One in four have ongoing difficult relationships at work

Nick Elvin

One in three UK employees (38%) have experienced some form of interpersonal conflict at work in the last year, according to new research from the CIPD, the professional body for HR and people development.

Meanwhile, one in four (29%) have had isolated disputes or clashes and a further one in four (28%) report ongoing difficult relationships.

The report, Getting Under the Skin of Workplace Conflict, found that conflict manifests itself in a number of ways at work, the most frequently cited one being lack of respect, according to 61% of respondents. And one in every 25 respondents who said they had experienced conflict, said they had experienced the threat of or actual physical assault at work.

When conflict does arise at work, it’s most often perceived as being with line managers or other superiors (36%) rather than with direct reports (10%), highlighting the important influence of the power balance in how conflict is experienced. In other words, the junior person in the relationship is more likely to identify the issue as a problem, while the senior person either didn’t identify it as a problem in the first place or sees it as having been resolved.

The most common cause of conflict is a clash of personality or working style (44%) rather than a conflict of interest as such. Individual performance competence and target setting are also among the issues most likely to spark conflict, with promotions or contractual terms of employment being less influential.

Jonny Gifford, research adviser at the CIPD, said: “All too often, employers brush workplace conflict aside, putting it down to a difference of opinion, but it’s clear that it has a serious impact on our working relationships, wellbeing and productivity.

“Line managers have a crucial role to play here. For the most part they are seen as a positive influence in helping to create strong, healthy team relationships, but there’s still a clear case for developing managers and providing them with the skills they need. We need managers who can both build robust teams, where challenges can be made in a non-threatening way, and nip conflict in the bud before it has the chance to escalate. These are not generally seen as part of a core skills set for line managers and that view needs to change.”

The CIPD’s report found that in some instances, conflict has become unworkable, resulting in one in ten people leaving a role either by moving to a another role in the organisation, resigning or being dismissed.

There are other impacts as well; individuals feeling stressed is the most common one, followed by a drop in commitment or motivation. One in seven cases (14%) said that there had been a drop in productivity and in 6% of cases, stress levels escalated to a point where an individual went off work sick.

Gifford added: “Both ongoing difficult relationships and isolated incidents at work can have major ramifications for employees’ personal wellbeing and morale, and serious implications for the organisations through demotivation, absence, employee churn, not to mention the time it can take management and HR to resolve disputes.

“With one in ten people leaving their role as a result of it and one in seven saying it affects their productivity, interpersonal conflict is something that no business can ignore.”