Conflict between Persons: The Origins of Leadership

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We live in an age of ethical disputes, making conflict inevitable as we meet others with contrasting ethical positions and contrary communicative expectations. An ethical position held with conviction frequently generates conflict when one encounters another with a differing ethical standpoint embraced with equal assurance.

Conflict Between Persons: The Origins of Leadership conceptualizes communication and conflict as a pragmatically essential everyday education for future leadership.

Conflict Between Persons: The Origins of Leadership emphasizes creative and constructive reactions to conflict responsiveness with three basic coordinates: (1) learn before, during, and after a conflict, (2) understand what matters to you and others, and (3) acknowledge that conflict engagement involves alertness to, and understanding of, what matters in the interplay of self and others and the immediate and larger communicative environment. Leadership begins with the study and practice of communication ethics understood as background that carries a sense of a given good that we seek to protect and promote. The study of communication ethics does not shelter us from conflict; in fact, it invites conflict, providing clarity about what is important to us and to others. Leadership frames the larger significance of behavior by announcing what matters, turning isolated conduct and conflict into meaningful action situated within a story.

The authors conceptualize communication and conflict as an existential education for leadership that begins with a willingness to enter the fray of everyday disagreement propelled by a pragmatic objective: learning from others and difference. Communicative leadership in an era of routine contentiousness must engage and learn from diverse convictions and conceptions of what matters.

Conflict Between Persons: The Origins of Leadership:

• Examines the complex issues of ethical diversity; ethical positions can now generate conflict.
• Uses the insights of communication/leadership expert Gail T. Fairhurst, the book frames the reality of conflict as an ongoing pragmatic education for leadership.
• Examines emotion, sentiment, conflict origins, difference, the interplay of relationships and perceptions, self talk and internal conflict, the power of opinion, multiplicity of conflict styles, the danger of anachronistic responses, and alternatives to destructive conflict.
• Introduces the Odyssey in the final chapter as a case study to examine the interplay of conflict, ethics in dispute, and leadership in action.
• Is student friendly! The publication incorporates key terms, glossary, index, and navigational aids such as boldface terms, headings, sub-heads, and informational sidebars to serve as helpful reference points.
• Is instructor friendly! An instructor’s manual includes chapter objectives, key terms, chapter outlines, learning activities, suggestions for supplemental movies and books, journal reflection questions, test questions (multiple choice, true/false, and essay), comprehensive Power Point presentations, and summarized Power Point presentations with discussion questions.