**Author details**

Erno Salmela

**6. Conclusions and further research**

150 Organizational Conflict

nium. Only therapy saved Metallica.

record companies and other bands.

through of the band may be crystalized in two sentences.

much no matter what they do. It has no more battles to win.

Conflicts have absolutely been a springboard for Metallica's success. Without Ulrich's and Hetfield's intrapersonal conflicts Metallica would not have even been born. Their negative emotions and love for music have been fuel for Metallica's growth path. They desired passionately to show their ability, and knock down their skeptics and rivals—and even each other. On the other hand, their opposite personalities have led to numerous destructive conflicts. However, their common love, the band Metallica, has been above these conflicts. This was forgotten in the mid-1990s and the result was almost the death of the band in the millen-

The success of Metallica was born and sustained from the desire for control, the invisible power of Metallica spirit, and the appropriate mix of different conflict handling and stimulating methods in different stages of the band's lifecycle. The combination of competition and collaboration methods made Metallica a mega band at the beginning of 1990s. The break-

• Ulrich: 20 years of hate (toward authorities and the system) sold 100 million records.

• Hetfield: We have been competing with Ulrich since day one. That has made Metallica what it is. It has driven us forward. We have had our fights, but in the toughest situations we have supported each other. We wanted to progress despite obstacles, and make it.

On the other hand, the slowdown in progress is also understandable. Metallica's manager Burnstein was probably right when he assessed the reasons for the diminishing effort of the band in the mid-1990s. He stated that the life of the members of the band does not change that

The limitation of the study is focusing on one case, so results cannot be further generalized. It would be interesting to do a similar study concerning other bands that have managed to make a long and successful career. In the genre of heavy rock, for example, AC/DC and Iron Maiden have accomplished a similar career, but they have taken less creative risks than Metallica. On the other hand, the results of the study should not be applied only to music bands and other artists, but they are probably possible to apply to other business types as well. This should, however, be studied more, since the harsh actions, as done by Metallica, maybe frowned upon in more traditional industries. There are exceptions, however. For example, the birth and the actions of Apple have features reminding of Metallica case. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak started in a garage with an attitude of nerds, they complemented and competed against each other, they saw what others did wrong, they hated authorities, they believed passionately what they were doing and kept the control to themselves, they demanded a high standard of performance, they were unpleasant toward others if there was cause to, and they fought the victory through many hard conflicts [58]. A good question to study further is this formula of success still valid. Furthermore, it would be interesting to continue Metallica's research by studying its conflicts with external stakeholders such as press, fans, producers, managers, Address all correspondence to: erno.salmela@lut.fi

Lappeenranta University of Technology, School of Business and Management, Lappeenranta, Finland
