No / This paper highlights the opportunity to investigate relations between the marketing and sales departments of fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies. Drawing on empirical results from social psychology, the authors develop a framework for exploring the social psychological causes and effects of intergroup relations in FMCG marketing. This conceptual model integrates two social psychological theories, the realistic group conflict theory, and the social identity theory. As a development to previous applications of these theories, the model extends beyond the social psychological effects of intergroup relations to consider the implications for organizational effectiveness. A number of research propositions to guide future research are also developed, and the paper concludes with a discussion of managerial and future research implications.

This study explores the relationship between identity development variables on the one hand, and aggression and peer conflict on the other; Results showed a direct relationship between internalizing symptoms and relational aggression, existential anxiety and reactive aggression, and an inverse relationship between identity exploration and proactive aggression. While preliminary, these findings suggest some potentially fruitful avenues for using the promotion of positive identity development to aid bullying prevention efforts.

Throughout human history, conflicts have profoundly impacted economic development, causing severe damage to infrastructure, disrupting economic activities, deterring investment, and straining government finances. However, most studies on this topic focus on either individual countries or specific conflict events, despite the availability of rich panel data. This study aims to explore the impact of conflicts on a country’s income, specifically GDP per capita, in a panel setting. It employs a two-way fixed effect (TWFE) counterfactual estimation method instead of a simple TWFE estimation to assess the causal effects of conflict. Our findings suggest that conflicts significantly reduce GDP per capita on average compared to countries without any conflict. This comprehensive analysis underscores the critical need for effective conflict resolution strategies to mitigate these economic impacts.

Boston University. University Professors Program Senior theses. / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / 2999-01-02

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2002. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The horrific terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, in America, and the bombing of a nightclub in Bali, Indonesia, have forced may people to seriously consider the impact of religion on political conflict. This literature review readdresses the serious neglect of religion in political studies by examining the three theoretical approaches to religion and political conflict, on the domestic and international level, that can be identified. Primordialists argue that differences in religious traditions should be viewed as one of the most important factors in explaining violent interactions in and between nations. They stress how differences in cultural identity and cosmologies can lead to violent conflict in and between nations. They illustrate how the deep malaise of modem secular society is leading to a backlash of alternative worldviews. This approach is culturally too simplistic in not providing a complex enough framework for understanding the dynamic social forces that constitute cultural identity. Instrumentalists admit that conflicts might be aggravated by diverging religious creeds but are rarel y if ever caused by them; instead most conflicts are about power and wealth. They emphasize the role played by political entrepreneurs, who use religion as an instrument to further their own goals. This approach is guilty of the other extreme - downplaying the role of religion and culture. Constructivists regard social conflicts as being embedded in cognitive structures like ideology, religion, nationalism and ethnicity. Constructivists can theorize about cultural identity, social structures, actors and forces together with the material world of power and wealth and are therefore best suited to give an adequate description of religion and political conflict. Despite its great promise constructivism still needs to step up to the board and deliver theories about religion and political conflict. The serious neglect of religion in political studies needs to be addressed and the most likely framework within which to do so seems to be constructivism. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die skokkende terroriste aanvalle op die World Trade Center en die Pentagon in Amerika en die bom in 'n nagklub in Bali, Indonesië, het baie mense gedwing om die impak van godsdiens op politieke konflik ernstig te oorweeg. Die literatuuroorsig herondersoek die ernstige verwaarloosing van godsdiens in politieke wetenskap weer eens, deur te kyk na die drie benaderings wat ten opsigte van godsdiens en politieke konflik, op plaaslike en internasionale vlak geïdentifiseer kan word. Primordialiste glo dat verskille tussen gosdienstradisies gesien moet word as een van die vernaamste faktore vir politieke konflik binne en tussen nasies. Hulle beklemtoon die wyse waarop verskille in kulturele identiteit en kosmologie kan bydra tot gewelddadige konflik binne en tussen nasies. Hulle illustreer verder hoe die diep malaise van die moderne sekulêre samelewing besig is om te lei tot 'n teenreaksie van alternatiewe wêreldbeskouings. Die benadering is egter kultureel gesproke te simplisties deurdat dit nie 'n raamwerk kan skep wat kompleks genoeg is ten einde die dinamies sosiale kragte wat kulturele identiteit vorm, te verstaan nie. Instrumentaliste gee toe dat politieke konflik dalk deur uiteenloopende godsdienstige tradisies vererger kan word, maar dat dit selde indien ooit daardeur veroorsaak word. Inteendeel, die meeste konflik handel steeds oor mag en rykdom. Hulle beklemtoon die rol wat gespeel word deur politieke entrepreneurs, wat geloof as 'n instrument gebruik in die bevordering van hulle eie doelwitte. Die benadering is skuldig aan die ander uiterste - die rol van kultuur en godsdiens word as minder belangrik beskou. Konstruktiviste beskou sosiale konflik as gewortel in kognitiewe strukture soos ideologie, godsdiens, nasionalisme en etnisiteit. Konstruktiviste kan teoretiseer oor kulturele identiteit, sosiale strukture, akteurs en kragte saam met die materiële wêreld wat bestaan uit mag en rykdom, en is daarom die beste geskik om 'n voldoende beskrywing te gee van godsdiens en politieke konflik. Ten spyte van die belowende potensiaal van konstruktivisme moet die perspektief nog begin om teorieë oor godsdiens en politieke konflik te verskaf. Die ernstige verwaarloosing van godsdiens in politieke wetenskap moet ondersoek word en die beste benadering hiervoor blyk konstruktivisme te wees.

