New Ways of Managing Conflict

The central claim is that the primary cause of organizational conflict is unrealized expectations individuals hold about their opportunity to influence decisions affecting them, and that the remedy is the full application of Likert's System 4 management, here expanded as System 4-T. The authors reject prevailing conflict-management methods as inadequate because they address symptoms rather than the underlying deficit of participation. System 4-T offers a set of practices — supportive relationships, integrative goals, consensus seeking, status de-emphasis, and depersonalized problem-solving — embedded in a structure of linked, overlapping groups. The book's contribution is therefore an extension of Likert's participative model into the domain of conflict, arguing that organizations fully operating under System 4 are structurally better equipped to prevent and resolve disputes .

System 4-T is an expanded version of Likert's System 4 participative management model, adapted specifically for conflict management. The 'T' signals the extension of the original framework to the task of handling conflict, with added emphasis on specific practices: establishing supportive relationships, identifying integrative goals acceptable to all parties, agreeing on the authority of facts, striving for consensus, neutralizing status differences between parties, and depersonalizing the conflict so it does not intrude into problem-solving . The underlying structure remains the linked multiple overlapping groups — the interaction-influence network in which supervisors serve as linking pins. The book applies this expanded model to conflicts in industry, schools, universities, and cities, arguing that System 4-T is a general approach to reducing both internal and external conflict while improving performance .

The book extends and applies the framework developed in Likert's earlier works. New Patterns of Management (1961) introduced the four-system typology and the linking-pin concept; The Human Organization (1967) developed the theory of causal, intervening, and end-result variables and the measurement instruments for organizational change. New Ways of Managing Conflict takes this established System 4 model and directs it at conflict, adding the System 4-T designation and detailed application chapters for industrial, educational, and urban settings. Reviewers noted, however, that a substantial portion of the book recapitulates earlier publications, and that it also contains a defensive effort to respond to criticisms of System 4 that had appeared since 1967 . It is therefore best read as an extension and application rather than a wholly new theoretical statement.

Reception was mixed. David Nadler's review in a professional journal described it as 'important and significant' but noted that it reads in some ways like two books woven together: one extending Likert's normative theory, the other a defensive response to critics. He criticized the use of relatively old Michigan studies, unpublished dissertations, and works that were not wholly supportive of System 4 as evidence . Stuart Klein's review in Contemporary Sociology acknowledged the book's detailed action steps and case studies as strengths, but noted that much of it recapitulates past publications and that the evidence, while compelling, does not constitute proof of the basic propositions. He also observed that the authors' conviction in their prescriptions is unmistakable despite their acknowledgment that organizations differ . One library review summarized the first reading as potentially disappointing but subsequent readings as kindling appreciation .

A common misconception is that the book offers a neutral, general theory of conflict management applicable to any organizational context. In fact, its argument is thoroughly grounded in Likert's prior commitment to System 4 as the superior management model. The authors spend only about half a page discussing what they call 'other causes of conflict' beyond unmet participation expectations, and they label alternative approaches 'obsolete social systems' . This means the book is less a survey of conflict-management options than a case for one particular system as the solution. Readers seeking a pluralistic treatment of conflict should look elsewhere; readers interested in how far the participative-management paradigm can be stretched to cover conflict will find the book instructive, provided they recognize its advocacy orientation.