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EFFECTIVE PRACTICES
FOR ACADEMIC LEADERS
Conflict Management
by Nancy E. Algert and Christine A. Stanley
Volume 2/issn 1554-0464
Issue 9/isbn 978-1-57922-171-3
Executive Summary
C ONTENTS
Executive Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Conflict and Conflict Management . . . . . 2
Conflict Management and Social Justice . 5
Factors Affecting Our Conflict Modes . . 9
Deciding When and How to Engage
in Conflict . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Conflict Management Styles of
Academic Leaders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Improving Conflict Management skills . . 10
Developing Conflict Management
Awareness in the Department Culture . 11
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Annotated Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
A BOUT
THE
September 2007
A UTHORS
Nancy E. Algert received her Ph.D. in educational psychology from Texas A&M University. She is president of the Center for
Change and Conflict Resolution, a licensed
professional counselor, and a TMCA Distinguished Mediator in Bryan, Texas. She
serves as a visiting assistant professor in
the Department of Educational Psychology
at Texas A&M.
Christine A. Stanley received her Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction from Texas A&M
University and is executive associate dean for
faculty affairs and professor of higher education administration in the university’s College of Education and Human Development.
E DITORS
Timothy J. Delmont
Director, Center for Human Resource
Development/Office of Human Resources
University of Minnesota
[email protected]
Robert Secor
Vice Provost Emeritus for
Academic Affairs
Pennsylvania State University
[email protected]
A successful academic leader such as a department chair or dean must be
able to discern and manage conflicts effectively. Conflict is a natural state
of existence in our everyday lives, and the academic setting is no exception.
In an era of greater accountability, pressures to increase student enrollment, declining resources, and the expectation to recruit and retain a more
diverse faculty and student body, the probability of an academic leader engaging in or having to resolve conflict is on the rise. The nature or types of
conflicts in an academic setting vary, from the individuals involved to the
issues that lead to them. Conflict can arise over issues related to faculty
hires, the allocation of department and college resources, performance evaluations, achieving and working with diversity, and relationships among departmental personnel.
We cannot avoid conflict in an academic setting any more than we can
elsewhere in our daily experiences, but the consequences of engaging in it
are not always negative. In fact, conflict, if managed well, can lead to growth
and development. However, many of us are not equipped with the skills to
manage conflict, and we do not know whom to refer to when conflicts arise
on a college or university campus. We assume that academic leaders know
how to manage conflict well, but conflict management is an overlooked area
of faculty and administrator development
This briefing conveys an overview of conflict management, some common causes of conflict, how people respond to conflict, how social justice influences conflict, the modes people use to address conflict, how to identify
our conflict management style, conflicts involving bullying and bias, and
how administrators can enhance their skills in conflict management.
INTRODUCTION
This briefing includes our observations from working and consulting with
faculty and administrators in college and university settings across the
country and noting what constitutes best practices in conflict management.
Our primary audience is administrators, but faculty members who are interested in understanding conflict and how to identify and manage it in an
academic setting should also benefit from our findings.
Administrators such as department chairs and deans face many challenges in academia, including coping with stress. In his briefing, Stress
Management Strategies for Academic Leaders, Gmelch (2006) identified five
factors that impact stress for administrators. These stress factors include
dealing with conflict, including “handling student concerns and conflicts”
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and “handling faculty conflicts and desires and dealing with faculty bullies” (p. 4). However, administrators are not the only ones faced with challenges. Faculty members also encounter conflict and stress related to
working toward tenure and promotion, securing funding for research,
feeling a sense of belonging, and complying with expectations from many
external sources (Gmelch, 2006). If administrators are not always
equipped with the skills necessary to handle conflict, then the ordinary
faculty member is even less equipped to manage stress and conflict.
Therefore, effective academic leaders must seek ways to avoid and resolve
conflicts among faculty and staff.
Our basic premise is that when we learn to effectively manage and resolve conflicts with others, more opportunities for successful teamwork and
increased faculty productivity and enhanced work life are available to us. If
we can learn to manage conflict (as educators, we average five conflicts per
day; Opotow, 1989), then we will be less apt to practice destructive behaviors that will negatively impact faculty relationships and collegiality. Moreover, research shows that unresolved conflict can lead to serious aggressive
behavior. Most people first learn conflict skills and conflict behavior from
what they observe growing up. Some of us observed good conflict management, others observed faulty conflict management, but most of us have reasons to improve our conflict-management skills (Stanley & Algert, 2007).
Developing good conflict-management skills can help faculty and administrators in a number of ways, including enhancing their skills in communication, leadership, management, collaboration, cross-cultural understanding,
problem solving, and facilitation of difficult dialogues. It is our hope that
this briefing will prove useful for administrators and faculty who wish to
better manage conflict in the academic setting.
CONFLICT AND CONFLICT MANAGEMENT
We can often measure our progress by watching the nature of our conflicts. . . . If a
man should tell you that his chief daily conflict within himself is “shall I steal or not
steal?” you would know what to think of his development. . . . In the same way, one
test of your [organization] is not how many conflicts do you have, for conflicts are
the essences of life, but what are your conflicts, and how do you deal with them?
(Follett, 1940, p. 35)
Before we address some of the common causes of conflict, we will define
conflict and provide a concise overview of conflict management. Conflict
may be defined as a struggle or contest between or among individuals with
opposing needs, ideas, beliefs, values, or goals. In an academic setting, particularly in a department, faculty members, faculty members and students,
students, faculty members and staff, faculty members and department
chairs, or department chairs and deans may encounter conflict. Conflict exists even if only one person perceives it (Algert & Watson, 2005). Conflict
in the academic setting is inevitable; however, the results of conflict are not
predetermined. Conflict might escalate and lead to nonproductive behavior, or conflict can be beneficially resolved and lead to positive results. In
our study of conflict styles of department heads (Stanley & Algert, 2007),
one department chair stated,
EFFECTIVE PRACTICES FOR
ACADEMIC LEADERS
ADVISORY BOARD
Trudy W. Banta
Vice Chancellor for Planning and Institutional
Improvement, Indiana University Purdue University
Indianapolis
Carole J. Bland
Professor and Director of Research, Department of
Family Medicine, University of Minnesota
Betsy E. Brown
Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs and
Executive Director of the UNC Leadership Institute at
the University of North Carolina
Theodore H. Curry
Professor and Director, School of Labor and
Industrial Relations, Michigan State University
Gerardo E. de los Santos
President and CEO, League for Innovation in the
Community College
Walter H. Gmelch
Dean, School of Education, University of San Francisco
C. Kristina Gunsalus
Adjunct Professor, College of Law, University of Illinois,
Urbana-Champaign
William B. Harvey
Vice President and Chief Officer for Diversity and
Equity, University of Virginia
Val Miskin
Director of Graduate Programs, College of Business
and Economics, Washington State University
Daniel W. Wheeler
Professor and Head, Ag Leadership, Education, and
Communication, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
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You can’t [only] be a good manager, and
you can’t just be a good leader; you have to
be both. There is a skill set there, and we
ought to be developing that skill set . . .
