An In-Depth Review of the Effective Management of Workplace Conflicts

The Effective Management of Workplace Conflicts

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Introduction

As long as two or more people continue to coexist in an environment there is bound to be some form of conflict. Traditionally managers tended to view workplace conflict negatively often seeking to squash it completely. However, it is important to note that conflict does have some positive aspects to it. In addition, conflict cannot be completely done away with especially when it is in the work place scenario. From small businesses to large multi-national corporations conflict is something that all managers must learn to manage. Often conflict can lead to unproductiveness as well as lower the motivation of the workers. In my experience, when two workers are engaged in some form of personal conflict; little if any work is done. Majority of the time is spent on the grapevine attempting to get any juicy details on the conflict. The effects of the conflict therefore go beyond the two workers and right into the entire office.

Conflict can arise in any sector, department and level of employment in the companies. Subordinates can conflict with their supervisors and managers. On the other hand, managers themselves can conflict with each other and the same for subordinates. Much of the conflict at work in my experience stems from simple personal and personality differences. Once these differences are highlighted for example through a skewed reward system or performance measurement scale, conflict arises. It is true that some conflict can lead to increased productivity with workers focusing their energy into performing better than others. However, in majority of the cases, workers under perform, and much focus is drawn into the conflict rather than accomplishment of tasks and goals that are expected of them.

Why Study Work Place Conflict

Dessler (2000) states that workplace conflict can become so disruptive so that individualism takes the place of teamwork and unproductivity becomes the norm. When not adequately addressed, workplace conflict can take up the time and energy of the manager. Work place conflict stem from the challenges experienced in the work place. When employees feel that they are being less than productive or are experiencing extreme challenges in being productive, they begin to attack others in the workplace. As relationships break down, productivity reduces greatly and in extreme cases the company becomes crippled by internal conflict. Managers are unable to focus on growth of the company instead spending most time dealing with internal problems and stalled projects due to poor teamwork.

Reduced mental health: one of the major issues for employees in a conflict filled environment is the reduction of mental health. Often in teams, members become frustrated due to increased conflict. Members and individuals can feel that their opinion is less than valued. In such a case frustration can lead to inactiveness. Members who are shunned by others in the office tend to be silent and less opinionated. This is despite the fact that they may have the best ideas which can in turn lead to increased profits and growth of the company.

While working for a publicity company, I found that individuals, who are conflicted within a team, keep silent. Do not contribute and in turn become heavily frustrated. There is often an increase in sick leaves when conflict is at its highest. Members show symptoms such as continuous headaches, loss of appetite and simple absenteeism. For managers, this spells a lowering in the morale for work which can be detrimental towards productivity.

Table 1: a comparison of cases of conflict and absenteeism in General motors

Reported conflicts Average days of absenteeism Month of the year (20120)

18-29 4 April
30-39 7 July
4049 9 October
50-59 15 December
ABOVE 60 22 April

The table above shows a report by managers of the average calculated absenteeism in the company. As more and more cases of conflict were reported to the human resource department, there was an increase in average days of absenteeism cases reported. In a branch where more than sixty conflicts were being dealt with or resolved, managers had to contend with at least 22 days of absenteeism which also translates to severe decrease in productivity. In fact Simmons (1999) shows that these branches were barely able to make any profits or cover the costs of production. Majority of them were operating under loss and suffered from continuous and increasing employee turnover.

Decreased achievement of organization goals: managers are often tasked with the responsibility of ensuring that all employees are working towards the achievement of the goals in the strategic plan. In order to achieve these goals, managers often require strong and coordinated teams. When people are cooperating with each other and competition is directed towards increasing productivity rather than towards being better than others; a company is able to grow and achieve more. When conflict arises, it draws out focus from the core goals. Employees become more focused on the nature and details of the conflict. If not immediately resolved, the conflict often takes a life of its own drawing attention from all even those who were not part and parcel of the conflict.

For example, in my experience during meetings managers would have set the agenda for discussion. Meetings included set goals for discussion such as the nature of publicity and the pitch to be given to potential clients. However, when two colleagues enter into a conflict especially where their ideas differ one from another, the result would become inherently detrimental to the achievement of these goals. The meeting would turn to focus on the conflict. Within no time, cliques would be formed each supporting one individual in favor of the other.

