Conflict in the Workplace: Does it happen?
Conflict in the Workplace: Does it happen?
This question was asked recently during a seminar that I recently spoke at about the three stages an organisation should take if they want to avoid Conflict in the Workplace.
Good question I thought as it came from a supervisor who is in an industry where he has to deal with complaints and problems on a regular basis. However, it did make one or two people sit up and take note that he asked this question directly to me and also from his own introduction of his responsibilities.
The question of conflict in the workplace does open up a plethora of different problems, but the one thing it made me realise again is that a high degree of people do not see the conflict in the workplace, and they develop counter active methods to block out the issues they face, like being sarcastic for example or worse living in total denial of the issue, but unfortunately it then escalates to a point of no return.
You are probably thinking that the person with the question is either a bit daft or totally ignorant, well sorry but he was an educated person with a vast amount of knowledge and experience of his role, but again as I always say to my learners having the best qualifications does not protect you from being assaulted and from my experience of delivering sessions on conflict in the workplace a high degree of these highly educated people have been assaulted more so than the street wise person, who sees the problem and uses their experience to avoid or escape.
Learning conflict in the workplace skills is not the be all and end all of everything, but it does help in the event of having to deal with any form of aggression.
Blog by Will Holland
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