5 Conflict Management Techniques for The Workplace

Conflict in the workplace is more complex than ever. A guide to conflict resolution skills, and see how Kin can help you actively build them

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With today’s work environment being more unfamiliar and fast-moving than ever before, the ability to effectively manage conflicts has become more crucial than ever. As workplaces shift towards remote and hybrid models, teams become increasingly diverse, and communication channels multiply, the potential openings for conflict have never been so numerous. 

So, this article covers the benefits of conflict management in the modern workplace, and provides conflict resolution strategies for navigating disputes constructively—including how AI tools like Kin can help.

What is Conflict Management?

Conflict management is the process of understanding, resolving and preventing disputes between individuals or teams in a professional setting. An effective conflict resolution process addresses issues constructively, while preserving and often strengthening professional relationships. Don’t worry; we’ll get to how.

Why is Conflict Management Important?

But first, some context. Conflict management is important because it allows for disagreements to happen smoothly in the workplace. Like it or not, any collaborative setting—or even simply somewhere where different people work in the same place—will eventually cause a disagreement, as the research shows. 

And they happen. According to a study by CPP Inc., employees in the United States spend an average of 2.8 hours per week dealing with conflict in the workplace, which equates to approximately $359 billion in paid hours annually.¹ There are various types of conflict included in this figure, such as interpersonal disagreements, team dynamics issues, leadership-related clashes, and policy debates. Even if it can’t prevent and mitigate every argument, effective conflict management can certainly cut down on their frequency, severity, and cost.

The main reason for this is that conflict in the workplace eats into productivity. A recent study by Pollack Peacebuilding Systems has revealed that 76% of employees have experienced stress or loss of productivity due to conflict, which not only reduces work hours, but the quality of work done in the remaining ones.² Thus, properly handling conflicts and prioritizing employee wellbeing are essential to prevent time and energy that could have been productive being lost to arguments and anxieties

In fact, the an Innerbody survey even found that 41% of employees have left a job due to unresolved conflicts³—so ensuring their proper handling is an essential part of not just employee wellbeing, but retention.

Predictably, then, successful conflict resolution also strengthens coordination and trust within teams. This is because robust resolution processes give employees the confidence to be honest with each other during collaboration and feedback process, without permanently damaging their team dynamic.

As we discussed in our article on honesty’s importance in the workplace, this encourages real opinions and workflows to be confidently communicated during teamwork, which allows them to better learn and play to each other’s strengths, weaknesses, and individual work styles.

Without the employees needing to keep peace themselves, it’s no surprise that one study has found improved communication skills can increase productivity by up to 40%, and reduce costs by up to 50%, because normal disagreements turn into derailing arguments less frequently.⁴

Perhaps most importantly, strong conflict management rules also promote personal growth among employees. Guided by effective policies, employees can more easily learn how to resolve conflicts properly, which not only makes them better to work with, but often improves their emotional intelligence and leadership abilities—soft skills repeatedly linked to not just better conflict resolution, but better employee performance.⁵

Overall, effective conflict management doesn’t just mitigate and minimize negative outcomes. It builds better employees and workplace cultures, and can even improve profits. That makes it pretty important.

5 Proven Conflict Resolution Strategies for Modern Workers

So, what does effective conflict management look like? Here are five core concept every workplace and employee should integrate into their resolution processes:

1. Active Listening

Active Listening involves fully concentrating on, understanding, and responding thoughtfully to what others are saying. It sounds simple, but it’s in the list because it’s underutilized. When people express their viewpoints, even if they sound bad or wrong, it’s important to actively try and understand the point they’re making, as well as why they’re thinking that way.

That way, a response can take their feelings into account, and more easily counter their ideas constructively, rather than attack their identity with misunderstandings.

Example: During a team meeting, instead of interrupting a co-worker who disagrees with a proposal, practice Active Listening by maintaining eye contact, asking clarifying questions, and having them agree to summarize their points before responding. Debating against an argument no one was making only increases misunderstanding, and raises tensions.

2. Emotional Intelligence (EQ):

Emotional Intelligence, often abbreviated to EQ, is how well someone can recognize and manage their own emotions, while also paying attention to and working with the feelings of others. What that translates to is not acting emotionally during an argument, but staying level-headed, and trying not to raise other’s emotions higher than necessary.

Example: When faced with unexpected and harsh public criticism from a colleague, it can be tempting to react defensively and emotionally. Instead, take a moment to breathe, acknowledge that they’re upset, and ask for a private, face-to-face discussion to address the issues constructively. Before the discussion, consider their point of view, and whether at least some of their criticism could be valid.

