Conflict

Conflict is simply disagreements between people based on two types of issues:  substantive or affective issues.

Substantive conflicts deal with disagreements or arguments regarding tasks, goals, job assignments, how to allocate resources, or really any other issues with regard to the team’s actual work and work processes.

Affective conflict, also known as emotional conflict, has to do with disagreements resulting from individual feelings - anger, dislike, distrust, resentment, fear, etc. This is generally the result of interpersonal issues among team members.

In either case, managers and team leaders often spend considerable time dealing with conflict of many forms in the workplace. Both forms of conflict can cause problems in an organization and lead it into situations where goals and objectives may not be met. These conflicts can also cause employees and teams to be less productive.

In additional to conflict, stress and stressors can interfere with employee and team performance, productivity, and the ability of organizations to reach goals. Stress is also a natural part of life. Stress is simply the reactions we have to the pressures of everyday life (stressors). Our bodies and minds respond to threats and pressures in different ways. Stress can cause mental and emotional anguish, and can lead to health issues if left unchecked. Recognizing and responding to stress, while managing and limiting the amount of stress in our personal and professional lives is quite important.

Conflict and Stress in the Workplace

What are the potential causes of conflict and stress in the workplace? The answers to this question are many and far-reaching, but some of the most common sources of conflict in the workplace are:

• working conditions,
• difficult personalities, and
• restructuring.

Working Conditions

The day-to-day working conditions of employees and teams have a huge impact on their attitudes, feelings, and performance. If a working condition is perceived to be poor, it can create conflict between an employee and management within the organization. An example of this might be a scarcity of resources. If employees and teams have to share resources with others, and essentially compete for the tools and things that are required to perform their daily job duties, conflict can arise.  

An additional example might be ambiguities in work roles and responsibilities.  Uncertain or unclear job responsibilities can create friction and tensions in the workplace, especially when organizational duties or tasks are not being performed.  This creates conflict.

Yet another example might be when employees just feel unappreciated by managers and the organization. Perhaps a dedicated employee area where all employees can eat lunch uninterrupted, or take a 15-minute break, has not been provided. This might create a feeling of animosity and disappreciation among employees, and cause negative feelings toward management and the organization in general. This can cause conflict.

Difficult Personalities

One of the most common sources of conflict in the workplace revolves around personal disagreements and tensions. Different people have different viewpoints, different backgrounds and experiences, and different attitudes. It is often a great challenge in meshing these differences when working on a team. It often requires give and take, and coming to some reasonable consensus in order to meet objectives and outcomes.

Managing and dealing with difficult personalities in the workplace can be challenging, and often requires a very diplomatic approach. Watch the following video to learn more about strategies to deal with high-conflict personalities.

Restructuring

Restructuring is something that happens on a regular basis within businesses and organizations. It is quite simply a change or reorganization of workflows, processes, teams, departments, or any other workplace process. In order to stay competitive, change is usually required, but unfortunately it is a common source of conflict in the workplace. Imagine working in a department with a team of employees for 10 years, only to have your current manager completely change job titles and responsibilities, as well as, work flows and outcomes. This can realistically create tension and conflict between employees, teams and management.

Managing Conflict in the Workplace

There are two major ways in which people respond to workplace conflict - through cooperation or through assertion. Cooperation involves one person’s desire to satisfy the other’s needs or concerns. Assertion, or assertiveness, involves one person’s desire to satisfy their own individual needs or concerns. Five typical workplace conflict management styles result from varying levels of cooperation and assertiveness:

1. Avoidance
2. Accommodation
3. Competition
4. Compromise
5. Collaboration

Avoidance - Sometimes referred to as withdrawal, avoidance is simply being uncooperative and unassertive. This really means just doing nothing and attempting to avoid a conflict in the hopes that it will just go away.

Accommodation - This conflict management style is about being cooperative, but not assertive. It is sometimes called smoothing. The goal here is to achieve harmony while not creating any further conflict.

Competition - Competition is often referred to as authoritative command. This is a situation where one is highly assertive but does not cooperate. The person generally works against the wishes, views, and perspectives of others and does what they feel is best. Often times a solution is pushed through just based on authority.

Compromise - This is a middle-of-the-road approach. A moderate level of both cooperation and assertiveness is used to come to a healthy compromise. This is where give and take occurs on behalf of all parties involved in the conflict.  Sometimes, this means giving up something, and potentially gaining something.

Collaboration - Collaboration is sometimes called or referred to as a problem-solving approach. Here we have a high level of cooperation, and a high level of assertiveness. This conflict management approach attempts to come to the very best possible resolution - trying to satisfy everyone’s concerns and issues by really working through differences. The attempt is to truly solve the problem so that everyone experiences a win.

Check Your Understanding

Work through the following activity to review your understanding of the five conflict management styles. Match each statement to the correct conflict management style.

Long Description

Restorative Justice

A way of managing and dealing with conflict that is growing in its widespread usage is something called restorative justice. It is an approach that attempts to bring restitution to victims of conflict and crime, in a more personal, respectful and individual healing environment. The attempt is to simply not punish, but bring healing to all involved, and allow everyone involved in, and affected by the conflict, to grow and change.