[especially when] working with conflict.
In a certain way I don’t even like the
phrase conflict management; it’s like you
are managing the conflict. I’m more interested in what the conflict means; what it is
about and how you understand it; how do
you work on it so that you can create a
positive, supportive, caring environment
that is getting great work done? (p. 61)
Therefore, learning to manage conflict is integral to achieving a highperformance department, college, or
university. Although very few faculty
members or administrators seek conflict, more often than not, conflict results because of miscommunication
between faculty members regarding
their needs, ideas, beliefs, goals, or values. The principle that undergirds
conflict management is that not all
conflicts can be resolved, but learning
how to manage conflicts can decrease
the odds of nonproductive escalation.
Conflict management involves acquiring skills related to resolving conflict,
achieving self-awareness about conflict modes, developing conflict communication skills, and establishing a
structure for management of conflict
in your environment. Before attempting to resolve any conflict in which
you are involved, there are two initial
steps you need to take: (1) recognize
your physiological responses when
perceiving conflict, and (2) notice and
identify your thoughts and feelings
(Algert & Watson, 2005).
Responses to Confl
fliict
Feelings that individuals often have
when in conflict are fear, guilt, anger,
and resentment. Their thoughts often
take the form of “they’re doing it
again,” “they’re trying to win,” “they’re
messing with my area,” “I won’t toler-
ate this,” “I don’t like this,” or “they’re
wrong” (Algert & Watson, 2005, p. 2).
Physiologically we respond to conflict
in one of two ways: we want to “get
away from the conflict” or we are ready
to “take on anyone who comes our
way.” Research by Taylor et al. (2000)
indicates that women may have a different response to conflict than most
men. Women have a larger behavior
repertoire than solely “fight or flight,”
and their impulse may be to “tend and
befriend.” Think for a moment about
how you feel when you are in conflict.
Do you want to leave or do you want to
sit and work through the conflict issues? Neither physiological response is
good or bad—it is a matter of personal
response. What is important to learn,
regardless of our initial physiological
response to conflict, is that we should
intentionally choose our response to
conflict. Whether we feel that we want
to fight or flee when a conflict arises,
we can deliberately choose the conflict
mode most appropriate to solving the
problem at hand.
Productive Confl
fliict Management
Productive conflict management requires facilitating an open dialogue between or among individuals in which
differing opinions, values, and beliefs
are shared, heard, and respected, in
order to reach a reasonable level of
understanding or resolution. The college and university environment are
microcosms of our society and the
world. Therefore, the primary constituent groups of a campus community—students, faculty, and staff—
are at times as diverse in their needs
and assumptions as are the various
constituency groups in society. Moreover, there is diversity within and
across each group, all contributing
to opportunities for conflict. Consequently, the more we work to hone our
skill set to engage in productive con-
flict management, the greater our
chances of creating more comfortable
and high-performing work environments for all in our college and university communities.
The goal should be to turn conflict
itself into productive and positive outcomes. For example, we know of a case
in which two members of a department
were in conflict with each other but
were able to work through their conflict using the process of mediation.
Like any other intervention approach
(e.g., facilitating, modeling, negotiating, arbitrating, judging) mediation is
dependent on the nature of the conflict
and the long-term relations and interactions of the disputants with each
other and the intervening party. In this
case, an untenured assistant professor
perceived that his colleague, a senior
full professor, had been spreading rumors about his research to colleagues
and graduates. These two faculty members expressed their concerns to the associate provost at the university, who
offered mediation. During the mediation process, they were both able to
share their perspective, goals, needs,
and feelings, and before long it became
clear that they wanted to work through
the conflict for the sake of their collegial relationship and the climate of the
department as a whole. As a result, they
developed a memorandum of understanding on how they would work together in the future. Several weeks after
the mediation, the untenured assistant
professor volunteered to us that while
he came to the process with apprehension, he realized how much of the conflict was due to miscommunication, and
he learned information about his senior
colleague that he had not known prior
to the mediation that made him appreciate his point of view. This case study
is not atypical. Our work in conflict
management continues to affirm to us
that the primary motivation for adults
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to engage in productive conflict management is catharsis and relief, and that
the end result is not only better relationships but a happier and more productive unit.
The Five Confl
fliict Modes
Typically we respond to conflict by
using one of the following five modes
(Thomas & Kilmann, 1974):
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Competing
Avoiding
Accommodating
Compromising
Collaborating
when vital issues must be handled, or
when one is protecting self-interests.
For example, a department chair might
be faced with a conflict that involves the
allocation of merit raises in the department. The allocation of merit might
take into account input from a variety
of people; however, the final decision
rests with the department chair. Competing skills include the following:
•
•
•
•
•
Each of these modes can be characterized along two scales: assertiveness and
cooperation. None of these modes is
wrong to use, but there are right and
wrong times to use each.
Identifying Your Confl
fliict
Management Style
The key to managing conflict effectively is to choose the conflict management style appropriate for the conflict.
Most of us are prone to using a particular style; however, it is important
that we learn about the range of styles
and their characteristics and limitations. The Thomas-Kilmann Conflict
Mode Instrument is a widely used assessment tool for determining conflict
modes. The assessment takes less than
15 minutes to complete and yields conflict scores for the five conflict modes.
Following are detailed descriptions of
these modes and a discussion of their
strengths and weaknesses.
