ILRLR 4012/6012: Managing and Resolving Conflict: Background Research

Emerging Systems of Managing Workplace Conflict presents illustrative real-life examples as well as cutting-edge methods and tools for integrating systems of dispute resolution into standard corporate procedures. This vital resource investigates the systems organizations have developed to manage common and costly workplace conflicts involving supervisor-employee relationships; race, age, and gender discrimination complaints; sexual harassment; occupational safety and health; reasonable accommodation of the disabled; and wrongful termination as well as other problems stemming from governmental regulations and court actions. Drawing on the authors' vast research and frontline experience with a wide variety of corporations and organizations, this important book examines successful responses to universal workplace problems and conflicts. In addition, the book is filled with illuminating case examples and stories from organizations, such as Brown and Root, Kaufman and Broad, Warner Brothers, Universal-Studios, Kaiser Permanente, the United States Postal Service, Johnson & Johnson, Shell, Prudential, and others, that have instituted systems of dispute resolution in response to ongoing destructive conflict, expensive litigation, and crippling settlements. This book offers an enormously useful approach for the application of the most up-to-date systems of organizational conflict resolution and shows how this approach can work in specific situations to save time and money.

New ways of managing conflict are increasingly important features of work and employment in organizations. In the book the world's leading scholars in the field examine a range of innovative alternative dispute resolution (ADR) practices, drawing on international research and scholarship andcovering both case studies of major exemplars and developments in countries in different parts of the global economy. Developments in the management of individual and collective conflict at work are addressed, as are innovations in both unionized and non-union organizations and in the private andpublic sectors.New practices for managing conflict in organizations are set in the context of trends in workplace conflict and perspectives on how conflict should be understood and addressed. Part 1 examines the changing context of conflict management by addressing the main frameworks for understanding conflictmanagement, the trend in conflict at work, developments in employment rights, and the influence of HRM on conflict management. Part 2 covers the main approaches to conflict management in organizations, addressing both conventional and alternative approaches to conflict resolution. Conventionalgrievance handling and third-party processes in conflict resolution are examined as well as the main ADR practices, including conflict management in non-union firms, the role of the organizational ombudsman, mediation, interest-based bargaining, line and supervisory management, and the concept ofconflict management systems. Part 3 presents case studies of exemplars and innovators in the field, covering mediation in the US postal service, interest-based bargaining at Kaiser-Permanente, 'med-arb' in the New Zealand Police, and judicial mediation in UK employment tribunals. Part 4 coversinternational developments in conflict management in Germany, Japan, The United States, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and China. This Handbook gives a comprehensive overview of this growing field, which has seen an huge increase in programmes of study in university business and law schools and in executive education programmes.

Today's workplaces are dynamic, so it shouldn't surprise anyone that tension can develop quickly and ruinously. The Essential Workplace Conflict Handbook is the ideal resource for anyone ready to confront conflict at work rather than run from it.

This text is the most comprehensive and authoritative treatise available on this subject. Considered a reference of first resort, it has been utilized and cited by advocates, arbitrators, and judges more than any other arbitration book published.

This collection analyses new forms and expressions of conflict at work under capitalism. Using theoretical and empirical approaches, it demonstrates an underlying historical continuity to new forms and expressions of conflict at work and a path dependency by country and culture.

This book compares the unique features of workplace mediation to other contexts of mediation, as well as the specific competences each situation requires of the mediator. It covers many important issues related to workplace mediation and discusses interventions by managers, such as conflict coaching and informal mediation. It proposes a new model to assess the effectiveness of mediation, and discusses the impact of legal systems, HRM policies, as well as power structures, and cultural differences.

People thrive on conflict in most areas of their lives - football games, political debates, legal disputes - yet steer clear from workplace conflicts. But conflict is actually a healthy way to challenge the existing order and essential to change in the workplace. The real problem is not conflict per se, but managing conflict. This authoritative manual explains step by step how to design a complete conflict resolution system and develop the skills to implement it.

This book presents the most recent theoretical insights and practical intervention methods to (re)build trust between management and organized employees in organizations.  Offering a multidisciplinary perspective on trust and conflict management in organizations, the book draws from diverse fields such as organizational psychology, business, law, industrial relations and sociology. It examines the often encountered breaches of trust between management and organized workers, and the resulting destructive social conflicts, social actions, strikes or dramatic business decisions.