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5 Average number of hours per week spent on dealing with workplace conflict, by country United States Belgium 1.2 Brazil Denmark France Germany Ireland The Netherlands 0.9 United Kingdom Total 1.9 1.8 1.8 1.8 2.1 2.8 3.3 3.3 Prolonging the agony. It is not unusual for conflicts to escalate, rather than being swiftly resolved. Nine out of ten employees (89%) have experienced a workplace conflict that escalated. Almost one in three (29%) said that a recent workplace conflict took a few days to properly dispel, but as many as one in six (16%) report that a recent conflict remains unresolved, having lasted longer than expected and/or becoming increasingly intense. It’s difficult to say whether this is because the issues underlying these situations are genuinely complex, but certainly the likelihood of speedy recovery without some form of scar tissue diminishes as conflicts prolong. The research also found that women are more likely to have been involved in a conflict that escalated (19% versus 14%). The sectors in which disagreements are most likely to become inflamed are marketing and the charity/not-forprofit sector (30% and 23% respectively). Only one in ten employees (11%) has never experienced a conflict that grew into something bigger, which suggests that conflict management techniques are not well embedded into organizations. Of course, where escalation occurs, more management time is required to restore calm and refocus the team on its original purpose. COSTS TO THE EMPLOYEE Individual impact. When conflicts are not addressed effectively, emotions can run high and individuals suffer. The impact of this is more difficult to calculate but no less serious, particularly on staff engagement levels. Over a quarter of employees (27%) have been involved in a workplace disagreement that led to personal insults or attacks, while a similar percentage (25%) have seen conflict lead to sickness or absence.
6 What negative outcomes of workplace conflict have you witnessed? Personal insults/attacks 27% Sickness/absence 25% Cross-departmental conflict 18% Bullying 18% People left the organization 18% People were fired 16% Employees were moved to different departments 13% Project failure 9% <strong>CPP</strong> GLOBAL HUMAN CAPITAL REPORT This latter issue is clearly a major problem in the not-for-profit sector, where almost half (48%) have been involved in a conflict that led to sickness and/or absenteeism. Short-term problems are not the only outcomes of a poorly managed conflict: one in five employees (18%) say that people have left the organization because of conflict, 16% say that people were fired and one in ten (9%) even attribute a project failure to disagreements between those involved. It’s likely that not all departures are unwanted, but the disruption generated by the conflict that catalyzed them often leaves scars, suggesting that swift and targeted conflict management is key. The figure for those seeing project failure rises to almost one in five (19%) employees in Germany, which also ranks highest among the countries surveyed for negative outcomes such as insults and sickness. Adverse effects of conflict are much rarer in Brazil, France, Belgium and the Netherlands. In fact, almost half of Dutch employees (48%) say that they haven’t experienced any notable negative outcomes from workplace conflict. Undermining the team. Unsurprisingly, conflict reduces cooperation and a sense of “team” when it is poorly handled. Two thirds of employees (67%) have gone out of their way to avoid a colleague because of a disagreement at work, which is likely to create a distraction and de-focusing of the team, at the very least. This rises to three quarters (76%) in the US and it is more prevalent among women, generally (71%, versus 64% of men). It seems that women may be more diffident about opening up disagreements. While smaller numbers of people take more extreme measures in the face of conflict, the cost to teams and organizations of even one in ten employees failing to attend meetings (10%) or taking multiple days off (9%) to avoid conflict situations quickly becomes significant in terms of lost productivity. A quarter (24%) of workers have stayed away from a work-related social event to avoid conflict, rising to 36% in Germany. One in seven (14%) has missed a day’s work, one in ten (9%) has taken off more than a day, and one in eight (12%) even admits that conflict resulted in them leaving their job. It seems that conflict avoidance is a common but highly ineffective technique. For teams, this represents a missed opportunity; well-managed conflicts within a team can lead to greater trust and better decision-making through the quality of the resolution process. It doesn’t end there. The destructive emotions experienced by those involved in a conflict at work don’t simply vanish. Over half of employees (57%) have left a conflict situation with negative feelings, most commonly de-motivation, anger and frustration. Workers in the UK are most likely to feel this way, with 65% admitting to negative emotions from con
Page 1 and 2: CPP GLOBAL HUMAN CAPITAL REPORT JUL
Page 3 and 4: First and foremost, workers at all
Page 5: 4 85% of people change the way they
Page 9 and 10: 8 Do you ever have to deal with con
Page 11 and 12: 10 The research highlights the impa
Page 13 and 14: 12 What could managers do to addres
Page 15 and 16: 14 THE VALUE OF TRAINING Getting lo
Page 17 and 18: 16 If employees have had training,
Page 19 and 20: 18 This applies in all our working
Page 21 and 22: 20 BELGIUM: A NATION OF DIPLOMATS?
Page 23 and 24: 22 DENMARK: TAKING THE BROADER VIEW
Page 25 and 26: 24 GERMANY: MANAGING UNDER STRESS A
Page 27 and 28: 26 THE NETHERLANDS: AGREEING TO DIS
Page 29 and 30: 28 REALIZING POSITIVE OUTCOMES FROM
Page 31 and 32: 30 5 Ensure that everyone “owns
Page 33 and 34: 32 Most people work in relatively i
Page 35 and 36: OPP ® is one of Europe’s leading

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