Cause and Effects of Conflicts
During my time at Greenyard I have been fairly lucky with conflict, in the team we have only had 1 real conflict that was left to escalate and become a problem.
In January 2017, we had an issue in Systems Dept, this had potential to become a large issue, mainly due to the length of time the issue had been ignored. We did lose a member of staff due to the issues, which is obviously one potential impact. Another impact that we may not see or be aware of, is the feedback the employee gives outside of the company, potentially talking to external people within the area and making it seem like Greenyard is not a good place to work.
The conflict was caused by a lack of management and communication, it developed over a period of time, the colleagues that reported the issues were ignored, it made them feel frustrated and their moral was rock bottom, they felt they had no support and that the actions of their manager were normal and something they had to put up with.
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There are 5 stages of conflict, these include:
- Pre stage, colleagues may not know of the conflict yet, this could be due to an error on someone’s part, this could be where IT have created an incorrect email group
- Perceived stage, colleagues are aware there is a conflict, so possibly the email group owner has noticed and reported the error
- Felt Stage, this is where both sides of the conflict would feel stress and anxiety, in the example I am using the IT colleague may have to explain or be monitored going forward.
- Manifest, the colleague has been spoken to, either through email, face to face talks, or a more formal process.
- Aftermath, this would be the resolution of the conflict, maybe in the example I used the creation of groups would need to be double checked by another colleague.
The conflict started with the manager not setting clear tasks, the communication used was often blunt and not very clear, he would hide where he was going, not explain to the team what he was working on and why the tasks he had set them were important, he wouldn’t let anyone else speak to the team over tasks, he wanted to set everything they were doing. This continued over many months, the team would speak to the FD, and every time he promised to deal with it but never did, this caused the conflict to fester and continue.
Minimise and Resolve Conflict
The issue had been going on for a while which meant emotions were running high and the employees were extremely frustrated. The issue had to be dealt with sensitively and each person had to be given the chance to speak, we did this within a few meetings, this allowed us to calm the situation down reassure them that the issues would be dealt with and gave them space to think. The 2 members of staff involved were both invited to 2 joint meetings so we could discuss it together, and both given the chance to speak, they were then invited to 1-1’s to speak in private.
During the meetings we agreed actions that would help the situation and offer the best benefits, these were documented and shared within the team, this was also done when we spoke to the Systems Manager, the whole process was transparent and each person treated with impartiality, sensitivity was key during the meetings as things would become heated, we had to ensure we didn’t dismiss anyone’s thoughts.
The way we engaged the team really helped to defuse the situation, if the issue hadn’t been dealt with the way it had we could have had a large issue within the team and with at least 2 disgruntled employees not working to their optimum level. The actions were agreed in such a way they the employees really brought into them, this meant they truly believed the issues would be dealt with this time and not ignored. Again, all notes were captured, and actions agreed, these notes were then distributed and kept on the employees HR record.
In this case the positive atmosphere didn’t come back to the department properly until the manager had left, there was a small improvement in the atmosphere but it took a while and only started to show once the team saw that the actions that were implemented were being stuck to. Consistency is key, if we had reach an amicable solution to a conflict you need to keep to that agreement, repairing the atmosphere may take time, people may feel like they have lost trust and trust takes a while to rebuild, by being consistent and sticking to the agreement that positivity can return.
References
- Greenyard official website
- Causes and Effects of Interpersonal Conflict at Work – National Center for Biotechnology Information
- Managing Conflict in Organizations
- Constructive Conflict Management and Resolution – National Center for Biotechnology Information
- Harvard Business Review – Conflict
- Conflict | Simply Psychology
