Harnessing Conflict

Two conflict-resolution experts describe the power dynamics that are at the root of all workplace conflicts and offer strategies to help determine where you stand, negotiate a dispute and reach the best resolution. 20,000 first printing.

This paper seeks to help bridge the theory-practice spectrum of family business conflict with a model for analyzing family firm conflict entitled the Family Business Conflict Code. Following a detailed review of family business, conflict and psychological theory and research, conflict prevention, conflict analysis and conflict management processes are set out for use by families and practitioners to address the inevitable conflicts business families will experience.

The De Gruyter Handbook of Organizational Conflict Management offers insightful contributions covering a myriad of conflict management topics ranging from fundamental issues, such as emotional intelligence and cultural differences, to cutting-edge themes such as political conflicts and mindfulness training. Renowned conflict management scholars and leading practitioners have contributed chapters to this handbook based on their research and their practical experience in the field of confl ict management. Many of the authors have influenced the topic of conflict management as it has become both a fi eld of academic study in universities and a necessary leadership skill. The handbook is organized in four sections. The first section covers interpersonal conflict management and focuses on perceptions, conflict styles, emotional intelligence, psychological safety, and change. The second section includes ethnic and cultural issues in organizational conflict management, such as microaggressions, ethnicity and religion, and political conflicts. The third section offers methods for managing organizational conflicts, including mediation, negotiation, ombudspersons, and conflict coaching. This section also offers guidance on developing an organizational conflict management system and discusses HR’s role in managing conflicts. The fourth section introduces chapters on special topics in conflict management, such as workplace bullying, gender issues, birth order personality, human connections, and forgiveness. This handbook is an essential reference for scholars and practitioners. It offers organizational leaders insights into the causes and solutions to organizational conflict management. In addition, it is an excellent textbook for undergraduate and graduate courses in organizational conflict management.

Conflict is both a timely and a timeless challenge in schools, stymying school reform initiatives and elevating administrators’ job stress. If “school is a family,” as many claim, it is often a dysfunctional one. Relationships between and among staff, parents, community and school boards may be destructively divisive, or alternatively, schools may avoid addressing controversial issues like inequity, fearful of tensions that would be unleashed. From Conflict to Collaboration: A School Leader’s Guide to Unleashing Conflict’s Problem Solving Power offers a novel perspective. Rather than impeding school reform, school leaders may harness conflict to spark organizational vitality and growth. Honoring diverse viewpoints enables savvy school leaders to engage stakeholders in meaningful collaboration that builds capacity, enshrines productive dialogue and group problem-solving as cornerstones of school culture, and energizes the school community. Drawing on knowledge from the fields of education, engineering, psychology and business, the book offers an on-the-job guide for present and future school leaders. Dozens of actionable leadership strategies are highlighted; case studies illustrate key concepts; and probing questions for school leaders and school improvement teams follow each chapter. In a step-by-step process, the book demonstrates how the techniques of design thinking may be applied to build a school’s “conflict agility.”

This book examines approaches to reconciliation and peacebuilding in settler colonial, post-conflict, and divided societies. In contrast to current literature, this book provides a broader assessment of reconciliation and conflict transformation by applying a distinctive ‘multi-level’ approach. The analysis provides a unique intervention in the field, one that significantly complicates received notions of reconciliation and transitional justice, and considers conflict transformation across the constitutional, institutional, and relational levels of society. Drawing on extensive fieldwork in South Africa, Northern Ireland, Australia, and Guatemala, the work presents an interdisciplinary study of the complex political challenges facing societies attempting to transition either from violence and authoritarianism to peace and democracy, or from colonialism to post-colonialism. Informed by theories of agonistic democracy, the book conceives of reconciliation as a process that is deeply political, and that prioritises the capacity to retain and develop democratic political contest in societies that have, in other ways, been able to resolve their conflicts. The cases considered suggest that reconciliation is most likely an open-ended process rather than a goal — a process that requires divided societies to pay ongoing attention to reconciliatory efforts at all levels, long after the eyes of the world have moved on from countries where the work of reconciliation is thought to be finished. This book will be of great interest to students of reconciliation, conflict transformation, peacebuilding, transitional justice and IR in general.

In a critical engagement with the function of public law and constitutionalism in its political dimensions, this volume brings together the reflections of three leading constitutionalists: Martin Loughlin, James Tully and Frank Michelman. Comprising three critical commentaries on each, it addresses the multiple ways in which public law is implicated in the logic of rule.

The workforce is considered to be the lifeblood within many major corporations. The ability of management to effectively utilize the knowledge and skills of their workforce is essential in ensuring the success of their corporations. Harnessing Human Capital Analytics for Competitive Advantage is a critical scholarly publication that explores the influence that workforce knowledge and skills can have on the performance of corporations and how such skills can be used to promote the success of corporations. Featuring coverage on a wide range of topics including employee happiness, mind genomics, and e-commerce adoption, this book is geared toward managers, professionals, and practitioners seeking current research on the advantage of utilizing workforce knowledge and skills to promote corporate success.

Harnessing the Power of Tension by Brenda Rosenberg and Samia Bahsoun introduces the paradoxical and evolutionary leadership approach to conflict transformation—Tectonic Leadership. By harnessing tension, the authors bridge their commitment as Jew an Arab to directly address the tension that separates them and use it to build alliances at home, in the boardroom, on campus and in communities.