Conflict Matters by Cecil Norman, MA

What is driving the increase of workplace conflicts including formal human rights complaints and employment standards’ claims when there are so many law firms, equity consultants, and on-the-job-trained mediation officers and conflict resolution practitioners in the field claiming to assist employers to develop or review workplace policies, complaint resolution procedures and management training?

In my view, the rise in workplace conflict, formal human rights complaints and labour relations claims may be attributed to at least four basic reasons:

(1) Neither the Human Rights Commissions nor the Labour Relations Board have the resources for education programs to help reduce conflict in the workplace.

(2) Anti-discrimination/anti-harassment policy analysts, mediators, negotiators, and human rights trainers are not certified. Therefore, with the human rights guidelines and employment standards act in hand, anyone with a telephone and a computer can set up an office and claim to be a consultant specializing in workplace mediation, negotiation, or human rights. This is so often the situation for former civil servants. Similarly, government employees, with the backing of their unions, can claim expertise in mediation based on the length of their service at their respective ministry. This easy entry into the conflict resolution field has made mediators out of on-the-job-trained mediation officers, without any formal credentials, and little or no theoretical knowledge. They assume the role of mediators, chair sensitive and contentious workplace conflicts and effect resolutions that are not sustainable.

(3) The strategies that these on-the-job-trained mediation officers apply may only deal with existing problems by applying quick-fix strategies, such as, monetary settlements for the employee and reluctant cash payouts from the employer. A settlement was affected, but it did not resolve the core issues of the conflict. In this way, government assisted mediation services are too focused on case closure because of their backlogs. Complaints are settled, but the parties are not made whole. Often, the parties come away from this type of settlement feeling that the mediation officers imposed their will of case closure on them.

(4) On-the-job-trained mediation officers often lack cross-cultural sensitivity and diversity awareness required by today’s diverse population to properly mediate sensitive and contentious race-based complaints.

The first step to sustainable conflict resolution is the ability to discover the level at which a conflict is really operating. In most cases, this requires some analysis of conflict interaction. Without the theoretical understanding of the conflict, mediation officers cannot thoroughly assess a resolution that takes into consideration future systemic implications, and therefore can only effect a resolution that addresses the current issues and commitment to case closure.

Additional resources, highly skilled in conflict resolution theories and practices, could assist workplaces to reduce conflict through education and training. Similarly, a trained and certified body of professional mediators would be better equipped to understand and implement effective, long-lasting conflict resolution strategies.

Workplace conflicts and sustainable resolution strategies continue to be the subject of research and study in many universities and academic discourse. Bernard Mayer, in The Dynamics of Conflict Resolution, argued “conflict resolution works best and is most sustainable when it helps parties to solve their own conflict in a collaborative and just manner.” In my view, conflict resolution is successful when it satisfies all the parties involved through joint participation. On-the-job-trained mediation officers often apply the Problem Solving or Settlement Mediation models of conflict resolution to settle workplace conflicts. These models would be more effective as resolution strategies if on-the-job-trained mediation officers had the theoretical understanding of these two models and when and how to apply them.

Ontario’s workforce is very diverse. Therefore, on-the-job-trained mediation officers require specialized training with built-in cross-cultural sensitivity and diversity awareness approaches. This sensitivity ensures respectful treatment, empowerment and recognition for all parties.

The increase in workplace conflict and complaints is no longer an employee-employer problem. It has become a societal problem. Therefore, it is incumbent upon the government to locate resources to combat this growing trend. Focus groups providing workplace anti-discrimination / anti-harassment workshops at the community level is a starting point. Local community centres charge nominal fees to host public forums and could be used to host human rights awareness sessions. It is about time that public education becomes a priority in the fight to eliminate harassment and discrimination in Ontario workplaces. Coupled with well-trained, certified conflict resolution practitioners, the growing complaint trend could be significantly reduced.

Cecil Norman holds a Masters Degree in Conflict Resolution. His column on Conflict Matters appears monthly. You may reach him directly at his practice, Human Rights Advisory Services Inc. Email: cnorman@hras.ca

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