Traffic safety has traditionally been measured by analyzing historical accident data, which is a reactive method where a certain number of accidents must occur in order to identify the safety problem. An alternative safety assessment method is to use proximal safety indicators that are defined as measures of accident proximity, which is considered a proactive method. With this method it is possible to detect the safety problem before the accidents have happened. To be able to detect problems in traffic situations in general, microscopic simulation is commonly used. In these models it may be possible to generate representative near-accidents, measured by proximal safety indicator techniques. A benefit of this would be the possibility to experiment with different road designs and evaluate the traffic safety level before reconstructions of the road infrastructure. Therefore has an investigation been performed to test the possibility to identify near-accidents (conflicts) in a microscopic simulation model mimicking the Traffic Conflict Technique developed by Hydén (1987). In order to perform the investigation a case study has been used where an intersection in the city center of Stockholm was studied. The intersection has been rebuilt, which made it possible to perform a before and after study. For the previous design there was a traffic safety assessment available which was carried out using the Traffic Conflict Technique. Microscopic simulation models representing the different designs of the intersection were built in PTV Vissim. In order to evaluate and measure the traffic safety in reality as well as in the microscopic simulation models, a traffic safety assessment was performed in each case. The traffic safety assessment in field for the present design was carried out as a part of this thesis. The main focus of this thesis was the road safety for vulnerable road users. The method to identify conflicts in the simulation model has been to extract raw data output from the simulation model and thereafter process this data in a Matlab program, aiming to mimic the Traffic Conflict Technique. The same program and procedure was used for both the previous and the present design of the intersection. The results from the traffic safety assessment in the simulation model have been compared to the results from the field study in order to evaluate how well microscopic simulation works as an evaluation tool for traffic safety in new designs. The comparison shows that the two methods of conflict identification cannot replace each other straight off. But with awareness of the differences between the methods, the simulation model could be used as an indication when evaluating the level of traffic safety in a road design.

This study investigated the conflict management styles of chief student affairs officers in 4-year public institutions of higher education in the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. The data for the study were collected using Hall's Conflict Management Survey. The sample for the study consisted of 25 chief student affairs officers. The purpose of the study was to identify the conflict management style preferences of chief student affairs officers. The other variables studied to ascertain if they had an impact on the style preferences were age, gender, number of years of experience as a chief student affairs officer, ethnicity, and the size (enrollment) of their employing institution. The study found statistically significant associations (p<.05) between ethnicity and conflict management style, specifically the synergistic and win-lose styles, and between the synergistic style and age. The association between ethnicity and conflict management style could be attributed to the fact that the Caucasian group of chief student affairs officers comprised 66.7 % of the synergistic styles and 100 % of the win-lose styles. The association between the synergistic style and age could be due to the fact that the majority of the chief student affairs officers had a synergistic style, and of that group, 66.7 % were in the 50-59 age range. No statistically significant associations were found for correlations between conflict management style and gender; conflict management styles and number of years of experience as a chief student affairs officer; or conflict management styles and size (enrollment) of their employing institutions. The lack of significance shows that there are no associations between the conflict management styles of chief student affairs officers stratified according to gender, number of years of experience, and size (enrollment) of their employing institutions.

