This text offers a research-based, accessible analysis of how people can manage conflict productively. Moving beyond the basics of conflict, it examines interpersonal situations in which conflict occurs and promotes strategic communicative responses, based on communication research. Daniel J. Canary and his colleagues base the principles for conflict management on the latest theoretical research, and add personal observations, media examples, and samples of actual interaction to provide concrete illustrations of the research findings. It provides students with the tools to understand conflict in real-world contexts.