End Working to Mediate Your Way Out of Toxic Workplace Atmosphere: How Real Change Demands Organizational Changes
Let me about to tell you something that will likely offend every human resources professional who reads this: the majority of workplace dispute isn’t caused by communication issues or character differences.
What actually creates conflict is created by dysfunctional structures, incompetent leadership, and toxic company atmospheres that force workers against each other in competition for scarce resources.
After eighteen years of training with businesses in difficulty, I’ve observed many well-meaning companies waste enormous amounts on dispute management training, interpersonal workshops, and conversation programs while totally missing the structural causes that cause disputes in the first place.
Let me give you a perfect example. Last year, I was called in to assist a significant financial institution organization that was experiencing what they called a “relationship crisis.”
Teams were constantly arguing with each other. Sessions often devolved into shouting conflicts. Employee resignations was astronomical. Customer complaints were increasing dramatically.
Leadership was sure this was a “people challenge” that could be fixed with enhanced conversation training and dispute management techniques.
We used 14 days investigating the underlying situation, and here’s what I discovered:
This business had established a “output assessment” system that ranked employees against each other and linked pay increases, promotions, and even position continuation to these comparisons.
Units were assigned competing goals and then told to “cooperate” to achieve them.
Resources were intentionally held limited to “encourage rivalry” between groups.
Communication was restricted by various departments as a source of power.
Promotions and acknowledgment were given arbitrarily based on personal connections rather than real achievements.
Naturally people were in ongoing disagreement! Their complete organizational system was created to pit them against each other.
No amount of “conversation training” or “dispute management skills” was going to address a basically dysfunctional structure.
I convinced leadership to entirely overhaul their business systems:
Changed ranking assessment processes with team-based target setting
Aligned departmental targets so they complemented rather than competed with each other
Enhanced budget availability and made allocation processes transparent
Established scheduled inter-team information exchange
Implemented clear, merit-based career growth and reward processes
The results were outstanding. Within six months, team tensions decreased by over 80%. Employee morale levels rose significantly. Client quality got better remarkably.
Furthermore most importantly the key point: they accomplished these outcomes absent one bit of further “communication training” or “dispute management programs.”
The point: fix the organizational problems that generate conflict, and nearly all relationship issues will end themselves.
Unfortunately here’s why nearly all organizations choose to concentrate on “communication training” rather than fixing organizational issues:
Structural transformation is costly, difficult, and requires leadership to recognize that their existing systems are essentially broken.
“Communication training” is cheap, safe to management, and allows companies to criticize employee “character problems” rather than challenging their own management systems.
The team worked with a hospital organization where medical staff were in continuous tension with administration. Nurses were angry about unsafe personnel ratios, insufficient resources, and excessive responsibilities.
Executives persisted in organizing “relationship meetings” to handle the “relationship tensions” between workers and management.
Those sessions were more harmful than ineffective – they were significantly destructive. Nurses would voice their legitimate concerns about safety quality and employment circumstances, and trainers would respond by recommending they ought to work on their “communication skills” and “attitude.”
This was insulting to committed healthcare professionals who were trying to maintain good patient service under extremely difficult circumstances.
I assisted them move the emphasis from “relationship development” to fixing the real operational problems:
Hired more medical workers to decrease patient pressures
Improved patient care resources and optimized resource management processes
Implemented regular staff input systems for workflow improvements
Established sufficient support help to minimize paperwork burdens on medical workers
Worker satisfaction improved dramatically, patient quality results improved substantially, and employee stability decreased considerably.
This important point: once you remove the organizational sources of stress and tension, employees naturally cooperate effectively.
Currently let’s discuss a different critical problem with traditional mediation approaches: the belief that every organizational disagreements are fixable through dialogue.
That is completely naive.
Some disputes happen because certain person is genuinely unreasonable, dishonest, or unwilling to change their behavior no matter what of what approaches are tried.
In these situations, continuing mediation attempts is not just useless – it’s actively destructive to company environment and wrong to good employees.
The team consulted with a technology business where one long-term developer was deliberately undermining project progress. The person would consistently ignore schedules, give inadequate code, criticize fellow colleagues for failures they had created, and get hostile when questioned about their contributions.
Management had attempted several resolution processes, provided professional development, and actually modified work responsibilities to accommodate this person’s problems.
No approach was effective. The individual maintained their problematic behavior, and other team members started seeking reassignments to alternative departments.
Eventually, I helped leadership to stop trying to “resolve” this person and rather focus on preserving the productivity and satisfaction of the remainder of the organization.
Management implemented strict, concrete output requirements with swift disciplinary action for violations. When the toxic person failed to reach these expectations, they were terminated.
Their change was instant. Project efficiency improved dramatically, morale got better considerably, and management stopped losing talented engineers.
The lesson: sometimes the best effective “problem solving” is eliminating the cause of the conflict.
Businesses that are unwilling to take necessary personnel decisions will persist in to endure from ongoing disruption and will lose their best employees.
This is what genuinely creates results for handling workplace disputes:
Systemic approaches through sound company systems. Create fair structures for decision-making, communication, and dispute management.
Swift action when problems occur. Address concerns when they’re small rather than letting them to escalate into major problems.
Firm expectations and consistent accountability. Some actions are just wrong in a business context, no matter what of the individual motivations.
Concentration on structures fixes rather than interpersonal “repair” efforts. Most organizational disputes are symptoms of larger management issues.
Successful conflict handling is not about keeping everyone comfortable. Effective leadership is about creating effective organizational cultures where productive staff can concentrate on doing their work successfully without constant interpersonal tension.
End trying to “resolve” your way out of systemic issues. Begin creating organizations that eliminate systemic disputes and manage legitimate conflicts effectively.
Your staff – and your organizational success – will thank you.
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