Customer Reviews

Designing Conflict Management Systems: A Guide to Creating Productive and Healthy Organizations (Jossey-Bass Conflict Resolution)

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This was a comprehensive, practical-theoretical look at designing dispute resolution systems in business and governmental organisations.

I found it a practical as well as informative book, which will continue to be a handy reference for those doing dispute systems design.

The authors take Ury, Brett & Goldberg's earlier book: Getting Disputes Resolved: Designing Systems to Cut the Cost of Conflict, Jossey-Bass, CA, 1988, into the new areas of application, addressing new issues which adds informative review and new techniques to that original text in DSD.

Costantino and Merchant include sections on:
The Designer as Role Model, Traps and Pitfalls for Designers,and
Organizational Assessment - looking at the big picture in a thorough manner before offering any suggestions.

The book is arranged in 3 sections: Coping with Conflict in Organizations,
Designing and Improving Conflict Management Systems, and Making the System Work. I particularly liked their metaphors, such as "the dark side of Dispute Systems Design", and "Resistance and constraints: having tea with your demons". Indeed a refreshing and welcome addition in the field.

This book contributes mightily to defining how the emerging field of conflict management differs from organizational development, and what they share in common. For this alone it is worth the cover price. But the authors don't stop there. The book is full of practical strategies for developing conflict management systems. And its techniques reflect real world experience, not just theory! But, as a practitioner in this field, I can't say enough thanks to Constantino and Merchant for deepening the exploration of this very important new field!

This book offers a great deal of theory and not enough real world applicability. Some of the reading is difficult to digest.