Conflict management is an overlooked area in leadership development. Mediation as an intervention method to use in conflict management can be productive for building leadership capacity and organizational development in higher education. Adults average five conflicts per day and people in titled leadership spend over two-thirds of their time engaged in managing conflict. This book offers conflict management strategies, models, and processes to support college and university personnel in recognizing and managing conflicts and how to build skill sets that can enhance effective communication and address issues strategically.

This book addresses an important topic - Conflict, mediation and dialogue. Conflicts are a part of life. Although many people assume conflicts are negative and, therefore, should be avoided, conflict is truly neutral. The engagement in conflict is what can be constructive or destructive. There are many positive outcomes experienced when a conflict is well managed, hence the critical role of this book. For instance, most change is driven by some level of conflict. You must learn, grow and develop effective conflict management skills as a way to manage change. Thus, the conflicts we deal with in our personal lives and in the workplace are essential to our development and our organizations' healthy development. However, if managed poorly, some conflicts can escalate to the point that they can destroy individuals or organizations. As illustrated in this book, the key to managing conflicts is to understand conflicts; expect conflicts, and manage conflicts before they escalate into destructive or costly loss of personnel, diminished climate or lead to lawsuits. The book provides one of the growing and recognized methods of dealing with conflicts - mediation and dialogue. The contents of this book reflect areas of importance addressed in mediation training: alternative dispute resolution practices, conflict management intervention options, models of thinking about conflict, the mediation format, and the skill set needed by a strong conflict management and mediator. Readers are challenged to reflect upon their biases and beliefs that may negatively impact the mediation process.

This book is designed to support individuals, particularly in higher education settings, gain knowledge and skills related to critical dialogues that support effective conflict management. Higher education institutions and its stakeholders such as faculty, staff, students, and administrators are often perceived for their proclivity to foster debate. This book is not about how to facilitate debate, but rather, dialogue, which if managed well, can lead to positive growth, learning outcomes, and increased productivity. Dialogue as a method for effective conflict management is an underutilized method of communication. Contents of the book include modules that address communication skills, conflict management styles, working in small groups or teams, how to facilitate change, and research-based resources and references for conflict management.

Cultural Impact on Conflict Management in Higher Education shares information regarding conflict management and resolution in higher education from a global perspective. In this book, we introduced many conflict resolution methods from different regions in the world. You can borrow some successful strategies and examine the differences and similarities between contexts. The book shares a conflict resolution model which may direct the reader to start thinking about addressing and managing conflicts from different levels of organizations. This book is a collective work of authors coming from all over the world. We chose higher education as the context because it is a place where diverse thoughts, perspectives, and people come together. Because of the potential richness of diversity on a college campus, the opportunity for conflicts occurs. Managing conflict does not work when there is a “one-way only approach/model” for addressing conflict. Some conflict resolution encompasses multiple dimensions: (a) one’s personal beliefs or beliefs about an issue; (b) an individual’s personal history in terms of how the conflict was perceived as something to be discussed or not; (c) work culture of the conflict where if ‘one has a conflict,’ the person or unit is messing up or there is a problem person; (d) the unconscious strategies of ‘face saving’ (trying to maintain one’s image) present; (e) social hierarchies or relationships; and (f) the diversity dimensions and issues that may be present.

A review of strategies for resolving conflict in higher education institutions looks first at traditional mechanisms, such as student conduct committees and grievance systems, faculty grievance mechanisms, arbitration, and litigation, and then examines conciliatory methods, including mediation systems for handling student, faculty, and staff disputes; use of ombudsmen; and institutional conflict resolution services conducted off campus.

Conflict management is an overlooked area in leadership development. Mediation as an intervention method to use in conflict management can be productive for building leadership capacity and organizational development in higher education. Adults average five conflicts per day and people in titled leadership spend over two-thirds of their time engaged in managing conflict. This workbook offers conflict management strategies, models, and processes to support college and university personnel in recognizing and managing conflicts and how to build skill sets that can enhance effective communication and address conflicts.

This fully revised and updated second edition builds upon the original vision of the first, which was to give voice to diverse and inclusive perspectives, identities, and practices and to enact the principle that student conduct and conflict response must be based upon foundations of social justice and restorative justice to disrupt and transform overly legalistic and escalated management applications in student conduct administration. The Spectrum Model (Schrage & Thompson, 2008) approach centers advocacy for inclusive conflict excellence by expanding traditional adjudication pathways to include dialogue, conflict coaching, mediation, restorative practices, and shuttle diplomacy for a more robust and inclusive expression of conflict and conduct practices. In the intervening decade, this co-edited work has become more relevant than ever as colleges and universities continue to be the targets of litigation, activists, lawmakers and public officials who have, for instance, changed the Title IX rules for responding to sexual misconduct. Civility, hate crimes, activism, immigration, nationalism, and free speech are all again on the forefront of challenges impacting the current campus climate.New chapters cover these and other issues including the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic response and impact on equity and justice in higher education, and amplified calls for racial justice and police reform. The book is further enhanced by chapter case studies, summaries and questions for dialogue, to encourage further reflection by the reader and bolster the usefulness of the work as a textbook and campus training guide. The second edition is a must-have resource for broad stakeholders invested in inclusive conflict excellence and principled leadership in education in the midst of a shifting and increasingly polarized landscape. This includes legal counsel, higher education presidents, senior student affairs administrators and faculty leadership as well as student conduct practitioners across conduct boards, hearing and appeal officers, residential and organizational staff engaged in student facing campus climate work. Reframing Campus Conflict further offers transferable content that supports inclusive conflict excellence inquiry and application in graduate programs, K-12, special education and human resource management practices. This book is for all educators, administrators, practitioners and leaders committed to engaging campus conflict work through the inclusive lenses of social, restorative, transformative and procedural justice.This is also available as a set with Student Conduct Practice, Second Edition.