Work conflict is at the heart of every organisation and its impact on productivity is substantial. Several lines of research, including reports from ACAS and CIPD, suggest that line managers, senior leaders and HR practitioners can boost productivity by improving their own conflict management skills.
The video series below shares insights from a wide range of academics, policy-makers and HR experts on promoting different approaches to conflict resolution and provides concrete recommendations for your organisation.
Whether you’ve attended one of our workshops or caught up on the videos of the sessions, please get in touch if our content has been useful to your organisation/practice or if you would like to share your feedback with us. Contact Dr Daría Hernández at d.hernandez-ibar@sheffield.ac.uk
Developing strategic approaches to conflict management
Conflict is a strategic issue and organisations that are serious about the wellbeing and engagement of their staff need to develop more strategic and integrated approaches to the management of conflict. In this video, Gill Dix from Acas, Paul Latreille, from Sheffield University Management School and Denise Currie, from Queen’s University Belfast discuss how organisations can do this. The session is hosted by Professor Richard Saundry. Our speakers also explore the key design components and potential challenges and obstacles that organisations may face in embedding more strategic approaches in the workplace.
Key takeaways from the session can be downloaded below:
More on the evidence behind this webinar can be found at:
· Estimating the costs of workplace conflict: https://www.acas.org.uk/estimating-the-costs-of-workplace-conflict-report
· Mediation at work (the table of best practices on p10 could apply to any dispute resolution process or system): https://www.businessofgovernment.org/sites/default/files/Mediation.pdf
- Towards a system of conflict management? An evaluation of the impact of workplace mediation at Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
Workplace mediation
Mediation has become increasingly popular in recent years as organisations have looked at alternative ways of resolving conflict at work. It can be very effective in restoring and repairing relationships and if used strategically, it can also help to transform the way that conflict is managed. In this session, we bring together a range of mediation experts to look at how organisations can get the most out of mediation.
It’s good to talk – developing effective informal conflict resolution
In this workshop, Professor Richard Saundry from the University of Sheffield and Professor Peter Urwin from the University of Westminster reflected on 10 years of Acas funded research to ask why we find it so difficult to develop more creative approaches to conflict resolution and identify some ways that organisations can promote early and informal intervention.
Slides from the session can be downloaded here:
Workplace Bullying in the Cultural Industry
In this PrOPEL Hub video, Dr Sam Farley, Dr Alexandra Woodall and Professor Richard Saundry explore how to prevent, mitigate, and/or solve bullying in the cultural industry and in all organisations in general.
HR, Line Managers and Trade Unions: The golden triangle of conflict resolution
In this PrOPEL Hub video, Jez Stewart (Prospect Union), Caroline Sandy (ACAS) and Debbie Sanders (Make Work Better) take a practical look at the benefits of developing high-trust relationships between line managers, HR and trade union reps and offer key insights into how these relationships work and what can be done to get the most out of them.
Covid and Conflict: Managing the Return to the Workplace
How can organisations prevent, contain and resolve conflict at work as we slowly try to recover from, and live with, the Covid-19 pandemic? In this PrOPEL Hub webinar, our speakers explore that question by looking at some of the tricky and difficult situations that managers across the UK are being faced with. Professor Richard Saundry is joined by Joanna Nunn and Karen French, Senior Advisers at Acas and their colleague Gary Wedderburn, an Acas expert on all things Covid related to get their views.
Reconnecting HR? Putting Conflict Management at the Heart of HR
In this video, experts in HR and conflict management discussed the practical implications of their research into the role of HR Practitioners in the management of workplace conflict. The research, which has been published in the Human Resource Management Journal and which was awarded the CIPD’s Ian Beardwell Prize questions the centralisation of HR, the shift to business partnering and more remote models of HR management.
During the workshop, 4 key propositions were explored. Read more on these here:
You can learn more about the research underpinning the workshop here.
Speakers included Richard Saundry, Professor of HRM and Employment Relations at The University of Sheffield; Virginia Fisher, Associate Professor in HR Studies, Plymouth Business School; Sue Kinsey, Associate Professor in HR Studies, Plymouth Business School; Jonny Gifford, Senior Advisor for Organisational Behaviour at the CIPD and Debbie Sanders, founder of specialist employee relations consultancy Make Work Better