Managing Workplace Conflict

Mediation or Litigation: The Debate Continues

  Mediation is a relative newcomer to the American scene when compared to litigation that traces its historical roots to 16th and 17th century jurisprudence as developed in England and later here in the US. Advocates of mediation have consistently made arguments as to its cost savings and “collaborative” approach to dispute resolution that stands in sharp contrast to an adversarial,…

How Important is a Mediator’s Method of Mediation or Mediation Style?

Mediation, comes in many styles and flavors. But unlike candy, a mediator’s style of practice can have far-reaching consequences upon the disputants.Interestingly enough, if one looks at the evolution of mediation, there has been constant and ongoing debate about its essential nature and what constitutes effective mediation practice. The three most commonly accepted methods of mediation…

If You Want to Build Effective Teams Learn to Manage Conflict

    If You Want to Build Effective Teams Learn to Manage Conflict

By Vlad G. Spitzer

Are two heads really better than one? If they are part of a business or organization the answer depends on how well they get along as a team. Mirroring on the success of high-tech companies, the resources devoted to understanding team dynamics is simply astonishing. From managers in all walks of corporate life,…

Being an Entrepreneur Means Embracing Business Team Conflict

  One of the finer books on conflict management is Peter T. Coleman’s, “The Five Percent: Finding Solutions to Seemingly Impossible Conflicts:” Coleman is an associate professor of psychology and education at Columbia University, director of the International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution, and on faculty of The Earth Institute at Columbia. In 2003, he received the Early…

How Trust and Team Identity Relate to Workplace Conflict

  Conventional wisdom about trust in the workplace has focused on the relationship between management and employees..However, as the workplace becomes increasingly team oriented, trust among peers and team identity have become important variables in understanding the role of conflict in organizational settings.  In a first study of its kind, Guohong (Helen) Han, Department of Management,…

How We Face Conflict: A Metaphorical Vision

    THE FENCE

There where the dim past and future mingle their nebulous hopes and aspirations there I lie.

There where truth and untruth struggle in endless and bloody combat, there I lie.

There where time moves forwards and backwards with not one moment’s pause for sighing, there I lie.

There where the body ages relentlessly and only the feeble mind can wander back there I lie in open-souled…

What We Know About Conflict from the Eagles and the Rattlers

    In 1954 psychologist Muzafer Sherif took a group of 11 year-old’s to Robber’s Cave State Park in Oklahoma and divided them into two groups, the “Eagles” and the “Rattlers.”  The groups were separated so that neither group knew of the other’s existence. The boys lived at the park for a week and Sherif studied their interactions and how each respective group bonded. Each respective group…

Cognitive Dissonance in Groups: The Fox and the Grapes….Retold

    In 1887, W.J Linton’s limericks of Aesop’s Fables appeared in an illustrated edition featuring the work of Walter Crane called “Baby’s Own Aesop.” One of the limericks went like this:

“This Fox has a longing for grapes:

He jumps, but the bunch still escapes.

So he goes away sour;

And, ’tis said, to this hour

Declares that he’s no taste for grapes”

No doubt we all recognize the fable of the…

About Conflict form the Dalai Lama

  His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet describes himself as a simple Buddhist monk..Tenzin Gyatso, was born in northeastern Tibet.in 1935 and was recognized as the incarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso at the age of 2. He spent his young years studying the teachings of Buddhism and at 23 passed his examinations with honors at   Lhasa’s Jokhang Temple to obtain the highest level…

Conflict in the Workplace Can be a Good Thing.

  Joel Peterson, Chairman of JetBlue and a top “influencer” on Linkedin posted an article on March 28, 2014 called “Why Conflict is Good for Business.” Peterson  remarked that: “Healthy organizations are often the noisiest.” And went on to say that good leaders learn to tackle conflict “head-on.”  He added: “That’s why handling conflict well can boost trust. The key is to convert discord into…

Being Right or Wrong and Conflict Management

    Since time immemorial human beings have had a lot invested in being right. Indeed, being right about things is not only makes us feel good but it gives us a sense value not only in ourselves but in how others judge us. After all, who wants to be with someone who’s wrong all the time? Needless to say it is very important for us to be right. There is a lot at stake in it. But what about being…

  Aristotle’s “Rhetoric” is a seminal work on the philosophy of language. Although it lay dormant for about two millennium, it caused quite a stir in the last few decades and became the focal point for several modern theorists of philosophy of language. One of the remarkable features of the Rhetoric is Aristotle’s explanation of the interplay between emotions and language. Today philosophy of…

Managing Inner and Outer Conflict: The Work of Professor Leonard L. Riskin

  Conflict management typically involves an understanding of how disputants in conflict situations behave towards each other in searching for and reaching negotiated agreements. But as Professor Leonard L Riskin observed in a an article published in 2013 by the Harvard Negotiation Law Review called “Managing Inner and Outer Conflict: Selves, Subpersonalities, and Internal Family Systems,” there…

Conflict Theory Visionary Georg Simmel

German philosopher and sociologist Georg Simmel (1858-1918)  overcame his largely undeserved fringe status in German academia due mostly to his Jewish family background. He was named “extraordinary professor” at the University of Berlin due in no small part to his unusual popular and academic support from scholars like Max Weber in Germany and others abroad.  A prolific writer and lecturer,…

Why Choosing ADR is so Difficult for Disputants

  One of my goals in this blog is to make some of the more difficult and theoretical aspects of conflict resolution accessible to professionals, managers, employees, organizational leaders and the public at-large. In doing so my hope is to have a wide-ranging discussion of conflict management and resolution in the workplace. My scope is necessarily an interdisciplinary one. There are many…

Collaboration in the Workplace Means Accepting and Managing Conflict

Though it is sometimes thought that conflict is antagonistic to workplace collaboration and positive change , such thinking is not only outdated but just plain wrong. Proper conflict management not only insures workplace collaboration but is actually a positive force for change and innovation. Nevertheless, organizations have been slow to understand this and even slower to implement conflict…