A literature review is a written discussion of published or unpublished research, commentary, and information on a topic. The "literature" refers to books, journal articles, magazine and newspaper articles, company records and documents, and even personal interviews with knowledgeable industry conflict resolution experts.

Your task is to search the management and conflict resolution literature to: (1) discover the most common underlying causes of the type of conflict symptoms you have uncovered; and (2) discover the various solutions to conflict resolution that may apply to your particular situation.

You should supply some commentary on what you find. Don't just describe what's written in 6 articles. You should talk about the concepts, ideas, or insights that have the most value for helping you make sense of your project. What theories can you use? What writers say something of value? And why? Which models are the most helpful, and why?

You should cite at least 6 sources in addition to the course text (6 is "B" level work, "A" level work would cite more). You must use the author-date citation system described in the "Writing the Research Paper" handbook. While newspaper articles can be excellent sources of information, it's important that not all of your citations be newspaper articles. You should access articles in management and CONFLICT RESOLUTION journals as well.

A good place to start your review is in the course text and in the chapter notes at the end. Then, you can access Keller's online library and its search engines. You can enter key words such as "perception and conflict" and you will access recent articles on the subject. Scan the titles of the articles that come up and look for interesting ones to read in full. Also, be sure to check the references of interesting articles or books. They will lead you to others. If your initial searches don't produce what you're looking for, try using different key words. If you find yourself totally spinning your wheels, send me an e-mail and ask for help.