Managing the Pain in an Organization is Not Solving the Issues

When you read about resolving organizational conflict in any business textbook or business expert’s article, the first advice is to acknowledge the problem. This first step is often ignored. Instead, business leaders try to manage organizational pain points instead of pursuing and acknowledging the pain’s source. While providing temporary relief, this approach can lead to prolonged and intensified conflict, ultimately affecting the organization’s productivity and morale.

What is meant by “organizational pain?” It is the sum of the emotional toll that organizational members experience due to workplace challenges. These challenges and issues frequently lead to obvious conflict, an expression of the pain felt in the workforce. The pain is a symptom of underlying issues that need management attention. One of the most challenging tasks of organizational leaders is identifying the actual cause of conflict. It is the responsibility of leaders to resist the temptation to manage the pain and instead take the initiative to address the root cause of the conflict.

Recognizing Pain Points

Organizational pains are expressed in many ways. For example, a business with cash flow problems experiences the pain of keeping it afloat, but what is really causing the cash flow deficit? Most organizational pain in businesses is due to conflict. Conflict may exist among the board members, managers, employees, or between these groups.

Organizational conflict can stem from various sources with unique challenges and implications. Understanding these sources is crucial for effective conflict resolution and organizational management. Common pain points include:

• Lack of role clarification, making it unclear who has responsibility for specific tasks
• Personality conflicts
• Poor communication among managers, employees, or between business leaders and their staff
• Inadequate employee training
• Toxic organizational culture
• Ineffective leadership
• Major business changes
• Differences in working styles
• Differences in perspectives among functional groups, i.e., finance, sales, marketing, manufacturing, etc.
• Unrealistic expectations
• Workload issues

It is important to note that most sources of conflict that cause pain are not isolated incidents. They are indicative of ongoing challenges and issues. Unless these systemic sources of conflict are intentionally addressed, the wrong kind of conflict will persist, underscoring the need for continuous conflict resolution efforts.

Notice we say “wrong kind of conflict.” Conflict is not all bad. An organization experiencing complete harmony is assuredly not as innovative as it needs to be to remain competitive.

Constructive vs Non-Constructive Conflict

Before addressing how to deal with pain to create lasting positive change, it is important to understand that constructive conflict can lead to positive outcomes. Not all conflict is bad, in other words. Healthy conflict is about differences of opinion on important issues and does not focus on people’s personalities or characteristics. For example, differences of opinion on a product redesign that may lead to the ability to expand market share is constructive conflict. Conflict for the sake of conflict between two people who dislike each other for some reason is not constructive. Conflict due to jealousy between family members in a family-led business is not constructive conflict.

People in healthy conflict situations can keep things in perspective and utilize practical communication skills to discuss issues openly and come to a compromise. No name-calling, intentional work slowdowns, finger-pointing, or other emotion-based negative responses exist. How conflict is handled in your organization defines your organization’s culture in so many ways.

Conflict is good when it brings issues to the surface for resolution, leads to open-mindedness, promotes creative thinking and innovation, and helps organizations avoid group thinking. Non-constructive conflict causes pain that is not productive.

Conflict will always and should exist within any team. Trying to make everyone feel good by promoting harmony is self-defeating:

1. It avoids addressing the issues causing non-constructive conflict.
2. It is impossible to make everyone feel good.
3. It stifles positive conflict.

Uncovering the True Reasons for Conflict

Whether the conflict is constructive or non-constructive, getting to the heart of it is the only way to begin addressing the conflict.   If it is a positive conflict, the approach is helping team members actively listen to each other without judgment so that different ideas and problem solutions can be thoroughly discussed. This is how innovation emerges.

If it is a harmful conflict, a different approach is needed. The Utech Group consultants have worked with numerous businesses across industries to help them develop effective conflict-resolution processes. They have specialized skills in utilizing a collaborative approach to help the parties involved express their perspectives, feelings, and needs and to help team members better understand others. This applies to leaders and employees because either or both can be sources of conflict. Consultants become communication coaches in many ways. For example, your organization’s leaders learn to resolve conflict by mastering active listening skills to uncover the source of conflict with other leaders or employees. Active listening is based on four principles: asking questions of the person speaking and not interrupting, validating the speaker while not necessarily agreeing with what is being said, restating what the speaker is saying, and finding key points to address.

