publications

Conflict in the Workplace:
Costs, causes and cures

by Anna Maravelas and Benjamin Martin

The communication director of a television station was frantic. His executive director, Norm, had created a 10-person leadership group two years ago and in two years’ time, the team hadn’t made a single decision. The communication director recognized that tension and blame were rising between Norm and the rest of the team and that trust was declining. After a few candid interviews with the team and the directors, the real problem surfaced: Norm mistakenly believed he had communicated the team’s authority with a simple statement, “You’re empowered to shape the future of this station.” Yet the team, still shell-shocked from the autocratic style of their previous leader, didn’t trust Norm’s intentions and instead were anxiously waiting Norm’s first clear directive. Once the misunderstanding was identified, the process of clarifying the role, mission and authority of the team could begin.

We’ve all seen situations where projects are delayed or derailed as a result of miscommunication, conflict and mistrust. They occur all the time, they’re not fun and they’re not good for business. A 2001 study by the American Psychological Association found that “desk rage,” or workplace hostility, costs employers an estimated US$6.4 billion to US$36 billion annually due to problems like lost productivity and tarnished image. And the problem doesn’t seem to be going away. In 2001, a random telephone survey commissioned by Integra Realty Resources in New York City found that of the 1,305 U.S. workers surveyed, 42 percent reported verbal abuse at their workplace, with 23 percent claiming to have been driven to tears because of workplace stress. A 2008 study at the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina found that half of the 1,500 workers surveyed had lost production time as a result of rude behavior, with one-third claiming to have lowered their commitment to work as a result of the conflict.

So how do we keep workplace conflict from boiling over into a costly crisis?

Conflicts generally fall into two broad categories. First there are those conflicts that result from a simple misunderstanding or lack of information. The second category is generally the result of differing paradigms, beliefs, ideals or conflicting goals. In the workplace, the vast majority of clashes fall into the first category because most employees are in relative alignment with interdependent goals.

Everyday disagreements and disappointments can become destructive. When people become frustrated, they release their aggravation by seeking to label others as having unflattering personality traits. This focus distracts from the underlying pressures that shape behavior.

In reality, most workplace conflicts involve good people struggling with one of six root causes of workplace conflict. These include:

1. A pressure or constraint invisible to other people or groups. During a recent conflict resolution case, everyone in the third work shift at an organization was labeled a slacker by employees on other shifts. We soon discovered that this label was unfair because the workers on the third shift had received only 10 percent of the software training they needed to correctly do their jobs. Once this fact was revealed, perceptions rapidly shifted and the real problem, a lack of training, was quickly addressed.

2. Lack of skill. Often an individual may have good intentions but lack the necessary skill to achieve their goals. In the opening example, the executive director wanted a broader, more inclusive decision-making team, but initially lacked the skill to effectively establish the team’s mission, goals and level of authority.

3. Insight deficiency. Again, in the first example of the TV station, neither party realized how their behavior was affecting others. The director lacked insight into his ineffective actions, and the team was unaware that their increasingly frustrated director was misreading their passive behavior as apathy.

4. Lack of courage. Conflict escalates when individuals don’t have the courage to step across the aisle, open up dialogue, address tough issues, ask for help or admit they’ve made a poor decision.

5. System or workflow issues. Workplace tension is often caused by people who feel powerless to solve problems. These inefficiencies include bottlenecks, unnecessary or missing steps, and workflow that precludes opportunities to blend cross-functional expertise.

6. Conflicting performance measures. Performance measures are often in alignment vertically, within divisions, but conflicting metrics can be the unidentified cause of tension between departments. At a design and build firm, the root cause of a decades-old tension was resolved when architects had an opportunity to tell the construction managers about the pressure they felt to innovate and attract media attention to their designs. The construction managers suddenly understood that the architect’s seemingly callous indifference to completing their designs on time and under budget wasn’t due to their “arrogant personalities,” but to tension between division goals.

Root causes are manageable once they’re clearly identified. Admittedly some require more focus and effort than others, but two—lack of information and insight—are overcome simply by nurturing an anti-blame environment based on honest communication and a hard-headed search for options that allow mutual gain, or solutions that meet the underlying hopes, concerns and fears of all involved parties.

If negativity, blame and resentment are so counterproductive, why are they so prevalent in the workplace? At the most basic level, it comes down to the distinction between the reflexive and the reflective. When confronted with a frustrating problem, most people search for a person or personality to blame. This leads to two self-defeating habits: blaming others or blaming one’s self. These responses are common because they are reflexive; they’re knee-jerk reactions to disagreement or disappointment.

However, another more productive avenue is often overlooked. Rather than assuming the cause of the problem is a personality trait such as arrogance or incompetence, the reflective approach is characterized by open dialogue and an emphasis on uncovering the pressures or constraints that shape people’s behaviors. Because of its reflective nature, we often overlook this strategy, even though it is more constructive, more effective and helps leaders avoid what we call the “Ten Hidden Costs of Contempt.” When conflict and contempt take root, they are not only detrimental to the organization but also to each individual. Here are 10 often not easily apparent ways conflict can harm employees and the organization:

1. Anger and depression increase in employees as they vacillate between blaming others or themselves.
2. Employees lose their cognitive (analytical) ability as tensions rise and anger boils over.
3. The risk of heart disease increases due to prolonged feelings of resentment, irritability and anger.
4. Opportunities to build loyalty, appreciation and positive reciprocity among employees are lost.
5. A loss of trust and respect occurs.
6. Employees lose pride in their work.
7. Accountability and standards decline across the organization.
8. The organization experiences frequent periods of escalating conflict.
9. Money, time and resources are squandered as dueling leaders defend their reputations and status.
10. Ultimately, both the leader’s and the organization’s reputation and legacy begin to deteriorate.

It’s no secret that in most workplaces today, anger and resentment are widespread, and rising. With phenomena like road rage and its twin “desk rage” also on the rise, perpetual anger is an easy habit to justify. But we owe it not just to ourselves, but to our families, customers, co-workers, leaders and workplace communities, to break out of the rut of negative, reflexive responses because this behavior is costly, counterproductive and potentially debilitating. By looking past our instinctive desire to pass our problems off as a result of the incompetence or idiocy of others, we can put a stop to these destructive cycles and replace them with an environment of curiosity, dialogue, mutual respect and dignity.

Anna Maravelas is founder of Thera Rising Inc. and an expert on workplace conflict. She delivers the seminar “Self-Defeating Habits of Otherwise Brilliant People” across the U.S. and around the globe. Her book, How to Reduce Workplace Conflict and Stress is published by Career Press. Benjamin Martin directs research and marketing for Thera Rising.