CONFLICT MANAGEMENT The Psychology of conflict and conflict ...

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Communication Processes
and Conflict Management
Mara oleKalns
Melbourne Business school, university of Melbourne
linDa l. PutnaM
Department of Communication, texas a&M university
laurie r. WeinGart
David a. tepper school of Business, Carnegie Mellon university
laurie MetCalf
Department of Communication, university of arkansas
Communication is central to the experience and management of conflict.
What people say and how they say it signals their approach to resolving
conflicts of interests. It is through communication that people express
their desires, recognize differences, and attempt to resolve those differences.
While there is a rich tradition of research on conflict in organizational
settings, the focus on the role of communication has developed in
the last 20 years. Putnam and Poole (1987) wrote one of the first reviews
of this literature, noting that “communication constitutes the essence of
conflict in that it undergirds the formation of opposing issues, frames perceptions
of the felt conflict, translates emotions and perceptions into con-
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