Comment of Evgeniya Vozniuk, Supervisor of HR Services Group, EBS was published in business newspaper “InvestGazeta” (20.06.2006): “Diagnosis of atmosphere in collective”
Being engaged in a consulting sphere I meet absolutely different companies, small and medium business, Ukrainian and foreign companies that are working in various realms of economy. I should say that this rule works in any organization regardless of its size and kind of activity. In most cases if corporative culture is favorable, vexed or disputed situations are quickly solved and don’t cause negative effect on the rest of personnel. This happens due to absence of sources that will provoke conflicts in the atmosphere. In this case such a source can be a new worker who has come from another culture (for example, a new worker can come from the organization where intrigues and people manipulation were normal). Practice shows that his fate is decided in next few months: he (she) either changes his views and learns to work in a favorable corporative culture or can’t do this and leaves the company. Advantage of such a method is the fact that management is not involved in conflicts solving. Vexed moments are peacefully settled by its participants.Here is an example when a new worker was hired as a manager of a medium level in the company where command work was a rule. But he preferred shifting much of his work to subordinates and colleagues. A new worker came from the company where tough hierarchical subordination was used. It meant that all managers’ tasks had to be done without discussion and his participation. So, a new manager faced the fact that there is close cooperation between managers and their subordinates in the company. It is characteristic that he appealed to the company’s director saying that his tasks were not performed, while his subordinates preferred open communication with a new manager to inform him why they couldn’t perform a task and where they needed help. In 5 months a new worker left the company but there was more disputed situation then a conflict in the company and it didn’t influence workers’ motivation and effectiveness.
To avoid conflicts in the company it is necessary to create conditions for common work and common personnel’s meetings. Such a method will decrease the risk of conflicts. Wide-known is a psychological experiment when a person is asked to choose one of his two photographs, one of which is usual and the second is made as a mirror reflection. Most people choose the second one for that is how they see themselves everyday in a mirror. This reflection is closer and more pleasant. This experiment shows that the more we meet our colleagues the more pleasant becomes our cooperation with them. There appear more chances to establish not only simple working relations but friendly interpersonal attitudes that reduce the risk of conflicts. There are many ways of making collective friendly. Among the most frequently used are common trainings, seminars, “string courses”, and also corporative celebration and events. It may sound weird but whereabouts of personnel also influence the risk of conflict occurrence. There is a false opinion that if co-workers are in different offices and are geographically separated from each other, there will be fewer conflicts for personnel do not see each other. Even if co-workers do not see each other they have to communicate in business matter. And due to different location of the offices they communicate with the help of telephone or written massages. So, if you have such an opportunity, do not separate collective. Give them a chance to establish relations placing them in one room.
There exists one recommendation which is implemented when there is animosity among some workers or departments. If a conflict has turned already into hostile relations, training on command cooperation will not help; it can only spoil the situation. In this case it is recommended to unite hostile forces for performing one common task and create a bit stressful conditions (for example, under time or give them a task that will influence their promotion etc.). In other words the workers should realize that they will achieve the aim cooperating with each other. In stressful situations when there is some outer danger, hostile parties depend on each other and they have to agree on a truce while working on their task. While doing this, two parties learn more about each other, help each other, and establish working relations. In most cases after successful task completion, former conflicts are solved quickly and co-workers become friends. But do not make the situation too stressful, it should be realizable and you should be sure that two parties will perform a given task in a good way if they join their efforts.
It is very important for a manager or other third party responsible for conflicts settlement to realize that a key factor to conflict solving is motivation of both parties and desire to arrange a vexed situation. In case if one of the parties is not motivated and it considers position “I am in conflict” more profitable than position “I am not in conflict”, then you have no chances to overcome opposition. If there appears a manipulator that feels more comfortable in conflict situations and provokes them, it is easier to fire such a worker than to motivate him to avoid conflicts. In such cases neither stressful situations nor command training will help. Very rear two manipulators appear in the company and prefer position “in a conflict”. If such a situation occurred, people responsible for conflicts settlement should find true causes of opposition and take measures to liquidate these causes. Moreover, it is necessary to point out that one of the hostile parties is closer to the company’s interests while the other – to its own ones.
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