Engaging Communication In Conflict

Written from the authors′ experience in conflict intervention in their private consulting practice, Engaging Communication in Conflict uses a communication perspective to address insights and methods in private mediation, small group facilitation, system design, large-scale interventions, and public-issue management. This book offers encouragement for a world sometimes overwhelmed by conflict and presents an expanded and pragmatic definition of peace. Authors Stephen Littlejohn and Kathy Domenici discuss numerous methods and principles in conflict resolution. They explore transformative mediation, the team mediation system, assessment and evaluation, systemic design, gaming methodology, issue framing and public deliberation, study circles, dialogue groups, and many other interventions. These methods and principles are adapted from a spectrum of theory and practice and include fresh and innovative approaches designed by the authors and their colleagues. The book is based on a coherent theoretical orientation, drawing heavily from the theories of the coordinated management of meaning, system theory, social constructionism, and transformative discourse. While these theories are detailed in the Appendix, the book is highly pragmatic in orientation, with numerous case examples and "how-to" information.

Make workplace conflict resolution a game that EVERYBODY wins! Recent studies show that typical managers devote more than a quarter of their time to resolving coworker disputes. The Big Book of Conflict-Resolution Games offers a wealth of activities and exercises for groups of any size that let you manage your business (instead of managing personalities). Part of the acclaimed, bestselling Big Books series, this guide offers step-by-step directions and customizable tools that empower you to heal rifts arising from ineffective communication, cultural/personality clashes, and other specific problem areas—before they affect your organization's bottom line. Let The Big Book of Conflict-Resolution Games help you to: Build trust Foster morale Improve processes Overcome diversity issues And more Dozens of physical and verbal activities help create a safe environment for teams to explore several common forms of conflict—and their resolution. Inexpensive, easy-to-implement, and proved effective at Fortune 500 corporations and mom-and-pop businesses alike, the exercises in The Big Book of Conflict-Resolution Games delivers everything you need to make your workplace more efficient, effective, and engaged.

This book explores relations between communication and conflict. How one thinks about communication is demonstrated as shaping how one approaches conflict, and vice versa. Individuals engaged in conflict transformation apply the tools and strategies of their field while communicating to widely divergent audiences. Professional communicators not only create an infinite range of documents to help ensure that work is accomplished effectively, efficiently, and safely, but also address conflicts in the workplace and in the public sphere. Thoughtfully exploring connections between communication studies and conflict studies, this collection engages with research and practice on topics including the potential of social media during revolution, the role of gender during mediation, and the importance of critical genre usage during industrial crisis.

Littlejohn and Domenici invite readers to engage in a thoughtful dialogue about human difference, conflict, and communication. Drawing on numerous examples from their work in mediation, the authors discuss a variety of practical tools, models, and theories to help analyze conflictwhy it occurs and how communication skills help avoid downward spirals into harmful relationships. Communication competence can move discussions away from harmful interactions and empower parties to expand their options. Effectively managing differences allows conflict, in whatever context, to become a positive resource rather than a barrier. The appendix provides a wealth of information in a succinct format. It discusses basic communication skills; introduces a number of alternative dispute resolution methods, including negotiation, mediation, facilitation, collaboration, and public engagement; and concludes with practical information about dialogue as an important approach to differences.

Conflicts are more effectively managed if people understand the layers meaning in their conflicts and collaborate based on those meanings. In this book, author Peter M. Kellett analyzes and interprets real-life conflict stories as a way to create opportunities for more productive ways to navigate and resolve conflict.

A unique textbook for students or professionals across a range of disciplines offering a novel approach to conflict communication Communication for Constructive Workplace Conflict describes how daily human behavior and communication can contribute to collaborative conflict management in any organization. Using the LEARN (Listening, Engaging, Acknowledging, Rapport, and Nurturing) communication framework, this practical textbook explains, analyzes, and critiques a range of individual responses to workplace friction, offers evidence-based communication strategies for effectively managing conflicts, and promotes a philosophy that builds an environment that invites active participation rather than avoidance and silence. Designed for courses teaching organizational communication and conflict management, Communication for Constructive Workplace Conflict draws directly from the author’s 25 years of experience performing conflict research in numerous corporations, hospitals, public agencies, multi-sector laboratories, and non-profit organizations. Following the intuitive LEARN model, readers are provided with the theoretical and empirical support for managing conflicts as they emerge and creating an environment for more productive conflict in real-world scenarios. Throughout the text, concise and accessible chapters integrate key literature from disciplines including Communication, Management and Negotiation, Political Science, Psychology, and Public Administration to illustrate the impact the larger organizational context has on communication, conflict, and the social environment within organizations. Offers practical implications for communication in daily activities in ways that support trust-building and positive relationships Presents a framework based on the Communication as Constitutive of Organization (CCO) model, Contains theoretical and research-based explanations and diverse case studies to provide practical guidance for organizational members at all levels Reinforces the LEARN model with engaging, class-tested activities that allow students to practice constructive conflict communication Examines the impact of societal trends and how each individual’s communication either promotes or impedes collaboration and constructive conflict interaction Featuring timely discussion of the impact of social distancing due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the roles of social media and online dispute resolution, Communication for Constructive Workplace Conflict is an excellent textbook for upper-level undergraduate and graduate students new to the field of conflict studies or organizational communication, a valuable supplement for students of management, organizational psychology, and public administration, and a useful reference for professional mediators, consultants, trainers, and managers.

A transformational approach to conflict argues that conflicts must be viewed as embedded within broader relational patterns and social and discursive structures. Central to this book is the idea that the origins of transformation can be momentary, situational, and small-scale or large-scale and systemic. The momentary involves shifts and meaningful changes in communication and related patterns that are created in communication between people. Momentary transformative changes can radiate out into more systemic levels, and systemic transformative changes can radiate inward to more personal levels. This book engages this transformative framework by bringing together current scholarship that epitomizes and highlights the contribution of communication scholarship and communication-centered approaches to conflict transformation in personal, family, and working relationships and organizational contexts. The resulting volume presents an engaging mix of scholarly chapters, think pieces, and personal experiences from the field of practice and everyday life. The book embraces a wide variety of theoretical and methodological approaches, including narrative, critical, intersectional, rhetorical, and quantitative. It makes a valuable additive contribution to the ongoing dialogue across and between disciplines on how to transform conflicts creatively, sustainably, and ethically.