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Conflict management is an essential skill which has been shown to improve individual life and well-being. Any individual that masters it will not only become more efficient in their own life but will also be able to help others with their own difficulties, get better at resolving conflict, problem solving, decision-making and managing interpersonal conflicts.

In addition, conflict management is an essential skill to master in professional environments. Indeed, conflict is a most prevalent experience in the workplace as about one-third of employees report experiencing disagreements, instances of conflict or ongoing difficult relationships over a period of 12 months. As a matter of fact, conflict is highly detrimental to organizational functioning as it decreases employees’ motivation, increases stress, anxiety, and depression, and is detrimental to the finances of companies, either through an increase in sick leave or via lawsuit costs.

Finally, conflict management skills are of tremendous importance in the virtual world. Indeed, by their very nature (e.g. online disinhibition, anonymity and text-only communication) virtual environments constitute places where conflicts are most likely to arise and in which interpersonal and inter-team collaboration attempts face unique challenges due to the fact that members of virtual collaborations work across cultural, geographical and time boundaries.

This conflict management certification encompasses all psychological aspects of conflict and conflict management, both for internal and external stakeholders. Although work contexts will be tackled throughout the three courses, our approach will be centered on everyday life conflict skills.

In each course, particular sections will be devoted to virtual environments. In the first course, we will introduce the phenomenology of conflict and describe how virtual environments influence the presence and escalation of conflicts. In the second course, we will describe negotiation strategies, and we will assess how virtual environments shape the way negotiation strategies are enacted and how effective they are. In the third and final course, we will introduce mediation and analyze the pros and cons of conducting e-mediation as well as put forward the advantages of hybrid forms of mediations.