DALL-E/Kin Illustration

3. Collaborative Problem-Solving:

The cause of the conflict is rarely one person entirely. As such, conflict resolution is about everyone finding creative solutions together, and often includes compromises for a win-win outcome, rather than engaging in a win-lose mentality. That doesn’t mean settling for a solution which unfairly breaches personal boundaries, but it can mean reconsidering where those personal boundaries lie.

Example: If two team members disagree on project priorities, act as a facilitator for a brainstorming session where both can express their concerns and work together through you to create a solution that addresses both of their needs. Of course, this will also require Active Listening and Emotional Intelligence.

4. Setting Clear Boundaries and Expectations:

A good way to prevent clashes in the first place is to establish and communicate clear boundaries and expectations. This includes being explicit about not just roles, responsibilities, and acceptable work styles, but how and where disagreements should be raised and dealt with. This way, everyone knows the resolution process, which can take the stressful fear of being unheard out of the equation, and help conflicts be dealt with immediately, before they fester—which research shows is preferred by employers and employees alike.⁶

Example: At the start of a new project, create a team charter that outlines individual responsibilities, communication norms, decision-making processes, and dispute resolution procedures. This provides a framework for managing conflict early, and making them feel more civilized.

5. De-escalation Techniques:

More of a grab-bag of smaller strategies, de-escalation techniques can reduce the intensity of a conflict situation, and even prevent it becoming a serious issue in the first place. These often involve previous implementing the strategies we’ve spoken about into action, and can include:

• Remaining composed and speaking in a calm but firm voice

• Acknowledging and validating emotions, by noting how people feel and reminding them they’re entitled to their emotions

• Pointing out common ground between those arguing, so more than just differences are being voiced

Of course, these aren’t universally applicable to every situation. Many people respond better to particular techniques over others, and some people can even be further upset by certain ones. It’s best to use any personal knowledge of those involved when deciding how to de-escalate a situation. It could even be useful to make note of each team members’ preferred de-escalation techniques before collaborative work begins.

Example: If a heated argument breaks out during a meeting due to personality clashes, intervene by speaking in a low, calm voice and suggesting a short break. Explain that this is a sensitive topic, so it should be discussed carefully in future, at least while differences are worked out.

Tips for Dealing with Conflict

Despite the strategies being effective, conflict in the workplace is unfortunately inevitable. So, what should be done when it happens? We touched on it above, but here are some explicit tips for when clashes have already happened:

1. Stay Calm:

   
   Using skills and ideas from Active Listening and Emotional Intelligence, take a moment to allow emotional impulses to pass before intervening or responding. This will allow conflict management attempts to stay focused on the issue, and not personal attacks.

2. Seek a solution, not a win:

   
   As we touched on above, treating conflicts like a battle to be won against a ‘bad’ side isn’t helpful. Even when one individual is fully in the wrong, there is always an underlying cause to be solved. According to the Negotiation Journal, a win-win approach to conflict resolution, where everyone’s needs are discovered and met through collaborative problem-solving, can result in 35% more mutually satisfactory agreements compared to competitive approaches.

3. Know when to involve a third party:

   
   Sometimes, a conflict is just too personal or serious. In those situations, it can be best for someone neutral, and often with training—like a mediator or HR professional—to step in. These people can offer a neutral perspective for arbitration, which helps those involved lower tensions and find common ground to start a discussion from. Because of this, the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution reports that 80% of commercial disputes that go to mediation are resolved successfully (CPR, 2022).

Understanding Sources of Conflict

Yet another topic we’ve hinted at, an important part of conflict resolution is understanding why conflict begins at all—because then, rules to tackle these situations can be more easily put in place.

1. Poor Communication:

   One of the most prevalent sources is poor communication. While this is often blamed exclusively on the person talking (or typing), the reality isn’t that simple.  

   Misunderstandings can absolutely often result from unclear or insufficient information exchange, which causes assumptions and misinterpretations that lead to disagreements and arguments. But, a lapse in Active Listening and Emotional Intelligence can cause people to misinterpret even clear exchanges, and trigger the same conflicts.

   Therefore, people on both sides of communication need to be involved by not only checking whether they were understood, but that they don’t have any misconceptions about what was said to them.

2. Personality Clashes:

   
   Something especially relevant to the modern workplace, with how remote work and even AI is changing workflows, common, different personalities among team members can be a significant source of tension. Now more than ever, workers have unique cultures, identities, and approaches to tasks, time management, and problem-solving. 

   While some concepts, like the growth mindset, are often useful to everyone, others, like work styles, are more individual. Diverse perspectives are valuable, but if colleagues don’t understand and respect them, arguments can arise. It’s important for an effort to be made to help employees understand points of view they may be unfamiliar with, and for teams to be aware of how their colleagues prefer to work and meet deadlines.

