The Management of Conflict will be of interest to those who seek a better understanding of the importance of cultural differences to conflict and conflict management strategies. This work is divided into nine chapters. Chapter One introduces the author's project, opening with a case study of a 1989 dispute regarding the wearing of Islamic head-scarves in French schools. Ross cites this as an instance of conflict management failure. He uses the case to describe more generally how attempts at conflict management can fail.
Cultural differences play a key role in such conflicts.
Effective conflict management must be sensitive to such cultural differences. Chapter Two reviews the author's previous work on cross-cultural conflict. Ross' model of conflict emphasizes structural interests and psychocultural interpretations as key elements in understanding conflicts. In Chapter Three Ross elaborates the notion of the constructive conflict society. He examines a number of low-conflict societies in order to identify the features of those cultures which tend to make conflicts manageable and constructive.