Rules for Mismanaging Workplace Conflict

A new blog about business conflict by mediator F. Peter Phillips reprints his article from HR Magazine that lists ten surefire ways to make sure your dispute management program an utter disaster:

• No. 10: Leave Disputes To the Employment Lawyers
• No. 9: Just Impose Mandatory Arbitration
• No. 8: Copy Someone Else’s Program
• No. 7: Don’t Bother The ‘C-Suites’
• No. 6: Ignore Junior Managers
• No. 5: Don’t Ask Employees—Tell ’Em!
• No. 4: Don’t Measure
• No. 3: Don’t Waste Money on Training
• No. 2: Once You’ve Done It, Just Run It
• No. 1: Class Actions? Who, Me?

Phillips explains that an effective conflict management program is based on a three-stage model. In the first stage, management-level devices provide employees with safe ways to voice concerns. In the second stage, mediation is used to permit employees and employers to articulate their interests and seek ways to resolve their disputes with the aid of a skilled and neutral third party. The third stage is an adjudicatory process—either arbitration or litigation—in which an arbitrator or a jury renders a decision. (Business Conflict Blog.)

Phillips says that Ombuds are part of the first stage, but I would argue that they are an essential resource for disputes that have advanced to the second stage also.