CONFLICT MANAGEMENT The Psychology of conflict and conflict ...

1. CONFLICT IN THE WORKPLACE 5
ConfliCt anD ConfliCt ManaGeMent in
orGanizations: the PurPose of this BooK
Despite the critical importance of the study of conflict in organizations,
surprisingly few comprehensive volumes focus exclusively on this phenomenon
in organizational behavior and industrial and organizational
psychology. In part this is because in (organizational) psychology, conflict
is often treated in isolation rather than in connection with other social or
organizational phenomena. For example, the Annual Review of Psychology
chapters on I/O Psychology by Rousseau (1997), Wilpert (1995), O’Reilly
(1991), Ilgen and Klein (1988), and Staw (1984) do not treat conflict management
and dispute resolution at all, and only the more topical reviews
touch on workplace conflict when they review literatures on mood (Brief
& Weiss, 2002) or culture (Gelfand, Erez, & Aycan, in press). At the same
time, reviews on negotiation and mediation by Carnevale and Pruitt
(1992); Greenhalgh (1987); Lewicki, Weiss, and Lewin (1992); Levine and
Thompson (1996); Pruitt (1998); Bazerman, Curhan, Moore, and Valley
(2000); and De Dreu, Beersma, Steinel, and Van Kleef (2007) discuss conflict
management and negotiation in isolation from the broader context of
organizational structure, work-related attitudes, and performance.
In this volume, we aim to achieve two interrelated goals. First, we
attempt to bring together and integrate classic and contemporary insight
in conflict origins, conflict processes, and conflict consequences. Authors
were charged with providing critical reviews of how their topics have
evolved over time, and with new and promising directions for conflict
research in organizations. Recognizing that conflict has multiple functions,
some of which are negative and some of which are primarily positive
(cf. Coser, 1956; De Dreu & Van de Vliert, 1997; Jehn, 1995), authors
were also charged with highlighting both positive and negative consequences
of conflict in their chapters and the multiple context factors that
shape its occurrence and outcomes. Second, in designing this book, we
started out with the fundamental premise that conflict in organizations
is a multilevel phenomenon, and that to truly grasp the roots, dynamics,
and consequences of conflict at work, we need to consider multiple levels
within organizations, as well as their cross-level influences. Accordingly,
we organized the book in terms of antecedents and consequences at the
individual, group, and organizational levels.
Whereas each of the chapters in this volume focuses on distinct territory
located at a specific level of analysis, in this chapter we provide a “bird’seye”
view of conflict across levels. We organized our chapter around two
fundamental questions. First, we ask about the isomorphism of conflict:
“What commonalities and differences do we find across levels of analysis,
both in terms of antecedent root causes, dynamics, and consequences and
functions?” Subsequently, we ask how much cross-level research is being