Adopt These Strategies to Prevent Conflicts in Your Workplace

Workplace conflicts among employees can arise from many causes, but policies, training, and leadership can help prevent such tensions and improve workplace civility.
“Best practices for effective conflict prevention include setting clear expectations through well-drafted policies [and] promoting a culture of respect by encouraging civility and professionalism,” said Dina Mastellone, an attorney with Jackson Lewis in Berkeley Heights, N.J.

Common Conflicts

According to Mastellone, some common conflicts among employees include:

• Personality clashes.
• Workload and responsibilities.
• Performance issues.
• Competition for advancement.
• Harassment and discrimination.
• Cultural and generational differences.
• Remote versus in-office work tensions.
• Teamwork and collaboration challenges.
• Bullying.
• Political and social disputes.

Stephen Scott, an attorney with Fisher Phillips in Portland, Ore., noted additional common reasons for conflict:

• Commission splits.
• Role ambiguity (thinking they are picking up the slack for another employee).
• Working styles.
• How employees respond to constructive criticism.

“Differing work styles and values often lead to conflicts,” agreed Phyllis Hartman, SHRM-SCP, an HR consultant with PGHR Consulting Inc. in the Pittsburgh area.

For example: One employee may be responsible for processing invoices to customers based on hours worked. Another worker may regularly be late in turning in the hours they spent on work for customers because they were busy and found the reporting to be less important than doing the work. The issue led the employees to get into public arguments, Hartman said.

Assumptions about the beliefs of other employees may cause conflicts, as well, she noted. She recalled an employee who had a disagreement with a co-worker and later saw a Facebook post that pictured the co-worker with her gun collection. The first employee then assumed the second was planning violence at work, Hartman said.

Employees from different backgrounds or age groups may have conflicting views on work styles, communication, or professional norms, Mastellone said. This can lead to workers feeling targeted, ignored, or excluded from workplace opportunities. And when personal beliefs spill into work conversations, divisiveness and tension can result if not managed properly, she said.

“Differences in communication styles, work habits, or personal values often lead to tension and disagreements,” Mastellone noted. “Disputes frequently arise over workload distribution and perceived inequities in assignments, leading to conflicts between colleagues who feel others are not pulling their weight, missing deadlines, or producing subpar work that affects the team.”

In addition, as work models change, conflicts may also arise over perceptions of fairness in remote work, flexibility in hybrid arrangements, visibility, and workload distribution, she said.

Policies Provide Clarity

Clear policies, including civility policies, can help prevent conflicts in the workplace.

“Workplace civility policies can play a significant role in reducing workplace conflicts, including those stemming from personality clashes or outright hostility between employees,” Mastellone  said. “While employees do not necessarily have to like each other, they must, in fact, respect [each other] and maintain productivity.”

A workplace civility policy gives HR and management a reference point for intervention when conflicts arise, she noted.

“Defining examples of inappropriate behavior — for example, personal attacks, gossiping, or public criticism — without being overly rigid gives employees a road map for acceptable behavior,” she said.

However, she said employers should not use vague language like “be nice” or “maintain a positive attitude.” Such language “can be subjective and difficult to enforce,” she said.

Also, civility policies should not have the de facto effect of suppressing legitimate workplace disagreements, Mastellone explained. “A civility policy should encourage respectful discussion, not stifle open dialogue about workplace concerns” or else it may violate the National Labor Relations Act, she said.

Anti-harassment and anti-discrimination policies that include conflict resolution and complaint procedures can work in tandem with civility policies to help prevent conflicts. “Implementing structured mechanisms for employees to voice concerns and resolve disputes will go a long way before escalation,” Mastellone said.

She also recommended adopting a remote work and hybrid work policy that addresses availability, communication, and fair workload distribution for remote and in-office employees. Similarly, performance management and workload-specific policies can aid in transparency and avert conflicts. Mastellone said that clear job descriptions and distribution and performance evaluation criteria will reduce resentment and prevent disputes over task ownership by defining goals and expectations.

Training

Mastellone recommended training programs on the following topics to prevent workplace conflicts:

• Conflict resolution and communication skills to teach employees and managers how to constructively navigate disagreements.
• Equal employment opportunity (EEO) to reduce discriminatory behaviors among employees.
• Anti-harassment and workplace behavior to reinforce appropriate conduct.
• Bystander intervention strategies to encourage professional communication and mutual respect across all levels of the organization.

“EEO policies reinforce a workplace culture of professionalism and legal integrity,” she said. “EEO policies also promote a merit-based culture that emphasizes higher income or promotions and performance evaluations based on qualifications and job performance rather than personal characteristics, fostering professionalism and accountability.”

Coaching can help, too. Nina Woodard, SHRM-SCP, president of executive coaching and business consulting firm Nina E Woodard & Associates, a division of ND Pendence Inc., in Colorado Springs, Colo., recalled a new hire who offended a lab co-worker who interpreted her new approaches as criticisms. She also called all the men on the team — scientists in the lab — “boys.”

The team member who was unhappy with her “thought she was just difficult and didn’t want to work with her,” Woodard said. This is only one example of how most conflicts are based on communication issues, she said.

The manager got a coach — Woodard — involved. Woodard asked what orientation the new team member had received to the project and team. The answer was none. But given the new employee’s experience and education, the offended team member expected that the new team member would know what they were doing and that it was demeaning to call them boys.

“I asked him to put himself in her shoes and look at being new to a job and team, not knowing the history or culture, and being the only woman on the team at that point,” Woodard said. “I suggested that he deal with being called ‘boy’ in the moment and that it was OK for him to let her know he felt that was disrespectful.”

Woodard also recommended that he take time to orient the new team member to the project and team culture so that she knew the history of what they had already done and what they were planning to do.

“He thought that made good sense and he took the advice and things are working much better,” Woodard said. Having a good internal or external coach that employees can reach out to and training on emotional intelligence and onboarding new team members “can be as important as ensuring the new hire has a desk and a computer,” she said.

Management training is important, as well, Mastellone said. “Equip supervisors with skills to mediate disputes, provide constructive feedback, manage performance, and manage team dynamics effectively by fostering mutual respect and problem-solving skills,” she said.

Conflict prevention depends on effective leadership. “Prevention starts at the top,” Scott said. “You can have multiple policies, but that does nothing if they are not followed, if they are not enforced equally, and if employees don’t understand the policies.”