Competing
The competing conflict mode is high
assertiveness and low cooperation. This
mode is most appropriate to use when
quick action needs to be taken, when
unpopular decisions need to be made,
Arguing or debating
Standing one’s ground
Using rank or influence
Stating one’s position
Asserting one’s opinions or feelings
Avoiding
The avoiding mode is low assertiveness
and low cooperation. Many times individuals will avoid conflicts because they
are afraid of engaging in them or because they do not have confidence in
their conflict-management skills. However, the avoiding mode is most appropriate to use when you have issues of
low importance; when you are in a
position of lower power; or when you
want to reduce tensions or buy some
time, perhaps to gather more data or
learn more about what is causing the
conflict. Avoiding skills include the
following:
• Being able to withdraw
• Being able to leave things unresolved
• Being able to sidestep issues
• Having a sense of timing
Accommodating
The accommodating mode is low assertiveness and high cooperation. This
mode is more appropriate to use when
you wish to show reasonableness, develop performance, create goodwill, or
keep peace. Some people use the accom-
modating mode when the issue or outcome is of low importance to them. This
mode can be problematic when used to
“keep a tally” or to be a martyr. By accommodating you may hope for some
reciprocal accommodation in a future
conflict, but you should not expect this
if you keep a tally of the number of times
you have accommodated someone in order to call in future debts. Accommodating skills include the following:
•
•
•
•
Forgetting your desires
Being able to yield
Possessing selflessness
Obeying orders
Compromising
The compromising mode is moderate
assertiveness and moderate cooperation. Some people define compromise
as “giving up more than you want,”
whereas others see compromise as both
parties winning. The compromising
mode is more appropriate to use when
you are dealing with issues of moderate
importance, when you have equal
power status, or when you have a
strong commitment for resolution. The
compromising mode can also be used as
a temporary solution when there are
time constraints. For example, if you
perceive that there is merit to issues
presented by both parties in conflict,
you might choose to ascertain if there is
room for compromise through negotiation. Compromising skills include the
following:
•
•
•
•
Negotiating
Assessing value
Finding a middle ground
Making concessions
Collaborating
The collaborating mode is high assertiveness and high cooperation. Collaboration has been described as
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“putting an idea on top of an idea on
top of an idea . . . in order to achieve
the best solution to a conflict” (S.
Leura, personal communication, 1998).
It can construct a creative solution to
the conflict that would not have been
generated by a single individual. With
the potential for such a positive outcome, the collaboration mode might
be seen as the best conflict mode to
use in all conflict situations. However,
collaborating takes a great deal of
time and energy and, thus, should be
used only when the conflict warrants
the time and energy. For example, if
your department is establishing ideas
for a code of conduct on how its members can work together effectively,
then using the collaborating mode
could be quite useful. On the other
hand, if several faculty members are in
conflict about where to take a faculty
candidate to lunch, the time and energy necessary to collaboratively resolve the conflict is probably not
warranted. The collaborative mode is
more appropriate to use when the conflict is important to the people who
are constructing an integrative solution, when the issues are too important to compromise, when merging
perspectives, when gaining commitment, when improving relationships,
or when learning. Collaborating skills
include the following:
• Engaging in active listening
• Identifying concerns
• Using nonthreatening confrontation
• Analyzing input
Confl
fliict Case Study
Consider the case study in figure 1. Try
to read it from the perspective of each of
the participants involved and respond
to the guiding questions that follow.
CONFLICT MANAGEMENT
AND SOCIAL JUSTICE
In addition to differences in values, beliefs, and attitudes, conflict can be triggered by ethnic, racial, religious, or
economic differences. We have learned
from conflict theory and mediation
practice that social justice issues are
important to consider when managing
conflict. A basic tenet of social justice
is inclusiveness. We cannot effectively
manage conflict without ensuring that
all parties involved have a voice at the
table and are provided with an opportunity to tell their story from their seat of
identity or multiple identities (i.e.,
gender, age, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, culture, nationality, physical
and/or learning ability, class, and religion). Parties whose voices may not be
heard or heeded in conventional forums
must be given the opportunity to be
heard in the conflict resolution process.
More important, the views, needs, and
interests of the participants in a dispute
must be given full consideration, and
the “power” differences among the participants must be equalized in reaching
a fair resolution of the conflict. For
example, we have worked with an administrative office at a major research
university that provides mediation
services. Faculty members are trained
to be mediators and are called on to
mediate faculty conflicts when they
arise. The mediators receive 40 hours of
extensive training (a requirement of the
State Bar where the university is located), and a large part of that training
is learning about the relationship between conflict and social justice. Issues
such as racial identity development, the
cycle of socialization, the dynamics of
oppression, and responding to triggers
that can lead to conflict are important
topics of discussion during the training.
The mediation service is voluntary
and available to all faculty members.
One of the attributes of this service is
that the associate provost works to assign co-mediators to cases to ensure
that the power relations are reasonably equal, especially when it is perceived that the nature of the conflict
might involve a social justice issue
such as racism. For example, if there is
a perceived racial conflict, the office
works to find a biracial team of co-mediators. Mediators are never from the
parties’ department and college, and
when more than one mediator is involved representing each of the parties, every effort is made to ensure that
co-mediators are equally matched regarding academic rank.
Confl
fliicts Involving Diversity
Most of our colleges and universities
are striving to model the diversity
that is representative of our society
and/or state as a whole. Regarding
the goals and achievements of a diverse campus, Lee Bollinger (2007),
president of Columbia University,
states,
The experience of arriving on a campus
to live and study with classmates from a
diverse range of backgrounds is essential
to students’ training for this new world,
nurturing in them an instinct to reach
out instead of clinging to the comforts
of what seems natural or familiar. We
know that connecting with people very—
or even slightly—different from ourselves
stimulates the imagination; and when we
learn to see the world through a multiplicity of eyes, we only make ourselves more
nimble in mastering—and integrating—
the diverse fields of knowledge awaiting
us. (p. B20)
However, the learning experience
that Bollinger rightly applauds when
people with diverse backgrounds interact can also lead to misunderstanding
and conflict. As a result, universities
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Figure 1
Page 6
Conflict Case Study
You are in your first year as chair of a department with 14 full-time faculty members. You have already heard some
grumbling about three faculty members who spend much time consulting and rarely seem to be on campus. You talk
with one of them, Dr. Bucks, to find out about his consulting activities. He is somewhat evasive about the extent of
his consulting activities but emphatically stresses the importance to the department of professional activities outside
the university.
Dr. Brightlight has a national reputation. Students in her courses complain that guest speakers and videos are often used to conduct the class while she is off consulting. On the other hand, the department needs her, probably more
than she needs it. Her luminary reputation is helpful to the department’s status and research activities.
Dr. Dolittle is a full professor who has been with the university for 23 years. He recently invested in a business and
is spending increasing amounts of time analyzing and supervising its operations. He is frequently unavailable to students. You drop by during his office hours fruitlessly three times. When you finally get an opportunity to talk with him
about his off-campus activities, he responds that the new business is really a form of consulting, that it is improving
his teaching, and that he is doing nothing different from what other faculty members are doing.
Your executive committee has suggested that absent faculty members are derailing the department’s programmatic progress. Classes are not being taught or are not of the quality that they should be. These faculty members’ research efforts seem to support their consultation work rather than departmental priorities. Their service to the
department is nonexistent. Their attitude has had a negative impact on both faculty morale and recruitment efforts,
given current students’ comments to prospective students. You understand the executive committee’s concerns, but
you are also aware of what the impact will be on the department’s reputation if all three of these faculty members explore leaving the department because of any action that you take.
