Working Life Barometer in the Baltic Countries 2002 (pdf) - mol.fi

CONFLICTS
166
To finish this chapter, we will take a look at working people's experiences of
conflicts at the workplace. In the previous survey in the latter part of 1998, it
was striking how the incidence of conflict situations was much more widespread
in Lithuania relative to the other countries. In 2002, the position is very
different as regards the comparison between the countries. The situation in
Lithuania has, on the whole, improved slightly; but in Latvia, workplace conflicts
have increased considerably. This being so, Latvia and Lithuania are
now fairly close to each other with respect to conflicts. In Estonia, practically
no change has taken place: the figures are in fact astonishingly similar to those
of three years earlier. It is indeed clear that all the types of conflict enquired
about in the survey are less common at the Estonian workplaces than at the
Latvian and Lithuanian ones.
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
27%
18%
22%
Between superiors
and employees
A lot or quite a lot
CONFLICTS WITHIN A WORKPLACE
25%
13%
29%
Rivalry,
internal
competition
19%
10%
15%
20%
11%
16%
With clients Between
employees
LATVIA ESTONIA LITHUANIA
10%
6%
11%
Between
groups of
employees
6%
3%
7%
Threat of physical
or mental violence
The Latvian trend has been very disturbing. All the conflict types surveyed
happen there more commonly now than according to the previous survey. Not
only have the conflicts become more widespread, affecting more of the working
people than earlier - but they have also increased in frequency, occurring
more often than before. In other words, the conflicts have increased in both an