How do We Manage Difficult Conversations?

Authors:

Abstract: Organizational members increasingly find themselves immersed in debates, frictions, disagreements, and uncertainties. Effective communication skills are thus crucial for individual and organizational success. Despite the importance of difficult conversations, however, effectively managing them remains an enduring challenge, and extant research suggests that people often choose the wrong conversation strategies and harm their own and others’ outcomes. This symposium presents novel research highlighting how people can manage difficult conversations. The papers presented (1) identify negotiation issues that employers should bring up to better motivate employees; conversation strategies that (2) facilitate creativity and (3) increase receptivity and open-mindedness; (4) document potential caveats of demonstrating good listening in difficult conversations; and (5) discuss why people use ineffective conversation strategies despite knowing their harmful effects. Taken together, this symposium highlights the fraught nature of interpersonal communication, and demonstrates strategies to facilitate effective information exchange and conflict management.

Track: COMM

Keywords: Difficult conversations; disagreements; conflict; creativity; communication; listening