The Korea Local Administration Review

Since local elections in 1995, inter-local government conflicts have been frequent, with some proceeding to intense disputes recently. The purpose of this study is to analyze the factors determining the success and failure in conflict management focusing on the character of the actors. According to this study, results show that the character of the actor has an effect on dispute factors in the all the conflict stages. The conditions of successful conflict management include communication efforts and the will of the local government leader to resolve conflicts, efforts to resolve distrust, and positive problem solving means. On the other hand, failures in conflict management result from attitudes trying to evade the situation, confrontation propensity, and justification strategies of arbitration organizations. Furthermore, this study proposes further research for practical laws, solutions across autonomous cooperation, the professional capacity of the arbitrator, and designing an incentive system.