According to the CIPD Survey Report titled “Getting under the skin of workplace conflict”, four out of every 10 employees in the UK state that they have experienced a conflict at work in the last year. The percentage of people who say they experience “constant” and “frequent” conflict at work in Germany CPP Global Human Capital ReportAccording to ‘s report titled Workplace conflict and how businesses can harness it to thrive, 56 percent is given, while in the USA it is 36 percent.
On the other hand, nearly half of employees in the United States have either been the victim of, or witnessed another employee experiencing, bullying or harassment in the workplace. When it was revealed that healthcare professionals, including doctors, in Scotland were experiencing bullying and harassment, the government commissioned the country’s best-known mediator to interview victims and write a report to understand the reasons for the institutional culture that led to this and what could be changed to fix it.
There is no such research data yet for Turkey, the issue is only talked about anecdotally among friends and acquaintances. However, in the West, institutional structures at work It has already begun to establish workplace mediation that will allow conflicts to be intervened before they quickly escalate and become unmanageable.
What does workplace conflict mean?
When we talk about workplace conflict, we mean a manager who constantly scolds and belittles his employees, the discomfort caused by a supervisor who increases the responsibilities of others for a long time instead of hiring someone else because of an employee who has a serious illness, a person who is not satisfied with the raise he received because he was not promoted at the workplace where he spent years. It is possible to think about employee dissatisfaction. If sufficient steps are not taken to solve these problems, many consequences may arise, from damage to the work environment or team spirit to employee absenteeism, turnover, loss of productivity, time and money.
In the above example, someone who works one-on-one with the manager in question and is trying to resolve this conflict has various options: Meeting with the manager, going to the manager’s superior, getting a report, leaving the job, not participating in the company’s social programs, filing a lawsuit… The person in the second example chooses to move to another department. but it is clear that this will not solve the problem for others. Or, the person who is not promoted may become a source of unhappiness for other employees, as they spend the time until their retirement feeling demoralized at work. However, with workplace mediation, it is possible for the parties to come together and understand each other and find their own solutions with the help of a mediator, an impartial and independent third party.
Otherwise, as is often seen in corporate structures, blaming the issue on human resources units because there is a “human” in it does not provide a solution. On the contrary, if human resources units do not have conflict resolution skills, this attitude can put them in a difficult situation. In addition, it can lead to costly and bigger problems that cause loss of time and reputation, such as employee turnover and disputes being taken to court. On the other hand, many small and medium-sized businesses may not even have a unit such as HR.
Before Conflicts Escalate
It is clear that conflicts occur in every workplace, regardless of business size, whether in the public or private sector. Just as workplace medicine, with its preventive nature, provides early intervention to employees’ illness, health and occupational safety problems and prevents them from escalating, workplace mediation is also important for conflicts to grow, get out of control and maintain peace in the workplace. Indeed, sometimes making an appointment or going to a doctor for an illness that you think is a cold can be difficult and time-consuming. However, you will usually be examined by the workplace physician on the same day. In this way, your illness will be diagnosed quickly, you will be treated by taking your medications and you will recover. Workplace mediation similarly provides an institutional mechanism for conflicts, allowing them to be managed early before they escalate.
Conflict Training
Realizing the need for such an institutional mechanism may partly depend on the conflict management training received by a person in a leadership position. It is known that this type of training creates many positive results in terms of awareness, not only for the individual but also for the entire institution. Research emphasizes that when managers receive training on the subject, this is more linked to leadership development. It also shows that human resources units have made more progress in training, but the training rate of employees, who are the main subject of the conflict, is quite low.
There are also issues that cause conflict between what is taught in training. Indeed, at the root of a conflict are differences of character, generation, ethnic or religious background, and communication between the parties. (Of course, these are not the only ones that cause conflict.) There are more conflicts in large and very large enterprises than in small and medium-sized enterprises. It is stated that the five most common conflict types in small businesses are leadership, dependent work, working style, cultural difference and character conflict. On the other hand, in large enterprises, it may also be thought that there is conflict between units (for example, marketing and sales).
