Workplace Conflict Case Study – Bullying and Friction in the Workplace

Workplace Conflict - Bullying and Friction

The Situation

A 25 year old recreational facility with 80 unionised and non-unionised employees including long serving
employees with seniority and a mix of younger, less experienced staff with limited seniority. For years,
management was aware of workplace conflict issue resulting from poor communication that existed between staff,
with symptoms including friction between older and younger staff, and inability for staff to change.

Management’s response to the workplace conflict had been to keep conflicted parties away from each other,
intentionally avoiding the underlying issues resulting the workplace conflicts. Lack of response led to a slow but
steady escalation into negative behaviour with reports of bullying and even one incident of physical striking. In
short – management was avoiding trying to deal with the root cause of the workplace conflict.

ProActive Resolutions Response

ProActive Resolutions was brought in to help address and remedy the situation with the goal of creating a long
term, sustainable solution that was accepted by everyone involved in the workplace conflict.

ProActive Resolutions conducted their Respectful Workplace Fundamentals over a two day period. The objective
was for “people to come out of sessions being able to handle the straight talk conversation with poise.”

It become clear through the sessions that the cause of the workplace conflict were stemming from the ‘unwritten
rules’ of the facility that were resulting in a range of workplace conflict behaviours which led to disrespectful
behaviours such as nagging, sarcasm, negativity, belittling, talking behind backs and even physical abuse.
Employees felt they were poorly equipped to address these with with supervisors, staff or peers.

During the conference, the Straight Talk method facilitated the consensus that individuals had to take responsibility
for their actions and “just do their jobs” and rise above the low end behaviour

At the end of the session, the participants agreed they would listen more and be more considerate of others, let the
unimportant things go and deal with the import problem behaviours.

ProActive Results
Nearly two months later, the manager of the facility noted that the Straight Talk training they received during the
Respectful Workplace sessions were being used all day: “It is incredible and unbelievable how well is working.
People, who in the past would not even look at each other, are now using Straight Talk and working out their
differences in a professional manner..”
 Workplace Conflict Case Study – The War Within

Workplace Conflict – Resolving a corporate departments “warring factions”

The Situation

The workplace conflict concerned a departmental team of 12 people. The relationship between the team leader
and the department manager was so damaged they only spoke to each other through third parties.

The group was split into two warring factions – one group behind the team leader, the other siding with the
department manager with a few members remaining neutral. There was a perceived favouritism with respect to
approval of leave, training and allowances. There had been no performance appraisals for two years, and two staff
members had been on stress leave for five weeks.

Problems had been investigated, discussed and not solved to anyone’s satisfaction by senior management for two
years.

ProActive Resolutions Response

ProActive Resolutions was brought in to help address and remedy the situation with the goal of creating a long
term, sustainable solution that was accepted by everyone involved in the workplace conflict.

ProActive Resolutions conducted a TJA conference – essentially a facilitated conversation among a community of
people affected by a given situation – to try and get to the root of what was causing the workplace conflict, develop
an workplace conflict resolution action plan and to oversee the implementation of the plan.

Prior to the TJA conference, ProActive conducted voluntary interviews with each of the 12 team members. These
interviews revealed the key underlying issues and the nature of the conflicts between various team members. The
interviews revealed that all 12 team members had been involved with the workplace conflict to some extent.

During the conference, it became evident that the root cause of the workplace conflict could be traced back to
leave approval procedures (where one member of the team had been given significantly more leave than others),
the department managers style of interacting with department members and malicious gossip and emails.

By the end of the conference a detailed agreement (signed by every team member) was reached. It included the
following commitments:

 Provide individual staff with needs analysis, training and coaching

 workplace policies would be re-distributed and re-signed by staff
 conduct monthly one-on-one feedback sessions with staff
 review and formalisation of the team leader and department manager responsibilities with performance measures
defined.

ProActive Results
After everyone agreed on the workplace conflict action plan, every step was carried out by the team within six
month. The impact was immediate:

 There were no stress leaves taken in the first six months

 Overall staff turnover was reduced resulting in an annual savings of $160,000 for the organization
 Days and weeks spent managing workplace conflict were reduced to two hours a week reviewing team performance
and providing constructive feedback to the team manager
Workplace Violence – How can HR Prevent it?

