and perhaps not at the level of a full chapter. To this end, we asked authors to consider the following issues in their reviews as best as they could: (a) culture, ethnic, gender, sexual orientation, and social class issues; (b) globalization; (c) power; (d) technology; (e) change/transformation; (f) forgiveness; and (g) ethics. We have tried to include as much relevant and new material as possible and recognized that we could not cover every topic as well as we would have liked, given space limitations.

Organizational Framework and Overview of Introductory Chapters

The Handbook is divided into four sections plus three introductory chapters and a conclu­sion. The three chapters in the introduction offer an overview of definitional, theoretical, and methodological issues in conflict com­munication. In Chapter 1, Putnam outlines the historical development of approaches and definitions to the study of conflict and communication.

In Chapter 2, Fink and Cai (with Wang) offer an overview of quantitative approaches for researching conflict communication. Their goal is to consider research that creates social science theories that involve prediction and description. They also consider issues for com­paring conflict communication across groups, particularly cross-cultural comparisons. They consider four critical topics in conducting quantitative research about conflict com­munication: (1) issues of measurement and observation; (2) research design—including experimental and nonexperimental cross­sectional, panel, and time-series studies; (3) sampling; and (4) data analysis. In each of these topics, they identify specific issues for researchers to consider and identify specific example studies that illustrate the choices that researchers made. Furthermore, Fink and Cai offer concrete suggestions and consider­ations when conducting quantitative conflict research that is geared toward creating social science theories.

In Chapter 3, Jiang and Buzzanell offer an overview of qualitative, and some mixed methods, approaches for researching conflict communication. They note that qualitative research aims to provide understanding and strategies for conflict resolution and consider the simultaneous positive and negative con­sequences of conflict. They also explain that qualitative research on conflict is not always labeled as such because researchers’ philo­sophical bases presume contradiction and tension. Jiang and Buzzanell identify four pre­dominant qualitative paradigms and describe the assumptions and approaches, as well as review concrete studies to illustrate the fol­lowing four paradigms: (1) phenomenology, (2) sociocultural/social construction, (3) criti- cal/cultural studies, and (4) poststructuralist/ postmodernist. Then, they introduce five key methods of data collection that are used by qualitative conflict researchers: (1) narrative, (2) ethnography, (3) grounded theory, (4) case study, and (5) mixed methods. The methods are described, and particular conflict studies from diverse contexts are reviewed to illus­trate the methods. In the case of the mixed methods, Jiang and Buzzanell include only studies that foreground qualitative research rather than studies that “take a back seat” to the quantitative methods.

These introductory chapters have a decid­edly research flavor as they set the stage for the nature of conflict research in the four specific sections. These four sections focus on contexts in which conflict occurs: (1) interper­sonal, (2) organizational, (3) community, and (4) intercultural/international. We describe each of these contexts, and the respective chapters, in the introductions for each section.

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

Folger, J. P., Poole, M. S., & Stutman, R. K. (2013). Working through conflict: Strategies for relationships, groups, and organizations (7th ed.). Boston, MA : Pearson.

Hillier, D. (2007). Africa’s missing billions: International arms flows and the cost of con­flict. Oxford, England: Oxfam International, Safer World, & International Action Network on Small Arms. Retrieved from http:// pol- icy-practice.oxfam.org.uk/publications/ africas-missing-billions-international-arms- flows-and-the-cost-of-conflict-123908

Wars in the World. (2012). Lists of ongoing con­flicts: Africa. Retrieved from www.warsin- theworld.com/?page=static1258254223

Wilmot, W. W., & Hocker, J. L. (2011). Interpersonal conflict (8th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.