When we look at the employee groups that experience the most workplace conflicts, those who are new to work – those who are on the front lines – have the highest rate with 34 percent. This is not surprising, since these people have not spent much time in the corporate culture and have not yet learned the institutional mechanisms. In the second place, conflicts between a middle manager and an employee are reported as 24 percent, while at the higher level this figure is 6 percent. However, the small number does not mean that there are no conflicts there. It can be stated that workplace mediation is generally adopted for disputes at a high level.
Conflict is not a negative event
Although conflict can be quite damaging if not managed, it should definitely not be seen as a negative event. For example, sometimes conflict arises because a creative person wants to change an established tradition. Since covering up such conflicts will inhibit creativity, it would not be right to avoid every conflict. On the contrary, sometimes conflict is necessary to recognize and solve a problem because conflicts are inevitable in business life as well as in our daily lives. The important thing is to learn to manage conflict without harming ourselves, others and institutions. In this sense, workplace mediation is essentially a method of managing differences between employees with the help of an independent and impartial third party (conflict management) is a way.
Thanks to mediation processes, people not only express their perspectives on the conflict; He listens to others, empathizes, and finds the opportunity to voice issues that disturb him by confronting conflict rather than avoiding it. On the other hand, this prevents problems or conflicts in the workplace from escalating into conflicts in terms of both time and money spent. Otherwise, a deterioration in the workplace environment may lead to one of the parties leaving the job. As a result, it is possible for labor and other employees to have consequences such as loss of motivation, absenteeism or decreased work dedication. Moreover, individuals experiencing conflict may experience stress, tension and mental health problems.
Remedies
A company that will establish a mediation mechanism in the workplace to avoid such consequences will also find a way to show that it cares about its employees and even cares about their mental health and happiness. In this way, workplace relationships are improved, employees are made to feel valued, and workplace loyalty increases. At the same time, people become aware of conflict management and develop their capacity to resolve other conflicts they experience, whether personal or family.
If the employer develops an internal conflict mechanism and announces these through certain trainings, this mechanism will come into play when a conflict occurs. For this, human resources units generally need to learn about a conflict and evaluate the relevant data. As a result, if the data meets the current workplace mediation criteria, human resources notifies the mediator of the situation and asks him/her to contact the parties. Remember, although workplace mediation is an internal corporate mechanism, the mediator is not a person to be employed in the workplace.
The importance of impartiality
This is possible, but an outsider would make more sense in terms of ensuring independence and impartiality. Generally, human resources units are the units that investigate such conflicts. It is clear that the unit conducting the investigation will not trust the parties to the conflict regarding impartiality.
The mediator meets with the parties, explains the process, and lays out core mediation values such as voluntariness and confidentiality. One of the important points at this stage is that the parties consent to mediation. The most important consequence of confidentiality is that what happened during the workplace mediation process will not be available in people’s files. The mediator then determines a joint meeting date with the parties. If an agreement is reached between the parties as a result of mediation, it is said to be legally enforceable (For example, at the end of mediation, employees agree to make a change in their employment contract or one of the parties undertakes an act that can be audited by an external institution).
However, the parties can also draw rules about their future behavior towards each other (For example, not raising their voices at each other). Although it is not a legally enforceable act, workplace mediation has a restorative aspect to the relations between the parties. Finally, it is important to note that since workplace mediation is not a formal mechanism, the parties do not participate in the process with a lawyer.
Conclusion
Whether small or large, workplaces are one of the many areas where conflict occurs between employees and between employees and managers. To date, institutional structures for resolving these conflicts have not been fully formed. These conflicts, which occur for many reasons between people at various levels in the workplace, can escalate and get out of control, leading to unrest, low morale, turnover, absenteeism, even mental health disorders and loss of workforce, time and money.
In order to intervene early in these conflicts, workplace mediation practices, which can be compared to workplace medicine, have begun to be seen in some countries. I hope that in Turkey, data on the impact of workplace conflicts on employee health and motivation will be collected, the issue will be better understood, and progress can be made in resolving it through workplace mediation in a short time.
