LEVELS 3 & 4: Benefit of MEDIATION for Employees

Everyone has been there: a demanding boss; gossiping co-workers ;colleagues who try to undermine at every turn; unfair performance review; and the list goes on…. These are common causes of conflict and the resulting cost to the employee is emotional distress in the form of  stress, anxiety, frustration, reduced efficiency and productivity and depression.  

So the question, on the mind of most employees, HR personnel and management is, ‘how can we quickly and easily resolve these conflicts and create a more harmonious work environment?’ It has already been shown that mediation is effective in helping employers by minimizing the time and costs associated with conflict resolution.


As for employees, mediation makes sense because it will help to minimize the emotional costs of the conflict because:

1.    It gives employees the chance to express their feelings and emotions (especially anger) in a safe environment;

2.    The mediator will help channel the employee feelings and emotions into a feasible solution for all;

3.    The mediator is bound by confidentiality, neutrality and objectivity; thus, the employee does not need to worry about “losing face” with his/her superiors and colleagues;

4.    Mediation is voluntary – i.e. employees cannot be forced by management to participate;

5.    During mediation, the mediator will ensure that all the parties treat each other with respect while they are working to resolve their conflict;

6.    The mediator will also ensure that each employee gets a chance to expresshim/herself; and

7.    Mediation is self-empowering for the employee because all the solutions are drawn from ideas obtained from the parties themselves.

Given the lack of information regarding mediation in most organizations, it would be understandable if employees are skeptical of the process.  However, if the benefits outlined above are discussed, it would be clear to most employees that they have nothing to lose by trying – and everything to gain (even though there is no guarantee of success).  


Seeing that mediation contributes to increased communication and psychological health for the employees, mediation is one of the first options that should be explored once conflict reaches level 3 or higher on the conflict scale.  It provides feasible solutions for both employers and employees and as such helps to promote peace at work.




~Here is to Zen in the workplace! 

LEVELS 3 & 4: Benefits of MEDIATION for Employers

As previously discussed, conflict may lead to negative consequences in the workplace.  Unfortunately, it is sometimes difficult for employees to resolve disputes among themselves without any intervention from management.  


One of the main reasons for this is that, as time goes on, those involved in conflict begin to de-humanizing each other. When this happens, these employees get tunnel vision that prevent them from facing and taking responsibility for their own part is creating the dispute. Mediation, which uses a third-party (mediator) to assist the disputants in resolving the issues they are facing is particularly effective when conflict reaches this level 3 or higher on the workplace conflict scale. 


The mediator is neutral and so he/she is very effective in getting colleagues (who may no longer trust each other) to focus on working together to resolve the conflict on their own.   In addition to neutrality and objectivity, mediators offer confidentiality i.e. neither management nor human resources get a report on what went on in the mediation.  Also, the parties cannot be forced to disclose what took place. Finally, mediators tend to focus on finding win-win solution and are unwilling to assign blame to any of the parties.  This will no doubt appease employees who worry about being labeled the cause of the dispute. 


It is important to note that mediation is a voluntary process.  As such, managers and human resources personnel may not force employees to participate.  Because mediation is not yet part of the culture of many organizations, it may seem at first that disputants are unwilling to choose this conflict resolution option.  If, however, they are informed of the benefits of the process as outlined in this post, there is no doubt that many more would decide go give the process a chance.  Especially if they are told that in mediation, no one will have to agree to like each other; so long as they all believe that the situation has been improved to the point where they can continue to work effectively together, then the mediation will be deemed successful.


As such, managers and human resources personnel should start to explore mediation as soon as conflict approaches Level 3 or higher on the workplace conflict scale. Why? Given the financial costs of conflict in the workplace to employers, it makes great business sense to use this relatively low-cost tool instead of other more expensive and time-consuming legal alternative.


~Here is to Zen in the workplace!

Causes of Conflict In The Workplace

Conflict is a natural part of the human experience. It cannot be eliminated in the workplace because, so long as there are more than one persons gathered in any environment, there is always the potential for conflict.  This is because each of us has different values, beliefs, relationships, interests, etc.  When these differences are brought together in a closed environment like the workplace, conflict is a given.

CONFLICT INCREASES INTENSITY OVER TIME UNLESS THERE IS DE-ESCALATION

As the chart above shows, conflict will grow in intensity over time unless there is some intervention to de-escalate it. 

The consequences of conflict in the workplace can become dire when it is allowed to escalate to the point where employees start hurting each other. When this happens, they start engaging in activities like: verbal abuse,belittling, threatening behavior, intimidation, humiliation making unreasonable demands, setting colleagues up for failure, etc. These behaviors lead to negative feelings like resentment, defensiveness, and mistrust. As the chart below shows, the result is an increase in the causes and intensity of conflict at work.

CAUSES OF CONFLICT IN THE WORKPLACE

The workplace conflict scale highlights the fact that conflict in the workplace leads to increased emotional distress for employers; and loss in money and time for employers. These results can be minimized if employers put policies in place that address and de-escalate conflict in its early stages. Seeing that conflict negatively affects both employers and employees, both must work together to create a harmonious workplace environment.


~Here is to Zen in the workplace!