The workplace is a locus of employees belonging to distinct backgrounds, diverse personalities, and opinions. It's no doubt to illustrate that discord or conflict is bound to occur starting from mini disagreements to large blowups. Among the various skills and responsibilities of HR, the competency of recognizing the conflict amidst the organization between the employees, understanding the root cause of the workplace conflict, and finding out the ultimate solutions for such conflicts fall upon the categories of major potential of HR leaders and managers.
Workplace conflict can be referred to as an uncomfortable situation if left unaddressed may spark a bigger issue in the workplace often leading to missed deadlines, resentment, and even big losses for both companies and employees. Also, the conflict in the workplace may result in increasing mental stress leading to higher job dissatisfaction, absenteeism, poor communication, lower productivity, and depletion in the quality of work in the workplace. Hence, conflict management is also one of the fundamental skills and responsibilities of HR.
Conflict can emerge in the workplace due to various reasons enumerated below:
i) Poor and ineffective communication
ii) Frustration and resentment in employees due to insufficient and ambiguous information
iii) Abrupting communication in the workplace due to excessive Noise
iv) Differing values, opinions, and privy thoughts with varied personalities of the employees
v) Biases, stereotypes, and perceptions of fairness with variations in learning and processing styles
vi) Competing priorities and perceived inequities
vii) Differences in point of view including political and social disagreements
Whenever human resources are engaged, conflict inevitably occurs in that place which is very uncomfortable. Conflict is not only demonstrated as catfights of war but it's an opposition of others’ values and non-alignment between people regarding ideas and personalities. Some common types of conflict that arise in the workplace can be illustrated as follows:
1) Task-based conflict: As the word suggests, task-based conflict occurs from the tasks and responsibilities at the workplace. It involves the processes of the disputes that arose due to various views in the final deliverables. For example, two department heads argue over budget allocation on plant and machinery. A collaborative approach is the best method to resolve this kind of conflict.
2) Relationship-based conflict: This kind of conflict occurs when people or employees don't get along with each other due to variations in personalities and managerial and communication styles. Diverse people work in a single organization and workplace inclusion is a must. When there is no smooth communication going on, the organizational goals can't be achieved without the productive collaboration of all the employees.
3) Value-based conflict: When there is a misalignment in the values at the workplace including perceived ethics and disagreements in decisions or beliefs, conflicts can arise from a mini argument leading to a whacking dispute between the employees.
As a responsible and answerable HR, he/she must address his/her ethical and legal responsibilities and consider the following themes for conflict resolution.
- What's the ultimate Good for the well-being of the employee?
- What are the entitlements(rights) and moral obligations(duties) to receive and perform?
- What are the aspirational standards backed up with higher norms and values?
- What are the legitimate and fair treatments equally justifiable to all the people?
- To identify bigger issues
- To build healthy relationships between the people
- To boost individual and organizational productivity
- To increase employee morale and quality of work
- To develop leadership skills in conflict resolution with effective strategies
Conflict management is a very fundamental skill that every HR leader or manager must possess. Resolving conflicts requires analytical measures with effective communication and active listening skills. Some of the best tips for HR professionals to manage workplace conflict can be illustrated as follows:
HR leaders must accept the situation that the problem has emerged and they should commit themselves to finding the most effective techniques for the resolution of the conflict. For this, they must devote a certain time to the investigation of the case or conflict. Before announcing the final verdict, he/she must excavate the root cause of the problem regarding the engaged parties in the conflict, why the conflict has occurred, and many more. To understand deeply, HR must organize confidential and personalized meetings with the parties involved and summarize their sayings in brief.
As mentioned in the previous point, HR professionals must undergo private and honest conversations with the parties to understand in-depth the root cause of the problem. They must set ground rules to establish a positive environment around the employees to make them feel that they are HEARD and that their opinions are respected. They must be allowed to express their viewpoints and sayings.
When common goals are set up in the organization, employees feel easier to interactions. They devote their time and dedication to the achievement of that common goal together. Under the conflict resolution process, a psychological tool for handling conflict can be used that involves five resolution strategies known as Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument (TKI) i.e.:
- Avoiding
- Competing
- Accommodating
- Compromising (Lose-Lose strategy)
- Collaborating (Win-win strategy)
Once the issues are identified and the solutions are executed, HR must observe if the solutions are working effectively or not. For this, follow-up meetings are mandatory. One should note down if those solutions are minimizing the conflict or contributing more spark to the existing conflict. Hence, necessary action should be taken if the conflict is not sorted out after the first attempt at conflict resolution. This enables the HR professionals to identify key takeaways and valuable insights to prevent future conflicts and foster team dynamics. These takeaways should be documented and shared along with the team members.
Assertive communication is a must in conflict resolution. The involved participants should feel about the viewpoints being listened to. Before jumping to any rigid conclusion, HR must address the opinions exhibited by them and listen to them before setting one’s objections or disagreements. They must know the triggers, sensations, and responses of the parties involved.
When HR possesses Emotional Intelligence, they do not express anger for the parties involving the country but they try to understand the main cause of the problem and find out the effective strategies to be taken into action. Self-awareness and self-management are two of the terms that HR must include as the additional skills for conflict resolution.
In a summarized version, the tips for HR professionals for conflict management can be pointed out as:
- Take a moment to accept the normalcy that yes, conflict occurs
- Have a conversation with the parties involved in the conflict
- Manage the reactions before jumping to the ultimate conclusion
- Address the necessary actions when the first or second attempt fails to resolve the conflict
- Find out measures to look for collaborative agreements and forgiveness
- Develop a common goal accepted by all
- Respect and consider the values of all
- Get HELP from outside parties in case of urgency.
Conflict can spring up from a primal impulse and can grow into a Lilliputian one. Hence, HR professionals must develop conflict management as an imperative skill to boost the productivity and morale of the employees and establish healthy relationships among the human resources.