Sociology

Interpersonal communication

Mindset

Aesthetics

Philosophy

Political science

Artificial intelligence

Psychology

Negotiation

Conflict resolution

Set (abstract data type)

Programming language

Conflict resolution research

Silence

Gratitude

Public relations

Computer science

Social psychology

Academy of Management Proceedings

To avoid conflict with friends, colleagues, or acquaintances, we must often tread lightly and choose our words carefully. This symposium brings together novel research papers that investigate the links among conflict, interpersonal relationships, and communication. For instance, what if telling people about your achievements means your friend feels threatened by you? Would asking sensitive personal questions offend others? Could apologies and gratitude mitigate conflict? In such situations, communication strategies trade-off costs and benefits, both interpersonal and material. We demonstrate that individuals choose communication strategies they think will prevent conflict (hide success, avoid gathering information) – but that these strategies may in fact backfire. Next, we showcase several communication strategies (expressing gratitude or taking responsibility, surfacing underlying interests, or keeping quiet) that can indeed minimize conflict, and improve both social and material outcomes. Taken together, this set of research papers highlights the dilemmas we must navigate to keep the peace, and underscores the importance of communication for impressions and conflict management, for negotiations, and for organizational outcomes. Hiding Success Presenter: Annabelle Roberts; - Presenter: Emma Levine; U. Of Chicago Presenter: Ovul Sezer; Kenan-Flagler Business School, U. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Don't Ask, Don't Tell? Willingness to Ask Sensitive Questions Presenter: Einav Hart; U. of Pennsylvania Presenter: Eric VanEpps; Carnegie Mellon U. Should Teams Surface Underlying Interests during Intra-team Conflicts? Presenter: Lindred L. Greer; U. of Michigan, Ross School of Business Presenter: Alisa Yu; Stanford U. Presenter: Preeti Srinavasan; Stanford GSB Silence is Golden: Silence, Deliberative Mindset, and Value Creation in Negotiation Presenter: Jared R. Curhan; MIT Sloan School of Management Presenter: Yeri Cho; U. of La Verne Presenter: Teng Zhang; Penn State Harrisburg Presenter: Yu Yang; ShanghaiTech U. Responsibility Exchange Theory and the Currency of Communication Presenter: Shereen J. Chaudhry; U. of Chicago Booth School of business Presenter: George Loewenstein; Carnegie Mellon U. - Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences

Words Will Never Hurt Me? Managing Conflict through Communication