Socially Constructed Institutionalization of Conflict Management: The Confluence of Agents, Networks and Sense-Making

Abstract

We investigated the process and outcomes of a systematic approach to institutionalize conflict management in a large public organization. Using longitudinal and multilevel field data from a large hierarchical organization’s deliberate efforts to implement a conflict management initiative, we were able to test the effects of the institutionalization process from multiple perspectives. We hypothesized and found the combination of three critical factors - leadership of agentic actors, construction and maintenance of social networks, and the sense-making processes - in the diffusion of both codified and tacit knowledge about conflict management. Also, social construction supplements structural factors in the institutionalization process of conflict management practices.