Consider a situation where two people decide to work together to achieve a common goal. Both of these individuals are so focused on achieving the common goal, they totally downplay the possibility that achieving the goal will involve some form of conflict (either internal or external). Some of the internal conflict will be having to work together irrespective of their inconveniences or moods, especially when the ultimate goal becomes the focus. This may lead to one of them having to contain an unpleasant mood in order not to hinder the focus of attaining the common goal. Containing the unpleasant mood for a long period becomes unhealthy, thus brewing into toxins within them and a little misinformation or disagreement concerning their work process may let loose those toxins through hurtful words. The one experiencing the unpleasant mood will lash out at the other to get free of those toxins. This situation, if not addressed properly will climax in destroying their working relationship, leaving the fulfillment of their common goal unattended to.
In working with people, it is imperative to understand that conflict will occur whether we like it or not. Thus, it is only wise to put in measures in a working relationship on how to deal with a conflict or potential conflict situation before they arise. Agreeing to every opinion as a leader just because you don’t want to make people feel bad is certainly no good sign of leadership. Leadership involves handling conflict and dealing with a conflict situation before, during and after their occurrence. To be oblivious to the possibility of conflict as a leader is like disbelieving the undeniable truth that air exists although it can’t be seen or touched.
Workplace conflict arises when disagreements or opposing ideas are not discussed in a prim and proper manner. Leadership involves observing subordinates closely to ensure that their underperformance is based on a genuine problem such as misinformation, unavailability of working resources or perhaps a bad organizational culture and not intentional tantrums thrown into their working relationships with other colleagues to avoid work performance. Leadership involves taking strong decisions that are unbiased for the growth of an entire organization and its people. Conflict resolution is a sign of strong leadership. It makes employees feel safe in the workplace and also develops their confidence in the leader. A leader’s inability to deal with and handle conflict will only result in workplace tension which in the long run affects an employee’s creativity and productivity.
In a workplace setting, conflict usually arises because of issues on employee remuneration, job targets or tasks, unhealthy competition among employees and power struggles especially between line managers. Also communication discrepancies can cause workplace conflict. This generally has to do with who has access to a certain type of information, how the information is communicated, and the time in which it is communicated to achieve the desired result and whether or not the recipient understands the communicated message to act upon it in a timely and efficient manner. Ineffective communication causes undue stress among employees and makes it difficult for them to perform their tasks. At the end of the day, they result to pointing accusing fingers at each other when questioned on their inability to achieve productivity.
In dealing with workplace conflict as a leader, it is first important to be open minded about the occurrence of conflict in your organization. Be aware that conflict will arise. Your awareness creates room for you to embrace and tackle conflict head-on when it arises. Being open minded about the occurrence of conflict will give you enough time to model solutions in place to solve workplace conflicts as and when they arise. Thus, when the conflict situation eventually occurs, you resort to implementing these model solutions based on the type of conflict. For example, conflict is likely to arise when worker A fails to send his or her report on time to worker B who also needs the same report to complete their work and report his or her findings. Although worker A may always have plausible explanations for their inability to report to worker B, an ideal model solution already put in place will help deal with this issue when it is realized worker A’s actions are becoming habitual. This way, the conflict is tackled head on before it escalates. As a leader, also make sure the model solutions put in place to handle certain kinds of workplace conflicts are known to all employees. That way, when an issue occurs, employees are more likely to follow the reporting line than take matters into their own hands.
Another proactive way of handling workplace conflicts is to define acceptable organizational behaviour. Every organization should have a clearly written Organizational Citizenship Behaviour (OCB). OCB generally refers to the way employees, management and all stakeholders of an organization are expected to relate with each other within the organization (internally) and outside the organization (externally). A clearly written OCB will help define what behaviours are acceptable in an organization and which ones are not. The details of a written OCB should periodically be communicated with existing employees as well as to new employees during their orientation into a new working environment. A written OCB will help deal with issues such as workplace politics or discussing and showcasing political views at work (totally unacceptable behaviour because it can cause strife among colleagues) and workplace romance which is also unacceptable workplace behaviour.
Conflict resolution is key to promoting a safer, healthier and productive work environment. Leaders must embrace conflict as a possibility and not a probability and put in effective measures or model solutions to deal with conflicts before, when and after they arise.
