Impact of Conflict at Workplace, Positive & Negative

Workplace conflicts and disagreements happen in every organization. If you don’t resolve these conflicts on time, they will have severe consequences. They would amplify employee stress levels, and decrease their morale and productivity. Today, we’ll discuss the impact of conflict in workplace and; the positive and negative consequences of conflict at workplace.

Positive Impact of Conflict At Workplace

Let’s discuss the positive consequences and impact of conflict at workplace, they’re as follows;

Creativity Boost

When employees and team members are in the survival mode and resolving conflicts, then it boosts the creative mind to find solutions to resolve problems. They review their original issues and previous views to find unique solutions to the issues. In other words, conflict makes employees think creatively and find innovative solutions to problems.

Empathy

When employees sit together to resolve conflict and issues, their objective is to comprehend each other’s points of view, unique perspectives, and ideas. Often, their conflicts and issues happen due to disagreements and differences of opinion. Developing an empathic attitude would help them to resolve conflicts and experience limited issues in the future.

Sharing Emotions

Conflicts among employees and team members would make them express their emotions. They should let out the negative feelings and emotions of mistrust, fear, anger, and grievance. If they don’t express their emotions on time, it triggers an unexpected response and damages their reputation.

New Leadership

Workplace conflict would cause to change in leadership in the organization. It pushes employees and team members to the state where they start questioning the leadership of the company. However, it happens when leaders listen to diverse points of view; introduce fresh ideas to resolve the conflicts of employees, and make them feel heard. As a result, they emerge as new and strong leaders.

Communication Style

Conflicts provide employees and team members an opportunity to listen to the concerns and different views of their colleagues. It provides them an opportunity to recognize the reason why communication is failing and know the causes of their misunderstanding.

Negative Impact of Conflict At Workplace

Let’s discuss the negative consequences and impact of conflict at workplace, they’re as follows;

Lower Productivity

In a conflicted working environment, employees spend a lot of their time gossiping, worrying about issues, and managing conflicts. It consumes a lot of their time, and valuable resources, and decreases their overall productivity in the workplace.

Lower Morale & Motivation Level

Working conflict negatively impacts the performance and productivity of employees and team members. If it persists, then it makes them feel stressful and they won’t be able to focus on their job. They would feel uncertain about their role and job in the long term. With lower morale and motivation level of employees, they feel frustrated and it impacts their productivity.

Higher Employees’ Turnover

If the employees and team members are continuously experiencing conflicts in the workplace, the stress and frustration will make them leave the toxic working environment. It becomes worse when the top management leaves due to unresolved conflicts.

Absence and Skipping Work

Workplace conflict makes employees and team members take absences and skip their work to deal with their stress and unresolved issues. They take every possible opportunity to avoid the toxic workplace environment and find comfort in it. The absence of employees would further aggravate the issue by jeopardizing their productivity, time, and cost.

Mental Health Issues

Workplace conflicts have severe and adverse impacts on the mental health of employees and team members. Their symptoms are depression, anxiety, losing appetite, limited sleep, and headache. Stress and frustration make them feel stuck and they are unable to find solutions to their problems and constantly worrying about the conflict.

Many research studies have shown that employees and team members believe in fact that discussion and communication resolve problems. They would experience limited mental health issues. Some employees would experience higher levels of stress when they don’t make the effort to resolve it.

Financial Issues

According to a research study by CPP, employees and team members spent approximately 2.8 hours weekly worrying and resolving their conflicts. It costs companies approximately 359 million USD annually. In case of employee turnover, they need to incur a significant cost on new employees’ recruitment and training programs to attract and retain new talent.

Violence

Unresolved issues and conflicts would make the working environment highly tense; it would spark and ignite a fistful fight at any time. When employees and team members feel unheard, they take matters into their own hands and resolve the issue by themselves. A violent working environment would jeopardize the company’s reputation, and financial standing, and attract heavy legal fees and penalties.

Conclusion: Consequences of Conflict At Workplace | Positive & Negative Impact of Conflict At Workplace

After an in-depth study of the impact of conflict at workplace; we have realized that workplace conflict has both positive and negative effects. If you are learning about the positive and negative consequences of conflict at workplace; then you should keep in mind the abovementioned positive and negative factors.