- Important to take action early
Unresolved conflicts in the workplace can lead to a poor working environment, high levels of sick leave, frequent staff turnover and poor performance. As a manager, it's important to address the conflict early on to prevent it from escalating.
- Often it is a lack of experience and knowledge that prevents many managers from addressing the conflict before it develops," says Stine Melfald. She is a leadership developer at FRONT Leadership and has worked with conflict management in a large number of companies. In her experience, many managers find it both uncomfortable and scary to enter into conflicts.
- "In some companies, managers have not received much leadership training prior to taking on the leadership role, and we see that this is the group that struggles the most because they don't know how to handle conflicts. Training and developing managers so that they are equipped to handle difficult situations is therefore very important," Melfald points out.
Be aware of changes
Through FRONT Leadership's leadership development program she teaches managers to identify early signs of conflict. This enables them to address the conflict at an early stage so that it does not escalate.
- "What can be a sign that there is a conflict in the workplace is that a pattern begins to form in relation to increased sick leave and frequent turnover of employees. "What I talk a lot with managers about is 'the difficult conversation' that comes before a very serious conflict. The aim is to avoid such violent conflicts in the workplace," she says.
The most common conflicts
According to figures from National Institute of Occupational Health and Safety (STAMI) 28 percent of Norwegians report that they are often or sometimes involved in unpleasant conflicts in the workplace. The word conflict means "to clash", and occurs when two or more employees in the workplace have trouble getting along. This will eventually create such major challenges that it also affects the working environment of others in the workplace.
- The most common conflict that arises is irritation at a colleague who is underperforming and not handling their job well enough. Other causes of conflict can be behavior that doesn't work with the rest of the group, language barriers, misunderstandings and lack of communication," says Melfald.
Unclear leadership can have negative consequences
Although all employees have a responsibility to ensure that they and their colleagues are happy at work, it is the manager who bears the main responsibility if a conflict arises in the workplace. According to Melfald, workplace challenges are very often caused by unclear leadership and a lack of manager involvement in the team.
- A manager always has the overall responsibility for ensuring that employees perform and thrive at work. A manager should have such a good relationship with their employees that they notice changes in individuals in the group. If you have a good relationship with your employees and there is mutual trust, conflicts are largely avoided. When there is a lack of presence, clear leadership and clear ground rules for how to behave in the workplace, conflicts or challenges are more likely to arise," she points out.
Read also: 15:3 conversation: For ongoing dialog between manager and employee
Take action early and be a neutral facilitator
To prevent conflicts in the workplace from getting out of control, it is essential that managers take action early on.
- "I've worked with conflict management in many companies, and what I've experienced is that where managers have left conflict management to the employees, the problem often escalates. The key to preventing a conflict from escalating is to take action early on and take responsibility for cleaning up the situation, rather than hoping it will go away by itself," says Melfald. She also emphasizes that it's not a manager's job to resolve everything, because that's the job of those involved in the conflict, but the manager should be a neutral facilitator.
- The manager must be present, hear both sides of the issue and facilitate conversations so that employees can reach an agreement. In addition, a plan must be drawn up. The manager is responsible for following up afterwards, having conversations with those concerned, hearing whether things are improving, and following up some time afterwards to ensure that everything has been resolved. Many managers fail to do this. They think they're done and don't follow up afterwards," she says. If a manager feels insecure or needs support, the HR department can assist in the process. It's also important to be early in the process so that solutions can be found early on and the conflict can be quelled.
Conflicts can result in something good
While conflict can cause a lot of discomfort for all parties involved, conflict can also be positive for the organization.
- More managers should be open to the fact that a conflict can be positive because it can bring up a number of issues and clear up the mess that lies in the workplace. In addition, you can get input and new ideas on the table. A conflict isn't necessarily scary, but it's the way you handle the conflict that determines whether the outcome is positive or negative," concludes Melfald.
