Surviving Conflicts at the Office: the Do’s and Don’ts of Conflict Management and Resolution

Guest Post by Ioana Lazarov - The workplace is a common setting where interpersonal conflicts occur. Factors such as negligence / irresponsibility, poor or ineffective communication, leadership problems and scarce organizational resources fuel up tempers to the breaking point.

Disputes between co-workers or management are time and energy consuming and often result in an array of unwanted or unpleasant effects. Therefore, organizations have a vested interest in keeping conflicts, escalating disputes leading to -or further perpetuating- unethical or inappropriate personal and professional behaviors, low morale and diminished productivity at bay.

In addition, when the conflict degree is high, the costs attached to formal investigation procedures sap deeply into the company’s budget and take a toll on the mental health of those involved.

But what is conflict?

By definition, conflict entails the presence of opposition, collision, disagreement, antagonism, fight, etc.

This can take many forms in the workplace and stem from: inciting gossip or violence, bullying and harassment, name calling, yelling, throwing, hitting (or any other forms of assault), blaming, threatening, nagging, interrupting, bringing up the past, ambushing, etc.

If you are a target or victim of such behaviors what can you do to protect yourself from conflict?

• If your mediation attempts have failed, depending on the severity and nature of the conflict you should seek advice and inform management and/or human resources department according to company policy.
• If the conflict is between you and management then directly appealing to the human resources department for support is paramount.
• Document the facts of the events. Keep a detailed account of what took place as a way to protect yourself and avoid getting blamed for what happened.
• Keep away from participating in conflict provoking behaviors (inciting gossip or violence, bullying and harassment, name calling etc). The response you make to conflict provocation carries the potential to make you look unprofessional and ultimately lose your job.

Workplace conflicts are a dangerous territory and getting involved in such events could stall your career and detrimentally affect your self-esteem, mental and physical wellbeing.

Your ability to perform as an effective team member to create a conflict free and productive work environment is an opportunity to appeal to your conflict resolution skills and think twice before you get involved in any professional practices.

Ioana Lazarov is a guest writer and blogger for Express and Star. Her career pursuits and passions include psychology and mental health rehabilitation, retail and automotive electric systems manufacturing and engineering.

Image credit, Conflict Resolution Tools

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Article by Ioana

Ioana Lazarov is a Careers Blogger for Express and Star, and a contributor to a number of other sites. She is a graduate of University of Wolverhampton School of Applied Sciences with a Bachelor of Science with Honors in Psychology, and additionally holds a Life Coaching Diploma. Her career pursuits and passions include Psychology and Mental Health Rehabilitation, Automotive Electric Systems Manufacturing and Engineering and Retail. When she’s not tweeting, facebook-ing and blogging, she enjoys the finer things in life: friends, food, traveling and sports.

Ioana has written 21 awesome articles for us at FT Careers Blog

Twitter: @IoanaLazarov | Facebook | Google+

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