Conflict in the Workplace

You may be involved in a conflict in the work place either as an observer or as a key part of it.

 

This can be very disruptive to getting work tasks completed and could take your eye off the ball in terms of safety.

 

You may want to ignore it but the secret to dealing with conflict is to ‘nip it in the bud’ rather than let it fester. If you can’t resolve it yourself then you need to get management involved. Don’t let it get out of hand and try very hard to not make it physical or bullying in nature. This will come back and bite you in some way or other.

 

We wont be able to get on with everyone all of the time but sometimes we need to learn to ‘live with’ people who bother or annoy us. This is better than wasting energy and time on trying to change them. There may be lots of reasons they are behaving how they are – either based on what learnt experienced growing up or due to some other underlying problem. If someone else’s behaviour really makes it impossible for you or your team to get work done then again you need to let management know.

 

If management aren’t able to resolve it you may have to go outside the normal structure eg. involve a mediator or union representative.

 

You can’t win a conflict at work you can only resolve it and find a solution suitable to everyone involved. Winning a conflict means getting the outcome ‘you’ want regardless of what the ‘other’ person wants. Much better than winning a conflict at work is resolving it. Unresolved conflicts make people unhappy at work and can result in antagonism, break-down in communications, inefficient teams, stress and low productivity. Here are essential steps to constructively resolve conflicts at work.