HR For Small Business For Dummies, Australian Edition

Chapter 11

Managing Workplace Conflict

In This Chapter

Working out what may be behind workplace conflict

Understanding the laws controlling how employers and employees behave

Taking advantage of simple resolution techniques

Picking the correct resolution method and facilitating discussions

Keeping in mind that external agencies have a role

Always forgive your enemies. Nothing annoys them so much.

Oscar Wilde

C onflicts among your staff and with your staff are inevitable. Some conflicts may be bad, some less so. Your challenge is to work to resolve them so that a positive result is achieved (even if you’re not always doing so with kindness in your heart, as Oscar Wilde so cleverly observed).

In this chapter I explain contemporary methods you can use to prevent and resolve workplace conflict. I start off by covering how to identify the underlying reasons for conflict — to give you a better chance at firstly preventing conflicts and then, when they do occur, successfully resolving ...