Here are some guiding questions to ask as you work through how to resolve this conflict:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
What is the conflict?
Who are the disputants?
What are the issues?
Which of the conflict modes would you use and why?
What are the implications of using other conflict modes?
What is the typical response to this type of conflict?
What are the short-term consequences of not addressing the conflict?
What are the long-term consequences of not addressing the conflict?
and academic leaders find themselves
having to deal with racial incidents or
hate crimes on their campuses. Individuals on campus are also often uncertain
as to how to deal with these incidents.
Still too often, we will serve on a committee or attend a meeting only to
hear someone make a disparaging
comment that is perceived as sexist,
racist, homophobic, anti-Semitic, or
Islam-phobic, and it is met by silence.
We often observe and critique the
conflict management skills of individuals who work to resolve these difficult conflicts.
Learning how to discern and manage racial conflicts on a college or university campus is an intellectually,
emotionally, and politically challenging exercise (Bell, Love, & Roberts,
2007). For those of us who have engaged in discussions regarding racial
conflict, we relive comments such as,
“Is this really happening?” “Why is
this a race issue?” “You people are so
sensitive,” and “They just don’t get
it!” Comments like these are more
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likely when we do not provide our faculty, staff, administrators, and students opportunities to dialogue about
potentially divisive racial issues in safe
and supportive spaces. In their work
on racism and white privilege curriculum design, Bell et al. (2007) make
some comments that apply equally
well to campus dialogues involving issues of race:
Participants bring to a course on racism a
wide range of feelings and experiences,
and often misinformation, confusion, and
bias. White participants may sincerely
want to learn about racism and figure out
how to play a role in making their communities, schools, and workplaces welcoming
places for all, but fail to see the role white
skin privilege and accumulated white advantage play in perpetuating racial inequality. Participants of color may want to
figure out how to break through the silence
about racism as a historic and contemporary force that differentially shapes their
lives, but fear having their concerns dismissed, being viewed as too sensitive or as
troublemakers, or being misunderstood by
white peers and teachers. Participants
from all racial groups may be reluctant to
explore racism, especially in mixed
groups, given the complex and often
painful web of emotions that discussions
about racism inevitably raise. (p. 123)
Racial conflicts do not go away on
their own; they usually escalate if they
are not managed well. All faculty
members and college administrators
can become better models of diversity
by learning how to facilitate difficult
dialogues when racial conflicts occur.
Following are some general guidelines to follow when facilitating such
dialogues.
Guideline 1: Be Aware of
Your Biases
We all have prejudices. Prejudices may
involve taking a particular point of
view or perspective or reinforcing
stereotypes about a group of people before facts are gathered and weighed.
We observe these behaviors before and
during conflicts. However, biases become problematic when we facilitate
discussion about racial conflicts from
a subjective rather than an objective
point of view. Be open to perspective
taking and learning and unlearning
information.
Guideline 2: Be Aware of
Your Mental Model
Mental models are explanations in our
mind of how something works in the
real world. They drive our choices, actions, and behaviors. Be cognizant of
the fact that not everyone shares the
same mental model. We all have different life experiences, values, and beliefs
that shape who we are as human beings.
Individuals who historically have been
marginalized or have been made to feel
marginalized in our society might
bring a different mental model to a
given situation. Racial conflicts are opportunities to uncover mental models
so that there is growth and learning.
Guideline 3: Be Aware of
Your Spheres of Infl
flu
uence
We can influence meaningful conflict
dialogues by examining and understanding the mindset and assumptions
of the various spheres that might collide to create areas of conflict. The first
such sphere is that of self (including our
own attitudes, beliefs, values, knowledge, and behavior in terms of socialization experiences, and our interactions
with others). The second sphere is that
of the campus itself. Does it have high
expectations for behavior for all students and faculty? Does it provide a
welcoming environment and support
students and faculty when obstacles occur? Other spheres whose assumptions
and procedures should be examined
and understood, as they may influence behavior and attitudes resulting
in conflicts, include those of the department, college, or school (including
faculty governance and climate); community (including interactions between the campus or individual faculty
members with schools, religious organizations, business and industry,
and health-care agencies); and professional organizations and the assumptions and attitudes that might
inform faculty scholarship and work
at the local, national, and international
levels.
Guideline 4: Work to Listen
Respectfully and Not to Judge
One of the key ingredients to facilitating discussion about racial conflict or
any difficult dialogue is learning how
to listen hard. Many of us are skilled
speakers and far less proficient listeners. Additionally, the ability to suspend
judgment is equally difficult for some
of us. To achieve clear communication
and to clarify misinformation, it is always helpful to restate and summarize
what you think you heard during a
conversation.
Guideline 5: Acknowledge Emotions
Difficult dialogues are difficult because human beings come to the discussion table laden with a variety of
emotions—fear, disappointment, frustration, anger, confidence, courage,
hate, pain, pride, vulnerability, worry,
etc. These emotions often come from
direct experiences with overt and
covert discrimination. Emotions that
ensue as a result of these experiences
are natural and sustained. Avoiding dialogues under the guise of waiting until
individuals appear to be “calmer” is
never the best solution.
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Guideline 6: Establish Ground
Rules for Discussion
Ground rules are helpful in setting
clear boundaries for difficult dialogues
so that everyone feels reasonably safe to
participate and contribute in a respectful manner. We have found that when
participants in a dialogue work together to establish ground rules, there
is more ownership in working to ensure
that the conversation remains productive. Examples of useful ground rules
are as follows:
• Commit to active listening.
• Agree to using “I” statements to
avoid generalizations.
• Do not judge others or question
their motives.
• Do not interrupt when someone
is telling his or her story.
• Agree to confidentiality.
Guideline 7: Establish Clear Plans
for Action and Accountability
One of the questions often posed to academic leaders before and during the
facilitation of discussion regarding
racial conflicts is, “What is going to be
done as a result of this conversation?”
Effective facilitation of such discussion
includes the development of clear
plans of action that are realistic, specific, and goal oriented. In addition, academic leaders who are often in the
best position to ensure that plans of action are developed, implemented, and
assessed should be held accountable for
monitoring the outcomes.
