A520.2.3.RB - Conflict Management

·                     What was the conflict? One individual felt they were harassed by one of his peers.

·                     What role did you play? As peer and as facilitator

·                     Who were the other participants in the negotiation? Other employees, supervisor

·                     What was the result?  It was agreed that the incident could have been handled better

·                     Can you see any room for improvement to how the conflict was handled?  Yes, but everyone needs to understand and control their emotions

BACKGROUND

Recently, I found myself involved in a conflict where two of my peers were engaged in a heated argument.  The argument became very garish to the point where they were yelling very loudly across the room.  The current supervisor decided that he needed to call a meeting and attempt to use a collaboration method to reach a solution.  Unfortunately, I felt that everyone should not be involved in such a meeting because we were not involved in the disagreement.  I made it very clear on how I felt about this meeting (that only the individuals who had the initial conflict should be there) and my boss was not happy with me which caused another conflict.  The foundation of the initial conflict was based on the fact that one employee felt they were being harassed by another employee’s actions.  Keep in mind that the key word here was “harassed”.  The supervisor made an attempt to smooth everything over by downplaying the incident.  In my opinion, the supervisor was avoiding the issue because the individual stated they felt harassed and wanted the issue addressed.  From everything I have learned and taught about leadership, avoidance is not a preferred technique unless it serves a purpose.  As a supervisor, it is your responsibility to address actions of harassment; however, I felt he did not want to do the proper paperwork and when I asked him why, he went on a rampage and said to the initial employees who had the conflict to either file a formal written complaint or shut-up.  I was then told not to bring up the word harassment again because I was not involved in the incident.  I agreed with him and again emphasized the reason I felt everyone in the office should not be involved. 

As the meeting ended, I asked my peers to stay around for a conversation because I felt the conflict was resolved inappropriately.  Of course, I did this with the supervisor’s permission (not wanting to cause another conflict between me and my supervisor).  I explained my perspective that all this chaos could have been eliminated if the two individuals took action and had a private conversation, instead of yelling at each other across the room…the way adults were supposed to do.   

I explained that this incident became overblown because individuals let emotions overtake common sense.  The bottom-line is everyone needed to try to come to an understanding regarding this incident by sitting down together to discuss the problem and working on a solution together.  If that did not solve the issue, then get the supervision involved.  In the end, the conversation I conducted brought light to how this incident could have been avoided. One thing I did keep in perspective was I did not favor one person over the other, and both individuals came to me and thanked me for that.  Another thing that my leadership experience taught me is one incident of conflict can expand very quickly if not managed correctly.