Based on the case study of the mediation of the Polish-Lithuanian dispute from 1920 to 1923, this dissertation explores the League of Nations' emergence as an agency of modern territorial and ethnic conflict resolution. It argues that in many respects, this organization departed from prewar traditional diplomacy to establish a new, broader concept of security. At first the league tried simply to contain the Polish-Lithuanian conflict by appointing a Military Commission to assist these nations in fixing a final border. But the occupation of Vilna by Polish troops in October 1920 exacerbated Polish-Lithuanian relations, turning the initial border dispute into an ideological conflict over the ethnically mixed region of Vilna, claimed by the Poles on ethnic grounds while the Lithuanians considered it the historical capital of the modern Lithuanian state. The occupation spurred the league to greater involvement via administration of a plebiscite to decide the fate of the disputed territories. When this strategy failed, Geneva resorted to negotiating the so-called Hymans Plan, which aimed to create a Lithuanian federal state and establish political and economic cooperation between Poland and Lithuania. This analysis of the league's mediation of this dispute walks the reader through the league's organization of the first international peacekeeping operation, its handling of the challenges of open diplomacy, and its efforts to fulfill its ambitious mandate not just to prevent war but also to uproot its socioeconomic and ethnic causes. The Hymans Plan reflected this ambition as well as commitment to reconciling the tenets of balance of power and territorial status quo with the principle of self-determination and minorities' protection when drawing new boundaries and creating new states.

Team conflict research, taken as a whole, has produced some conflicting results, especially regarding task conflict, which has demonstrated substantial heterogeneity across situations and an overall near-zero effect. Accordingly, several groups of scholars have called for new ways to study conflict. In this dissertation, I extend past conflict asymmetry research, which has considered only agreement between two parties, by investigating whether the two parties’ conflict inferences of each other are accurate. To do so, I draw from the Truth and Bias model of judgment to understand the biases and inaccuracies associated with conflict inferences. Further, I incorporate the partner’s conflict communication and the actor’s perspective taking as moderators to shed light on the contingencies of accurate conflict perceptions. To highlight the bottom-line implications of achieving accuracy, I use polynomial regression and link various aspects of accuracy to important dyadic outcomes. To test my dissertation model, I collected data from ongoing student project teams using a time-lagged round-robin design. Results from the social relations modeling indicate that dyadic conflict inferences are inaccurate, being characterized by a negative directional bias, a significantly stronger bias force than the truth force, and low levels of actual similarity. Further, moderation analysis identifies the partner’s suppressive conflict communication as a contingency factor that can weaken the truth force, suggesting that more open communication can help dyad members achieve accuracy. Exploratory analysis also shows that perspective taking can strengthen the bias force. Further emphasizing the importance of accuracy, the polynomial regression results indicate that conflict inference accuracy (versus inaccuracy) is associated with higher levels of attributional confidence and problem-solving behaviors. Moreover, the level of accuracy in task conflict perceptions has an inverse U-shape relationship with problem-solving behaviors, whereas higher levels of accuracy in both task and relationship conflict perceptions are associated with lower levels of relationship satisfaction. Supporting the benefit of positive illusions, under-perception (versus over-perception) is related to higher levels of attributional confidence and relational satisfaction. In contrast to the importance of achieving accuracy (versus inaccuracy), agreement (versus disagreement) is not associated with positive outcomes. Supplementary analysis indicates that these dyadic outcomes, when aggregated to the team level, are strongly associated with team satisfaction and effectiveness. Overall, this research suggests that focusing solely on the team level risks overlooking the existence and the various sources of inaccuracy in dyadic conflict perceptions. Further, the accuracy of the dyad partners’ conflict inferences of each other plays an important role in shaping their subsequent interactions. To the extent that conflict is a relational, multilevel phenomenon, dyadic conflict inferences should become an integral part of scholarly understanding of conflict; this perspective holds promise for not only accounting for the conflicting results in the conflict literature, but also informing managerial practices that are conducive to effective conflict management in the workplace.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Emmanuel School of Religion, 2004. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 215-219).