Confl
fliicts Involving Bullying
There is a growing body of literature
(Gravois, 2006; Jefferson, 2007; Levine,
2006; Namie & Namie, 2000; Powers,
2007; Twale & De Luca, in press) on
bullying in academia. A majority of the
authors of this literature agree that bul-
lying behaviors seem to take hold when
there is an imbalance of power. In fact,
as Houghton (2003) states, “Bullying
thrives in situations where the perpetrators are both powerful and frightening, and those around them [are] too
scared to challenge” (p. s126). In addition, these behaviors are directed at
members of targeted groups in academia such as women; faculty of color;
gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender faculty; Muslim faculty; and Jewish faculty. Bullying can impact an
individual in three ways: physiologically (illness), psychologically (anxiety, depression, fear), and behaviorally
(obsession, aggression, withdrawal)
(Amicus, 2005).
Academic bullies are often “older,
tenured professors who are unwilling to
take direction and create what many describe as a ‘toxic environment’ in the department” (Powers, 2007, p. 1). While
there are special opportunities for bullying in the academic setting, where more
powerful professors can take advantage
of less powerful ones and graduate students may become victims, some kinds
of bullying can take place in any workplace. The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (2005) offers
the following examples of workforce
bullying:
• Spreading malicious rumors, gossip, or innuendo that is not true
• Excluding or isolating someone
socially
• Intimidating a person
• Undermining or deliberately impeding a person’s work
• Physically abusing or threatening
abuse
• Removing areas of responsibilities
without cause
• Constantly changing work guidelines
• Establishing impossible deadlines
that will set the individual up to fail
• Withholding necessary information or purposefully giving the
wrong information
• Making jokes that are “obviously
offensive” by spoken word or
e-mail
• Intruding on a person’s privacy
by pestering, spying, or stalking
• Assigning unreasonable duties or
workload which are unfavorable to
one person (in a way that creates
unnecessary pressure)
• Underwork—creating a feeling of
uselessness
• Yelling or using profanity
• Criticizing a person persistently or
constantly
• Belittling a person’s opinions
• Unwarranted (or undeserved) punishment
• Blocking applications for training,
leave or promotion
• Tampering with a person’s personal belongings or work equipment
Academic leaders must challenge
and support victims of bullying behavior. These behaviors are on the rise
and occurring at increasing levels of
sophistication in the academy. Recognizing and responding appropriately
to bullying behaviors is inherent to
effective conflict management. Academic bullying is a clear example of
behaviors that create conflicts, which
have escalated and are not effectively
addressed. Denice Denton, late chancellor of the University of California,
Santa Cruz, had this to say about
confronting bullying behavior, conflict, and bias in her closing address
at the National Academy’s Committee on Maximizing the Potential of
Women in Academic Science and
Engineering:
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I’m going to offer you a set of recommendations that will cost you nothing but courage.
They can also be used more broadly well
beyond the hallowed halls, and thus impact
the “cross-institutional interlock,” or as I
would say as an electrical engineer, “the
system.” First of all, we should have zero
tolerance for bullying behavior. It should
not be acceptable in the workplace or anywhere else. If you are an academic leader,
you should confront faculty and others who
are abusive to students, staff and other faculty, particularly senior faculty. Tenure is
not a license to kill. There are limits to acceptable behavior in the academy. How
many of you have seen on an academic
campus, senior people with tenure over and
over abuse people who are lower than them
in the power structure, and nobody ever
does anything? Why does that happen?
Why do we let that happen? It’s unacceptable. If you have issues with dealing with
conflict and you are an academic leader,
take a class. Get help. Seek support. People
don’t want to confront each other. But we
have to. It’s our job. It’s in the position description. We can learn from conflict. We
do learn from conflict. Confront people’s
biases. When biases come out if you’re an
academic leader or anything else, confront people’s bias. And here is another
one, and this is not a popular one, but I’m
just throwing it in there. Support your local senior feminist colleagues, male and
female. It’s lonely at the top.(Rosser, 2006,
p. 23)
•
•
•
•
•
•
FACTORS AFFECTING OUR
CONFLICT MODES
A variety of factors, such as those described here, can affect how we respond
to conflict:
• Gender: Some of us were socialized
to use particular conflict modes
because of our gender. For example, some males were taught to
“always stand up to someone, and,
if you have to fight, then fight.” A
person socialized this way would
•
•
be more likely to use assertive
conflict modes versus cooperative
modes.
Self-concept: How we think and feel
about ourselves affects how we approach conflict. Do we think our
thoughts, feelings, and opinions
are worth being heard by the person with whom we are in conflict?
Expectations: Do we believe the
other person wants to resolve the
conflict?
Situation: Where is the conflict
occurring? Do we know the person with whom we are in conflict?
Is the conflict personal or professional?
Position (Power): What is our power
status (i.e., equal to, more than, or
less than) in relation to the person
with whom we are in conflict?
Practice: Practice involves being
able to use all five conflict modes
effectively, being able to determine
what conflict mode would be most
effective to resolve the conflict,
and having the ability to change
modes as necessary while engaged
in conflict.
Knowledge: Through knowledge
about conflict and through practice we develop a “conflict management understanding” and can,
with ease and limited energy, determine what conflict mode to use
with the particular person with
whom we are in conflict.
Communication skills: The essence
of conflict resolution and conflict
management is the ability to communicate effectively. People who
use effective communication will
resolve their conflicts with greater
ease and success.
Life experiences: As mentioned earlier, we often practice the conflict
modes we observed growing up,
unless we have made a conscious
choice as adults to change or adapt
our conflict styles. Some of us had
great role models who taught us to
manage our conflicts, and others
had poor role models. Our life experiences, both personal and professional, have taught us to frame
conflict as either something positive that can be worked through or
something negative to be avoided
and ignored at all costs.
Discerning how we manage conflict
and why we manage it the way we do
and thinking about the value of engaging in conflict with others are important. With better understanding we
can make informed choices about how
and when we engage in conflict. The
next section provides points to consider when determining whether to
enter into a conflict situation.
DECIDING WHEN AND HOW
TO ENGAGE IN CONFLICT
Sometimes the question is not one of
how to resolve a conflict but one of
whether to engage in a conflict. The
following six questions are helpful
when deciding whether or not to engage in conflict and can be used by academic leaders in counseling others
about engaging in conflict situations:
1. How invested in the relationship are
you? The importance of the working/
personal relationship often dictates
whether you will engage in a conflict.
If you value the person and/or the relationship, going through the process
of conflict resolution is important.
2. How important is the issue to you?
Even if the relationship is not of
great value to you, you often must
engage in conflict if the issue is important to you. For example, if the
issue is a belief, value, or regula-
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tion that you believe in or are hired
to enforce, then engaging in the
conflict is necessary. If the relationship and the issue are both important to you, there is an even
more compelling reason to engage
in the conflict.
