Conflict Resolution in the Workplace: Top 5 Powerful Conflict Resolution Hacks

Introduction

Conflicts are as common as work deadlines or school exams. People think and feel differently about different things, their needs and expectations vary, and thus, conflicts are bound to rise. Workplaces, where a team works for a common goal, are common places of conflict because team members will differ in their ideas regarding the best way to achieve the goal. Therefore, conflict resolution is an important concern across workplaces.

Conflict Resolution In The Workplace

Workplace conflicts are a growing concern and need attention to ensure that desired productivity and quality of work are maintained. There are a number of factors to be considered regarding conflict resolution.

1. Embrace Conflict Resolution: Every workplace will have people from different cultural, socio-economic and educational background. They bring with them different skill sets, values and energy levels. So, arising of conflicts should be normalized and focus should be more on resolving it than forcing to prevent it.
2. Proactive conflict resolution support: The administration in workplaces should recognize this concern and take responsibility for supporting conflict resolution rather than leaving it to the employees to sort it out by themselves.
3. Open conflict resolution: Just like workplace conflicts should be normalized, conflicts that are to be addressed and resolved and not carried with should also be normalized. This is especially important for employees who are working under a team leader to not feel helpless in the hands of authority.

Conflict Resolution Strategies

There are a number of ways to handle conflicts. A few things that should be kept in mind when dealing with conflicts are:

1. Perspective diversity: It is important to acknowledge the fact people will have different perspectives on a certain situation or problem, and none’s perspective is right or wrong.
2. Open Mind: Instead of being trying to be rigid about one’s stand, a healthier way is to keep an open mind and try to make sense of other viewpoints.
3. Respectful communication: Respectful communication is very important. In communicating, taking an approach of conveying what one thinks or feels rather than establishing how it should be can help both parties engage in a meaningful discussion about the issue.
4. Over-collaboration: Engaging too many people who are not part of the problem should be checked to avoid overload of varied inputs ultimately resulting in more chaos.

Dealing With Conflict In The Workplace

An effective handling of conflicts in the workplace warrants serious attention. It is necessary to ensure productivity and harmony at work (Sanjaya et al., 2022). 

1. Organizational Framework: Every workplace operates with rules and regulations, a vision and mission, and expectations of employees and workers to contribute to the organisation’s goals. 
2. Employee expectations: At the same time, every employee expects certain things out of their job, be it growth, incentive, or effective utilisation of their skills and potential. 
3. Conflicting interests: The demands and expectations of so many people in a common space will not align at times, and that’s usual. 
4. Foster open conflict resolution:It is important for the organisation to normalise this for the employees so that they are willing to address conflicts rather than avoiding or denying them. 
5. Professionalism and respect: It is also very important to have mutual respect among the workers and prioritise work goals and organisational benefits over personal grievances.

Communication And Conflict Resolution In The Workplace

Communication is the key to solving many problems, including conflicts. It has been seen that poor quality of communication is one of the most significant causal factors in workplace conflicts (Varma & Gupta, 2023). One of the most important ways to resolve conflicts also lies in communication (Varma & Gupta, 2023). Many times, it so happens that employees working under a leader or boss fear conveying their end of the story, anticipating harsh consequences. 

While it is important to give due respect to authority positions, asserting oneself does not come out as defiance or disrespect. The ones in managerial positions should also be open enough to respect the viewpoints of different workers and should accept differences in opinion positively. In short, a key to healthy communication in the workplace is bearing the mindset of ‘agree to disagree.’ An atmosphere of proper communication sets the space for the effective resolution of conflicts.

5 Conflict Resolution Strategies In The Workplace

As discussed, conflicts are bound to happen and workforce should be psychologically equipped to resolve it. The five strategies that can help are discussed.

1. Openness– Keep an open mind and an attitude of accommodation and incorporation. Taking a keen interest in knowing and understanding different opinions helps to give a broader picture about the problem and opens door to discussion.
2. Communicate– No problem concerning people is solved without talking about it. A clear conveyance of what is on the mind and what and where it bothers can greatly prevent conflicts from becoming intense.
3. Focus on the goal– While addressing conflicts, it’s important to focus on what benefits the work goal. However, it’s not that individual growth should not be a concern.
4. Mediation– The leader/ boss should intervene when the situation becomes difficult.
5. Training– Conflict resolution should also be one of the different trainings conducted by the organisation.

Conclusion

The discussion throws light on the fact that conflicts at work are very much manageable. Communicating properly, being open to discussion, respecting others and sharing a common goal of enhancing the quality of work and organizational support are the key strategies to resolve conflicts effectively in the workplace.

References

Sanjaya, D. B., Suartama, I. K., &Suastika, I. N. (2022). The Effect of the Conflict Resolution Learning Model and Portfolio Assessment on the Students’ Learning Outcomes of Civic Education. International journal of instruction, 15(1), 473-488.

Varma, V.S., Gupta, R. (2023). Conflict Resolution Strategies in the Workplace: Empirical Study of Managing Interpersonal and Team Conflicts. Ontologic, 1(1), 35-42.