Utech consultants use this process to assist organizations struggling with organizational pain that never seems to lessen. We dig into the conflict, listen, ask questions, and repeat until the real problem is identified. The focus is never on personalities or surface-level feelings. Once the real sources of pain are identified, your leadership can develop targeted solutions.

Case Studies on Managing the Pain

The Utech Group has worked with many organizations experiencing pain that never seems to subside, leaving leaders baffled and making poor decisions. The following are some brief examples of how we have helped business leaders identify the true causes of pain leading to non-constructive conflict.

Healthcare Business: “Administration Didn’t Listen”

The Utech team worked with a healthcare business facing employee dissatisfaction due to perceived staffing shortages. Because team leaders wanted to be supportive and empathetic, they listened to the complaints and encouraged the staff to speak to Administration about their concerns. Based on the numerical data they had, though, administrative leaders concluded that staffing level were adequate and that additional hires were not necessary, despite staff expressing dissatisfaction about having to work longer hours, due to the shortage of staff. In this situation, the administrative leaders failed to communicate the reasoning behind their decision to the staff and other managers, leaving employees feeling frustrated and believing that senior leaders did not listen to them and their concerns.

At a quick glance, this looks to be hiring and communication issue. But upon listening to both sides and looking into the matter more in depth, the Utech consultants uncovered a more complex situation. While some staff members were indeed overburdened, others were underutilizing their time. Some people even worked on personal projects at work to fill their time. This revealed a disconnect between perceived workload and actual productivity. This also showcased to the leadership team that they have to do more than simply listen and offer solutions. It’s important to understand the true cause of issues and address those root causes, rather than provide solutions that only scratch the surface.

Once the Utech team, working with the organization’s leaders, identified the true causes of conflict within the organization, solutions were developed, beginning with leadership development on employee communication and conflict management.

Construction Business: Making Decisions Out of Fear

The leaders of a family-owned and managed construction company were considering a reorganization or consolidation. In the meantime, a top leader left, so the CEO assumed some of the workload. He decided to meet with the managers and employees most affected by the proposed change. The CEO had decided he did not want to make the change if a few people in the organization were unhappy about it.

One reason for his hesitancy in making what he knew was likely a good decision was the fear that the business would lose employees. However, the reorganization would benefit the business in numerous ways, making it more profitable and thus more sustainable. The workforce as a whole would benefit from things like employment longevity, career advancement, interesting and larger projects, etc.

In this case, the CEO did listen, but only to a few employees. Compromising the greater good of the organization based on the feelings of a few employees who disapproved of the reorganization was leadership conflict avoidance. Utech worked with the CEO and senior leaders to help them understand the role of conflict avoidance in their decision-making processes.

Manufacturing: Feeling Unheard

Utech worked with a manufacturing company that was experiencing low staff morale. Employees raised issues using the appropriate communication channels, but the issues were never addressed. Ignoring issues is as damaging to an organization’s employee relations as acknowledging issues but never adequately responding.

Utech learned from working with the company’s leaders that the issues resulted from poor communication of policies and procedures. Instead of talking to the employees directly, they believed that when employees agreed to work for the company, they were agreeing to the policies and procedures. There was no need for further explanation. This was another case of conflict avoidance.

The resolution was not complex. Utech collaborated with business leaders to change the onboarding process, ensuring new hires were better informed and trained on company policies. In addition, leadership development focused on skills like active listening and employee engagement.

Culture of Inclusion

Making decisions for fear that people will leave the organization is expected in a tight labor market, especially in industries experiencing skilled labor shortages, like healthcare, construction, and technology. Yet, avoiding conflict can create even more conflict because avoidance lets issues simmer under the surface until they explode.

Organizational culture matters. Some companies consider a positive culture to be one that is nice, conflict-avoidant, generous with benefits, offers training opportunities, and so on. These are essential elements of culture but not enough when two interrelated things are missing: leaders who are unwilling or unable to work through conflict due to a lack of leadership development and employees feeling like they do not have a voice.

Employee voice is the way employees communicate with their colleagues and influence leadership decision-making. Employee engagement will be low if your employees believe they have a weak or no voice. Ongoing two-way feedback between employees and leaders is critical to managing organizational pain, but a willingness to accept and give feedback also depends on your leaders’ willingness to address conflict. Pain points are symptoms of larger challenges and can be considered feedback, but the feedback becomes one-way when leaders are conflict-avoidant.

The Utech Group has proven experience in helping organizational leaders solve pain to create change and a positive culture. Contact us to discuss how we can help your business discover the roots of conflict and manage change through leadership development.