You’re sprinting through the airport with your carry-on bag, desperately hoping to make your connecting flight. You see your gate in the distance, but the attendant is beginning to close the security door. You shout for him to wait, but he closes the door anyway. “I’m sorry,” he says, “federal regulations require that we close the door 15 minutes prior to departure.” Looking at your watch, you see that there still are 20 minutes left before the flight time. What would you do? Give up and walk away? Demand that he open the door? Flip out and yell at him?

In situations where others are interrupting your goals or actions, your most important decision is how to handle the conflict (Sillars & Wilmot, 1994). Your choice about what you’ll say and do will shape everything that follows—whether the situation will go unresolved, escalate, or be resolved. This choice also influences whether your relationship with the other person (if one exists) will be damaged or grow stronger.

In this section, we examine the approaches people use for handling conflict. In addition, we look at the impact that gender, culture, and technology have upon selection of these approaches.