3. Do you have the energy for the conflict? Many of us say, “There is not
enough time to do all that I want to
do in a day.” Often the issue is not
how much time is available but how
much energy we have for what we
need to do. Even in a track meet,
runners are given recovery time before they have to run another race.
Energy, not time, is being managed
in these situations.
4. Are you aware of the potential consequences? Many times people will engage in conflict and then be shocked
by the outcome or consequences of
doing so. Thoughtful reflection
about the potential consequences,
both positive and negative, is wise
when determining whether or not
to engage in a conflict. For example, there may be a risk to your
safety, a risk of job loss, or an
opportunity for a better working
relationship.
5. Are you ready for the consequences?
After analyzing potential consequences of engaging in conflict,
you need to determine whether
you are prepared for those consequences. For example, a staff member anticipated a job loss if she
continued to engage in the conflict
she was having with her boss. After careful consideration, the staff
member concluded that she believed strongly enough about the
issue that she should continue to
engage in the conflict. Her annual
contract was not renewed for the
upcoming year. However, because
she had thought through the con-
sequences of engaging in the conflict, she was prepared to be without a job for a while and was able
to plan financially and emotionally
for this outcome.
6. What are the consequences if you do not
engage in the conflict? To avoid losing a sense of self, there are times
when you must engage in conflict.
If you are going to sacrifice one of
your core beliefs or values by avoiding a conflict, you need to ask
whether the loss of self-respect is
worth the price of avoidance.
CONFLICT MANAGEMENT STYLES
OF ACADEMIC LEADERS
Few studies focus on the conflict management styles of academic leaders
such as deans and department chairs
(Gmelch, 1991; Hickson & McCroskey,
1991) and virtually none focus on faculty. This is clearly an area that requires more research. In 2004, we
conducted a qualitative research study
of 20 department heads who represented 10 academic colleges at a major
public research university. Eleven of
the department heads self-reported
that they used the compromising mode
most to manage conflict in their departments (Stanley & Algert, 2007).
The common conflicts that department
heads described were “data conflicts
(e.g., limited resources), inadequate
personnel, [and] space issues” (Stanley
& Algert, 2007, p. 58). It should also be
pointed out that 10 of the 20 department heads indicated a need for more
professional development opportunities for department heads and deans in
the area of conflict management and
specifically addressing how the university culture impacts the management of conflict. Here are two
representative comments from the department heads:
Provide professional development on a
regular basis. Conflict management is a
daily activity. When you go from a faculty
member to a department head, even though
you may have done things with the organization [department], it is not the same
because now the scale of conflict is different
and escalates. (Stanley & Algert, 2007,
p. 61)
I never had any training in conflict
management. I have been at this university
for a long time . . . , but every day is a new
event; and so you wrestle with it to make
sure that you do all the things that I am
talking about. That you are fair, that you
are listening, that you make sure that to the
extent you can, that parties walk away
with a win-win situation. I would think
that there would be a lot of value in giving
somebody an opportunity to have to go
through some training where conflict management issues would be sorted out, you
know, maybe in terms of some scenario development, situations that you would find
yourself in so that it’s a little less sort of
learning on the job while you are doing it.
(Stanley & Algert, 2007, p. 58)
When academic leaders, such as department chairs and deans, work to
learn more about their conflict management styles, there is a high probability of decreased resource expenditure,
improved communication, and increased faculty and staff productivity.
Furthermore, departmental and college communities will have a clear
understanding of the university conflict culture.
IMPROVING CONFLICT
MANAGEMENT SKILLS
Understanding the five different modes
of conflict management, the factors affecting these modes, and the processes
for selecting one or more approaches to
conflict involves both self-awareness
and an awareness of the others involved in the conflict. In terms of selfawareness, it is important to ask the
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following questions when deciding how
to approach a conflict situation:
1. Am I in conflict?
2. With whom am I in conflict?
3. Why am I motivated to engage in
the conflict?
4. What conflict mode am I going to
use to manage this conflict?
Because conflict involves at least two
people, awareness of the other party
or parties involved should inform the
choice of approach to a conflict situation.
It is with that awareness that the following questions should also be asked:
1. What is the nature of the conflict;
that is, what is the conflict about?
2. What might motivate the other
person(s) involved to resolve the
conflict?
3. What conflict modes is the other
person using?
4. How might I intervene to resolve/
manage the conflict?
Learning more about conflict allows greater intentionality in selecting
a conflict response. Most people have
set reactions to conflicts. By learning
more about the principles of conflict
and about conflict modes and reflecting on the previous questions, we can
be more intentional in deciding on a
conflict response.
Guidelines for Effective
Confl
fliict Management
Academic leaders can either contribute
to the conflict or create an environment
that fosters a positive conflict culture.
Therefore, they have the capacity to be
effective (or ineffective) conduits of conflict management. Following are five
general guidelines that academic leaders should follow in order to practice effective conflict management and build a
positive conflict culture:
Guideline 1: Be Aware of Your
Confl
fliict Management Style
We all have a particular style of managing conflict. Be cognizant of your style
and know its strengths and limitations.
Let the nature of the conflict determine
the appropriate action to take, including
which conflict mode to use. Determine
the importance of the issues involved,
the nature of the relationship between
and among the parties, and the power
differentials involved in the conflict.
Guideline 2: Be Aware of How You
fliict
Engage in and Address Confl
There are many strategies to use in resolving and managing conflict. How
you manage conflict will set the tone
for the department’s or organization’s
conflict culture. Ignoring a conflict
once it has come to your attention is
not always the best strategy. Don’t get
consumed by conflict. Be open to different perspectives. Listen actively.
Value the diversity of all voices that
you are hearing, including those from
historically marginalized and underrepresented groups.
Guideline 3: Know Your
Department’s Confl
fliict Culture
Every organization and/or department
has a conflict culture. The culture of an
organization is a pattern of shared basic
assumptions that the group has learned
as it has solved problems over time.
These shared assumptions are passed
on to new members as the correct way
to perceive, think, and feel in relation to
problems and conflicts that arise. The
culture is expressed in terms of the
organization’s artifacts (visible structures and processes), espoused values
(strategies, goals, philosophies), and
basic underlying assumptions (unconscious beliefs, perceptions, thoughts,
and feelings). Anyone joining an academic unit on a college or university
campus should work at learning and
understanding its underlying conflict
culture.
Guideline 4: Discuss Your
Department’s Confl
fliict Culture
Academic departments very rarely engage in dialogue about the artifacts,
espoused values, and basic underlying
assumptions that undergird the mission and vision of the department. It is
assumed that new members know
what is expected of them. This is often
a source of frustration for faculty, especially new members to the departmental community, and can lead to
aggression and affect faculty recruitment and retention.
