M5 - Learner Manual

Maintain integrity

An organisation must find ways to resolve conflict that maintains integrity. This means acting in the best interests of individuals within the organisation and the organisation itself.

 

If conflict situations are not dealt with appropriately, they have the potential to ruin people’s lives and can destroy organisations.  This needs to be avoided at all times by:

 

—    dealing with conflict in-house if possible

—    acting respectfully at all times be fair, honest, open and trustworthy

—    protecting the rights of individuals

—    protecting the staff’s, organisation’s and community’s values

—    maintaining confidentiality

—    not shaming people - not making conflict public

Deal with conflict in-house

It is far better to deal with conflict within the organisation, where possible.

Conflict affecting the organisation or individuals within the organisation should not be taken into the community, if possible.  This can be difficult in small communities especially, but the organisation needs to try to keep personal conflict separate from its professional or business-like activities.

It is important that people are given an opportunity to explain themselves and tell their side of the story before decisions are made. People should not be yelled at or shamed in front of others. Conflict should be discussed in a private way so that people can keep their dignity. An organisation needs to respect the rights of its employees to have information about conflict concerning them kept confidential.  People need to know that their concerns will be listened to and addressed, but not talked about outside the organisation.

If conflict within the organisation is discussed in a public way, it can lead to serious consequences for individuals and the organisation.  People’s health and safety can be placed at risk and the community (local and wider community) can lose its trust in the organisation.

 

Protecting individuals from shame

People should be taken aside to calmly discuss conflict issues in private.  They should not be shamed by having someone yell at them in front of their fellow staff members or others.

Conflict should never be dealt with in a heated or shaming way.

 

Disciplining within the organisation

Where possible, any discipline over conflict situations should be done within the organisation.   For example, if a normally even-tempered employee blew up one day and had a big fight with another employee, would you (a) call the police, or (b) tell them to go home, cool down and think about their actions before returning to work?  Option (b) would be more culturally appropriate and more supportive to the employee.

 

Non-confrontational approach

An example of a confrontational approach is when a boss screams at an employee

                     

                      ‘What the hell did you do that for?!!’

 

This puts the other person’s back up immediately and can shame them in front of others.

In a non-confrontational approach, the boss might say,

 

              ‘I can see you had a bit of trouble with that job you did.’

 

This way, the person is not put in a position of feeling shamed, or having to defend themselves. It also gives them a chance to explain what went wrong.

A non-confrontational approach is a more gentle way of dealing with conflict and can prevent conflict from getting out of hand.