Managers need to have a degree of daily participation and involvement in a way that will help mitigate workplace conflict. There position could lead to isolation that insulates them from what is going on about them. This insulation may seem to come with their status and look positive for them individually but it can backfire in ways that ferments more workplace conflicts. There is thin line that separated status in an organization that sets a person apart and insulation that makes the person look as if they have abandoned their post.
Recognizing Your Position And Status
There are some who hold the view that a manager could lose respect if he or she unduly mixes with those they are supposed to oversee. They go on to say that this will not eventually help the manager in resolving workplace conflict whenever they arise.
This can only hold true when the manager’s interaction and mixing with those he or she is supposed to oversee is void of their authority. The manager that recognizes his or her status and position will carry or comport themselves in such a manner that it will not be lost on those around them. The issue is not about throwing your weight about but about acting decisively in your capacity as manager whenever the need arises.
Once everyone is clear on the issue of how you handle your position, mixing with them will not diminish that authority in any manner and might even increase it.
Applying Decisive Action As A Manager
You can be amiable, mix well with members of your team and still be respected when it comes to workplace decision making when you show decisiveness in the way you handle such issues. They quickly get to realize that you know where and how to draw the line. Fear is not respect although they might look as if they are achieving the same thing like reverence. Staying in constant touch with those you are overseeing can keep petty squabbles between them at bay. If these squabbles are allowed to run lose they can create bigger problems that may be very difficult to resolve.
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www.sophisticatededge.com[/caption]Dangers Of Insulation
Insulation can lead to isolation and isolating yourself from the team could makes things to quickly degenerate. However, once you are recognized for your decisiveness, your presence could serve as a deterrent of sorts in preventing workplace conflicts from adversely affecting the bottom-line. This does not mean that work place conflict will cease from existing in your unit, but it does mean that it can be kept at bay.
Insulation might nurture workplace conflict because your absence would be translated to mean that you do not want to be bothered and they can just do whatever they want as long as you are not disturbed. Petty issues like gossip, side talk and others can blow out of proportion to become sources of major conflict in the office environment. Insulating yourself from the team can create other negative issues aside from encourage workplace conflict.
For instance, productivity of the group may suffer because you are not on top of the situation. These negative issues could create a cloud of negative that will spawn multiple challenges that will further hit the productivity of the unit. This could in turn fuel further conflicts as members of the unit fail to meet individually given target.
Creating A Forum
Creating a meeting place that will keep everyone in line not just in terms of achieving set goals but of dealing with matters that arise on a day-by-day basis will keep the unit focused on that, which is needful. Isolating yourself will not make this to happen. Potential conflicts could be nipped at the bud if such meetings are held regularly.
Most workplace conflicts that arise may never have if certain things like how the manager interacts and mixes with the members of his team were in place. In a place where humans constantly interact, it seems inevitable that conflict will rear its head. However, we should be conscious of the fact that interaction in itself does not bring conflict but the content that can result in conflict. Moreover, the manager can also use that principle of interaction to counter the spawning of workplace conflict.
People want to behave properly when the boss is around. This will not diminish in any way if he or she stays for so long because they still hold the position of boss. This is what applies to the manager whose focus is that the team meets their given goals. His or her position will not diminish if he or she is constantly around, his or her presence will act as a deterrent as it concerns the behavior of the staff. This is a good thing because it could keep the unit focused on the right things as far as the manager is concerned.
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