How to Resolve

Workplace Conflicts: A
Guide for Managers
How to Identify Workplace Conflict:

 Below are some early warning signs that there could

be conflicts occurring within your workplace.
 Disagreement patterns - Some level of disagreement and
challenging others is a positive attribute of a healthy workplace. But
if the challenges seem personal or vengeful, this can be a sign that
there’s conflict beneath the surface worth addressing.

 Low employee retention ­– High employee turnover is always a sign

that something’s wrong. Work environments fraught with conflict
and in-fighting have a tremendously negative impact on morale and
employee satisfaction. If managers are not actively resolving these
issues, employees are much more likely to leave the organization.
 Gripe-filled meetings – Meetings should be productive, engaging
sessions where work gets done and decisions are made. If you
notice that meetings or group conversations turn into “venting
sessions,” it’s likely that workplace conflict is having a negative
impact on productivity.
 Declining job performance – Are team members failing to work
collaboratively or has productivity or quality dipped? While a variety
of factors can influence team job performance, unresolved conflicts
are one source of worsening team productivity.
 Communication silos ­– Have you noticed “cliques” starting to form
between groups of employees? Sometimes, lack of workplace
communication and leadership enablement can result in these
communication silos. Other times, underlying conflict can be the
root cause of team members failing to work cohesively.
Steps to Resolve a Case of Workplace
Conflict
1. Identify the Source of the Workplace Conflict
You should always begin by asking every party involved in the conflict to
relay their perception of it to you in private. This allows you to form the
big picture by viewing the workplace conflict through every participant’s
eyes.

At this stage, it’s important to meet with team members individually for a
number of reasons:
1.To ensure that another conflict doesn’t stem from an individual taking
issue with what the other party is saying
2.One or more parties may alter their recounting of events based on what
they hear someone else say
3. Tensions may still be high, and employees may not feel comfortable
speaking about the conflict with the other party in the room
Resolving Conflict At Work Place

 Organization leaders are responsible for creating a work

environment that enables people to thrive. If turf wars,
disagreements and differences of opinion escalate into
interpersonal conflict, you must intervene immediately. Not
intervening is not an option if you value your organization and your
positive culture. In conflict-ridden situations, your mediation skill
and interventions are critical.
 Differences in opinion, can either be with a colleague or a senior or
your subordinate as well. There are, in fact, different types of
conflicts that can creep up in a workplace.
 What can be the reasons for such
conflicts?

Cause 1. Conflicting Needs

Whenever workers compete for scarce resources, recognition, and
power in the company's “pecking order”, conflict can occur. Since
everyone requires a share of the resources (office space, supplies, the
boss's time, or the budget fund) to complete their jobs, it should come
as no surprise when the “have-nots” gripe and plot against the
“haves”.
 Cause 2. Conflicting Styles
 Because individuals are individuals, they differ in the way
they approach people and problems. Associates need to
understand their own style and learn how to accept
conflicting styles. Personality tests, such as Myers-Briggs
Personality Type Inventory (MBTI), can help people
explore their instinctive personality styles .An example of
conflicting styles would be where one worker works best
in a very structured environment while another worker
works best in an unstructured environment. These two
workers could easily drive each other crazy if they
constantly work in conflict with one another and do not
learn to accept one another's work style.
Cause 3. Conflicting Perceptions
 Just as two or more workers can have conflicting styles, they can
also have conflicting perceptions. They may view the same incident
in dramatically different ways. .Memos, performance reviews,
company rumors, hallway comments, and client feedback are
sources for conflicting perceptions. What was meant gets lost in a
firestorm of responses to perceived wrongs .Resentment and
conflict can also occur when one department is viewed as more
valuable to the organization than others.
 Cause 4. Conflicting Goals

 Associates may have different viewpoints about an incident, plan, or

goal. Problems in the workplace can occur when associates are
responsible for different duties in achieving the same goal. The
business office is responsible for documenting financial information
and getting paid, whereas the nursing staff is responsible for the
patient's physical assessment and immediate admission. Both
objectives are important and necessary, but may cause conflict.
Cause 5. Conflicting Pressures

 Conflicting pressures can occur when two or more

associates or departments are responsible for
separate actions with the same deadline.
 Cause 6. Conflicting Roles

 Conflicting roles can occur when an associate is asked to perform a

function that is outside his job requirements or expertise or another
associate is assigned to perform the same job. This situation can
contribute to power struggles for territory. This causes intentional
or unintentional aggressive or passive-aggressive (sabotage)
behavior. Everyone has experienced situations where associates
have wielded their power in inappropriate ways.
Cause 7. Different Personal Values

