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Most studies of conflict handling styles in organizations analyze these styles separately. These studies assume that individuals are oriented towards the use of one of the styles of conflict management. As a result, different styles are compared one by one as if they were independent. In contrast, from a more all‐embracing perspective people are seen as adopting configurations of styles. The interest in this alternative perspective lies in exploring the relations between these styles, how they combine and form patterns of conflict styles. This article presents an exploratory study that seeks to identify empirically the specific combinations of conflict handling styles that result in differentiated patterns within groups of managers. By using hierarchical and non‐hierarchical cluster analyses of a sample of managers, different patterns of conflict management were identified. The effectiveness of each of the resulting patterns was analyzed in terms of its influence on the parties' joint substantive outcomes and their mutual relationship. Results show that patterns using multiple conflict handling styles were more effective than patterns based on a single style.

The current study focused on intra‐group conflict by attempting to elucidate individual and situational factors underlying choices along two dimensions of conflict management patterns: engagement versus avoidance and constructive versus destructive. In the study, the role of two types of self‐efficacy (global and social) among group members was investigated, as was the sense of group identification in team dispute resolution preferences modes. Sixty‐seven members of volunteer community service communes in the Israeli Scouting youth movement, 48 females and 19 males, representing 13 intact teams, participated in the study. Self‐report structured questionnaires (previously used and adapted for this study) served as research instruments. Both global self‐efficacy and group identification independently predicted the conflict engagement‐destructive pattern of domination. Social self‐efficacy served as the sole predictor of the preference to manage intra‐team conflict by means of integrating—the engagement‐constructive mode. In contrast, the choice of compromising was also fostered by the joint contribution of social self‐efficacy and group‐identification, beyond the direct effect of social self‐efficacy. The study corroborates the assumption that conflict management patterns within an intact team are related to dispositional variables on the individual level, i.e., global and social self‐efficacy, and to the team‐related variable of group identification.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the influence of conflict management on conflicts at work. Design/methodology/approach – A total of 148 post‐graduate students in management responded to a questionnaire online. Two cluster analyses were performed to identify dispute resolution patterns and organizational dispute states. Then, cross tabulation between the two clusters was performed (Pearson's chi‐square coefficient and Sommer's D statistic). Findings – Cluster analyses identified three styles of dispute resolution pattern – interest‐based, based on controlled power, and power‐based – and three different organizational dispute states: harmony, dissonance, and conflict. Finally, the influence of resolution patterns on dispute states was been confirmed by the cross tabulation. Research limitations/implications – Firstly, Ury et al.'s theoretical typology should be revised, especially for the rights‐based approach. Secondly, the results of our cluster analysis indicate that it might not be necessary to measure the emotional and behavioral dimension of conflict separately. Thirdly, our research confirms the impact of conflict management on conflicts at work. Practical implications – The results show that dispute resolution patterns have a non‐negligible influence on organizational conflict states. In order to increase the likelihood of a harmony state, an interest‐based dispute resolution pattern should be adopted. Originality/value – First, the statistical technique used – cluster analysis – is somewhat innovative. Secondly, this research shows that dispute resolution patterns may affect organizational dispute states.

The current study aims to identify the factors underlying differing preferences for conflict‐management patterns within work teams. Two major antecedents of dispute resolution modes were examined: the team members' emotional reactions to and their perceptions of the type of conflicts encountered in their work group. The sample consisted of 69 medical teams, comprising 331 employees (nurses and physicians) employed in several medical organizations. Self‐report structured questionnaires were used to assess the research variables. A series of regression analyses showed that cooperative (integrating and compromising) patterns of conflict management were associated with positive intragroup emotional states; contentious (dominating) patterns were associated with positive as well as negative emotions; and an avoidance pattern was associated with negative emotions only. Additionally, negative emotions were found to mediate the association of relationship conflict with a dominating pattern of conflict management. The findings point to the centrality of emotional states in determining conflict management preferences at the intragroup level.

This study aims to explore the use of a Computer‐mediated Communication (CMC) system in‐group conflict management, with specific attention directed toward analyzing the task effect on conflict management patterns of groups in CMC interaction.

Two tasks are used in experimental design to analyze interactions and conflict management patterns within e‐mail communication environment. Group composition and communication medium were kept constant. The group working relations coding system (GWRCS) was used to examine group interaction patterns that characterize the conflict management process.

The results demonstrate that task type influences the group conflict management process and the extent to which a group employs different levels of confrontiveness strategy in its interaction and conflict management patterns. Specifically, intellective task conflict is best handled by a high confrontiveness while cognitive task conflict is best handled by a moderate confrontiveness strategy.

The study used small group size and did not take into account variation in group size. Thus, the degree to which a larger size groups might affect the results is unknown. The study showed that group effectiveness requires different conflict management and interaction patterns for different tasks even within the same communication medium.

The study outlined the importance of task types in conflict management within the same group and within the same communication technology. It also stressed the fact that individuals apply technology differently to negotiate conflict based on tasks.

The purpose of this paper is to present an innovative study with a twofold focus: on highly escalated family business (FB) conflicts and on the interactions between conflicts and the failure of the company as FB. The authors devoted this paper to the question of how family-related conflicts are connected with the demise of FB. Conflicts constitute an essential part of every FB and may definitely have the power to superimpose the performance of the FB as well as the family life in a destructive way. Especially, highly escalated so called relationship conflicts can be seen as one reason for the failure of FB.