The focus would not be on the ideas being discussed but rather on the individuals themselves. Colleagues would support ideas not based on the credibility of such ideas but instead based on who was the proponent of the idea. Sometimes a weaker plan would be selected because majority of the individuals in the meeting were in conflict or felt wronged in one way or another by the proponent of the better idea. This system would easily spread beyond local meetings in the office to infect the entire organization and its working system.

Increased turnover: when workers are not happy at work they are most likely to leave the place of employment in such of another where they would be more comfortable and happier. It is common to hear people say “I loved working for that company but my supervisor was less than nice and always on my neck, therefore I chose to leave after a while”. Companies with increased turnovers commonly blame conflict between subordinates and their managers for this phenomenon. Often subordinates feel that their productivity and their personal worth is threatened by the conflict. It is on this assumption that they choose to move on from their work and instead find another place of employment.

Noonan (2007) shares an example of coca cola in 1994 when an increase in turnover at the head office was traced to conflicting ideas which has moved from the board room and become translated into personal matters that seemed to lack a proper solution. It is not uncommon for large organizations as well as small businesses to contend and deal with such matters.

Increased turnover is costly to the company. The company must engage in a process of recruitment spending time, energy and resources selecting the right person. Meanwhile productivity becomes affected as team members are forced to pick up the slack of the member who left. Further, the company has to spend on training and equipping the new employee to fit the job requirements and tasks. With all this spending, the company profits often tend to suffer greatly. Secondly, the loss of potential talent, skills and creativity is quite a loss. It is important to note that majority of the employees who leave a company often go to work for the competition, a situation that increases the threat to the company.

Conflict begets conflict: an interesting thing about conflict is that it acts in much the same way as a rumor. Conflict often starts with two people but escalates to become a departmental and eventually a company matter. Much of the conflict in the workplace are personal grievances between two individuals. However, when they are not properly managed they take on a life of their own and become much beiger translating into difficult situations that require the attention of executives.

While working for a PR firm, two friends came into conflict over differing ideas on how a campaign was to be directed. Unfortunately, unaware of the undercurrents; the manager gave the authority to direct and create the campaign to one of them. The resulting conflict drove the project to the ground. Complains of insubordination became common. Teams became divided based on who they were supporting to lead the campaign. Eventually the company became so divided that one could clearly distinguish between the two camps. With the project looking at possible failure and the loss of a client, executives had to take drastic measures, firing some and giving warning to others.

Conflict can have positive effects when properly managed and directed. It can increase productivity as employees compete to become better than each other in a positive manner. Secondly, it can increase and improve the communication levels between the employees and others. However, in many cases small conflicts are left to fester and they turn into something ugly. Media has often reported cases of violence among employees in a work place. Although this is the most extreme reaction it shows exactly what happens when conflict is allowed to fester and develop negatively.

Managers are responsible for channeling conflict, which must exist within a workplace into positive avenues so that the company can reap the rewards and fruits. Employees need to become aware, recognize and acknowledge differing opinions to those that they hold, different values and belief systems. It is only through encouraging diversification and acceptance that managers can be able to handle conflict.

Managing Conflict in the Workplace

Different managers give credence to different methods of dealing with and managing the state of conflict. Having worked with two different companies, it has come to my attention that what matters most to the managers is the organizational culture. Through studying, researching and analyzing the culture, managers are able to draw out the best system of managing the existing conflict in the workplace. In addition, managers also consider the two people engaged in conflict in order to find the best solution (Mathis and Jackson 2003).

For some, the manager may resolve to force them into a difficult project where they would have to address the challenges together. The result is improved communication and the consequent development of professional courtesy and respect. For yet others the manager may elect to follow a particular grievance procedure or even counseling.

Positive perspectives: where most managers fail is viewing all conflict as negative. Such a manager will strive to create a conflict free environment. While this is an ideal goal, it also shows a lack of realism. Employees will always find themselves in one form of conflict or another. Whenever two people are engaged in conflict, it is important to note that something positive can be drawn from the same conflict. Managers need to be able to identify positive aspects of the conflict. They should be able to draw out some positive matter to the benefit of the company such as increased competition.

