Thomas Jordan - Conflict Management in the Workplace: Understand, Navigate, Prevent

This book looks at what happens when conflicting opinions arise about how an issue should be resolved or when there are feelings of irritation concerning the behavior of others. In particular focus here are workplace conflicts, but the contents of the book are largely relevant to conflicts occurring in other contexts as well. Differences of opinion and feelings of irritation are natural, everyday phenomena, but they can be handled in different ways. Conflicts that are allowed to drift over onto destructive paths can have various negative consequences, the most obvious of which are the personal frustration and suffering experienced by those directly involved which, if worst comes to worst, can lead to illness absence from work and burnout. People who find themselves involved in a conflict often have great difficulties communicating and cooperating with each other, which leads to work of lower quality. Poor handling of conflicts affects the atmosphere at the workplace as a whole; it also leads to energy being spent on struggling with the conflict (and its psychological and practical consequences) energy that could have been spent on something better. If the person in charge does not assume responsibility for dealing with a conflict that the involved parties cannot resolve on their own, confidence in the organizations leadership will be undermined. This may have repercussions for the entire workplace, over and above the specific conflict at hand.

In connection with my courses on conflict management, I meet a great many people from different parts of working life. One tool I often use in these courses is the 9-step model of conflict escalation presented in Chapter 3. I usually ask participants whether they have personal experience of conflicts that have reached Step 5 or more in the escalation ladder, that is, conflicts that have become so severe that they have caused almost irreparable damage to the relationships between the involved parties. If the course participants are more experienced leaders, human relations specialists or union representatives, it is typical for well over half of them to respond in the affirmative to this question. This means that even if you have not yet experienced such a difficult conflict, there is a relatively good chance that you will do so sooner or later.

Having knowledge about conflicts, and the skills to manage them, is not, however, only a matter of avoiding unpleasantness. Skillfully managing a conflict may result in tangible benefits for both individuals and the organization. There is hardly any experience that can create such a strong feeling of trust and confidence as that of successfully dealing with a very difficult situation in a dignified and constructive manner. At a workplace that has never really been put to the test, one does not know what to expect of others even if the work atmosphere has been good so far. Skillful conflict management may even serve as an important driving force in the organizations development and learning processes, particularly when people learn from what has occurred and take measures to solve underlying problems that enabled the conflict in the first place.

When we get involved in conflicts, we are part of and affect their course whether we like it or not. Sometimes imprudent reactions get the upper hand; sometimes we try to do what we think is right, but things dont turn out like we wanted. Even with the help of knowledge about and skills in conflict management, there is no guarantee that all the conflicts one faces can be resolved in a way that will satisfy all of the involved parties. However, conflict management skills can make a great difference in the outcome for oneself and others. If one also works purposefully toward building up and maintaining a robust collaboration culture, an environment can be created in which conflicts are very unlikely to become destructive in nature. I have a German colleague, Volker Buddrus, who compiled a report with the provocative title Konfliktermglichung in der Schule (Enabling Conflict in the Schools). His idea is that we have to enable open, constructive work with conflicts, as opposed to suppressing or ignoring them. To be sure, it may not be particularly well-advised to invest time and energy in all of the conflicts we hear about, but it is nonetheless desirable to defuse conflict situations and to see them as manageable and perhaps at best as opportunities for development.

The subsequent chapters provide tools for seeing, understanding and managing conflicts. Chapter 2 and 3 offer concepts and models that allow us to perceive and understand conflicts. The field of knowledge concerning conflict management is normally associated with skills in constructively dealing with disagreements and collaboration difficulties. Chapter 4 provides an overview of the challenges posed when one takes on the task of trying to manage conflicts constructively. In Chapter 5, we look at self-awareness and the consequences of lack of self-awareness, which is one of the most important aspects of developing conflict management skills. Chapter 6 deals with the craft of communication, that is, how we use the two main elements of communication listening and advocating as problem-solving tools. Being able to deal skillfully with conflict situations is a valuable capacity, but it is only one of three important tasks (Figure 1.1).

Figure 1.1 The three tasks of conflict management

In the long run, being able to prevent conflicts by establishing a robust collaboration culture in which disagreements and feelings of frustration are typically dealt with directly and constructively is a more important skill than being able to deal with acute conflict situations. Having a robust collaboration culture entails having good communication practices and tools for recognizing emerging conflicts and steering them onto constructive paths. With these things in place, there is a low risk of conflicts developing into protracted, destructive processes. This concerns much more than preventing conflicts, because it involves how we communicate with each other, how we collaborate and how we create work communities in which genuine learning takes place. Among other things, a learning organization is one where people actually reflect on what is not working and search for ways to prevent similar problems from arising in the future. Chapter 7 provides suggestions of strategies for managing conflicts that are not quickly and easily resolved. Finally, in Chapter 8, we look at organizational strategies for long-term work with building up robust collaboration cultures and with making it as easy as possible for employees at the workplace to resolve issues at early stages.

One of the eternal questions facing us humans is how we should deal with disagreements and feelings of irritation. Various approaches have prevailed throughout history and across cultures. In a broad perspective, it may be fruitful to consider three conflict management approaches that have played a prominent role in working life in the West: the power-based approach, the rights-based approach and the needs-based approach (Ury, Brett & Goldberg 1988).

Looking back in history, we see that the power-based approach prevailed. This means quite simply that when differences of opinion or cooperation difficulties arose, the leader decided the outcome and the others had to accept it. For this approach to work, there had to be clear power hierarchies and power resources enabling those in power to enforce their decisions. One advantage of the power-based approach is that conflicts can be resolved quickly. One disadvantage is that it is totally dependent on the motives and skills of those in power. If the way is clear for an unprofessional, ignorant, egocentric or neurotic leader to do as he or she pleases, the result can be a great deal of misery for employees.