Although conflicts arise frequently in the workplace, they are never pleasant and, if ignored, can swiftly become major obstacles. Workplace stress, dissatisfaction with one’s employment, increased absenteeism, decreased productivity, low morale, and decreased quality of work are all possible outcomes of unaddressed conflicts.
Since Conflicts are bound to arise, resolving and managing them efficiently is more important than trying to prevent them entirely. Disagreements don’t have to get out of control if workers deal with problems the right way.
Conflict is inevitable in any setting where people live, work, and interact. Workplace conflicts are inevitable due to the diverse backgrounds, personalities, perspectives, and everyday lives of employees. Knowing its causes and potential solutions will help you navigate it more effectively.
Workplace conflict: what is it?
Disputes between coworkers, whether real or imagined, are known as workplace conflict. Needs, beliefs, values, and interests frequently clash, leading to conflicts. Whether it’s through animosity, absenteeism, or changes in behaviour, workplace conflicts come in many forms, and they all hurt your organisation in their own way.
However, disagreements are natural and often beneficial components of every professional relationship, so let’s just say that they aren’t the same thing as conflict. If, for instance, a secretary and a manager have different ideas on how to add new furniture to the workplace, the team as a whole may benefit from a compromise that takes into account everyone’s needs. The process of finding solutions to problems always begins with a healthy argument.
If your management and personnel were mindless yes-men, you’d have solutions that were never refined beyond rough draughts. Disagreements that cause a halt to the progress of tasks constitute true workplace conflict. When a conflict escalates into something personal, hinders team members’ ability to execute their duties, or damages the work atmosphere, it’s time to intervene.
The impact of workplace conflict
Conflict resolution skills are useful in the workplace for more than just keeping people from getting angry. An unhealthy, toxic culture can develop when there is actual conflict at work.
- Conflict in the workplace can have far-reaching effects, including:
- Outright threats and derogatory remarks
- Disappearance and sick leave
- Departmental rivalry
- Bullying
- Workers quitting
- Termination of coworkers
- Transferring team members to different divisions
- The ventures that fail
A healthy, demanding workplace is different from this. Promoting a sense of psychological safety is essential for a culture that values constructive disputes. When workers have a psychologically safe space, they are more likely to speak out and ask questions.
Types of workplace conflicts
Once the root causes of a workplace conflict have been identified, it becomes much easier to resolve. Understanding the many forms of workplace conflict can help you deal with and avoid them, as not all disagreements are the same.
Individual characteristics
Everyone has had to deal with a coworker whose eccentric nature got under their skin. An example of a personality conflict that often arises in the workplace is the age-old rivalry between extroverts and introverts.
To provide just one example, an introverted coworker’s desire to skip a workplace party could put an extrovert off, where they feel the introvert doesn’t value their interactions. These kinds of workplace conflict stories are regular and inherent to the human experience.
Dissimilarities in culture
Disputes arising from cultural differences are not uncommon. For example, a Yoruba staff might prefer to add a prefix to a co-worker’s name, e.g., sister Joy or Ms Mary, but an Igbo staff have a tendency to call people by their names directly. This is sometimes an unintentional difference.
When people from different cultures fail to understand one another, it can lead to misunderstandings and even animosity. Even if they work for different departments, this can happen when they need to collaborate. Coworkers may view an employee coming from a more laid-back company as unprofessional if they use too many emoticons or exclamation points in group chat.
Conflicts based on tasks
Tasks assigned to workers can result in conflict in many instances, such as:
- Inadequate dialogue between teams
- Conflict in the distribution of resources
- Irritation about outdated methods
- Disputes about responsibilities and due dates
An organisation’s demand for transparent documentation, procedures, and duties and responsibilities is a common cause of this kind of dispute.
Creativity and innovation
Disagreement arises in the workplace when employees hold divergent views on what constitutes creative thinking and innovation. As an example, a client’s content strategy may differ from the recommendations of two content strategists.
While one would like to establish a formal tone for the business through articles and blogs, the other would rather use social media to promote a more informal tone. Disagreements that spark new ideas can be beneficial; the key is to avoid escalating tensions at work.
Method of work
Disagreement arises in the workplace when individuals’ preferred methods of work are incompatible with one another. It is one of the leading sources of tension in the workplace and one that almost everyone has dealt with at some point.
An excellent example would be an employee who prefers to work alone in a secluded area, engaging in a state of “deep work” when they concentrate intently. But their coworker is more into lively office conversations and brainstorming.
Approach to leadership
Conflicts can arise from above in the workplace, and it’s important to know how to handle them. Conflicts can arise when business leaders with different leadership styles try to impose their own style of management on their teams who are used to another style.
Leadership styles vary in the business world, and although some may work wonders at certain points in your company’s development, others may be disastrous.
Discrimination
Conflicts based on discrimination arise when one person passes judgment on another person based on factors such as their values, gender, religion, lifestyle, or race. This kind of disagreement could stem from unconscious bias or outright prejudice.
Some instances of conflicts that arose in the workplace due to prejudice are as follows:
- A warehouse worker’s assumptions about his female coworker’s intellectual capacity lead to sexist remarks.
- After learning another employee’s religious beliefs and affiliations, one employee refuses to work with them.
Some of the most common causes of conflict in the workplace are:
- Having trouble communicating or misunderstanding
- Divergent perspectives, personalities, or points of view
- Preconceptions or prejudices
- Differences in how people take in information
- Feelings of injustice
Despite how prevalent conflicts are, many people still struggle to resolve them, particularly when they include coworkers. Conflicts with other managers are inevitable in management roles, and you’ll have to mediate team issues when they arise.
What makes resolving conflicts at work crucial?
