Introduction

Over the last decade, the willingness of German corporations to invest time, energy and funds into conflict management structures has been constantly growing. Many companies have discovered that a superficial approach to dispute resolution and a lack of systematic conflict management has significant negative effects: loss of efficiency, high direct and indirect conflict costs, employee dissatisfaction and high staff turnover. On the other hand, optimizing the handling of internal and external conflicts saves costs and improves employee satisfaction as well as enhancing ...