CONFLICT MANAGEMENT The Psychology of conflict and conflict ...

296 GOLDMAN, CROPANZANO, STEIN, AND BENSON
with a built-in confrontation. In East Asian cultures, which prefer social
harmony, such a technique may be liked relatively less well than it is in
North America. Leung and Lind (1986) and Leung (1987) found support
for this idea in studies comparing the United States and Hong Kong. Benjamin
(1975) came to similar conclusions regarding Japan.
autocratic or inquisitorial. When taking an inquisitorial approach, the
third party controls both the process and the outcome. Managers employ
autocratic methods quite commonly (e.g., Bergmann & Volkema, 1994;
Shapiro & Rosen, 1994; Sheppard, 1983), though the use of hierarchy is
typically disliked by disputants. In business settings, various studies have
found that participants prefer to retain some control over the process and,
especially, over the outcome (e.g., Cropanzano et al., 1999; Karambayya
& Brett, 1989; Karambayya et al., 1992; Lewicki & Sheppard, 1985). This
seems to be the case in legal settings as well (Folger et al., 1996; Thibaut
& Walker, 1975). Similar results have also been obtained in Hong Kong
(Leung & Lind, 1986) and Turkey (Kozan & Ilter, 1994).
Providing impetus. Analogous to a “kick in the pants” (Shapiro & Rosen,
1994), providing impetus involves low third-party process control and low
third-party outcome control (Lewicki & Sheppard, 1985). However, it also
involves the provision of motivational incentives to reach a settlement
(Kolb & Glidden, 1986). The third party does not fix the problem, but he
or she creates an atmosphere wherein it is in the disputants’ best interests
to achieve a settlement. In one study, Lewicki and Sheppard (1985) found
that providing impetus was liked less well than mediation. Likewise,
Cropanzano et al. (1999) found that, except for avoidance (discussed in the
following section), providing impetus was the most unpopular tactic in
Argentina, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and the United States.
avoidance. Avoidance, sometimes referred to simply as “ignoring” (Leung
et al., 1992), is doing nothing at all (Kolb & Glidden, 1986). People in the
United States (Shapiro & Rosen, 1994) and Hong Kong (Leung, 1988) use it
frequently. There is not a great deal of research on avoidance, but it tends
not be evaluated favorably. This is also so in Spain, Japan (Leung et al.,
1992), Canada, and the Netherlands (Leung et al., 1990, 1991). Cropanzano
et al. (1999) found that avoidance was the least preferred conflict resolution
option in four nations: Argentina, the Dominican Republic, Mexico,
and the United States.
Elangovan’s Prescriptive Model
In an attempt to organize and expand previous work, Elangovan (1995,
1998) provided managers with a set of working guidelines, assisting them
in choosing the most important tactic in different situations. Elangovan