Discipline and Conflict Management in the Workplace

           Have you ever worked for a company where all of the employees had positive attitudes, were always working productively, and never complained or made excuses? Yeah, I didn’t think so. One of the biggest challenges for managers is to effectively manage their employees and to keep them focused, motivated and productive. A problematic employee could have a negative effect on the department or even the company as a whole. It is important to know how to properly handle difficult situations that may arise. Let’s look at an example.

Case Study:

“You are a department manager in a mid-sized company that provides technology support services.  You have ten employees who are required to maintain a high level of technical expertise and deliver excellent customer service.  One of your employees, who has been with the company for two years, is performing at a substandard level and you have received numerous complaints from customers and coworkers.  In addition, this employee has displayed confrontational behavior which has created a hostile environment.  You must now meet with this employee and deliver an ultimatum regarding the need for immediate improvement or dismissal.”

            In this case study the employee, let’s call her Sally, has a bad attitude that is disrupting the other employees, customers, and the company as a whole – this is not a good situation. If Sally is performing at a substandard level, and continues to get away with it, other employees may lose their motivation to do well, believing ‘why should they work so hard if Sally doesn’t have to?’ Also, receiving complaints from customers can be very damaging to the company. Action needs to be taken before the situation gets any worse.

            As the manager, I would need to talk to Sally in my office, or some other place where it would be private and not surrounded by curious (. . . nosy) eyes and ears. The first thing to do is be very specific about what the problem is (Videojug, 2009). The more details I can give Sally, the better she can understand what the problem is and we can then work on solving it. If I were to say something generic, such as “Sally, your behavior is unacceptable, you need to change it”, Sally would immediately get defensive and the conversation would go nowhere.

            Once Sally is aware of exactly what the problem is, I would need to let her know how it is affecting the company. Again, being as specific as possible will improve the effectiveness. I would let Sally know about the issues that I have been made aware of through co-workers and even customers, and her declining productivity. I would then need to discuss with Sally exactly what I expect her to change about her behavior (Videojug, 2009). Substandard levels of productivity are not acceptable, and her confrontational behavior needs change immediately.

            At this point, Sally should know exactly what the issues are, why it is important to me as the manager, and what I expect to change. Then I would need to discuss what will happen if changes are not made. I would explain that this is a verbal warning and will be documented, and if further action needs to be taken it can lead to her dismissal from the company. This would be a good time to bring up anything positive about her behavior, perhaps Sally used to have a much higher productivity level, I could mention something along the lines of “Sally, I know you are capable of performing much better than you have been recently and I would like to see you get back to that point. You are a good employee and please let me know if I can help you with any of these changes.”

 

Check out this video that shows how this method can work:

            By taking this type of approach to the situation, the hope is that Sally’s response will be positive. If she is able to see how her behavior is affecting her co-workers, the customers, and the company, hopefully she will understand the importance of changing her behaviors and doing her best to get back on the right track. Of course, there is always a possibility that Sally’s reaction to the confrontation will not go so smoothly. Sally could be upset that her co-workers would say something negative about her, or that customers would call and complain. It is already clear that she can be confrontational and has created hostility in the department, so it is not too far-fetched to be prepared for an aggressive response. In this case, immediate action would need to be taken – depending on the severity, perhaps a short amount of unpaid time off, or even dismissal from the company.

            Conflict management and resolution skills are extremely important for managers – when you put a group of people together for eight hours a day, five days a week, conflict is going to arise, there is no way around it. The important thing is to have the skills to deal with the conflict when they do come up and manage them quickly and effectively. Here are five steps to effective conflict management:

1. Set the scene – focus on the issues and not on the person, do not make is a personal attack.

2. Gather information – the more you know about a situation, the better off you are in attempting to solve it. You want to identify all of the issues, listen, and use ‘I’ statements.

3. Agree to the problem – when there is more than one person involved in an issue, there is a chance they can perceive the problems very differently – while one person believes ‘X’ is causing all of the problems, the other person may be blaming the issues on ‘Y’. It is important to come to an agreement on exactly what the issues are that need to be addressed.

4. Brainstorm possible solutions – brainstorming, or group think, can lead to some very interesting, and sometimes very crazy, ideas. You never know what one crazy idea can trigger though, so do not leave out ideas just because they are not plausible; keep track of all ideas.

5. Negotiate a solution – now that you have all the ideas flowing, a solution needs to be decided and agreed upon. Make sure everyone involved is clear about exactly what the solution is and what is expected from them. (University Alliance, n.d.)

            It is always a good idea to go back and reassess the situation after some time has passed. Keep track of what solution was decided upon and what actions were expected to be taken, then follow up to make sure that the solution was actually completed and effective. If the problem still exists, you would need to go through the process again, coming up with an alternate solution.

 

 

University Alliance. (n.d.). Effective Conflict Resolution Techniques. Retrieved from http://essentialsofbusiness.ufexec.ufl.edu/resources/human-resources-the-conflict-resolution-process/#.VnfVVktIjIu.

Videojug. (2009, June 16). How to Discipline an Employee [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49CFNt4g_ve.