Effective Conflict Management for Workplace Productivity

Workplace conflict can significantly increase stress and anxiety levels, but can be effectively managed to reduce these impacts.

In this article Alexandra Efthymiades suggests three strategies for managing these difficult conversations: self-awareness, empathy, and stating positive intentions.

1. Self-awareness involves recognising one's own role in the conflict and avoiding blame.
2. Empathy allows individuals to understand the feelings and perspectives of others, helping to identify the triggers of conflict.
3. Stating positive intentions at the start of a conversation can help set a collaborative tone and facilitate a more productive dialogue.

By applying these strategies, workplace conflicts can be transformed into opportunities for growth and learning, improving relationships both within and outside the workplace.

An appreciation of fundamental attribution error might be helpful in these situations too.

Fundamental attribution error is the tendency to attribute the behaviour of others to their character or personality while underestimating the influence of situational factors.

Discounting feelings that the conflict has arisen because of the poor character of the other person could help empathy develop.