While we all may ultimately wish that our workplace will always be a harmonious and stress-free one, unfortunately, there are times when we have to deal with conflict in the workplace. In fact, according to an Accountemps survey, senior managers – on average – deal with employee conflicts about sixteen percent of the time.
Additionally, while these types of workplace conflicts affect the productivity of the people who are directly involved, workplace conflicts can also affect other employees. In some cases, employees also are more prone to call in sick to their place of work and/or even seek employment elsewhere.
Why do workplace conflicts occur?
In most cases, conflicts are often the result of personality clashes – other reasons for conflicts include poor management, dishonesty, poor communication and stress. Conflicts can cause a variety of different undesirable behaviors among employees. Some of these behaviors can include verbal disagreement, shouting, badmouthing and choosing to not communicate with other employees.
What can companies do to combat workplace conflict?
One of the best ways to deal with conflict in the workplace is to try to prevent conflict from happening in the first place. Some great ways for organizations to fend off any type of potential conflict in the workplace is to implement the following workplace policies:
· Ensure that employee roles are clear
If everyone is on the same page with respect to what is actually expected of them, conflicts are less likely to occur.
· If a conflict does occur, take care of this situation ASAP.
As with all other problems, it is best to deal with the situation head-on before the workplace conflict results in any more lost productivity.
· Offer interpersonal skills training to your employees and/or managers.
If employees and managers possess the skill sets to deal with these types of situations, they will be better equipped to deal with a conflict if a problem should arise.
Overall then, conflict in the workplace can have serious ramifications; however, organizations can help to minimize these problems by preventing workplace conflict before it occurs.
Larisa Redins is a full time writer and editor with degrees in both Arts and Biological Science. She writes about career issues for ManhattanJobsBlog.com - and creates/edits resumes for a wide net of clients. She additionally writes about other topics for a variety of international websites and magazines. Please visit her other blogs at ManhattanJobsBlog.com and view job posting at ManhattanJobs.com.
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