Suggestion boxes don't cut it
Use mediation techniques to maintain or increase employees' productivity—and to avoid costly litigation.
Associate Editor Holly Ann Suzik -- Converting Magazine, 7/1/2001
Right under your nose, a civil war could be festering at your office. Although guns and bombs aren't sounding, a war with damaging words is happening between employees. Immersed in daily business issues, you are clueless it's happening, and other employees brush it under the rug, thinking the matter will remedy itself. But will it?
"Conflict has a tendency to escalate," says Thomas Gibbons, executive director of the Center for Dispute Resolution at DePaul University, Chicago. Gibbons is also a labor arbitrator and mediator who sees workplace conflicts of all kinds. "There is really a broad spectrum of disputes you can see in the workplace. They range from disputes between employees, employee-manager disputes, manager-manager disputes and disputes between departments." Whether infighting occurs because of a simple misunderstanding, turf battle, cultural differences, or power and control issues, the problem usually festers, causing productivity to decrease and animosity to surge. In the end, you risk litigation from unhappy employees.
As an organization's leader, your job is to have a conflict-resolution process in place, says Gibbons. You won't always witness a war of words—by the time you hear about it, a lawsuit may be headed your way.
"You have to create a system where the conflict can be revealed. There must be multiple points of entry into this process," says Gibbons. This means that when someone has a problem, there is more than one person with whom to confide. Let employees know that problems can be discussed with bosses, a boss' supervisors, human resources or personnel from other departments. Some companies even provide outside mediators, who offer a completely neutral viewpoint and expertise in mediation techniques.
Next, determine whether you have more than a feel-good process. "You want a system that is equipped to react and deal with the dispute—not just put it into the suggestion box and ignore it. So there must be someone responsible for taking up the issue, examining it and talking to the key constituencies," says Gibbons. The person responsible for the issue also must facilitate discussion and promote resolution during mediation sessions with the disgruntled employees. However, Gibbons warns that mediators must be trained in handling disputes. Whether from government, universities or private institutions, training must be provided on how to create a nonthreatening environment, so people will come forward.
If done right, the fruits of mediation are plentiful. "Mediation allows people to be heard, when, up to that point, they often feel like they haven't been heard. It allows them to express emotions—and it's an opportunity to apologize." Gibbons adds, "Our court systems aren't good at apologies, because apologies are held against you. Mediation is a confidential process that helps educate people on how to be better negotiators and express themselves better. It's a proactive measure to respond to problems vs. the old-world attitude that it's just another complaint from an employee."
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