CONVENOR Conflict Management

Individual theory and research influences: A snack for thought

Chris Honeyman
Director, Theory to Practice

October 19, 1999 draft. Please note,
this is a work-in-progress.

What are the ideas, theories and research that really influence experienced dispute resolution practitioners—or should? Are there even theories, and streams of research, that on grounds of basic self-interest logically ought to be attractive to the world of practice, but which languish unnoticed by even the relatively well-read? Is there any consistency in the theory and research influences which the most experienced practitioners admit to?

The Theory to Practice project, a major Hewlett Foundation-funded effort, seeks to build better discussions and better working relationships between scholars and practitioners in dispute resolution. One topic currently being addressed in the project has to do with the grand subject of "what, exactly, is the pedagogy of this field?"—but tries to address a manageable bit of that major issue.

The word "pedagogy," of course, is enough to put most practitioners to sleep. But there are versions of the underlying subject which shouldn't. One potentially non-soporific aspect is what we are calling "practical theory," for want of a better catch-phrase. By this we mean material from the dispute resolution field's "research and idea bank" that might be particularly useful and saleable to practitioners, if only it were formatted appropriately and "marketed" to their interests. There is, unfortunately, plenty of evidence that effective transmission of the most potentially practical in new thinking has often failed to affect practice models significantly.

This particular subject recently got off the ground in an informal inquiry of the type the project has dubbed a "moveable feast," hosted at the U.S. Department of Justice during the summer. A group of 18 very experienced scholars and practitioners came up with an eye-opening list of their individual "picks" among little-known research and theory in dispute resolution. Significantly, almost every person, even among that expert group, turned out to be relying routinely on one or another concept or finding of which others within the group were not aware.

By courtesy of Columbia Law School, on October 28 we are extending that discussion to another group of experts, composed of different people than the first Washington-centric foray. That makes the moment a good one to note some of the suggestions received to date as "practical theories." The following is a starting list, and I will cheerfully admit its somewhat arbitrary quality; in the present draft it is, after all, the product of one discussion, of only 18 people, albeit that all of them could be reasonably described as expert in the field. Less arbitrarily, this list omits most of the concepts which are already most widely known across the dispute resolution field. We wished, after all, to broaden the discussion of what might be considered useful to mediators, negotiators and others involved in managing conflict, rather than to recenter it around "core" material.

This short paper will be updated following the next "moveable feast," and again if a third on this topic is held. So please regard it not as a heavy meal of food for thought; right now, it’s more of a snack. Also, it is extremely unlikely that any one reader will resonate to all of the works listed here, since the group was deliberately diverse and a single participant’s favorable view was sufficient to get it listed (assuming I could find the cite.)

The present draft is being circulated primarily to the suggestions’ originators, though also to those invited for the second session. I would very much appreciate corrections. In particular, often just an author’s name was casually mentioned. Through my own ignorance, I may have listed a minor work rather than the author’s masterwork; it would be very helpful if those more familiar with that author’s oeuvre would set me straight. I have made some contextual notes; again, those more familiar with some of the respective streams of work involved could doubtless improve on them. And I have started to try to identify short summaries of some of these lines of work, especially electronic documents; you may know better ones.

Theory and research work recommended by scholars and practitioners participating, to date:

Arrow, Kenneth, Robert H. Mnookin, Lee Ross, Amos Tversky, Robert Wilson. Barriers to Conflict Resolution. (1995, WW Norton & Co)

Note: Barriers has become virtually the poster child for the Theory to Practice project, because of its remarkable combination of fundamental importance to the field and reader indifference. (For instance, Amazon.com, as of October 18, 1999, listed it as its 445,276th best selling book. By comparison, Fisher and Ury’s "Getting to Yes" was 337th.) Particularly important to practitioners are chapters on reactive devaluation, loss aversion, judgmental overconfidence, dissonance reduction (but see below for related material from elsewhere) and a variety of structural barriers, including the principal/agent problem.

Ayres, I. and Brown, J. Economic Rationales for Mediation, Virginia Law Review, 1995

Ayres, I. and Nalebuff, B. Common Knowledge as a Barrier to Negotiation. 44 UCLA Law Review 1631 (1997.)

Note: These law-and-economics-based papers provide a new and more structured basis for arguments for the efficacy of mediation. Practitioners often make similar arguments out of conviction, but without a solid theoretical foundation, leaving them more open to attack than need be; see, f.i., Nader, below.

Bowen, Murray: Bowen began a stream of work on family dynamics, since followed up by others. A recent example:

Clinical applications of Bowen family systems theory. Titelman, P., Editor. (Haworth Press, 1998.)

