Conflicts are not only frequent but also unavoidable in many instances. Consequences of conflict affect not only the parties involved but also witnesses and other direct and indirect stakeholders. Often conflicts are associated with only negative consequences, such as relationship dissolution, direct economic costs, opportunity costs, dissatisfaction, project failure and trauma, and, in extreme cases, violence and deaths. However, on a brighter side, there can be positive outcomes, such as self-understanding, new ideas, learning about others, relational development, identifying and addressing problems and improving communication skills. It is also understood from scholarly research that both positive and negative outcomes are dependent on how the conflict is managed. Constructive management of conflict may lead to positive outcomes, while, on the other hand, poor management will lead to negative and even destructive consequences. A pragmatic research and practice stance on this issue suggests that while the means for expressing conflict is communication, the means for addressing and managing conflict is also through communication.
The second edition of The SAGE Handbook of Conflict Communication: Integrating Theory, Research and Practice (The Handbook, from here onward) advances the multiple purposes of the first edition:
to assemble the knowledge base of the field of conflict communication in one resource;
to identify the best theories, ideas and practices of conflict communication; and
to provide an opportunity for scholars and practitioners to link theoretical frameworks and application tools.
The second edition presents an additional opportunity for the authors to update research in their respective fields. In addition to the target audience of the first edition, consisting of academic scholars, course instructors of advanced graduate courses in conflict communication and practitioners managing conflict, students are added as a key audience in this second edition.
The Handbook is composed of 31 chapters forming four major sections. The first three chapters aim to clarify the nature of conflict research in each of the following four sections. They offer an overview of definitional, theoretical and methodological issues in conflict communication.
Chapter 1 reviews the early work on communication and conflict and the role of communication in defining conflict, developing approaches to study conflict, exploring models of negotiation and mediation and moving from quantitative to qualitative methods of research.
Chapter 2 presents an overview of quantitative approaches to researching conflict communication. Here, the authors consider four critical topics in conducting quantitative research about conflict communication, which are:
issues of measurement and observation;
research design – including experimental and non-experimental cross-sectional, panel and time-series studies;
sampling; and
data analysis.
An overview of qualitative approach in conflict communication research is presented in Chapter 3. Authors have reviewed four dominant qualitative paradigms, namely, phenomenology, social constructivism, critical study and post-modernism, to illustrate the scope of qualitative work in conflict communication research. These three introductory chapters set the stage for the nature of conflict research in the following four sections. These sections focus on the context in which the conflict occurs – interpersonal, organizational, community and intercultural/international.
Section 1 discusses interpersonal conflict, which, when managed competently, brings about a positive change in a relationship. On the other hand, incompetent or mindless management of interpersonal conflict can affect physical, psychological, emotional and mental health of the parties involved. The seven chapters in this section deal with several aspects and contexts of interpersonal conflict.
Chapter 4 highlights the importance of emotion in interpersonal conflict. The authors also argue that emotion acts as both a cause and consequence of conflict communication and may guide behavior as well as outcomes. The socio-cognitive aspect of interpersonal conflict has a long research history.
Chapter 5 is centered on this theme of social cognition with respect to conflict. The authors posit that conflict is influenced by how people construe it and how people make sense of themselves, of others and of their social activities. The role of self-regulation in interpersonal conflict communication is a growing area of investigation.
Chapter 6 deals with a very important and well-researched stream in interpersonal conflict: dating and marital conflict. To explain the complexity of romantic relationship conflict, the authors use the social – ecological framework. Interestingly, this framework reflects the dynamic nature of individuals, relationship and environment, including the conflict behavior and patterns in that relationship.
The conflict landscape of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is reviewed and analyzed in Chapter 7. According to the author, IPV is any act of physical violence that occurs in the context of a relationship, in which romantic or courtship objectives are being pursued by one or both interactants. The two broad typologies of motives in enacting violence are instrumental and expressive. Instrumental motives represent power and control objective, in which a particular, discrete goal is being pursued by the use of violence. Expressive motives reflect internal cognitive or affective states, such as anger, jealousy, rage, frustration and aggression. Critical intimate partner violence can be circumvented by effective problem-solving skills, argumentativeness and tendencies to engage in more positive affectionate or collaborative behaviors.
Chapter 8 is focused on parent – child interpersonal conflict communication patterns. The author observes that families that manage their conflict competently have more satisfied parents and children, and that children perform better in school and in peer group relationship.
The relationship between mental health disorder and family conflict is discussed in Chapter 9. It is often observed that individuals with mental illness fail to articulate the extent of their isolation, fears and needs, which then leads to conflicts within families and in other interpersonal relationships. This chapter reinstates the idea that family plays an important role in the treatment of mental health disorders.
In Chapter 10, concluding Section 1, the authors focus their attention on managing conflict competently. A competence-based mindful approach can be helpful in negotiating important personal conflict goals in close, interpersonal relationships. The authors advance that a cooperative conflict strategy coupled with proper partner assessment can mitigate any conflict situation.
Section 2 focuses on organizational conflict and is composed of seven chapters. A number of studies demonstrate the inevitability of conflict in the workplace. If managed poorly, workplace or organizational conflict can inflict sizeable costs on an organization, not just in terms of paid working hours but also in terms of other factors, such as opportunity costs, diminished decision quality, loss of skilled employees, restructuring, reduced job motivation, lost work time, litigation and health costs. With the kinds of costs involved, workplace conflict has remained a popular topic of research and practice. The authors of the chapters in this section review, critique and synthesize literature on conflict regarding various facets of organizational life.
