Workplace Dispute Resolution: Directions for the 21st Century

Dispute management in the U.S. currently accepts workplace conflicts as a necessary part of organizational life. Having an effective dispute management system means providing the methods to resolve a dispute that matches the type and stage to which it has progressed while also serving the needs of those who use the system. Contributors to this collection provide a variety of viewpoints, including international perspectives, that help explain why employers who are committed to effective dispute management will use a combination of preventive and remedial dispute resolution mechanisms to address conflicts based primarily on interests, rights, or power. Several essays also investigate how the interpersonal nature of a relationship between people determines the method selected to handle disputes, the impact of the lens of gender on our thinking about negotiation as a social activity for problem solving, and the tension between self-interest and fairness in negotiation and the use of justifications and impression management to resolve this tension.