The absence of conflict is not remedied by acting as though it does not exist. Missed deadlines, simmering discontent, and failed endeavours are the results of ignoring problems. Still, most workers deal with tough situations by avoiding them.
To put it mildly, avoiding a tough conversation can reduce productivity. Fostering healthy dispute resolution and creating a safe, productive work environment for employees are the responsibilities of a good leader.
5 ways to get rid of workplace conflicts
Both employees and the company overall, will benefit from swift and amicable conflict resolution. In order to begin, familiarise yourself with the five methods of dispute resolution:
- Avoiding
- Competing
- Accommodating
- Compromising
- Collaborating
1. Avoiding conflict
When the stakes and purpose of the relationship are minimal, avoidance is the way to go. These situations probably won’t come up at work, but they could happen to you every day.
Take the scenario of sitting in the reception of a hospital while waiting to see the doctor, and the patient sitting next to you is playing loud music on their phone. You probably won’t run across that person again, so disregarding the music is a reasonable way to avoid confrontation.
However, avoiding confrontations at work can backfire, especially when your ambitions are high, and your relationships with coworkers are valuable. Keep in mind that while there are some scenarios in which you should avoid conflict, such instances are very rare in the workplace since you have to deal with the situation regularly unlike the temporary hospital visit.
2. Competition
Even while it’s not the best tactic for most workplace conflicts, competing can be effective in certain circumstances. When you value your objective over your connections with others, this conflict style will work for you. Here, assertiveness is high, and cooperation is low.
In a crisis, you might decide on a competing style. For example, taking leadership and being assertive can help someone who is unconscious receive medical attention more quickly if there is disagreement about what to do. It can also be used in situations where you feel uncomfortable and when defending yourself is necessary. In those situations, your connections with other people are less important than standing up for yourself and getting to safety.
You run the danger of undermining trust, as well as teamwork, creativity, and productivity, when you employ a competing style in circumstances when your relationships with a coworker actually matter.
3. Accommodation
You can try accommodating the other party’s demands in order to resolve the issue. When the connection is more important than the outcome, be accommodating. For instance, if you suggest skydiving as a recreational activity for the team and a coworker admits that they are scared of heights, you can end the disagreement by withdrawing your first suggestion.
This comes in handy when dealing with unpleasant or angry people or when you simply do not have a firm stance on the subject. Taking your objective out of the picture instantly de-escalates the fight. While it’s acceptable to be accommodating in the workplace, you should consider whether it’s really helping you avoid confrontation. Just giving in when someone disagrees with you could kill any chance of coming up with a new solution or innovative idea.
As a manager, you should keep an eye out for signs that your staff often resort to accommodating others. Greater cooperation can result from fostering good discourse in a safe environment.
4. Compromise
One way to resolve a problem is to compromise, which entails giving up some of your demands in exchange for the other party’s acceptance of your concessions. A ‘lose-lose’ approach is one in which neither party fully benefits. When your level of commitment to the relationship and the objective is moderate, this tactic will serve you well. You cherish the relationship, but not to the point that you give up on your goal, as in an accommodation.
You and a colleague may, for instance, indicate an interest in taking the lead on a forthcoming project. You might reach a middle ground by leading it together, or you might each agree that one person leads one of the tasks and the second leads another. Realising that you can’t have it both ways and being able to swallow your pride are two qualities necessary for compromise. Good things will come out of it if you and the other person put your relationship first and work together to find a solution that works for both of you.
5. Collaboration
Working together yields more benefits than compromising ever could. Motivating you and the other person to work together to discover a solution that satisfies everyone’s demands is the fact that your relationship and your aim are both significant in collaborative situations.
If one of your employees is severely underperforming, you’ll need to work together to find a solution. Finding a way to improve their performance is just as critical as keeping the relationship strong and positive. By recasting the disagreement as a team effort, you can more easily learn what’s causing it and how to fix it, which in turn can boost productivity and morale in the workplace.
Most workplace issues are best resolved through collaboration. Setting and achieving goals is essential, but so is getting along well with coworkers. In order to discover original answers to challenges, encourage teamwork wherever possible. Finding a middle ground is an option if you are unable to come up with a mutually beneficial solution.
How a leader can effectively handle conflict in the workplace
As a leader, it is your responsibility to resolve your personal problems and assist team members in doing the same while considering ethical, legal, and financial obligations to employees.
Leadership, Ethics, and Corporate Accountability outline the following five-part ethical duty to employees:
- Well-being: An employee’s well-being is their most important asset.
- Rights: Employees have legal rights to a specific treatment.
- Duty: Leaders have an ethical duty to act in a certain manner.
- Ideal Practice: Strive for best practices that meet but are not mandated by law or social convention.
- Justice: Treat employees fairly and without bias.
When resolving workplace disputes as a leader, consider the following three forms of equity:
- Relational Equity: Employees have legitimate expectations based on past interactions with the company.
- Procedural Fairness: Managers should consistently and impartially resolve disputes.
- Distributive Fairness: Ensure fair distribution of opportunities, benefits, and liabilities.
When mediating disputes:
- Avoid taking a stance on issues of procedural fairness.
- Give each side an equal opportunity to speak and be heard.
- Strive for a solution that accomplishes the goal while preserving or improving relationships.
To reduce the likelihood of disagreements and ensure everyone is happy with the outcome:
- Foster an inclusive environment.
- Develop strong team relationships.
- Employ people through talent assessments.
- Consider relocating impacted workers to a quiet, safe area or promoting peaceful conversation.
Although conflicts are almost inevitable, by following the above guidelines, leaders can effectively handle conflict in the workplace and create a positive and productive work environment.
Read also: How To Implement Effective Communication in the Workplace: 13 Tips
