Theory building for conflict management system design

Since 1986, several practitioners have developed models for conflict management systems in organizations. None of these has been thoroughly researched to validate the premises of the design. The models are described in this article, and Dubin's approach to theory building is reviewed and used as a template to examine what is needed to validate and improve the developing theory about organizational conflict management system design and implementation. A call for research is given, with some specific research questions that merit investigation.