 Conflict can be caused by differing personal values. Segregation in

the workplace leads to gossiping, suspicion, and ultimately, conflict
(Hart, 2002). Associates need to learn to accept diversity in the
workplace and to work as a team.
Cause 8. Unpredictable Policies

 Whenever company policies are changed, inconsistently applied, or

non-existent, misunderstandings are likely to occur. Associates need
to know and understand company rules and policies; they should
not have to guess. Otherwise, unpredictable things can occur such
as associates dressing inappropriately or giving out wrong
information. The absence of clear policies or policies that are
constantly changing can create an environment of uncertainty and
conflict (Hart, 2002).
Resolving issues
Do not avoid the conflict, hoping it will
go away.

 Trust me. It won’t. Even if the conflict appears to have been

superficially put to rest, it will rear its ugly head whenever stress
increases or a new disagreement occurs. An unresolved conflict or
interpersonal disagreement festers just under the surface in your
work environment. It burbles to the surface whenever enabled, and
always at the worst possible moment. This, too, shall pass, is not an
option – ever.
Do not meet separately with people in
conflict.

 If you allow each individual to tell their story to you, you risk
polarizing their positions. The person in conflict has a vested interest
in making himself or herself “right” if you place yourself in the
position of judge and jury. The sole goal of the employee, in this
situation, is to convince you of the merits of their case.
Do not believe, for even a moment, the only
people who are affected by the conflict are
the participants.

 Everyone in your office and every employee with whom the

conflicting employees interact, is affected by the stress. People feel
as if they are walking on egg shells in the presence of the
antagonists. This contributes to the creation of a hostile work
environment for other employees. In worst case scenarios, your
organization members take sides and your organization is divided.
 Resolving Workplace Conflict: 4 Ways
to a Win-Win Solution By Dr. Tony Fiore

 Not all conflict ends up, or should end up with a winner and a loser. The
most constructive conflicts end up with both parties
"winning". Here are some techniques to work towards the
Win-Win situation.
 There are four specific steps managers can take to reduce workplace
conflict. The first is for managers to look at communication skills , both
in terms of how they communicate and how they are teaching their
employees to communicate with each other. This, of course, includes
using I statements instead of you language. Owning your own feelings
and your own communication is a much more effective way to
communicate and even more, teaching your employees to communicate
that way with others, goes a long way toward reducing conflict.
 The second part of communication is for managers to beef up
listening skills. Active listening involves things like actually trying to
understand what the other person is saying, and then
communicating to the other person that you do indeed understand
what they are saying.
 The second way to decrease workplace conflict is to establish
healthy boundaries. Without boundaries, there will be conflict and
squabbles, power struggles and all kinds of circumstances that make
for messy situations.
 You can be professional and be empathetic and compassionate
toward your employees, without crossing the line of becoming their
friend. This is especially important when there's a power difference
between two people in an employment situation.
 The third factor to reducing conflict is a skill called emotional
intelligence. There are many aspects and facets but it basically
means developing skills to be more effective by teaching people to
combine both intelligence and emotions in the workplace.
 Seeing and dealing with employees as human beings with real
lives is often overlooked in the busy workplace. People with
high emotional intelligence can do this in a professional
manner, and maintain appropriate boundaries. Another
aspect of EQ is knowing and being sensitive to how
employees are experiencing you as a manager. Part of EQ is
teaching managers to be sensitive to how theyre coming
across to others.
 The fourth aspect of reducing workplace conflict is setting up
behavioral consequences to be used with truly
uncooperative employees who are unwilling to change.
Despite using all these recommendations, there will be a few
employees that just wont change because they are unwilling
or unable. That means a manager must explain a
consequence, which is an action or sanction that states to the
employee the likely outcome of continuing problematic
behavior. It will take skills from the three previous points to
do this in a non-threatening way.
 Is there ever a place for anger in the workplace? Yes.
When people can say, Wait a minute. I am not happy
with this; I don't like what's going on, and they turn
that anger into a positive action, then the anger can
be seen as a kind of motivator. Sometimes when
were in a position where we recognize that we are
upset about something, and we use that to our
advantage, we can make that work for us, and in the
long run, actually work for the company.
 As employees, the more we can learn to speak up, to
be able to say what our needs and our wants are in a
healthy way, and not let it fester to the point of rage
or explosion, we can use our anger as a motivator to
help us take action.
 Employees can also change their attitude toward
their job while putting up with the unpleasant aspects
of it. One way to reduce conflict and to be happier is
to find a way to shift our perspective and our vision of
why were there.