From the vast research literature on organizational conflict and conflict resolution, this review identifies 44 major models in the area of conflict, negotiation, and third party processes (e.g. mediation and arbitration). Each of the models is described, categorized as descriptive or normative, and evaluated with respect to empirical support. Discussion of these models surfaces a number of significant, but often implicit assumptions about conflict and its management; insufficient bridging between descriptive and normative endeavors; and an extreme emphasis on model creation over model testing.

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Drawing on economics and organizational behavior concepts, the authors develop a model of employee “voice” (defined in terms of the frequency of grievance filing) and employee intent to exit the firm. They test the model using data on a sample of nonmanagement employees of a large multinational telecommunications firm in 1991. Employees' loyalty to the firm and their perception of the grievance procedure's effectiveness are the main independent variables. In tests that focus exclusively on employees who reported having been treated unfairly by the employer at some time, loyalty is found to have had a consistently strong negative association with both the exercise of voice and intent to exit the firm. One implication of these findings is that loyal employees who experienced unfair workplace treatment primarily responded by suffering in silence.

The concept of employee participation is common to many different discipline areas in the social sciences. The form participation takes varies considerably depending on the discipline. On the one hand, it can relate to trade union representation through joint consultative committees and collective bargaining, to worker cooperatives or to legislation designed to provide channels for employee representatives to engage in some form of joint decision making with employers. On the other hand, it can encompass myriad mechanisms that employers introduce in order to provide information to their staff or to offer them the chance to engage in joint problem-solving groups or use their skills at work via job-enrichment programmes. This article examines the dynamics of participation, illustrating how different forms have come to prominence at different periods in recent history. It looks at how these specific practices might interact with one another.

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