Guideline 5: Establish Codes of
Conduct for Managing Confl
fliict
Many departments and working groups
and teams have found it useful to develop codes of conduct for managing
conflict. Codes of conduct are rules that
help to outline appropriate practices
and responsibilities within an organization. They are most useful and meaningful when they are created with input
from everyone who works in a unit and
shared so that there is ownership and
accountability. See figure 2 for an example of a code of conduct.
DEVELOPING CONFLICT
MANAGEMENT AWARENESS IN
THE DEPARTMENT CULTURE
Not only do academic leaders need to
develop conflict management skills,
but they need to find ways of developing conflict management awareness and
skills within the unit so that everybody
appreciates the need and the process for
resolving conflicts. Figure 3 provides
an exercise for reflection and figure 4 a
team activity that can be used to build
such awareness and skills.
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Figure 2
Page 12
Example Code of Conduct
Code of Cooperation for the Management Team
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
Remember that every member is responsible for the team’s progress and success.
Listen to and show respect for the contributions of other members.
Criticize ideas, not persons.
Do not allow hidden agendas.
Do not allow collusion.
Strive for consensus.
Resolve conflicts constructively.
Pay attention; avoid disruptive behavior.
Avoid disruptive side conversations.
Allow only one person to speak at a time.
Ensure that everyone participates and that no one dominates.
Be succinct; avoid long anecdotes and examples.
Understand that pulling rank is not allowed.
Attend to your personal comfort needs at any time but minimize team disruption.
Make your best effort to attend each team meeting.
Be comfortable (attire).
Respond in a timely fashion (e-mail).
• Do not send frivolous e-mail.
• Copy to all team members on e-mail related to project business.
Have the team leader ensure that required materials are present at meetings.
Voice your discomfort.
Have on-campus teams operate in a team-based, continuous improvement mode.
Defend those who are absent.
Have fun!
CONCLUSION
The goal of this briefing is to provide
administrators and faculty members
with conflict management information
that can be beneficial both personally
and professionally. Some people think
that conflict is a topic that should not
be discussed and that we should not
engage in conflict. Productively engaging in conflict is always valuable.
Most individuals are willing and interested in resolving their conflicts; they
just need the appropriate skill set and
opportunities to practice it. Without a
conflict skill set, individuals wish to
avoid conflict, hoping it will go away,
or not wanting to make a “big deal out
of nothing.” There are times when
avoiding conflict is the appropriate
strategy, but avoidance is usually not
the best strategy, and the implications
of not acting to resolve the conflict
should always be considered. Research and personal experiences show
us that there are always consequences
that accompany the decision to engage or not engage in conflict.
Through conflict self-awareness we
can more effectively manage our conflicts and, therefore, our professional
and personal relationships. Furthermore, by discussing issues related to
conflict management, academic units
can establish an expected protocol to
be followed by all when in conflict. All
colleges, universities, and academic
units have a conflict culture (the way
that everyone responds or does not
respond to conflict). However, most
members of the campus community
never discuss what the conflict culture is, leading some to make assumptions that can be counterproductive
to the unit.
Practicing one’s conflict management skills leads to more successful engagement in conflict with outcomes of
greater understanding, better communication, and increased productivity for
both the individual and the unit. When
we manage our conflicts more effectively, we spend more of our energy on
the issues and relationships that matter
most to us.
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Figure 3
Page 13
Individual Reflection Exercise on Conflict Management
Smith (2000) suggests that the following exercise might provide individuals with valuable information about their
perspectives on conflict. This exercise could be used in a retreat setting or as a professional development activity for
any academic leader.
Exercise: Write the word conflict in the center of a blank piece of paper and draw a circle around it. Quickly jot
down all the words and phrases you associate with the word conflict around the circle. Review your list of associations and categorize them as positive, negative, or neutral. Count the total number of positive, negative, and neutral associations, and calculate the percentages that are positive, negative, and neutral. Were more than 90 percent
of your associations positive? Were more than 90 percent negative? What do your associations with the word
conflict indicate about your views on conflict and your approach to conflict?
Learning About Your Conflict Modes
Review the brief descriptions of the five conflict modes (avoiding, accommodating, competing, compromising, and
collaborating) and choose your primary conflict mode. The Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument (TKI) (1974),
based on the Blake and Mouton (1964) conflict model, is an instrument that provides information about your conflict
modes. Taking the TKI assessment (www.kilmann.com) will provide information about your primary conflict modes.
Using this information and engaging in additional individual reflection will help you to determine your level of comfort with your conflict resolution styles and whether you wish to consider making changes in them.
Creating an Individual Conflict Management Plan
A conflict management plan is a thought and behavior process that you can follow when in conflict. The literature
shows that if we can identify that we are in conflict and can then implement a conflict management plan, the opportunity for resolving the conflict increases significantly. We need to recognize our physiological responses when in
conflict and to identify the thoughts and feelings that trigger us to realize that we are experiencing a conflict. There
are three steps to making a conflict plan. First, write down what physiological responses you have when you know
you are in conflict (e.g., “My palms sweat,” “My heart races”). Second, write down what thoughts you typically have
when in a conflict (e.g., “I want to hurt him,” “I want to just get away from her”). Third, list four to eight steps that
you can follow to help you manage your thoughts and emotions in a productive way to manage/solve your conflict
(e.g., “I will take a deep breath,” “I will think about how I want to respond”).
To learn more about creating a conflict management plan, see Algert and Watson (2005).
Listening
Improving listening skills is one approach to improving conflict management skills. Raudsepp (2002) states, “Studies
show, however, that only about 10% of us listen properly.” Read Raudsepp’s article “Hone Listening Skills to Boost
Your Career,” take the listening quiz, and develop an action plan for improving your listening skills.
Suggestions for Further Activities
Lambert and Myers’s (1999) book 50 Activities for Conflict Resolution contains 25 activities for self-development on
conflict. These activities include “The Role of Values in Conflict Resolution,” “Resolving Conflict Through Planning,”
“Evaluating Your Conflict Resolution Skills,” and “Uncovering the Hidden Agenda.”
This reflection exercise is adapted and used with permission from Jeff Froyd, Foundation Engineering Coalition, Texas A&M University.
For more information, visit http://foundationcoalition.org/publications/brochures/conflict.pdf.
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Figure 4
Page 14
Team-Building Exercise for an Academic Unit
The department chair can integrate the five different modes of conflict management, factors affecting modes of conflict management, and processes for selecting one or more approaches to conflict into the department culture by increasing the awareness of faculty and staff about the way they view and approach conflict. There are two basic types
of team-building activities that could be used for this purpose:
1. Individual team members learn more about their perspectives and approaches to conflict through either individual reflection or appropriate instruments. They then share what they have learned with their team members.