The opening chapter (Chapter 11) of this section examines negotiation in the workplace. The authors explain that negotiation is a social process used when the achievement of goals cannot be accomplished without the cooperation of others. Using the case study of IBM’s $1.75 billion sale of personal computer manufacturing to the Chinese company Lenovo, the authors highlight how effective negotiation strategies can lead to important gains.
In Chapter 12, the authors examine conflict in organizational workgroups. Various views have emerged from the study of conflict in organizational workgroups, ranging from adverse effects on group performance to an opportunity for group growth and to struggle for power in the workgroups.
Workplace bullying, which has become a great concern for organizations employing a diverse workforce, is discussed in Chapter 13. The authors use a case study of a bully at the youth development center to weave a compelling account of bullying from the perspective of bullies, targets and bystanders.
Workplace policies, standards and procedures at the organization level often define the “conflict” between working and family/personal life. Chapter 14 reviews the extensive literature on this kind of conflict. A multilevel perspective, including macro, institutional, interpersonal and micro, is discussed in the chapter to draw a broader picture of work and personal life conflict.
Chapters 15 and 16 focus on specific sectors to illustrate organizational conflict. Chapter 15 examines conflict in schools, which is not often studied by organizational conflict scholars; Chapter 16 reviews conflict in the organizational context of health care.
Concluding this section, Chapter 17 focuses on conflict management systems, or the structure, policies and procedures an organization creates to address conflict. Three clusters of conflict strategies, which are law-, management- and participation-based, are analyzed, compared and contrasted to enhance understanding of the strength, weaknesses and ways of using each strategy.
Section 3 deals with another important context in which conflict occurs: the community. It is argued that unlike interpersonal and organizational conflicts, community conflicts can be more polarizing and may lead to violence, wherein community members begin to frame the situation as “us versus them”. Differences in cultural backgrounds, scarce resources and increased competition are all factors that can lead to increased conflict in a community.
In the opening Chapter 18 of this section, the authors provide a framework for conflict communication, ethics and civic engagement. A case study of Libby, Montana, is used by the authors to illustrate the intersection of conflict, engagement and ethics, as various entities attempt to address the effects of asbestos on members of the community.
Chapters 19, 20, 21 and 22 deal with specific types of community conflicts: environmental conflict, trust conflict in community – academic partnerships, religion conflicts and moral conflicts.
In the concluding Chapter 23 of this section, the authors approach community conflict from the perspective of citizenship and democratic deficits. Decreases in public participation in community activities and loss of trust in democratically elected leaders are some of the issues discussed in this chapter. Deliberative democracy through dialogical practices is argued to be a key way to address citizenship and democratic deficits. Authors also highlight the extent to which the dialogue is paramount in addressing community conflict in an ethical manner that builds trust and fosters creativity.
Multiple levels of intricacy are argued to exist in intercultural/international conflict, making the study of such conflicts difficult. Section 4 aims to discuss and further the research in this stream.
In Chapter 24, the author covers a wide spectrum of conflicts that follow sojourners and immigrants in their boundary-crossing experience and, thereby, answers how intercultural conflict experiences influence an individual’s identity overtime.
Chapter 25 presents an elaborate account of the distinction between interracial and interethnic conflicts by discussing both in the context of the USA.
Chapter 26 advances the intention of mitigating conflict in a holistic manner by discussing the principles of Buddhism and the principle of non-violence of His Holiness, the Dalai Lama.
Chapter 27 offers insight into the global workplace and ways to address the challenges faced by conflicts arising from increased participation by traditional minorities.
Chapter 28 offers suggestions for practicing intergroup dialogue as a key activity helpful in minimizing differences and separateness.
In Chapter 29, the authors revisit the classical intercultural culture-based situational conflict model (CBSCM) and propose a revised model, the culture-based social – ecological conflict model (CBSECM).
In Chapter 30, the author offers an interesting suggestion to elevate the relationship frame to the highest order of context in an intercultural conflict communication. This relational focus is argued to lead to renaming the person or group we call “opponent” as “partner”.
In the concluding Chapter 31, the editors briefly discuss the importance of socio-ecological framework for understanding conflict, and the benefits and challenges of such multilevel approaches. Three emerging trends of transformation, globalization and social media, which can further help in theorizing, researching and practicing conflict communication, are also discussed in the concluding chapter of the Handbook.
The Handbook is a remarkable work in the domain of conflict communication research. Synthesizing such a broad area with vast numbers of research studies is a serious challenge with which the editors and chapter authors have dealt well. The Handbook has identified and aptly presented some of the most recent trends in conflict communication theory and practice. This Handbook is recommended for multiple audiences, including instructors of advanced graduate courses, researchers, practitioners of conflict communication and advanced graduate students. Perhaps the most significant features of the Handbook is the organization of its chapters and the coverage of conflicts under each of the specific contexts – interpersonal, organizational, community and intercultural/international. The length of the Handbook (898 pages), while daunting, was necessary, considering the amount of research literature, synthesis, examples and explanations it packs.
