Publications

Stages of Conflict Resolution: A Case Study

By Katy Miller

At LADR (Littleton Alternative Dispute Resolution), we work with companies and employees to resolve conflict at all stages. We recognize that conflict in the workplace cannot be prevented, but it is inevitable. The question, however, is how is it managed? There are many stages of conflict during which outside intervention can be successfully utilized to reduce or eliminate the disputes. Below is a description of some of those stages where outside assistance could be used.

1. In the workplace, an employee complains about conditions, assignments, hours, her co-workers, a hostile environment. It could be a multitude of types and severity of complaints.

She complains to her supervisor who is at his wit’s end trying to manage her. He thinks she is a chronic complainer. Maybe if he ignores her, she will get tired and stop. Or maybe he should terminate her, her productivity is low anyway. But he decides to try ignoring her…

This supervisor should consider bringing in a trained conflict resolution professional to defuse the situation and get to the bottom of the issues as quickly as possible.

2. The employee takes her complaints to HR. She indicates that others in her work group are also unhappy with the supervisor. HR determines that the complaint is pretty run-of-the mill, and sends the employee back to work it out with her supervisor. HR tells her to go to the manager if it doesn’t get better. The employee leaves HR upset.

HR is making a mistake. Whether the complaint poses a serious or even a legal problem is unknown. At the very least, the employee is upset. HR should offer assistance and/or bring in outside assistance to listen to the parties and work to obtain a consensus between them so that the work group can stop talking about the issues and get back to work.

3. The employee’s resentment is building. She feels that no one is taking her complaint seriously, nobody is listening. It has been months since she complained and nothing has happened to change anything.

Whereas she wasn’t sure before, now she believes that her gender is the reason she is being treated differently. She has heard that she can file a charge with the Colorado Civil Rights Commission or the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. She decides to file a charge, hoping to get someone’s attention. She does not engage counsel, it is too expensive. A copy of the charge is sent to the company for a response.

Now the supervisor is angry, and HR is defensive. They decide to fight the charge. The employee is still employed by the company, and wants to keep it that way. She just wanted someone to listen.

At this point, management should bring in an outside professional to assist with the resolution of the conflict. No attorneys are yet involved, and no one has lost their job. To quickly resolve the dispute will require an understanding of the issues from all perspectives, which HR may no longer be able to accomplish.

4. Things in the work group are deteriorating. Not only is no one listening to her complaints, but she feels isolated from the work group. Everyone knows she has filed the charge although she didn’t tell anyone. She is getting messages from her supervisor that he is no longer satisfied with her work and worries that he is setting her up to be fired.

The supervisor considers her unmanageable. She seems to think that because she filed a charge of discrimination he cannot discipline her. Her attitude is unbearable. The employee seeks counsel, and counsel contacts in-house counsel to determine any interest in resolving the complaint.

In-house counsel and HR decide they have a defensible case; the employee will probably soon be terminated anyway because the company is experiencing a downturn in its business. They decline the offer to discuss settlement.

More mistakes are being made. At this point, it is clear the matter is not going away. Whether the ultimate case is defensible or not, management should never lose the opportunity to resolve the conflict before litigation is commenced. If the employee loses her job involuntarily, her damages will grow. This is a key time to hire an outside mediator to review the situation and assist the parties in resolving it.

5. The parties either do not try or are unable to resolve the conflict at the administrative agency. The employee feels compelled to bring a civil action in state or federal court. Her costs and those of the company are mounting considerably. Thousands of dollars is being spent just for the discovery, i.e. for the depositions, the production of documents, the experts. Management time working on the case is building.

The employee feels targeted and isolated. Everyone stays away from her for fear of being involved in the case. Management considers her unmanageable because they are afraid of retaliation charges. Ultimately, she is terminated in the next wave of downsizing.

The Court orders the parties to engage in an ADR process to attempt to resolve the case.
An outside mediator is probably essential at this point. The parties are polarized, the conflict has grown exponentially, and the costs are high, but growing literally by the hour.

Management feels it did nothing wrong, and had the right to terminate this employee. The employee is certain that but for her complaints and the filing of the charge, she would not have been selected for layoff.

While management may be correct in its legal analysis, it committed many mistakes along the way. It lost numerous opportunities to resolve this conflict at an early stage and save thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours of time. Had it committed a few hours early on, with the assistance of an outside trained conflict resolution professional, much could have been saved.