Confronting Conflict in the Workplace

Confronting Conflict in the Workplace

Conflict…everyone faces it in the workplace. It’s just a matter of time before your number comes up. The sooner you learn how to deal with it, the better off you’ll be.  Once you learn how to recognize and cope with workplace conflict, you’ll be better equipped that you can spend your time and energy working on projects that will move your career forward.

Two Types of Conflict

There are basically two types of conflict that you will encounter in the workplace.  The first is conflict about ideas, decisions and actions. The second type of conflict is often referred to as a personality conflict. For some reason, you and the other person just don’t seem to like each another.

Conflicts about Ideas, Decisions and Actions

These conflicts can occur around just about any topic at work. Basically, you and another person disagree on how an issue should be handled. This can be healthy if the result is a decision greater than the sum of each person’s original approach. Here is an example:

Suppose you and your co-worker have been assigned to schedule appropriate hours for your company’s computer help desk. You believe that the help desk should be covered from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., while your co-worker believes that the desk should be covered from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. As a result of your conflict, you and your co-worker decide to survey your internal customers to see what their needs are. The results of the survey indicate that your employees tend to come into work later and stay later than either of you had imagined. They would like to see the help desk open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. You both agree that the hours of coverage will be 9 a.m. to 6 p.m..

If you find yourself in conflict about an idea, decision or action, work with the other party to come up with some alternative solutions. In most cases, the alternative will be better than either original approach.

Personality Conflicts

This type of conflict is never healthy. Personality conflicts are usually fueled by emotions, which means that they get very personal, very quickly. It is hard to resolve workplace issues between people with personality conflicts because neither party is actually interested in resolving the work issue.

Here’s an example of a personality conflict:

Every time you approach your co-worker for help on a project, he blows you off. You notice he doesn’t behave this way with other co-workers. Finally, you make a few snide comments to him and let others in your group know that he is not a team player. This only makes matters worse. Now he is less willing to work with you. Now the conflict is all about personality and no one is focusing on workplace issues.

There are a few things you can do if you find yourself in the middle of a personality conflict:

• Ask yourself if you are doing something to contribute to the conflict at hand.  If you are, stop immediately.
• Focus on the end result and try to put personalities aside. This is not about winning or losing. Your simply want to be more effective at work.
• Sometimes, no matter how you try you just can’t work through it.  If this is the case, think about looking at other positions both inside and outside your company.  Your reputation will be damaged if you stay too long in this situation. It is better to get out while you have your reputation intact. Hopefully you will have learned something from this situation and you will do a better job next time of managing conflict in the workplace…and there will be a next time.