A Summary of the Article by Paul Glover

What We Have Here Is a Failure to

Communicate: Recognizing the Sources of Conflict

Skill Deficiency

IndicatorsPoor communication skillsUnable to express themselvesNot talking to others respectfullyNot listening to others

EffectsLack of ability to talk and listen to others respectfully leads to a tense workplace with inflexible employees

Different Interests

It is inevitable that when people work together that not everyone will have the same views on a topic.

Because of this inevitability compromises must be made in order to make the different parties happy.

Stress

The majority of workers today are experiencing stress in their workplace.

Many refrain from speaking up for fear of retaliation and negative impacts on their job

Organizational deficiency

Many organizations do not have a system or the tools to address and resolve conflict that occurs in the workplace.

Paul Glover lists two essential items that a workplace must have in order to deal with conflicts.

First employees need the skills to be able to resolve problems.

Secondly there must be procedures in place that all employees have access to and the opportunity to use in case of a conflict.

Lack of resources

In today's workplace employees are scrambling to do more with less.

This leads to conflicts as people compete for those limited resources in order to accomplish the job.

Personality clash

Some people just cannot get along and have a tendency to push other peoples’ buttons just for the fun of it

This is a major contributor of conflict under any circumstances.

In Conclusion

When talking about conflict in the workplace, Paul Glover concludes that "at the heart of each [conflict] is the inability of the two sides to communicate effectively, listen effectively and genuinely work for a solution that meets everyone's need".

Citation

Glover, Paul. What We Have Here Is a Failure to Communicate: Recognizing the Sources of Conflict. Retrieved from http://www.businessperform.com/articles/workplace-communication/failure-communicate.html