Every workplace has conflict. We all see it, and at some point, we all feel its impact. The word conflict has a negative connotation for most people, but despite that feeling, not all conflict is bad. Most often, the problem arises when conflict is ignored and people just wish for it to go away on its own.

If you jump right to solving a problem before you fully understand it, you might miss the root cause or underlying issues. Because of this, effectively managing any conflict starts with fully diagnosing it. That’s where we’ll begin in this course. Professors Klingel and Nobles, both experts in conflict resolution from the Scheinman Institute on Conflict Resolution at the School of Industrial Labor Relations, will help you master diagnosing conflict.

You’ll get a chance to map out a conflict in your own workplace in the course project. You’ll also spend time discussing your experiences and lessons learned with your peers. After completing the course, you’ll have the tools and skills to fully diagnose any conflict in your life. You’ll also be ready to determine if a conflict is worth addressing, which sets you up to successfully use a problem-solving approach to resolve a conflict. Please note that this course has been designed as a prerequisite to the companion eCornell course, "Applying a Problem-Solving Approach to Conflict".