Ten years of conflict management studies: themes, concepts and relationships

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to map the intellectual structure of conflict management studies and to investigate the key themes, concepts, and their relationships of conflict management literature in the past decade. Design/methodology/approach Citation and co‐citation analysis and social network analysis were used to trace the development path of conflict management research. The data were collected by searching the SSCI databases, based on 556 journal articles which were published between 1997 and 2006, and their cited references were analyzed and profiled. Findings The paper shows that conflict management literature focuses on three key themes: workplace conflict and conflict management styles, cultural differences in conflict management, and conflict management in practice. In addition, research on group conflict and work performance has gained momentum in recent years. Originality/value The intellectual structure of conflict management literature has received little attention in spite that a large number of studies have been done on conflict management. This paper will expose researchers to a new way of profiling key themes and their relationships in conflict management area, which will help academia and practitioners understand better contemporary conflict management studies.