The research aims at analysing the meaning of conflict in FB with respect to the failure of the FB. Therefore, the authors use an explorative case study approach. The study is based on a total of five case studies. As the authors use theory of social systems as a theoretical background, the authors focused in the analysis in all cases on patterns rather than on individual characteristics.

As an essential part of the study the authors formulated eight hypotheses describing specific patterns of the conflict process as a communicative system. These hypotheses convey a comprehensible impression of the effects conflicts may have within FB and present a number of new facets of conflict dynamics and patterns of escalation in FB.

In particular, the authors provide new insights into the dynamics of highly destructive forms of conflicts in FB and the relationship between family-related conflicts and the failure of FB. The authors also pave the way for future research that aim to develop a more holistic understanding about when and why the outcomes from family and business systems will conflict or be harmonious.

Only around 0.01 per cent of all working‐days are lost due to industrial conflict in the average western economy. Nevertheless, conflicts are highly visible phenomena and it was one of the first areas most statistical agencies started covering. Therefore, long conflict series exist for most developed Western economies. These series are of a poor quality compared to most series analysed by economists, but they have, nevertheless, a lot to tell. In a number of papers we have tried to cover different parts of the story — in the present article we shall concentrate on the large shifts (often 5–10 times) in the conflict levels over time and the remarkable differences (often 10–20 times) in conflict levels between countries, even when we look only at developed Western economies.

Although researchers have demonstrated a keen interest in knowledge collaboration in online encyclopedias, previous studies have seldom explored the dynamic interrelations in online encyclopedias over time that involve the iteratively melding of individual cognitive system and knowledge collaboration system. Therefore, this paper aims to reveal the structure and dynamics of knowledge collaboration in online encyclopedias from a perspective of system dynamics (SD).

This paper proposes a general activity system of knowledge collaboration in online encyclopedias based on Engeström’s activity theory. According to the SD methodology proposed by Forrester, this study develops a holistic SD model by identifying interactions of knowledge collaboration factors based on behavioral theories; validating the SD model by structural tests and behavior tests involving historical data of English Wikipedia; and conducting simulation to capture the interactive dynamics of the salient factors of knowledge collaboration.

According to the SD methodology, this study develops and validates an SD model to explore interesting dynamic interrelations among core factors (contributors, conflicts, discussions, entries quantity and entries quality) that are neglected by previous research. The results show that there is a significant negative feedback relationship between inactive contributors and entries quality, between contributors and conflicts and between edit conflicts and entries quality. There is a complicated nonlinear feedback relationship between active contributors and entries quality, and between edit conflicts and discussions.

Different from prior empirical studies that normally investigate the unidirectional linear relationships among prominent factors of knowledge collaboration in online encyclopedias from a static perspective, this study captures a dynamic picture of their interrelations by unfolding their behavior patterns over time. The main contribution of this study is to develop a holistic SD model and to reveal and elaborate on the complex dynamics involved online encyclopedias based on activity theory.

This paper aims to compare style and behavior-focused individual difference measures in their ability to uniquely predict naturally occurring conflict acts.

Primary participants (and a friend of their choosing) completed a style measure and a behavior-focused measure about the primary participants and reported on the occurrence of a variety of conflict actions over a 60-day period.

For self-ratings and friend ratings, both the style measure and the behavior-focused measure were significantly related to the occurrence of conflict acts. However, the unique effect of the behavior-focused measure was stronger than that of the style measure.

The data were collected from college students, thus limiting the generalizability of the findings. The measure of conflict acts was based on recall, which may also be subject to error and bias. In terms of implications, the findings strongly suggest that behavior-focused instruments are superior to style measures in predicting everyday conflict acts.

Because the behavior-focused individual difference measure was a better predictor of actual behavior than the style measure, investigators interested in such prediction may want to seriously consider using such measures.

Little research exists regarding the relative predictive abilities of style measures and behavior-focused measures; this paper provides some of the first such evidence.

A number of interesting studies have emerged recently in the area of worker participation. Many of them discuss and analyse structures of representation and hypothesise on appropriate structures for different decision areas and for different decision levels within the organisation. They do not, however, take into account the structure of decision‐making in the organisations under discussion. Assumptions are not tested. One exception here is the study of Peccei and Warner. They examined levels of autonomy and centralisation of decision‐making in the subsidiaries of a multinational company. The present study extends this exercise (using the same methodology) to subsidiaries of a range of other larger companies, including multinationals. The purpose was to see whether the Peccei and Warner results were confirmed, secondly to examine non‐multinational subsidiaries for similar results and, thirdly, to check whether defined patterns in the decision‐making structure emerged which could be useful in discussing appropriate structures of worker participation. Some deviations from the Peccei and Warner results were noted with respect to degree of centralisation/autonomy. In particular, in the present study, highly similar patterns of centralised decision areas emerge, also the overall ranked correlation of centralised and non‐centralised decisions is highly significant for various types of decisions over a wide range of different subsidiaries. In contrast to Peccei and Warner, I would conclude that the pattern of centralisation is much more highly predictable than their conclusions imply.