With this completion, they can set up two teams to work on different projects. In an attempt to outdo each other, employees will become more dedicated and highly motivated to produce more. There will be less chances of absenteeism as each team looks forward to be recognized in favor of the other. Conflict is also a platform through which the manager can ensure increased communication and teamwork. Managers can equip employees with skills of communication where they are able to resolve their problems and work as a team.

Setting up proper grievance structures: perhaps the biggest concern I have noticed with employees is the unavailability of proper grievance structures. Conflicts are often left to fester for long, where a small problem becomes bigger and unmanageable because employees do not have a simple and clear way to deal with the problem. Subordinates tend to suffer most when there are no grievance structures. Conflicts with the bosses often lead to frustration because the employee is not aware or does not have access to any grievance structure.

Grievance structures which are formal and accessible make employees feel that the employer is concerned and ready to listen to them. When an employee feels that their voice is being heard they are more willing to engage in resolving their conflicts. Conflicts are easily and best handled in an open procedure creating a high level f trust. When employees trust the procedure they are able to report cases of conflict without fear of penalties and repercussions. This means that they are able to resolve conflicts easily without festing over time as can be seen in the table below. Data gathered from employees in the Power Group, Dallas; correlated the strengths of grievance structures and there-occurrence of conflict situations within teams.

Correlations

Strong grievance structures Occurrence of conflict
Perception of strong grievance structures Pearson Correlation 1 .426*
Sig. (2-tailed)
.019
N 30 30
Occurrence of conflict Pearson Correlation .426* 1
Sig. (2-tailed) .019

N 30 30
*. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).

From the above table, it is clear that strong grievance structures are strongly related to reduce conflict. When the structures are stronger, there is higher probability that employees will be getting along better and thereby increasing chances of increasing production through teamwork. According to Chorpra (2010) just as an organization values fresh ideas and creativity from employees in the same way should their complaints and issues be valued.

Build participative resolution: Mostly managers falsely focus on resolving the matter in the conflict simply by themselves. However, this is definitely a foundation for failure. Unfortunately employees almost always feel that they are being marginalized and their issues belittled if the manager takes a dictatorial or totalitarian kind of approach to a conflict. Eunson (2007) states clearly that a dictatorial approach often covers the main issues. Individuals are forced to get together and resolve their conflict without addressing the underlying matters.

This system lacks sustainability, within no time the same issues will become an issue with conflict arising again. This time, the issues have been given time to grow root, fester and emotions to build up. Because of this, the conflict becomes difficult and in some cases completely unsolvable. In this case, the mangers are forced to consider extreme measures such as firing one employee or even transferring and moving the conflicting parties.

Participation on the other hand, allows the conflicting parties to engage with each other. Communication during the participation process allows the individuals to resolve any underlying problems. Participants have the responsibility and are given the knowledge through which they can own their own part in the contribution of the problem. Once every one has reached a point where they feel the issues underlying the conflict have become resolved, and then a solution is sort.

This solution is sustainable because both parties own up and take responsibility towards ensuring the conflict is resolved and peace is maintained. For a peaceful resolution, all parties need to feel that they were equally heard. Managers can be tempted to take one side in favor of another; however, the best Ida would be to get someone independent to chair the conflict resolution. This way all the parties involved will have equal voice, all their arguments will receive equal weighting and be considered equally.

 

Conclusion

This study will help managers target their energies towards positive resolution while at the same time finding new and creative ways to make positive change through conflict. Like every aspect of the business it is important for managers to make plans and prepare structures through which conflicts can be resolved at work. In some cases, managers live in fear of conflict often opting to squash even little conflicts which creates an environment of fear where employees are not willing to be creative or to present conflicting ideas.

Ignoring the presence of conflict is also detrimental because it builds a culture whereby conflict is an everyday issue. In this case productivity is low and employee turnover is quite high. Conflict occurs when employees lack respect for each other and their diverse opinions and characters. Conflict management is therefore about building an organization culture where individuals feel appreciated for their diversity.

References

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