Workplace conflict is becoming increasingly costly to businesses nationwide. Some of the costs are obvious, like quality problems that arise when employees act on their anger instead of acting cooperatively. There are other costs that are hidden, such as employee sabotage and the impact of conflict on decision making. Conflict has key effects on productivity, decision making, and retention.

How, then, can an organization realize the benefits of effective conflict management?  Fortunately, there is a solution to this widespread problem. impactHR helps organizations in five key areas for making conflict management a core competency:

• developing conflict literacy

• measuring conflict styles

• building conflict management skills

• involving top management

• using conflict-focused team building and interventions

These elements can be applied in a flexible manner, so that they can be adapted to the special needs of a given organization.

Organizations can focus these key elements on issues that have a special priority for them, such as retention or productivity. The elements can be introduced in ways that fit the culture and strategy of the organization. The elements can be combined with other training and team-building initiatives currently underway or can stand alone.

Want to learn more?  Give impactHR a call today!

View other news articles from March 2009