Complete Guide to Conflict Management in the Workplace

Course details

Do you ever feel distracted, anxious, or frustrated dealing with conflict with your coworkers or your boss?

Or, are you a manager who has to address conflict with your employees or between team members?

The truth is that conflict is an inevitable part of work life, and it does not only affect those who are directly involved, it impacts the entire team, department, and organization. How you, and the organization you work for, manage conflict is what ultimately determines the level of productivity and fulfillment you will experience at work.

As a manager or business executive, workplace conflict should be a high priority issue because it leads to decreased productivity and high employee turnover. 

In fact, research has shown that conflict on the job was cited as the reason people leave their jobs in 50% of cases. 

And, studies have revealed that the average U.S. employee spends 2.8 hours a week dealing with conflict. Between those two factors, that is a huge loss of revenue and potential growth.

Conflict at work can be caused by a number of factors, including misunderstandings, miscommunication, perceived threats, personality clashes, a competitive environment, or different values or beliefs.

But, the biggest problem caused by conflicts are not the conflicts themselves, but rather the way conflicts are handled—and in many cases not handled at all. Humans are psychologically wired to seek pleasure and avoid pain. So, naturally, we avoid dealing with conflict. The problem is avoiding or mishandling conflicts causes bigger problems with long-term consequences that can be detrimental to our psychological well-being and the success of any team or organization.

But, not all conflict is inherently bad—in fact it can be both healthy and beneficial. When an effective system for managing differences of opinion is put into place, conflicts can be the source of tremendous growth and creativity. When the corporate environment is one of trust and openness, individuals see disagreements as an opportunity to find common ground and conflicts as a source of creative solutions. When the fear of win-lose situations is eliminated, win-win situations become a common goal.

Since conflict is a normal part of business life, it is essential to develop the skills to be able to prevent and manage it. The best way to manage conflicts is to:

• Stay ahead of conflict by being prepared
• Have a clear process for handling conflict
• Provide employees with the tools and skills need to deal with conflict

In this course, you will:

Develop an understanding of common sources of conflict and awareness of what signs to look for, so you can prevent or minimize conflict by catching it early.

• Find out your natural conflict management style—whether you withdraw, back down, compete, compromise, or truly collaborate and how to change your reactions to be more effective.
• Create a psychologically safe work environment in which individuals and teams feel confident expressing themselves, making mistakes, and speaking up because they trust that they will not be reprimanded or ridiculed, and that they will be supported in their quest for improvement.
• Know when to intervene and the best and worst times to approach handling the conflict,, including how to de-escalate a conflict that has become heated or emotional, while not reacting emotionally yourself.
• Facilitate conflict resolution conversations, using powerful communication techniques and knowing important mistakes to avoid.

You'll also learn the 6 Steps to Conflict Resolution, including important conflict resolution skills like:

• Effective listening and communication techniques
• Essential problem-solving strategies
• Strategies for following-up and moving forward in a way that ensures resentment doesn't linger and conflicts don't re-occur

We'll also provide additional insights for handling conflicts depending on who your conflict is with, such as a conflict with your boss or manager, your employees, or within a team.

So who are we?

We are Joeel & Natalie Rivera. We own a digital media publishing company called Transformation Services, Inc. We provide training programs and curriculum development for entrepreneurs and small businesses. We also run a magazine and live events and conferences. We've worked with 40,000 students, coaches and businesses from 170 countries. All of our programs are created based on over a decade of experience in education, business development and coaching, as well as my background in psychology, including my Master's in Counseling and Education and my research on happiness for my dissertation for my PH.D. in Psychology.