Spot workplace violence warning signs, set clear conditions, and

offer employee awareness and training.
Workplaces are hotbeds of complex relationship issues. Whenever groups of people
have to interact, there lies a potential for distressing emotions, harmful behaviour, and a
risk of violence. (Just look at our global socio-political and religious conflicts.)

People have a common misconception that workplace violence is rare. Violence is not
uncommon, even in workplace settings. A recent health and safety survey by the
Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) claims that nearly 70 per cent of
respondents have experienced “verbal aggression” as a leading form of workplace
violence. In addition,
40 per cent said they had been struck while in the workplace, with an additional 30 per
cent claiming to have been either grabbed or scratched.

In a British Columbia workplace, a newly appointed informational-technology employee

constantly talks of fighting and shooting competitions and has a preoccupation with
mercenaries and weapons. Soon after being hired, he begins exchanging photos of
graphic violence over company email and spends a lot of time on the Internet searching
for photos. After failing to heed several warnings, his employer decides to terminate him.
Considering his fascination with violence, management worries about how this employee
might react to the news of his termination.

Could this employee’s behaviour become violent?

There is no standard profile of those who will engage in violent behaviour. However,
research has identified a number of tell tale personality traits for those who might be at
risk:

• poor impulse control;

• tendency towards new and/or intense situations;
• constant need for change and action;
• suspiciousness;
• reduced socialization;
• and difficulty differentiating between the external and internal world.

Despite this list, it is important to note that many people display one or more of these
personality traits without ever displaying violent behaviour.

Could HR have predicted that this employee would be a problem?

Trying to predict whether or not a potential employee will engage in violent behaviour is
difficult. However, you can consider certain factors. Has the applicant
• behaved in a way that would cause others to fear for their safety?
• experienced significant life stressors like divorce or financial hardship?
• been diagnosed with a mental illness that would bear on the risk of violence?
• been socially isolated or without social support for a significant period?

Evaluating people’s personality style poses a challenge for employers. Most applicants
are on their best behaviour during job interviews and it is difficult to gauge how they will
function over time. The best approach is to speak with previous employers about the
applicant’s interpersonal style, communication skills, and emotional adjustment.

What measures can HR professionals take if the problem escalates?

In the case of the new IT person, FIR worked with a conflict management firm to create a
plan for safely terminating the employee and ensuring the safety of other employees.
Together, they identified the risk factors and developed a solution that minimized the
chance of unnecessary escalation.

The human resources staff emphasized that the employee was terminated based on his
own failure to heed warnings. They avoided personalization of fault or the suggestion that
his actions made him a bad person. They held the meeting away from his work group,
had security personnel present nearby, and changed all pass-words and access codes
immediately after the meeting. They also informed all office members of the termination
and created an action plan in case the employee attempted to return to the office.

The HR department also laid out clear conditions for the employee:

• Do not return to the workplace;

• Do not contact anyone at the workplace except a designated point person; and
• Do not access the organization’s IT system.

The company successfully implemented its plan and did not experience any problems
following the termination.

What other measures can HR professionals take to prevent violence

in the workplace?
Be aware of warning signs and common scenarios of violence. Work with employees to
develop an effective program for management of conflict and violence. Such a program
should include the following:

• effective policies and procedures to prevent and respond to incidents of conflict and
violence. Be sure to monitor their effectiveness and make regular updates;
• creation of a critical incident response team, including occupational health and safety
personnel, lawyers, HR experts, and threat assessment/management consultants;
• a network to share information concerning incidents of workplace violence at different
worksites; and
• support mechanisms for employees.

HR professionals can take other simple measures:

• Create a psychologically healthy workplace where employees have no fear of

repercussion for speaking out. Insecurity and low staff morale often cause workplace
violence.
• Ensure that all employees receive workplace violence training from a conflict
management firm. With more awareness, violent situations are less likely to occur.

Finally, it is important to listen to employee complaints seriously. While not all complaints
will have merit, you can prevent workplace violence by recognizing a problem early on.
Although workplace violence makes for a scary prospect, you can prevent it. Choose a
preventative and proactive HR response – not denial or minimization.

Reproduced from Peopltalkmag

If your organization lacks the training and skill sets to recognize potential workplace
violence scenarios or lacks policies on how to identify and deal with potential workplace
violence – contact ProActive Resolutions today to learn about how we can work with your
organization on creating a safer and more secure workplace.