Purpose: Although conflict has traditionally been considered destructive, recent studies have indicated that conflict management can contribute to effective teamwork. The present study explores conflict management as a team phenomenon in schools. The author examined how the contextual variables (task interdependence, goal interdependence) are…

This discussion of potential uses of mediation as a management and communication tool focuses on the library setting. The nature of conflict is considered, and the concept, basic principles, and applications of mediation as a form of conflict resolution are presented. The four steps in the mediation process are then described: (1) Introduction,…

Conflict within organizations must be managed to maximize its useful aspects while minimizing those that are dysfunctional. Conflict can be interpersonal or can stem from the structural characteristics of the organization. Sources of conflict include win-or-lose situations that reduce cooperation by fostering competition, incompatibility among the…

Conflict ranges from minor squabbles to dysfunctional relationships to all-out war. At its core, conflict is disharmony, dissension, division, and discord between people, interests, or ideas. Managing conflict is important in many environments and is the key topic of this guidebook. Examples and steps are presented that allow employees and…

This qualitative study investigated the types of conflict elementary principals encounter and the behaviors of the principals that led to successful or unsuccessful results of those conflict situations. The Critical Incident Technique was used as the means of gathering data for this study. Data were gathered from 32 principals in a midwestern…

There are no simple answers to the tricky business of managing conflict within organizations. Almost every conflict is a unique case with its own issues, participants, dynamics, and consequences. Still, it appears possible to differentiate between organizations that handle conflict productively and those that do not. Successful organizations view…

This paper addresses three levels of change in political and educational relations. Level one focuses on educational systems' service functions; level two involves adjustments of educational politics; and level three entails conditions of conflicts about education falling within states' general politics. Politicization refers to conflict…

This short publication provides a process for managing conflict among managerial peers. It focuses more on conflicts among managers that involve personal values, office politics, power struggles, and emotional reactions than on conflicts that arise from incompatible goals or from different views on how to accomplish a task. The process described…

A literature review, intended to help in the development and assessment of effective manager training programs, explored development of conflict management research with respect to managers and their subordinates and examined individual, interpersonal, and organizational factors that affect the management of conflict. Although limited in scope,…

An overview of conflict management as it relates to the role of the principal is presented. The traditional approach to conflict, which minimizes conflict and emphasizes social control, is contrasted with the perspective that views conflict as inevitable, functional, and manageable. Intrapersonal and interpersonal conflicts, functions of conflict,…