The important changes come as the company seeks to resolve a fractious dispute over magazine audience measurement.

The 1997 survey is the second in a row that found improving attitudes after years of fractious disputes.

And now, because of the fractious dispute that Usery was drawn into last fall, the ticker-tape parade of automatic success may have stopped for the nation's most notable mediator.

Off screen, the reticent Arthur chafed at Cohn's blowhard style and dictatorial ways; boss and star were constantly involved in fractious disputes.

The fractious dispute with Publicis, which Ping-Ponged its way through Federal and state courts, did not prevent the deal from being completed as scheduled on Dec. 30.

The legality of deep linking was the center of a fractious dispute among electronic commerce businesses.

The opinion of the Bishop of Rome was often sought, especially when the patriarchs of the Eastern Mediterranean were locked in fractious dispute.

Last year, his administration got into a fractious dispute with a number of them and their allies at the City Council over the city's awarding of contracts for immigrant services.

The fractious dispute continued through the winter, as meetings were held, letters written, lawyers consulted on both sides.

The debate is unusual in its intensity, even for an organization whose fractious disputes are legendary.