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Rating: 
Summary: The best book available on conflict management
Review: Afzalur Rahim's recent release of the third edition of this management standard represents an intellectual tour de force. In this book Rahim has taken what many regard as a "soft issue" derived from psychology and the social sciences (note his heavy referencing of such pioneers as Katz & Kahn and Art Levin, for instance)-that is the conflict intervention and management aspects organizational development-and hammered these out in hard-core analytic and empirical terms. His ROC-I and II (chapter 3) represent critical advances in dealing with conflict management, and are useful org-development tools. Yet the book is not strictly a quantitative-analytic work, but a hybrid of both humanistic management approaches and Rahim's trademark empirical analysis. For instance, Rahim advances a basic thesis, namely, that some conflict in an organization is good and enhances organizational effectiveness if managed properly. He contrasts his approach to the dominant mode of western management thought, which has been to treat all conflict as bad and in need of resolution. This tendency Rahim traces all the way back to western civilization's search for social cohesion and harmony in Plato's Republic, carrying his examination through to the twentieth century humanists, such as Elton Mayo, who shared Plato's perspective. Rahim shows that this model-the stable, harmonious organization-is a philosophic ideal, not a practical reality, and proceeds to focus on the practical aspects of managing conflict in organizations. In this endeavor, his treatment is both encyclopedic and practical, theoretical and functional. Although the work is exhaustive in its treatment of theoretical foundations of conflict management, and its myriad aspects, elements and sub-aspects, Rahim fleshes out his exposition of conflict management with practical, real-world examples. The real challenge for the reader using this singular work is to be prepared to digest an immense amount of theoretically and functionally contextualized data, representing an active lifetime of reflection and study. A single reads will not suffice here. The only method I know of mastering such a wealth of material is to prepare it for a graduate level course, replete with lectures, slides and derivative exercises, using ROC-I and II, then to teach it regularly. This work, then, functions on a number of levels. First, it provides an intellectual tour de force on the subject of conflict management. In this sense it is the most comprehensive, well-written and insightful work available on the subject. As Rahim notes repeatedly, western managers and management scholars focus on conflict resolution, not conflict management. Second, this book provides the teacher of management with a first-rate text, and one unequalled by any other, and one written on a theoretical foundation, but developed from a practical, empirical, organizational development basis. Third, Rahim's book comprises an encyclopedia on conflict management, including a thorough literature review on every single issue dealt with, and a painstaking and analytic breakdown of conflict and conflict management into every conceivable aspect. Fourth, Rahim advances and develops a critical thesis-that western management is fixated on conflict resolution, but would do better to concentrate on conflict management-that unifies the other levels of his writing. Despite the depth and breadth of this ambitious and passionately as well as thoughtfully written and insightful book, Rahim keeps the material manageable through his won progressive, linear breakdown of the subject matter. Her, the author's organizational skills are at their peak, and he achieves his end with a fairly simple structure. Throughout, his approach is reasoned, sensible, practical and above all, realistic and applicable. In sum, Managing Conflict in Organizations, 3rd Edition, is a work without parallel in the field of management. Only a few management works, in fact, afford the reader this level of encyclopedic mastery of a field, for instance, Harold Kerzner's massive standard, Project Management: A Systems Approach. The difference here is that Kerzner's work is over 800 pages, Rahim's just over 200, making the latter a fairly dense read. Finally, Rahim's book has the character of a seminal work: it not only lays out the field of conflict management, it offers real insight into the subject and develops these insights in terms of a critical and defensible thesis. I recommend it for every serious management library, personal and institutional. Don Schley Director of Project Management Colorado Technical University
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