Workplace Facilitation-Managing Stress Arising From Workplace Conflict

By Susan Philchuk and Maria Vandenhurk

It would seem that stress is an inescapable reality of most working environments. Factors that impact workplace stress include clashes with coworkers/ supervisors, job insecurity, inability to influence decision-making and more personal issues such as childcare/eldercare, financial problems or issues of substance abuse. The effects of these stressors on an organization can include reduced decision making quality, loss of skilled employees, need to restructure, employee sabotage/theft/damage, lowered job motivation, increased absenteeism and increased STD/LTD insurance premiums.

Costs of Stress in the Workplace

Unmanaged conflict in the workplace is possibly the least recognized and yet most reducible cost to many organizations today. It is estimated that 42% of a manager’s time is spent attempting to reach resolution with others when workplace conflict occurs (“Managers as Negotiators” Carol Watson and Richard Hoffman, Leadership Quarterly, 1996).

Watson Wyatt’s Canadian 2002/2003 Staying@Work study revealed that psychological conditions including stress, anxiety and depression are the leading cause of both STD and LTD. The same study indicated that most organizations surveyed expressed concern about the steady increase of these conditions but were uncertain as to how to address the problem successfully.

The Watson Wyatt study reflected that many companies are in reactive mode in effectively managing disability from an organizational perspective. Proactive investment in strategies and processes to effectively deal with workplace conflict; a major source of stress and subsequent workplace dysfunction or employee disability, yield organizational benefits which may include decreased STD/LTD premiums, reduced employee turnover, decreased absenteeism and finally increased employee productivity and initiative.

Models Dealing with Workplace Stress/Conflict

Disability research has demonstrated the importance of understanding the perspectives of both the employee and employer to achieve a successful return to work (Krause, Frank, Dasinger, Sullivan, Sinclair, 2001; Lawrence & Jette, 1996). The literature proposes various models to assist employees either stay at work or return to work when stress impacts on their ability to work effectively. For the most part, these models have drawn from theories of disablement and focused upon the identification of medically related factors that have influenced the path from disease/injury to the point of disability. Not enough attention has been placed upon the interpersonal difficulties between employee and employer that need to be addressed to achieve a successful return to work or to remain at work. Work Place Facilitation (WPF) is a process that has its primary focus on non-medical issues and resolution of interpersonal conflict.

Workplace Facilitation (WPF)

Work Place Facilitation is a process whereby facilitative strategies are used by a trained Facilitator to bring about a resolution to work place issues that present as barriers to an employee’s attendance at work or successful return to work following an absence, often assigned to illness, which may be stress induced.

What’s different about WPF?

WPF examines the underlying interests of each party (why one wants something) as opposed to the positions of each party (what one wants). The main emphasis of WPF is to cost effectively address the non-medical barriers impacting on recovery and the sustainability of work or return to work planning.

Underpinnings of the Workplace Facilitation Model:

• Requires Voluntary Participation from all Parties
• Requires Confidentiality & Neutrality from the Facilitator
• Encourages Personal Empowerment
• Creates Workable/Implementable Solutions
• Preserves Future Relationships

The Workplace Facilitation Process Includes:

• Preparation
• Individual Fact Finding Interviews (e.g. Employer, Employee, Co-Worker)
• Negotiating the Issues
• Overcoming Barriers/Brainstorm Solutions
• Mutual Agreement (Plan) and Documentation
• Implementation of the Plan

Conditions required for a positive outcome in the workplace facilitation process include commitment from the highest levels of the organization, neutrality and skill in the Facilitator, visible/long lasting benefits for the employer/employee, thorough and timely documentation and close monitoring during the implementation phase.

The Facilitator

The role of the Facilitator is to assist parties in settling their disputes fairly and practically. The Facilitator is a highly skilled and trained professional who acts as a channel of communication to assist each party in articulating their thoughts or needs in a manner that the other party is able to hear and relate to. The Facilitator helps to clearly identify and encourage the parties to create alternative ideas to resolve disputes.

A Facilitator does not adjudicate issues or make judgments on the merits of either party’s position or interests. The Facilitator does not impose or prescribe solutions. In fact, such partisan intervention can potentially weaken trust in each party and ultimately undermine the integrity of the process.

A Facilitator seeks to affect a shift the parties involved from an adversarial, position-based approach to a problem solving, cooperative and mutually satisfactory approach, to the conflict at hand.

Conclusion

In order for organizations to create a robust and healthy business within in a fiercely competitive marketplace, proactive steps need to be taken in the workplace, to ensure a focus on the prevention of absenteeism related to employee stress. In addition, there needs to be a strategy in place to deal effectively with employees who have left work or remain off work on disability, related to non medical barriers (i.e. workplace stress).

Workplace Facilitation, conducted by trained and skilled Facilitators, is an effective strategy to assist employees and employers to improve communication, build relationships, understand another’s perspective and ultimately to resolve conflict.

Maria Vandenhurk and Susan Philchuk are partners in Banyan Work Health Solutions, a Toronto based Disability Management consulting company serving the LTD and employer market nationally since 1995. For more information, please visit www.banyanconsultants.com . 

References

Krause, N., Frank, J., Dasinger, L., Sullivan, T., Sinclair, S., Rudolph, L. (2001). Determinants of duration of disability and return-to-work after work-related injury and illness: Challenges for future research. American Journal of Industrial Medicine, 40(4) 464-84 .

Lawrence, R., Jette, A. (1996). Disentangling the disablement process. Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences, 51B, (4): S173-S182.

Watson, C., & Hoffman, R. (1996). Managers as Negotiators. Leadership Quarterly, 7(1) 63-85, 1996

Watson Wyatt. (2002/2003). Canadian 2002/2003 Staying@Work study. Retrieved November 27, 2007, from http://www.watsonwyatt.com/canada-english/pubs/stayingatwork/