Workplace disputes are inevitable. Regrettably, many such conflicts end up in the courts for resolution. In addition to consuming incredible amounts of money, time and energy, lawsuits often ruin long-standing relationships with employees, suppliers, customers, and shareholders.

It is common in most workplaces to find reluctance to confront a colleague about behavior that’s distracting, unprofessional, or just plain rude. But avoiding the problem can affect morale and productivity. Unresolved or mismanaged conflict is costly. Studies show that 24-60% of management time and energy is spent dealing with anger. There is no doubt that this leads to increased stress among employees, hampered performance and absenteeism, which, in the ends reflects in decreased productivity.

While it might be tempting to think that an employee’s skills and motivation are the main reasons for performance problems, researchers now estimate that strained relationships between employees have the most significant part of reason (65%).* Researchers agree that the reasons conflicts might appear into an organization are various. But a survey of thousands of US managers involved in some sort of workplace dispute documented the disturbing results on productivity:

• 48% decreased their work effort
• 47% decreased their time at work
• 38% decreased their work quality
• 66% said their performance declined
• 80% lost work time worrying about the incident
• 63% lost time avoiding the offender
• 78% said their commitment to the organization declined

Leaders in the workplace need to acknowledge not only the inevitability of conflict, but also its importance in the organization. When viewed as an opportunity for growth, disagreements in perspective, strategy, knowledge and competency can become crucibles in which creative solutions are developed and wise trade-offs among competing objectives are made. We believe that instead of trying simply to reduce disagreements, senior executives need to embrace conflict and, just as important, institutionalize mechanisms for managing it within their organization.

Our experience with groups across the country shows that periodic, facilitated conversations among work teams by a neutral third party can prevent existing differences from developing into conflict, while at the same time, helping to manage underlying conflicts that are often long-standing between individuals and departments. The discipline of clear, respectful communication is a cornerstone of this work, as well as a developed understanding of how change and the rate of change can contribute to workplace stress and conflict.

Our work in the area of workplace dispute resolution has produced proven results. As mediators committed to just, respectful and productive workplaces, we work in partnership with HR and organizational leaders to help create systems that openly name and embrace conflict in order to improve the quality of product and performance for all involved.

*”How Toxic Colleagues Corrode Performance,” Harvard Business Review (April 2009)
by Christine Porath and Christine Pearson

Carol Guenther, Senior Consultant and Mediator
The Reid Group