When Goliaths Clash: Managing Executive Conflict to Build a More Dynamic Organization.

By Howard M. Guttman. Amacom, 250 pages. $27.95.

It's hard to argue that conflict is at the root of many organizational problems, and that employees, and managers, generally resist confrontation. But author Howard Guttman believes that unless conflict can be addressed clearly and forthrightly, and action plans created to work through it, little that is productive can happen.

He writes about the four stages of team development, from stage one (testing), in which team members maintain a facade and deny conflict; stage two (infighting), where issues are personalized and tensions escalate; stage 3, (getting organized), where roles and goals are discussed, procedures created and issues, not people, get confronted; and stage four (high performance), where there are clear team goals and responsibilities, team decision-making, an esprit de corps and comfort dealing with conflict.

Conflict is especially problematic, he writes, when senior executives disagree on tactics and, worse, on strategy. The result can be a company "more at war with itself than with competitors."

Guttman uses telling examples from companies like Abbott Laboratories, Campbell Soup Co., Honda Motor Co., Johnson & Johnson and a host of others. A New Jersey-based management consultant who heads his own firm, he does a terrific job of melding sharp advice with good examples. His prose is lucid and the voice is consistently smart, making the book an easy and highly productive read.