Workplace conflict management is more important than you think. While disagreements between coworkers cause discomfort, they can be a catalyst for improving teamwork and team growth. Here are some ways to deal with them.
Sometimes disputes between coworkers are easy to emerge, especially when you are working with various people from diverse backgrounds. It can stem from anything: conflicting goals and priorities, miscommunication, personality clashes, and even cultural differences.
When these clashes are not addressed properly, they can lead to workplace discomfort, potentially disturbing the business process. With this in mind, workplace conflict management is one of the important softskills to have as an employee. Learn more about it below.
Why Addressing Workplace Conflict is Important
Workplace conflicts don't necessarily have to be a big clash. Most of it starts with a small miscommunication between colleagues that snowballs into a bigger matter. A 2020 workplace conflict report written by CIPD stated that minor disagreements between people were common, and over a third (35%) of their respondents had experienced some form of interpersonal conflict at work.
However, when left unattended, these ‘common’ workplace conflicts can lead to consequences that will affect the company. For instance, unresolved conflict creates a toxic workplace environment. It will lead to several negative outcomes, like employees' negative attitude towards their work and the organization, loss of productivity, lower morale and trust, and even employee turnover.
Before a conflict becomes a bigger and harder challenge to tackle, it’s better to deal with it early on. As an employer, this is also a part of employee wellbeing support—by identifying and resolving workplace conflict preliminarily, it helps create a safe and respectful working environment, benefitting both the employees and employers alike.
Conflict Management Strategies
Harvard Business School (HBS) mentioned the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Model as an effective strategy for approaching a conflict. One strategy might not be as effective as the others; it all depends on the situation. Take a look at the details below.
Avoiding
Avoiding the conflict altogether is best suited for situations where the relationship and long-term goal are not important. This is not suitable for workplace conflict where collaborations between employees are important, but it can be performed for temporary situations such as hearing people talk loudly in public transportation.
Competing
Competing is a strategy where you assert your opinion and directly put an end to the conflict. As implied, this strategy offers little room for cooperation, which can put your relationship with other employees unders strain. With that in mind, this strategy is best suited for pressing matters or only in situations where you need to assert your authority.
Accommodating
With an accommodating strategy, you give in to the other party’s needs and remove your opinion off the table. Accommodation is useful when the other person is hostile and you don’t have a strong opinion on the matter. However, when this strategy is used too often, it may nurture an unfair feeling and lead to employee dissatisfaction.
Compromising
When you are compromising with the other party, it means that neither of you achieves your full goal—it’s a lose-lose strategy. This strategy is suitable when the situation is not urgent, but you want to quickly find a mutually acceptable solution that works for everybody. In some situations, compromising is better than accommodating since there is no side that fully takes the ‘fall’.
Collaborating
Collaboration is mostly ideal for workplace conflicts, because it’s a strategy that requires all parties to work together to find a solution that benefits all. Doing a collaboration needs every participant to fully engage with the matter and actively brainstorm the solution. It promotes mutual understanding and teamwork. However, this strategy takes time and might be unsuitable for urgent situations.
Final Thoughts
At the end of the day, disagreements in a work environment are unavoidable, especially if you are working with a diverse team in a multinational company. Workplace conflict management is the strategy to redirect the problem and work towards a solution that works for all. By referencing the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode, you can treat conflicts differently according to their urgency and importance. Whether it’s competing or collaborating, it’s about turning the strain into something that will strengthen your teamwork to achieve the common goal together.
Next read: Keeping Your Cool: How to Survive Toxic Coworkers