3. Organizational Change:

   
   Changes in company structure, leadership, processes or resource allocation can confuse people, and cause arguments with colleagues and executives—especially if they feel unfairly affected. It can help executives to be clear about their reasons for change, including showing the ways they make it as fair as possible, and explaining why one team may be receiving more support than another (for example, to help meet a new business demand or develop new technology).

4. Perceived Issues:

   
   Lastly, it’s important to understand that some disagreements may arise from the perceived belief that something above is happening—which can seem especially difficult. However, using the conflict resolution strategies from earlier, it should be easier to understand why someone believes this, and to help prove it isn’t true.

Overall, this awareness allows not only for sources of conflict to be proactively mitigated, but for the root causes of active clashes to be found and dealt with faster, so that conflicts can be prevented from causing major damage to workplace culture.

However, we understand this is a lot to remember at once—especially under pressure. That’s why we developed Kin.

How Kin Can Help

Kin is our personal AI, and is designed to support people through their personal and professional lives—including developing and refining conflict management skills in the modern workplace.

Kin’s empathetic conversational skills power its most powerful feature for this: its advanced memory. Through discussions with them, Kin can form a working concept of its users’ personalities, and their individual workplaces, colleagues, and lives.

This means that Kin can offer real-time advice on how to approach difficult conversations and workplace situations, not only informed by its AI knowledge, but by its analysis of a user’s specific situational context. Based on previous sources of conflict for a user, and how they were resolved before, Kin can provide tailored strategies and talking points to help the issue be navigated constructively. It can even speculate on what causes recurring conflicts, so users can address their work environment’s systemic issues.

Kin can also analyze a user’s emotional intelligence, and suggest tips and exercises to help them fill the gaps in their communication skills. Through regular interactions, Kin can track a user’s development of their self-awareness and empathy, and build their confidence in their abilities.

With this data, Kin can create role-play scenarios targeting real-world situations, or discussions users are worried about in particular. This provides a safe space for experimentation with different approaches, as well as feedback on how that tactic might do in handling conflicts.

However, we don’t expect anyone to share this data blindly—especially with Kin’s AI-powered memory. Therefore, we built Kin to be transparent with and protective of data, which is further explained here. 

Essentially, Kin stores and analyzes everything it can on a user’s devices, with data only being shared with approved locations. Additionally, everything Kin knows about a user can be viewed and deleted by them at a moment’s notice. 

Even so, when Kin has this data, not even we can read it. Kin is about our users, not corporate greed.

If that sounds helpful, we'll let Kin explain how to begin collaborating with it:

A Word From Kin, Our Resident AI:

Hey there! Conflict resolution is a difficult but essential thing, so it’s awesome to see you improving your skills.

If you’re interested in working with me to grow and strengthen your employee relations, let’s look at how to start up a quick role-play scenario to assess your skills, and identify ways to improve them. Your first message would be structured like this:

1. Let’s meet: Tell me a bit about who you are and what sector you work in, so I can start to build a profile about you.

2. What’s happening?: What scenario do you want to role-play? Why—what worries you about it? Is there anything you’d like us to focus on?

3. Make plans: Let me know how often you’d like to discuss what we learn from this, so I can track your progress over time, and set reminders to keep you consistent.

If you like the idea, clickhere to download me, and we can start building your conflict resolution skills today!

1. Anon. 2008. “WORKPLACE CONFLICT AND HOW BUSINESSES CAN HARNESS IT TO THRIVE: CPP GLOBAL HUMAN CAPITAL REPORT”. CPP Global. Available at: https://shop.themyersbriggs.com/Pdfs/CPP_Global_Human_Capital_Report_Workplace_Conflict.pdf [Accessed 09/30/24]

2. Anon. 2023. “Conflict Resolution in the Workplace Guide & Workplace Conflict Statistics”. Pollack Peacebuilding Systems. Available at: https://pollackpeacebuilding.com/workplace-conflict-statistics/ [Accessed 09/30/24] 

3. McPike, A. 2023. “Understanding Workplace Conflict: A Survey”.  Innerbody. Available at: https://www.innerbody.com/understanding-workplace-conflict-survey [Accessed 09/30/24]

4. Overton, A. R.; & Lowry, A. C. 2013. “Conflict management: difficult conversations with difficult people”. Clinics in colon and rectal surgery, 26(4), 259–264. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0033-1356728 [Accessed 09/30/24]

5. Babatunde, F.; Haruna, S.; Omotayo, A. 2023. “Emotional Intelligence in Conflict Management and Leadership Effectiveness in Organizations”. researchgate.net. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/369538702_Emotional_Intelligence_in_Conflict_Management_and_Leadership_Effectiveness_in_Organizations [Accessed 10/01/24]

6. Anon. 2020. “Managing conflict in the modern workplace”. cipd.org. Available at: https://www.cipd.org/uk/knowledge/reports/managing-workplace-conflict-report/ [Accessed 10/01/24]