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Conflict in Workplace? How Much is Workplace Costing Your Organization
Conflict in the workplace, assuming it is an actual pitched battle between employees - fights on the loading dock for instance, or between supervisors who start malicious rumors about one another, is easy to see. Even so the dollar cost of such obvious conflict is rarely measured.
Other, much more subtle forms of conflict in workplace, such as intimidation or bullying are never measured. Not only does this sort of conduct often become "he said - he said" with the taking of sides the only result, it is usually not seen by management as conflict in the traditional sense, so not attempt to resolve it takes place.
The powers that be wait patiently on the sidelines until it all blows over or until there is some other reason to step in and make a personnel decision. Workplace conflict resolution is applied, and applied sparingly I might add, often as a last resort - when it should have been the very first step.
No matter if your workplace looks like WWI, with everyone dug in to their own trenches firing volley's across a wasteland of desks, cubicles, warehouses, and fields, or if everyone is so polite to each other it's disgusting - while sniping behind their backs, one thing is clear. The behavior is wasting time, everyone's time, and time is money after all.
Since it's often impossible to tell how much or how little is going on inside someone's head, maybe your people are simply conflicted about their relationship at home. and that has caused them to 'shut down' - they look productive, but nothing is happening. The bottom line results are the same - they are wasting their time on the job and your money.
I am no accountant so ask yours how much actual money is erased directly from your organization's bottom line when two employees can't or won't work together cooperatively. There is the money you were paying them at the time they were not productive, that's a given.
What about the money you lose because the people who report to them can't complete their tasks because they have not received the results these two individuals are squabbling over. There are also all the indirect costs that account for another 30% of payroll or more. Then imagine a couple of these ongoing conflicts taking place somewhere with someone all the time.
As tough as business is right now I am amazed that you have not picked up on this and that your employees are not doing everything possible to work together effectively. I am flabbergasted by some of the stories I hear, people just unwilling to work together while their company is struggling to survive. And how supervisors and business owners are doing nothing to measure the actual cost of wasted time.
Be sure to tell your accountant that when calculating the organizational cost of wasted time, that they should be conservative with their estimates. A cost of conflict calculator will consider all the variables you input in order to generate its results. If they're not very conservative - their results will be so large as to be mind-blowing, and if you try to present them to your Board or your employees you will lose credibility. No one will believe the numbers.
When the numbers look too big your employees will either discount them as not being possible, just your accountant over reacting to the way things always are around here or they seem too big to actually do anything about. When that happens, getting buy-in for whatever corrective action you might want to take becomes even more difficult.
When it come to the real financial cost of wasted time in the workplace, it s an eye opening experience when you or your accountant measures it for the first time.
About the Author Successful leaders understand that a key ingredient of success is the development and maintenance of shared goals for the organization's future. "Managing Differences" is a practical guide for reducing the cost of conflict in workplace. If you want to reduce the cost of unresolved workplace conflict and develop , workplace conflict resolution strategies, go to click on the book cover and listen to the 1st Chapter free via streaming audio.
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