Managing Conflict in Organizations

by M. Afzalur Rahim

Overview

Managing Conflict in Organizations introduces the origins, forms, benefits, and consequences of organizational conflict to students and practitioners and teaches how best to manage conflict to achieve productive outcomes. Conflict has benefits: it may lead to solutions to problems, creativity, and innovation. In contrast, little or no conflict in organizations may lead to stagnation, poor decisions, and ineffectiveness.

This book is a vigorous analysis of the rational application of conflict theory in organizations for organizational behavior students, as well as practitioners looking to practice constructive conflict management in their work. This fifth edition has been thoroughly updated to reflect the latest research in the field and explains the effect that research has on practice, with an expanded range of practical examples and cases.

It covers emergent topics such as:

• Differentials in conflict management styles across generations
• Technology and its effect on conflict style changes
• Cross-cultural studies and diversity

This text is a valuable resource for students, instructors, and researchers in human resource management and organizational behavior, and a practical handbook for practitioners that manage (or manage upward) their colleagues.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781032259598
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	06/14/2023
Edition description:	5th ed.
Pages:	342
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

M. Afzalur Rahim (Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh) is a University Distinguished Professor of Management, emeritus, and Hays Watkins Research Fellow, Western Kentucky University. He is also the Founding Editor of Applied Management Journal (formerly Current Topics in Management) and is the founder of the International Journal of Organizational Analysis, International Journal of Conflict Management, International Association for Conflict Management, International Association for Applied Management (formerly International Conference on Advances in Management), and Bangladesh Academy of Business Administration. Dr. Rahim has 25 edited books and five for which he is the sole author. He has published 75 journal articles, 53 book chapters, and presented over 100 papers at various conferences. The published works involve 70 different coauthors. He has also produced onemanuals and 16 measurement instruments. In the organizational sciences Dr. Rahim has over 16,900 Google citations. His articles were published, among others, in the Academy of Management Journal, Intelligence, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Management, and Multivariate Behavioral Research. His current research interests are in the areas of cross-cultural conflict management, leaders’ emotional, cultural, and social intelligence.

Table of Contents

Foreword

Preface

1 Social Conflict Construct

Contributions from Various Disciplines

Organizational Conflict

2 Nature of Conflict

Defining Conflict

Threshold and Grey-Zone Conflicts

Conflict and Competition

Classifying Conflict

Styles of Handling Interpersonal Conflict

3 Organizational Learning and Effectiveness

Nature of Organizational Learning

Types of Learning

Nature of Organizational Effectiveness

Characteristics of the Old Paradigm

Problem Solving

Conflict Management in the New Paradigm

4 Conflict-Management Design

Nature of Conflict Management

Contingency Approach

Conflict Management Process

5 Intrapersonal Conflict

Types of Intrapersonal Conflict

Role

Role Conflict

Role Ambiguity

A Model of Role Conflict and Ambiguity

Consequences of Role Conflict

Managing Intrapersonal Conflict

6 Interpersonal Conflict

Prisoner's Dilemma

A Model of Conflict

Consequences of Interpersonal Conflict

Negotiation

Managing Interpersonal Conflict

Conflict- Management Styles in a Global Setting

7 Intragroup Conflict

Types of Groups

Effects of Intragroup Conflict

Managing Intragroup Conflict

8 Intergroup Conflict

Dynamics of Intergroup Conflict

Effects of Intergroup Conflict

Managing Intergroup Conflict

Intervention

9 Ethics and Morality

Ethics and Morality Defined

Behavioral Perspectives for Conflict Management

Ethical Evaluation of Conflict Management

Ethics and Leadership Structure

Four Methods of Discourse

General Appropriateness of the Methods

Practical Methods and Conflict Management Styles

Stages of Moral Development

Empirical Study on Stages and Styles

10 The Measurement of Conflict

Development of the ROCI– I

Development of the ROCI– II

Sample Items of the ROCI– I and ROCI– II

New Measurements Scales that are being Developed

11 Epilogue

A Design for Managing Conflict

Appendix A: Cases

Case 1: Allen Manufacturing Corporation

Case 2: New Employee at the Credit Union

Case 3: Minnis Service

Case 4: The Hormel Strike at Austin, Minnesota

Appendix B: Exercises

Exercise 1: Contract Building

Exercise 2: Technique of Role Analysis

Exercise 3: Job Design

Exercise 4: Transactional Analysis

Exercise 5: Managing Interpersonal Conflict

Exercise 6: Team Building

Exercise 7: Intergroup Problem Solving

Exercise 8: Organizational Mirroring

Exercise 9: Analysis of Task Interdependence

References

Author Index

Subject Index

Editorial Reviews

Develops a design for the effective management of conflict at various levels in an organization. Chapters cover organizational learning, intra- and interpersonal conflict, and intra- and intergroup conflict. Includes four cases, and nine detailed group exercises to be conducted with organization members. Can be used as a supplement in courses on organizational behavior, psychology, and development. This second edition contains new chapters on measurement of conflict, organizational learning and effectiveness, and ethics and morality. Rahim teaches management at Western Kentucky University. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

I recommend this work for every serious management library, personal and institutional, for those teaching in the area of conflict management, and for anyone who wants to learn conflict management well enough to do consulting work in this important field.” —The International Journal of Conflict Management "Rahim combines an impressive literature review, several empirical studies unique to this work, and textbook-style exercises. This book is a useful resource for business managers as well as undergraduate and graduate students of organizational behavior, organizational and industrial psychology, or organizational communication. Recommended" —G.E. Kaupins, Choice "Many books on negotiation and conflict resolution suffer because they do not link the topic to the broader literature on organizational behavior. In contrast, Rahim's book does a nice job of linking conflict to other important organizational activities such as organizational learning, leadership, and organizational effectiveness. The book has value to researchers and practioners alike." —Donald E. Conlon, Eli Broad Professor of Management, Michigan State University

From the Publisher