2. The team engages in an activity that simulates a low level of conflict. Then the team reflects about its actions, learns from its experiences, and develops ways to address conflict more constructively in the future.
Following are suggestions for possible team activities.
Collaborating with Different Individual Conflict Modes
Ask everyone in the department to complete the exercise in figure 3 in order to identify his or her primary mode of
conflict management. Then ask each individual team member to share his or her own primary mode of conflict management and to provide examples that illustrate that mode. Next, ask the team to identify potential strengths for the
combination of different styles and potential problems that might arise with the combination of conflict management
modes. Finally, ask the team to develop strategies to minimize potential problems and build on the possible strengths
that would be involved in attempting to combine conflict management modes.
Developing a Positive Team Perspective About Conflict
Start with the individual reflection exercise in figure 3 in which each member writes the word conflict and associates different words or phrases with it. Then, ask each member to share the insights that he or she learned through
the individual reflection. Next, ask the team to combine all of the positive associations with conflict and construct
positive ways in which the team might view conflict. Finally, ask the team to combine all of the negative associations
with conflict and devise ways in which these associations might be eliminated or minimized.
Developing a Consensus Decision
In his book Project Management and Teamwork, Smith (2000) asks teams to rank 15 causes of death in the United
States in terms of their frequency of occurrence. Similar exercises on ranking items are available at http://www
.eas.asu.edu/~asufc/teaminginfo/teams.html or in Joining Together: Group Theory and Group Skills by Johnson and
Johnson (2000) (Exercise 8.3, Stranded in the Desert; Exercise 8.4, Who Should Get the Penicillin? Exercise 8.5, Fallout Shelter). These types of exercises can lead to low-level conflict as team members disagree about the rankings and
stimulate team development in several ways. After completing the exercise, the team members should debrief their
performance and address several questions: What were the positive aspects in the way that we handled conflict? How
did our various modes of conflict management help our performance? How did our various modes of conflict management hinder our performance? How might we improve the ways in which we managed conflict within our team?
Intrateam Communication
Improving intrateam communication can reduce the likelihood of conflict and increase the chances for faster, more
effective management of conflict when it occurs.
Suggestions for Further Activities
Lambert and Myers’s (1999) book 50 Activities for Conflict Resolution contains 25 activities for team development
on conflict. Several of the activities are role-play, conflict scenarios that provide opportunities for teams to determine
the “best” intervention style for the conflict at hand.
This reflection exercise is adapted and used with permission from Jeff Froyd, Foundation Engineering Coalition, Texas A&M University. For more information, visit http://foundationcoalition.org/publications/brochures/conflict.pdf.
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ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Algert, N. E., & Watson, K. (2005). Conflict management: introductions for individuals and organizations. Bryan, TX: Center
for Change and Conflict Resolution.
This manual is an excellent and practical guide for individuals and organizations
who wish to learn more about how to develop a conflict management plan, identify
one’s conflict styles, understand the nature
of conflict, and establish goals for appropriate intervention.
Gmelch, W. H. (2006). Stress management
strategies for academic leaders. Effective
Practices for Academic Leaders, 1(1).
This briefing offers several useful strategies for department chairs and other academic administrators on how to manage
stress effectively.
Lambert, J., & Myers, S. (1999). 50 Activities for conflict resolution. Amherst, MA: HR
Development Press.
This book offers a wide collection of activities for resolving conflict. Part I focuses
on 25 group workshop activities, while Part
II focuses on 25 individualized exercises
and assessments. These activities, exercises,
and assessments are easily applicable to the
academic setting.
Stanley, C. A., & Algert, N. E. (2007). An
exploratory study of the conflict management styles of department heads in a research university setting. Innovative Higher
Education, 32(1), 49–66.
This article describes the conflict management styles of 20 department heads
from a public research university. It also
discusses the professional development
needs of department heads and offers recommendations for further research.
Thomas, K. W., & Kilmann, R. H. (1974).
The Thomas-Kilmann conflict mode instrument.
Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychology.
This conflict assessment instrument
provides a detailed self-assessment inventory of one’s preferred conflict style and
offers a comprehensive overview of each
of the conflict modes, including their
strengths and limitations.
15
Effective Practices for Academic Leaders
Copyright © 2007, Stylus Publishing, LLC
Volume 2, No. 9, September 2007
16743-EPNL2.9
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3:31 PM
Page 16
S TATEMENT
OF
P URPOSE
2007 I SSUES
Effective Practices for Academic Leaders is a monthly publication that assists leaders to better manage their work agendas and make key decisions by offering critical advice and
information in a concise format for ready application in administrative life.
Each monthly 16-page briefing sets out the context and fundamental issues on a key topic; summarizes key scholarly research findings to ground administrative practice; offers insights
and tips on effective practices drawn from real world experiences; and presents an annotated bibliography. Each issue is
written by an acknowledged authority.
These briefings cover a wide array of leadership, management, and governance practices associated with the roles and
responsibilities of academic administration, with special emphasis on topics germane to academic departments. They also address the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors needed for
exemplary administrative performance.
An online subscription provides unlimited access to all
users of an institutional network.
V OLUME 2
Timothy J. Delmont: Supervising Staff for Success
Jean Waltman and Beth Sullivan: Creating a Supportive
Work-Life Environment for Faculty and Staff
Damon A. Williams and Charmaine Clowney: Planning
for Diversity in Higher Education—A Strategic Primer
for Leaders
Diane Enerson: Promoting a Climate for Teaching
and Learning
Robert Secor: Strategies for the Academic Search
Natalie Krawitz: Department Budgeting
John H. Schuh: Enriching the Student Environment
Jenny Mandelbaum: Managing the Transition
Between Chairs
Nancy E. Algert and Christine Stanley: Conflict
Management
Walter H. Gmelch and Val Miskin: Leading
Through Teams
Gary E. Miller: Outreach: New Opportunities for
Academic Departments
Daniel W. Wheeler: Servant Leadership
CALL FOR PAPERS
AND FEEDBACK
Academic leaders and scholars
interested in preparing an issue
for Effective Practices should
contact the editors with their
proposals. We also welcome
your feedback, suggestions for
future topics, and names of
authors you might recommend.
Please e-mail Robert Secor
([email protected]) or Timothy J.
Delmont ([email protected]).
22883 Quicksilver Drive
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Volume 2, No. 9, September 2007
Copyright © 2007, Stylus Publishing, LLC
Effective Practices for Academic Leaders