Leadership and managing conflict in meetings

Abstract

There is extensive literature describing the characteristics of a good leader in the area of organisational communication and business management. However, the research tends to be based on secondary, survey or reported data, typically interviews and questionnaires. Moreover, the predominant image of a “good” leader tends to be a charismatic, inspirational, decisive, authoritative, ‘hero’. The Language in the Workplace database provides a large corpus of authentic spoken interaction which allows examination of how effective leaders behave in a wide range of face-to-face interactions at work, and identifies a diverse range of leadership styles. The analysis reveals that effective leaders select from a range of strategies available to challenge, contest or disagree with others, paying careful attention to complex contextual factors, including the type of interaction, the kind of community of practice or workplace culture in which they are operating, and the relative seriousness of the issue involved. The analysis identifies four distinct strategies which leaders use to deal with potential conflict. These strategies lie along a continuum from least to most confrontational: Conflict avoidance; diversion; resolution through negotiation; and resolution by authority. The findings suggest that good leaders “manage” conflict: i.e. they choose strategies which address both their transactional and relational goals in order to achieve a desirable outcome.

Communicating knowledge, getting attention, and negotiating disagreement via videoconferencing technology: A multimodal analysis

“…While we find much work in the literature where disagreements and their resolutions are discussed (Holmes and Marra, 2004;Marra, 2012;Angouri, 2012;Goodwin et al, 2002;Wodak et al, 2011), there is much less literature that engages with communicating knowledge as in our first finding. We believe the reasons for scholars so far not having studied this kind of knowledge communication lies in the fact that this way of communicating knowledge is unmarked and does not rely heavily on language, but rather is produced in largely non-verbal ways.…”

“…Depending on the strategy taken, conflict can be avoided or addressed. In their work on leadership in meetings, Holmes and Marra (2004) develop a continuum of disagreement strategies from least to most confrontational: Conflict avoidance; diversion; resolution through negotiation; and resolution by authority. This continuum highlights the range of strategies that good managers employ when dealing with disagreement.…”

A negociação do desacordo mitigado como estratégia de (im)polidez por ministros do Tribunal Superior do Trabalho

“…impolidez direta (impolidez cometida diretamente, sem atenuantes); impolidez positiva (uso de estratégias para lesar a face positiva do interagente: infração à necessidade de ser aprovado); impolidez negativa (uso de estratégias para lesar a face negativa do interagente: invasão territorial); impolidez falsa (impolidez sob o formato de uma brincadeira); e ausência de polidez (ausência de polidez quando ela é esperada Para a nossa análise, buscaremos utilizar as reflexões aqui apresentadas, com especial atenção às taxonomias produzidas por Briz et al (2013), no estudo da mitigação; e por Brown & Levinson (1987), Pomerantz (2006Pomerantz ( [1984) e Holmes & Marra (2004), no estudo do (des)acordo.…”

“…Na composição de nosso quadro teórico, situamos, especialmente, Goffman (1972Goffman ( [1967), Lakoff (1973), Fraser (1980, 1990, Leech (1983Leech ( , 2014, Pomerantz (2006Pomerantz ( [1984), Brown & Levinson (1987), Culpeper (1996Culpeper ( , 2005Culpeper ( , 2008Culpeper ( , 2010, Holmes & Marra (2004), Locher & Graham (2010), Culpeper et al (2003), Sifianou (2012), Briz et al (2013), Haugh (2013), Locher (2013Locher ( , 2015 e Albuquerque (2015).…”

6. Multidisciplinary perspectives on intercultural conflict: the ‘Bermuda Triangle’ of conflict, culture and communication

“…What insights does applied linguistic research offer on this question? Most linguistic research does not attempt to draw any explicit links with frameworks in business and communication studies, but an exception is Holmes and Marra (2004). Using their New Zealand workplace data (see Marra and Holmes in this volume), these researchers explored the role that leaders may play in managing conflict in meetings.…”