Introduction: New Research on Managing and Resolving Workplace Conflict: Setting the Stage

Original research by leading and emerging scholars of workplace conflict resolution fills this volume. To set the stage for the chapters that follow, this introduction discusses overarching societal and workplace changes that have likely influenced the nature of conflict in organizations and the manner in which it is resolved. In doing so, we review some of the lessons learned by previous research. Our chapter begins with an account of the nature of workplace conflict with a focus on the interpersonal, micro-organizational, and dyadic nature of most forms of conflict. We then proceed to a discussion of global forces, including international trade, immigration, and technological change that have influenced the nature of workplace conflict in the United States and most other countries. The focus then shifts to a set of societal forces, such as the growing inequality of income, the decline of the labor movement, and the movement from hierarchical organizations to team-based organizations that scholars believe are associated with the incidence of workplace conflict. We then turn specifically to the rise of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) in the United States and the movement beyond ADR to the adoption of conflict management systems. Taken together, we believe that this portrait of the diverse forces affecting conflict and its management in organizations helps to position the chapters in this special volume. The introduction ends with a summary of each of the subsequent chapters in the volume.