Conflict Resolution

Conflict resolution is the process of resolving a dispute or a conflict by meeting at least some of each side’s needs and addressing their interests. Conflict resolution sometimes requires both a power-based and an interest-based approach, such as the simultaneous pursuit of litigation (the use of legal power) and negotiation (attempts to reconcile each party’s interests). There are a number of powerful strategies for conflict resolution.

Knowing how to manage and resolve conflict is essential for having a productive work life, and it is important for community and family life as well. Dispute resolution, to use another common term, is a relatively new field, emerging after World War II. Scholars from the Program on Negotiation were leaders in establishing the field.

Strategies include maintaining open lines of communication, asking other parties to mediate, and keeping sight of your underlying interests. In addition, negotiators can try to resolve conflict by creating value out of conflict, in which you try to capitalize on shared interests; explore differences in preferences, priorities, and resources; capitalize on differences in forecasts and risk preferences; and address potential implementation problems up front.

These skills are useful in crisis negotiation situations and in handling cultural differences in negotiations, and can be invaluable when dealing with difficult people, helping you to “build a golden bridge” and listen to learn, in which you acknowledge the other person’s points before asking him or her to acknowledge yours.

Articles offer numerous examples of dispute resolution and explore various aspects of it, including international dispute resolution, how it can be useful in your personal life, skills needed to achieve it, and training that hones those skills.

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Using Mediation to Resolve International Disputes

PON Staff   •  04/11/2016   •  Filed in Conflict Resolution

As businesses increasingly branch out globally, they also face the possibility of broken contracts and strained relationships. Mediation can be an effective means of resolving disputes and getting business partners back on track, but do intercultural differences complicate the process? If so, how can disputants and mediators adjust?

Elizabeth D. Salmon of the University of Maryland … Read Using Mediation to Resolve International Disputes

The Fiscal Cliff and the Debt Ceiling: Program on Negotiation Chair Robert Mnookin Discusses Recent and Future Negotiations Between Congressional Republicans and the White House

PON Staff   •  01/08/2016   •  Filed in Conflict Resolution

What methodology was driving the posturing and statements behind congressional Republicans and the Obama administration’s negotiations regarding the debt ceiling and how both sides came together to avoid going off of the “fiscal cliff.” … Learn More About This Program

Negotiating Skills and Negotiation Tactics: Damage Control in Conflict Resolution

PON Staff   •  07/20/2015   •  Filed in Conflict Resolution

negotiating skills

Framing in negotiation, and the negotiating skills and negotiation tactics that go behind effective bargaining, can help not only achieve a negotiator’s goals at the bargaining table, but also can anticipate the fallout or kickback received from parties away from the negotiation table. President Obama’s tax-cut negotiations with Senate Republicans in late 2010 offer cautionary … Learn More About This Program

Negotiation Research You Can Use: To move forward, acknowledge past wrongs

PON Staff   •  06/09/2015   •  Filed in Conflict Resolution

What lies at the root of long-standing conflicts? Often, both sides feel compelled to continue punishing the other side out of a sense that they have been wronged. Each party’s desire to show that he or she has endured greater suffering than the other can lead to competitive victimhood—a win-lose mind-set in which each side … Learn More About This Program

What Does Conflict Management Mean in Business Negotiations with Competitors?

Katie Shonk   •  03/30/2015   •  Filed in Conflict Resolution

They say it pays to keep your friends close and your enemies closer, but in business negotiation, keeping your enemies—or competitors—close could end you up in court, as Apple’s recent encounter with the U.S. Department of Justice suggests.

The story begins back in 2007 when, unhappy with Amazon’s low, flat price of $9.99 for e-books, five … Learn More About This Program

In “Chinatown” Conflict Resolution, the Dust Clears

Katie Shonk   •  02/10/2015   •  Filed in Conflict Resolution

Using conflict resolution techniques, the city of Los Angeles recently achieved an impressive victory by ending a 100-year battle with California’s Owens Valley over water rights and air pollution.

The dispute dates back to the early 1900s, when agents working for the city of Los Angeles, posing as farmers and ranchers, bought up most of the … Learn More About This Program

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