Watch a brief introduction to the idea of restorative justice.

One of the main goals of restorative justice is to engage in a mediated dialogue and conversation. This is often referred to as dialogue circles as all participants form a circle so that everyone is included, everyone can be seen, and all voices are heard in a respectful and caring atmosphere. 

 You Be The Boss!

Take a look at the following conflict scenarios. Source. Your goal is to analyse the situation and explain how you would handle the problem in order to resolve the conflict that exists. Remember that you are acting as the manager in the scenario. Explain the conflict management style(s) that you think would work best.  

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Scenario 1

Sean works very hard as a restaurant cook and feels the other cooks are not carrying their weight. This is causing conflict among the cooks. Sean decides to talk about the other cooks with the servers. This causes tension and conflict among the employees at the restaurant. 

Scenario 2

Mary did not receive the promotion she felt she deserved. She decides to deliberately instigate a work slowdown which in turn casts the supervisor in a bad light. As a result, and due to the fact that it was a slow month, all employees’ hours have been reduced. 

Scenario 3

Amy works at a salon. She is jealous that the other stylists have a larger clientele base than she does. She is participating in malicious gossip with her customers about other stylists' work or abilities.

Scenario 4

At her recent doctor’s appointment, Susan confided in the nurse about a rather personal matter. After Susan left the doctor’s office, the nurse disclosed the confidential information with the other nurses, and the conversation was easily overheard by patients in the waiting room. 

Scenario 5

Sandra fills out a job application for a position as an executive assistant. She submits a résumé which contains embellished skills, training and experience. She is ultimately selected for the position. She finds herself unable to perform some of the duties as described in the job description and without proper approval, often reassigns her work to the other secretaries. This is causing stress and confusion among the other executive assistants. 

Scenario 6

Cynthia, a restaurant owner, tries to save money by cutting corners. She reuses previously served but uneaten food items. John, the busboy, confronts Cynthia about her actions. She threatens to fire him if he does not comply with her unsanitary practices. 

Scenario 7

During her recent lunch date with her best friend Mary, Judy shares personal details about her failed marriage. Their server, John, overhears some details of confidential information and shares the information with the other servers. What John is not aware of is that the group of other servers includes Judy’s daughter. 

Scenario 8

Joshua works in a daycare center. He has been observed arriving to work late and with a disheveled appearance. The other employees are doing some of Joshua’s duties. When the manager shows up at the daycare centre, Joshua often wants to get credit for work he has not performed. This makes the other employees angry. 

Scenario 9

Anthony is a clerk at a clothing store. He enjoys working there and often associates with the other employees during off time. Anthony was recently promoted to an assistant manager position. He is having a difficult time asserting his new position with the employees because they are not taking him seriously – they still consider Anthony a friend and not a manager. 

 

 

Record your solution to the problem and make sure you identify the potential conflict management strategy you will use. 

Join The Discussion

Stress Management - Stress Reduction Techniques

Effective leaders and managers must be fully aware of the potential signs of stress in employees. They must work hard to alleviate stress and ensure that techniques and strategies are in place to help people who are under too much stress. An employee who is under a great deal of personal or workplace stress is more apt to get sick, take leave time, and really experience a drop in performance and productivity. It is in the best interest of the organization to be proactive in dealing with stress.

Let’s examine some of the more common workplace stress reduction techniques.

1. Wellness Programs

Many very successful organizations have come to the conclusion that supporting their staff and keeping them healthy contributes to more productive workforces.  Organizations now provide wellness programs in order to to do this - not only to reduce stress, but to keep employees healthier. A healthy employee is not sick as often, takes fewer days off, is less stressed, and is generally more productive.  Elements of employee wellness programs might include:

2. Meditation and Breathing Exercises

Meditation is a common technique used to ease stress and create a sense of calmness.

Take the next 11 minutes to experience the use of meditation to help reduce stress. If you cannot commit an uninterrupted 11 minutes now, you might want to come back to this video later. The best approach is to position yourself in a quiet space where you can lie down while listening to the video audio.
 

In addition to meditation, another commonly associated technique for reducing stress is simple breathing exercises. Learn three (3) appropriate stress reduction, or anxiety relief breathing strategies.

3. Time Management Training

A major contributor to stress, as you learned in an earlier activity, is the feeling of being overwhelmed with work - too much workload and not enough time. An employee that is overworked can easily experience high levels of stress on the job.  Sometimes, high levels of workload can be compensated through better time management. Making sure that employees are equipped with time management tools and techniques will ensure less levels of anxiety and stress.

Here is a quick video that could be used to start a staff meeting discussion on improving time management.

4. Work Flexibility

Watch a brief introduction below.

Yet another contributor to personal and workplace stress is normal circumstances of working set hours, at set times, and a set location. Many employees commute long distances to work every single day and are stuck in high levels of traffic congestion.  This can create huge levels of stress in individuals, which can lead to poor performance at work. Flexible working arrangements attempt to reduce this cause of stress.  

Watch a real organizational example.