Cooperrider, D.L. & Srivastva, S. (1987) Appreciative inquiry in organizational life. In R. Woodman & W. Pasmore (eds.) Research in Organizational Change and Development: Volume 1 (pp.129-169). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press

Bushe, Gervase R. Advances in Appreciative Inquiry as an Organization Development Intervention. (Organization Development Journal, Fall 1995, Vol.13, No.3, pp.14-22)

Note: "Appreciative inquiry" work, broadly, discusses moving from problem solving to envisioning, building on what did work, what was appreciated in the past, and working backward from the desired end point.

Festinger, L. Cognitive dissonance. (This stream of work was originated in 1957 by Leon Festinger, but has since involved numerous researchers.)

Note: Over 40 years of research, this has become one of the few terms here which is a household "word." Yet the degree to which its essence has actually been disseminated along with the phrase is debatable. A reasonably short summary lecture on some of this research can be found (as of the date of writing this) at http://www.mindspring.com/~frudolph/lectures/SOC/soc1.htm

Kegan, Robert. In over Our Heads: The mental demands of everyday life. (Harvard Univ. Press, 1995.)

Kegan, Robert. The Evolving Self. (Harvard, 1982)

Note: Kegan is the principal exponent of stages of adult human development, following on from Piaget’s more widely-discussed work. This has particular significance for aspects of conflict resolution that are focused on the principals’ states of mind. For example, Jeffrey Seul has a new paper, to be published shortly, testing the Bush and Folger transformative theory against Kegan, Piaget and other developmental theory.

Kolb, Deborah M., Jean M. Bartunek. Hidden Conflict in Organizations : Uncovering-Behind-The-Scenes Disputes (Sage, 1992)

Kolb, Deborah M. Is it her voice or her place that makes a difference? : a consideration of gender issues in negotiation (out of print)

Note: Key material on organizational conflict and on the role of gender in negotiation style.

Kriesberg, Louis. Social Conflicts. (Prentice-Hall, 1982.)

Kriesberg, Louis, "The Negotiation of Agreements," chap. in International Conflict Resolution, (Yale University Press, 1992) pp. 121-50.

Note: These are two examples of a long and distinguished stream of work.

Maturana, Humberto, and Francisco Varela. Tree of Knowledge. (Shambhala, 1992.)

Note (from a participant): This work asserts the distinction between "living" and "non-living" beings and a new order of ethics growing out of the way we perceive.

McEwen, Craig. Various evaluations of programs, and discussions of program evaluation issues.

Note: Beginning with Small Claims Mediation in Maine (1981, with R. Maiman) McEwen’s series of works is exceptionally clear-thinking.

Nader, Laura. (Editor) No access to law: Alternatives to the American Judicial System. (out of print.)

Nader, L. (Editor) The disputing process in ten societies. (out of print.)

Note: Nader is a major critic of dispute resolution as practiced in the United States. Whether or not her views are enjoyed by adherents of this field, they are more or less at the center of a critique that mediators and their allies should be prepared to answer.

Schein, Edgar H. An organizational theorist based at MIT, Schein has done work on learning the culture of a company in order to work effectively.

Note: An example, "Organizational and Managerial Culture as a Facilitator or Inhibitor of Organizational Learning" is available online:

http://www.it-consultancy.com/extern/culture.html

Stone, Douglas, Bruce Patton, and Sheila Heen. Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most (Viking, 1999.)

Note: This may yet become close enough to a bestseller within the field to warrant removal from a list designed to focus on lesser-known but important work.

Tannen, Deborah. You just don’t understand. (Ballantine, 1991.)

Tannen, Deborah. Gender and discourse. (Oxford U. Press, 1996.)

Note: Gendered language, what people say, and why they choose certain words are clearly important to negotiators and mediators. But is anything of significance from communication theory, even Tannen’s best-selling work, commonly included in DR courses? (A warning: Gender and Discourse provides the research and theory foundation behind Tannen’s more accessible work, but has been reviewed as "a tome." I include it here because in the paradoxical world of scholarship, Tannen’s bestseller seems to be viewed as acceptable mostly because the tome also exists.)

Ury, W. Getting to Peace: Transforming Conflict at Home, at Work, and in the World. (Viking, 1999.)

Note: Personal characteristics we need to have to be peacemakers—a historical analysis; may deserve the same caveat as "Difficult Conversations."

Wehr, Paul.

Note: A stream of work. "Understanding the Usefulness of Conflict" and a number of similarly short summaries, can be found online at http://www.colorado.edu/conflict/peace/abmlist7a.htm