Conflict in the workplace is very common. Nearly anytime we have people interacting with other people, it isn’t long until some type of conflict develops. Is all conflict bad? Many experts believe that there are many different types or forms of conflict. When managing conflict we may discover that not all conflict is bad, in fact some believe that harmful conflict is really just mismanaged conflict.
The good, bad, and ugly sides of conflict can be described as follows:
Good – learning from conflict, new product or service breakthroughs, appropriate and well managed competition
Bad – ignoring issues, not dealing with situations, criticizing and complaining instead of managing
Ugly – low morale, self protection behaviors, high employee absenteeism and turnover
Effectively managing conflict is the key to minimizing harmful workplace conflict. When working with employees and teams we should adopt a collaborating style to effectively manage conflict. This style which could be described as high on assertiveness and high on cooperativeness will likely produce good conflict when managing conflict situations. Unfortunately many organizations have employees, supervisors, and managers that quickly adopt an avoiding style to managing conflict. When we avoid managing conflict the outcomes are typically bad or ugly. Here are three tips for managing workplace conflict:
- Master the skill of emotional self-control
- Do not shut down or out, stay involved
- Listen carefully – attempt to gain understanding of both sides
Conflict is natural and is not always bad. Employees who approach and manage conflict properly will discover that less time is wasted on dealing with people issues and more time is spent being productive. Are you effective at managing workplace conflict?
No comments:
Post a Comment