Conflict, Organizational

Abstract

Conflict is a natural and often necessary part of organizational communication. The topic has attracted a number of scholars from different theoretical perspectives. Traditional communication scholarship examines the antecedents, features, and consequences of constructive and destructive conflict. Research from cultural interpretive and critical orientations examines organizational discourse and narratives, and explores how communication constructs conflict, relationships, and organizations. Organizational conflict scholarship explores the complexity of overlapping relationships among individual, group, and organizational levels of analysis and investigates how conflict is experienced; it also examines conflict's role in reifying power relationships, resistance, and organizational transformation.