Dealing with conflict is an evitable part of any academic administrator’s job. Often, however, new administrators lack the skills they need to successfully resolve campus conflicts. This important resource includes an array of strategies for identifying and managing conflict between individuals, within a department, and between departments. The Jossey-Bass Academic Administrator’s Guide to Conflict Resolution shows how to turn conflicts into problems to be solved. Authors Sandra I. Cheldelin and Ann F. Lucas offer concrete approaches academic administrators can use to analyze conflicts and design effective interventions. The Jossey-Bass Academic Administrator’s Guide to Conflict Resolution is an invaluable tool that includes

· Guidelines for knowing when it is appropriate to intervene in a conflict

· Strategies for helping to change irrational and negative thinking to positive rational thought

· Methods for handling interpersonal conflict—between two parties—within a department

· An outline of the major approaches for managing conflict and information¾when they work and when they don’t

· Effective strategies for preventing and solving specific problems

 

Sandra I. Cheldelin is an associate professor and former director of the Institute for Conflict Resolution at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. She is a licensed psychologist and expert in organizational behavior, and coeditor of Conflict: From Analysis to Intervention.

Ann F. Lucas is a consultant and professor emerita at Fairleigh Dickinson University, where she served as campus chair in the Department of Management and also the Department of Psychology. She is a diplomate of the American Board of Professional Psychology and author of Leading Academic Change and Strengthening Departmental Leadership both from Jossey-Bass.