O não reconhecido conflito societário

This article displays a key managerial problem, involving conflict among eight owners-partners of a medium-size service company located in Rio de Janeiro. It describes the search of the circumstances that brought about the conflict, the undertaken investigations, and the results of the intervention which was carried out. Taking into account the analysis and interpretation of the conflicting situation, two encompassing themes were considered as the key for understanding and solving the issue: a) the theoretical studies about conflicts within organizations; and b) the theoretical foundations of sociodrama and the sociodramatic intervention techniques. Theory on organizational conflict was used for designing the script of a semi-structured interview, performed with each owner-partner, aiming at arousing individual perceptions on the conflict. These interviews were the first part of the fieldwork. Treating the evidences under the discourse analysis viewpoint, categories were identified and provided more accuracy for framing the issue. In a second phase, sociodramatic intervention techniques were applied in meetings with all the ownerspartners. Results point out that sociodrama is a possible alternative at small and medium-sized companies' disposal for managing conflict among several owners.